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- For some peace and quiet, escape to a cabin in the airport
By JENN ABELSONLONDON — With five hours to kill before my flight back to Boston, I desperately wanted refuge from the chaos and commercialism at London Heathrow. So I walked past the Hilton at Terminal 4, where rooms cost $260 a night, and headed for Yotel, where travelers can stay in their own "cabins" for as few as four hours for about $40. Yotel is equal parts Japanese capsule hotel, cruise ship and first-class British Airways, offering frenzied travelers a place to shower, nap or relax. Since debuting at London’s Gatwick Airport last year, Yotel opened sites at Heathrow and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.Yotel has three types of rooms, each equipped with a bed, bathroom, flat-panel TV and free Internet. The spaces are sufficient but tiny. Claustrophobics beware: Standard cabins are about 70 square feet, and premium and twin cabins with bunk beds are just larger than 100 square feet.Check-in is easy at ATM-like kiosks that confirm reservations and issue cabin key cards and a receipt with a Wi-Fi access code. A call button on the kiosk will alert a cabin crew member if there is a problem. Usually, the one or two Yotel employees work in reception, concierge service and room service and as general technicians.For the most part, Yotel makes a cheap room feel like a hip stay. Upon entering Yotel, guests are bathed in purple mood lighting. Enya-esque music plays, and beds in the premium cabins convert into couches. The bathrooms have overhead rain showers and sage and seaweed body wash. A glass wall separates the bathroom from the bedroom.Customers can order food from a cabin-service menu or can bring their own. But when I looked for a table, which is supposed to fold down from the wall, there was a sign saying it was being repaired. Apparently, the original tables were too heavy and broke off the wall.For all the touches of luxury — organic mattresses, lilac pillows, beds with iPod attachments — Yotel came up short on other basics. The Wi-Fi didn’t work, and the promised 60 cable channels turned out to be 23. There was a decent selection of more than 20 movies on demand, but each movie was nearly $9, so I was satisfied with watching the BBC. You can program wake-up alarms through the television, so you can be awakened by music, radio or the TV.Yotel, which receives investment support from Kuwait-based IFA Hotels & Resorts, says it is looking to expand to other big airports, including in the United States. Chief executive Gerard Greene describes Yotel as the "iPod of the hotel industry."Sleek and compact, perhaps, but not a room you linger in for days. There is one coat hanger and no closets. But for harried travelers facing delays, cancellations and layovers, Yotel offers a rarity: peace and quiet in the middle of an airport.
- Granbury has many gifts to offer the December visitor
By PUNCH SHAWSome of your fondest Christmas memories may really just be a few miles away.Granbury, the picturesque, lakeside community less than 40 miles from Fort Worth, offers a Christmas getaway with a number of ways to enjoy today while getting in touch with yesterday.For example, you might find in one of the antiques stores or curio shops on the town square a toy like the one you found under the tree when you were a child. Granbury is a town that lends itself to an old-fashioned Christmas feeling. It also offers a distinctly different shopping experience and the sort of small-town Christmas atmosphere that many people find so appealing. And you might be surprised to learn how many entertainment options await you as well. The town of about 7,000 is known as a retirement community, but it has also grown into a more diverse community of natives, retirees and professionals who commute to jobs in Fort Worth. And don’t make the mistake of reading "retired’ as "inactive."Here’s a sampling of what you’ll find to see and do in Granbury:There are two theaters offering live entertainment on the town square: The Granbury Opera House, which began presenting stage works more than a century ago, is presenting two holiday-themed shows — Back Home for Christmas and The Christmas Story on weekends is performed by a cast of rising young professionals through Dec. 21, while a community theater production of the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life will be presented Tuesday and Wednesday. See www.granburyoperahouse.org for details.Granbury Live is a music venue specializing in vintage rock, country and family entertainment. The holiday show Lone Star Christmas runs through Dec. 21. A country music revue, All American Country, opens Dec. 26. Visit www.granburylive.com for more information.You can even venture offshore for drama if you like. The Granbury Riverboat offers mystery-dinner cruises on Friday nights. The view and fun are more important than great acting on these jaunts around Lake Granbury. But if you need a little mayhem to spice up your holidays, be here for Murder Under the Mistletoe on Friday. The riverboat also has several other themed cruises available Thursdays through Sundays. And a special New Year’s Eve cruise is planned. See www.granburyriverboat.com for more information.Prefer a movie? Then go retro at the Brazos Drive-In, one of the few outdoor picture shows still left in Texas. The drive-in shows first-run movies with a P or PG rating on the weekends. Because it is open year-round, you may want to pack some blankets for chilly North Texas nights. Movies and times can be found at www.thebrazos.com.For art lovers, there is a Gallery Night on the last Friday of each month, when all the town’s galleries stay open until 9 p.m. And that includes the day after Christmas. Eat, drink and sleep it off If you decide to make your visit to Granbury an overnight stay, there is a wide range of options for dining and lodging. The town, which serves as the Hood County seat, has long been known for having more than its share of good restaurants. But if you have not visited Granbury in a while, you may be struck by the variety of restaurant options available, from tacos to sushi.Texas winemakers are getting a national reputation and the industry is growing around Granbury. Visitors can take advantage of tastings offered by vineyards and wine merchants in and near the town.As Granbury has grown as a local getaway, lodging options have become more numerous, too. The recently opened 106-room Hilton Garden Inn, which is part of the Granbury Resort Conference Center near downtown, is the latest addition to a list of hotels and bed-and-breakfasts that offer more than 750 rooms total. For a listing of Granbury hotels and restaurants, see www.granburytx.com. Once you get here, forget about the car; you can walk or get around town on the Granbury Trolley (actually a small bus or van), which is free and makes a regular circuit around the hotels and the town square on weekends. So if you are looking for an escape that doesn’t cost a lot of money and is right around the corner, you could find that the family-oriented charm of Granbury will transport you to an old-fashioned Christmas that you never thought you would experience again.
- Granbury conference center fills a gap
As you head into Granbury, you may be struck by the sight of a new hotel and conference center on Pearl Street, near the town square.The Granbury Resort Conference Center is a meeting facility that shares a complex with the Hilton Garden Inn and the town’s "beach" area, a stretch of Lake Granbury’s shoreline with tiki huts and (imported) sand. The three sites are connected by a boardwalk that, in turn, hooks up with the town’s hike-and-bike trails."We hope to attract corporate and association meetings in the 300 to 350 [participant] range," said Charlie McIlvain, executive director of Granbury’s Convention and Visitors Bureau. "And pretty much any group that has retreats. We feel like we are an ideal facility for them."The versatile two-story building can be configured to create meeting and ballroom spaces of various sizes for events, such as boat shows, proms and wedding receptions. The next public event at the center will be a New Year’s Eve dinner and dance sponsored by the city. There are numerous high-definition television screens for business presenters, and multiple kitchen spaces for caterers. The $5 million facility opened in October. "It was a very conscious move to add a business activity that we did not have before," McIlvain said. "Our hotels often fill up on the weekends, but we want them to do better during the week." But, while the meeting facility is mostly about business, it certainly won’t hurt Granbury’s image as a tourist destination. The Hilton Garden Inn, with its lakefront views and proximity of the heart of Granbury, appeals to working or playing visitors.— Punch Shaw
- Historic Hotels of the Rockies has last-minute holiday deals