Recommend October 2012 - (Page 15)

Jill Gergel of Frontiers Travels says that her clients’ top destination picks in France are Provence, Burgundy and Normandy, as well as the French Riviera for more glitzy rentals. “France offers a wide range of prices for villas and a wide range of villa choices for groups large and small, plus excellent options for the single family who wants to be off the tourist trail to enjoy a learning experience for the whole family unit together.” — Jill Gergel, Frontiers Travel Opposite page, counterclockwise from top left: CV Travel’s 5-bedroom Villa Mare e Monte in Corsica. Villas of Distinction’s 2-bedroom Villa Nefeli in Santorini. Hosted Villas’ 7-bedroom La Senese in Tuscany. A&K Villas’ 12-bedroom Borgo Bernardini in Tuscany. Everyone should have an Italian affair. Or a French affair. Twenty years ago, mine took place in Italy where my husband and I spent two weeks on a second honeymoon. We rented a villa in Baschi, a dot on the map in the neighborhood of the hill-town of Orvieto in the bucolic region of Umbria. Owned by a chef and a friend of a friend, the lovely stone farmhouse opened to vineyards behind, and a path led down a hillside of ﬂowers to the pool. For friends joining us from Rome during the second week, we had only one request: please buy and bring four fans, for the temperature had yet to go below 100 degrees. Although the locals said it was an unusually hot June, of course air conditioning is one of several details we failed to ask about before booking. Indeed, there are many things to keep in mind when planning to rent a villa overseas, although according to Jill Gergel of Frontiers Travel in Wexford, PA, a specialist in both villa vacations and canal barging vacations in France, the key to selling villa vacations has one thing in common with all leisure travel planning: “Listen carefully to client expectations and interests.” And with a seemingly mind-boggling universe of rural and urban villas, there is great value in working with one of many companies whose specialty is arranging villa vacations—especially for clients requesting celebratory “foreign affairs” such as family reunions, landmark birthdays, anniversaries, and of course, honeymoons. These companies, too, can help in arranging sightseeing around the chosen villa as they offer customized pre-trip planning as well as local hosts who can offer advice on the best places to see and what to do. hosted villas In fact, says Gergel, “I get rave notices from my clients about the local hosts for Hosted Villas vacations. I don’t know how they vet their hosts, but they are amazing,” she says. Award-winning Hosted Villas, established in 1990, was the ﬁrst company to offer high-end, fully hosted, luxury villa experiences designed speciﬁcally for North American travelers. According to spokeswoman Jessica Barker, the company presently works with 100+ properties centered in France, Italy and Spain (mostly the Catalonia region), but has recently branched out to Croatia, “where there has been high interest and where our team is presently scouting additional villas.” According to Barker, interest continues to be highest in Italy for Tuscany, although the neighboring Umbria region is increasingly popular. In France, Provence draws the most villa guests, but more and more requests come now for the Dordogne area and Burgundy, and in Spain, villas are concentrated in Catalonia. She notes that, “Much of our clientele is families and increasingly groups of couples vacationing together.” Hosted Villas prides itself on offering luxurious, comfortable, charming private homes, located within the most sought-after regions and ranging from two to 10 bedrooms. In addition to customized pre-trip planning—which can focus on food and wine, cycling or health and wellness—the Hosted Villas experience includes the services of a local host, who greets guests with a cold glass of prosecco or a Kir Royale, along with a feast of local comfort foods, and then serves as guide, concierge, translator, and trouble-shooter for the balance of the stay. Sample villa & sightseeing: The ﬁve-star perennial favorite, the 5-bedroom Aire de Beaumes, set on four acres in Provence, and offering a sun room, library/TV room, dining room, fully equipped kitchen, stocked wine cellar, new ﬁtness room, inﬁnity pool with panoramic views, outdoor dining, and pool house with kitchen, as well as daily housekeeping (except Sunday). The villa is within walking distance of the local village; the area is particularly ﬁne for hiking and biking; and nearby are Cote de Rhone wine villages, the market town of Carpentras, antiques in Avignon and Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, tennis and golf. Cost per week during the high-season, just ended, is $14,000 or $400 per bedroom per night; during the low season, until Dec. 20, it’s $10,700. october 2012 15

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend October 2012

Editor's Notes
Hotel Desk: Sofitel Luxury Hotels
Tour Talk: Travcoa
A Villa Vacation in Europe
Napa Valley Revisited
Gateway Canyons Resort, Colorado
Vintage Palm Beach
The Surrey, New York City
The Best of India at ITC Hotels
St. Regis Offers City Sophistication & Barefoot Luxury in Mexico
Mexico Boutique Hotels' Stellar Collection
Four World-Class Private Island Resorts
Update: More on Luxury Private Island Resorts
In Santa Catarina, Brazil, the Surf's Up for Luxury Travel
Indigo Bay Island Resort & Spa, Mozambique
New Offerings on Luxe Cruise Lines

Recommend October 2012