A Tropical Holiday at an English Country House at Relais & Chateaux Cobblers Cove, Barbados, British West Indies, Caribbean; Discovering Barbados' Immigrant Past at St. John's Parish Church, Barbados, British West Indies, Caribbean; Cruising Scotland's Loch Ness with Special Guests Ann and Robert Herring of Bicester, Oxfordshire, England; A Drive around Barbados with Patrick Clark; Restoring a Beaux Arts Landmark at Relais & Chateaux Jefferson Hotel, Washington, DC; Travel Tips for France, Barbados, and Airport Cell Phone Use.
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Topics Include:
Emma Lawson, Hotel Duty Manager, Relais & Chateaux Cobblers Cove, Barbados, British West Indies, Caribbean.
www.cobblerscove.com
Travel Expert Stephanie Abrams and the "Travel With Stephanie Abrams!" Radio Show visit an English country house in the Caribbean with Emma Lawson, Hotel Duty Manager at Relais & Chateaux Cobblers Cove on Barbados in the British West Indies. Stephanie and Emma are sitting in the living room of a Cobblers Cove suite. What impresses Stephanie most about the room is the wall of louvered doors that open into the garden. "You can extend the room onto a lovely patio and green grassy lawn," she says. "It's not like you're looking through a window; it's just all open and out there."
Emma has been at Cobblers Cove since 2009. She was born and raised in the UK, but her family is Barbadian. "As a child I used to go to Barbados for almost all my holidays," she says. "I never wanted to go home – I would always fight with my mother to leave me here with my grandparents." After studying hospitality at university, Emma made the move to Barbados six years ago and doesn't miss the UK weather at all.
Emma first visited Cobblers Cove as a child. "When I came for holidays, it was quite a popular hotel, so people would pop in for a drink, lunch, or dinner," she recalls. She started her career on Barbados with the Elegant Hotel Group, which has around six properties on the island. When Randall Wilkie, general manager of Cobblers Cove, approached her to offer the duty manager job, Emma jumped at the chance. "It was very exciting to be offered the opportunity to come and work in this small hotel," she says. "I've worked at other hotels, but this is really something special."
The property has a very high repeat clientele, including one guest who was on her 27th visit during Stephanie's stay. Guests are primarily British, but the hotel welcomes plenty of North American visitors every year. Cobblers Cove is set in an old plantation house. "The main building – which we call the Pink House – would have been used by the plantation owner as a beachside holiday house," says Emma. "We pride ourselves on being an English-style country house."
The furnishings and fabrics inside, including high-end materials from Colefax and Fowler, are all in traditional British colonial style. The staff works to maintain a tranquil atmosphere. "We're a peaceful, relaxing hotel," says Emma. "There's no background music blaring around the bar area or poolside. Guests are here to relax and listen to the peaceful breezes coming through the gardens, the birds in the sky, or the sound of the ocean."
When guests arrive, they're met personally by Emma, Randall Wilkie, or another duty manager. "It's very much about personalized service," Emma explains. "Guests are greeted and walked to their rooms. Just seeing people's faces when they arrive – repeat guests are welcomed to their second home. Everyone has a room that they love – it could be oceanfront, it could have a garden view. Even first-timers fall in love with the privacy, the landscape, the gardens."
Cobblers Cove has 42 suites, including two premier suites, the Colleton and Camelot. Both premier suites have slightly larger living areas, four-poster beds, and private plunge pools. "Camelot has a pool and sundeck lounge on top of the room, so you go up a spiral staircase," Emma says. "Colleton has a pool out front on the balcony. They're very, very popular rooms." Every year, the same British guests book the Colleton suite for two or three weeks over Christmas.
Visitors from the UK must take a 9-hour flight to reach Barbados. From New York, however, Stephanie took a 4-hour flight. "I went on JetBlue, which has very good service and is very affordable," she says. "I had first-class legroom without first-class ticket prices, and there's a wonderful personal entertainment system onboard that more expensive airlines haven't bothered to catch up with yet."
Once she arrived, Stephanie was also impressed by the roads on Barbados, which made getting to Cobblers Cove a snap. "On other Caribbean or island destinations, it's one giant pothole held together by gravel," she says. Emma notes that the Barbadian government pushed to upgrade the island's infrastructure five years ago, when Barbados and the Caribbean hosted the final of the Cricket World Cup. "It's why we're such a popular island," she says. "Our infrastructure is one step ahead of other islands, especially in the southern Caribbean."
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For more information visit www.cobblerscove.com
Orville Lovell, Gift Shop Manager, St. John's Parish Church, Barbados, British West Indies, Caribbean.
www.barbados.org
Travel Expert Stephanie Abrams and the "Travel With Stephanie Abrams!" Radio Show discover Barbadian history with Orville Lovell, Manager at St. John's Parish Church Gift Shop on Barbados in the British West Indies. The church is on the Atlantic side of the island, and Stephanie is impressed not only by the views from the building, but the church itself. "There's quite a history reflected here," she says. "The cemetery behind the church is really a crossroads of nations who came to Barbados over the last 400 years and made footprints on the landscape and culture of the island."
Many of the carved markers, footstones, tombstones, and inlaid floorstones on the floors and walls of the church date back to the 17th century and belong to people who came from Greece, England, and other parts of the UK. One famous name is Ferdinando Paleologus, who left Greece for Barbados in the early 1600s. He was church warden at St. John's Parish Church from 1653 to 1658 and built the Clifton House plantation. "The estate is still in sugar cane and at one time was owned by a chap from Canada," Orville adds.
Other names include those of plantation owners from England who emigrated during the 1600s. "They owned most of the larger plantations specializing in tobacco and sugar cane," explains Orville. "Most still have descendants living on the island today." One of the most recent burials at St. John's was former prime minister David Thompson, who fell ill in February 2010 and died in late October 2010. He is interred at the eastern end of the church.
Stephanie describes the church itself as an architectural gem. "There are these carved spiral stairways on each side as you enter," she says, "and a pipe organ in the gallery upstairs. It all seems carved out of mahogany." Although the carvings look like they came from Europe, they were all done on the island by local craftsmen. The decorations are made from 7 different woods and took over 8 years to make.
And although the organ looks magnificent with its set of pipes, it is no longer in working order. "Back in the late 1970s, it was too expensive to repair, and there were no technicians on the island," says Orville. "So they bought an electronic organ, which is currently in use." Visitors who want to hear an authentic organ can do so at St. George's Parish Church, where the pipe organ still works. The St. George's bell is also played through the organ.
Most of the church's visitors come from the UK, although Orville also sees Americans, Canadians, and Europeans. "Cruise ship season is our bumper time," he says. "We get visitors from all parts of the world." Stephanie thinks St. John's is worth the visit, both for the church's interior and setting. "The views from the hillside here are spectacular," she says. "And we had the best time laughing at the t-shirts in the gift shop."
Travelers411 Community Forums - This interview's thread:
http://www.travelers411.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2757
For more information visit www.barbados.org
Travel Tips:
When a snowstorm struck the east coast of the US, Stephanie got stuck in Barbados. Fortunately, she had travel insurance. "If you're stuck somewhere or delayed because of snowstorms – or another natural disaster – it's important to have travel insurance," she says. "You may incur additional costs getting stuck. The airline you're traveling with will not pick up the cost, and if you find an alternate route home, you're going to have to foot the bill. It can be very painful to deal with those additional costs."
"Many times people don't want to spend extra money on travel insurance," she continues. "But that's being penny-wise and pound-foolish. In most cases, travel insurance is between 4 and 8% of what you're insuring. So if it's a $1000 trip, insurance is $40 to $80. If you have to be put up for a night, eat a few extra meals, jockey around by taxi, make alternate arrangements, or take the long route home, there will be extra expenses."
It's important to choose the right travel insurance policy. Consumers can purchase options to cover everything from the insolvency of a travel company to what Stephanie calls a 'bad hair day.' "That's for unforeseen circumstances, which may be that something happened at home – the roof blew off your house, your pipes froze – or maybe that you made plans with a friend and are no longer friends," she explains. "If you cancel, you foot the bill for that." At the very least, most travelers are locked into nonrefundable fares and will face rebooking and change-of-date fees if canceling or rescheduling trips.
To find the right insurance policy, Stephanie recommends a comparison shopping site like InsureMyTrip. "Shopping for insurance policies is like reading knitting instructions as a beginner," she says. "Don't shop one-by-one at all the different companies." InsureMyTrip offers policies from over 20 companies and has a call center staffed by licensed insurance experts.
Guests Include:
Emma Lawson, Hotel Duty Manager, Relais & Chateaux Cobblers Cove, Barbados, British West Indies, Caribbean.
www.cobblerscove.com
Orville Lovell, Gift Shop Manager, St. John's Parish Church, Barbados, British West Indies, Caribbean.
www.barbados.org
Topics Include:
Ann Herring, Guest at Cobblers Cove, Barbados, Resident of Bicester, England, Oxfordshire, UK.
www.cobblerscove.com
Travel Expert Stephanie Abrams and the "Travel With Stephanie Abrams!" Radio Show chat with Ann Herring, Guest at Relais & Chateaux Cobblers Cove on Barbados in the British West Indies. Ann is from Bicester, Oxfordshire in the UK but is spending a winter holiday on sunny Barbados. "We're sitting at Cobblers Cove by the open archways overlooking the sand, sea, and sunshine," Stephanie says. "There's a wonderful breeze embracing us."
Ann and her husband, Robert, are visiting Cobblers Cove for the third time and recognized other repeat guests when they arrived. "There are a number of guests who come every year at the same time, so there's kind of an old home week that goes on," she says. "It's lovely." Besides their annual trip to Barbados, the couple has also been to Scotland several times. Last year, they took a cruise through the Caledonians.
"We flew to Inverness – home of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster – and took a cruise through Loch Ness, down the Caledonians, all the locks, Neptune's Steps, and right down to the sea," Ann recalls. "Then we sailed through the islands around the outside. It took about ten days and we had beautiful weather, right at the end of April." Ann and Robert sailed on a ship called Lord of the Glens, which had around 40 passengers and "beautiful food," according to Ann. "It was all individual, really; there were three chefs on board," she adds. "We didn't have the same meal twice. It was wonderful."
A highlight of the trip for Ann was the Loch Ness museum in Fort William, Scotland. "You can go and have a look and it gives you all the details of things people have seen," she explains. "It shows you the depths, too. It's one of the deepest lochs there is, I believe." The museum is located in a renovated house and its exhibits include a few videos. Fort William itself is one of the larger towns on the shores of Loch Ness.
Stephanie points out that most people think of lakes as landlocked, but the cruise follows manmade channels from Loch Ness to the sea. Passengers sail from Inverness, stay overnight on the ship, and watch as the vessel navigates the waterways. "At Fort Augustus, where there are five locks, there was a lot of work going on at the time," says Ann. "It was quite interesting to see how it was organized." Later, the ship passed through Neptune's Steps, which is a set of nine locks.
Ann also enjoyed the spectacular scenery along the way. "You can see all the scenery on both sides, including Ben Nevis, one of the biggest mountains in Scotland, which was very good," she says. "We called somewhere every day in the canal, and once at sea, we went all the way around the islands: Skye, Mull, Islay – so many! The Isle of Skye was very interesting because there are peaks right in the middle and a very flat area on one side. Not a lot of people live on it, but there were fishermen, farmers – quite a bit of farming."
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For more information visit www.cobblerscove.com
Robert Herring, Guest at Cobblers Cove, Barbados, Resident of Bicester, England, Oxfordshire, UK.
www.cobblerscove.com
Travel Expert Stephanie Abrams and the "Travel With Stephanie Abrams!" Radio Show get the other half of the story with Robert Herring, a Guest at Cobblers Cove, Barbados. Robert is visiting the Caribbean from Bicester, Oxfordshire, in the UK with his wife, Ann. Since they're just 90 minutes outside of London, Stephanie has promised – or threatened – to visit the Herrings when she flies through the UK in March 2011.
The Herrings recently took a cruise through Scotland's Caledonia Canal, from Inverness to the sea. Although Stephanie has visited Inverness, she has never gone through the canal. "I traveled to Inverness by overnight train from London," she recalls. "If you're smart, you'll take a sleeper car and wake up in Scotland. You can even arrange to have a car waiting for you next to the train station. And you should take a walk along Ness Walk, where there's a lovely little park. If you're traveling with children, it's a grand thing to do."
'The cruise was organized by a man who used to have the Jules Verne Tour Company," explains Robert. "He sold the business and bought a boat, but it was too large for the locks. So he had it shortened so he could make it into a cruise ship to come down the Caledonian canal. There are forty or fifty passengers, max, and they are thoroughly well looked-after. It's well-appointed, there are lovely rooms, and I imagine it's crowded for staff but it's nice for passengers."
The couple traveled in May and had a wonderful experience, thanks to the weather. "I like to think it's a bit of British engineering, because the whole idea of the canal was a way to link up the lakes, including Loch Ness," Robert adds. "It enabled shipping – mainly warships – to get from the North Sea to the Irish coast. The top of Scotland is terribly rough in the winter, so to avoid that, they built a canal for ships to come through inland."
Robert also enjoyed sailing on the open sea. "You come out into the sea on the west coast of Scotland, where there's fantastic scenery," he says. "We went to the Isle of Skye, which of course you can reach by the ferry or a bridge. But we sailed across. And on Skye, there's a wonderful museum dedicated to the lords of the glens years ago. I believe the financing for the museum was provided by Americans, because a lot of the Scots went to America."
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For more information visit www.cobblerscove.com
Travel Expert Stephanie Abrams and the "Travel With Stephanie Abrams!" Radio Show had the pleasure of touring Barbados with the assistance of Patrick Clark. Patrick is a three-time winner of the Barbados Tourism Authority's award for Best Taxi Driver on the island. "It's quite the taxi – not your normal yellow cab," Stephanie says. "He has a very nice Audi that he drives about, and it's immaculate. It's a pleasure when you're out to have an engaged driver to help you see the sights."
Although Stephanie stayed at Relais & Chateaux Cobblers Cove on the Caribbean side of the island, she also visited the east coast of Barbados, which faces the Atlantic Ocean. "If you're looking for a place of peaceful inspiration and enrichment, Cobblers Cove is it," she says. "If you're looking for elegant refinement in a casual Caribbean setting, this is it. It's a country house and garden where each suite is in its own private setting. The living room opens and you're facing onto a private garden."
Travelers looking for a little more excitement may want to try the south coast of Barbados. "The south coast has smaller hotels, a lot of bargain, boutique-type places, a younger crowd, and more parties," Stephanie explains. "So if you're looking for a more active nightlife, the place you want is the south coast. On the east side, there are really serious waves, so if you're looking to surf, that's the place to go. The west side, the Caribbean side, is the gentler, softer, more refined side."
Stephanie describes her stay at Cobblers Cove as an "enchanted cottage experience." Each suite has a living room, wet bar, table and chairs for room service meals, plenty of closet space, a dressing area, and a large bathroom. "What's magical is that the fourth wall of the living room is made of louvered doors," she adds. "They slide open onto a patio that's made of the same ceramic tile as the living room floor. The patio is probably 12 or 15 feet deep and the width of the living room. On each side there are tall, thick, lush plants and lounge chairs with nice thick cushions. So there's a suite next door but you don't see them. You feel like you're in your own secret garden."
Cobblers Cove guests can also relax at the main building, or Pink House, which houses the bar, restaurant, and two premier suites. Communal facilities include a shop, library, TV room, pool, and deck area with lounge chairs. WiFi is complimentary and accessible both from public areas and guest suites. In keeping with the English country house atmosphere, at 4 p.m. each afternoon, guests congregate for tea served in the typical English fashion.
The two premier suites, Colleton and Camelot, are on the second floor of the Pink House. The rooms are slightly larger and come with four-poster beds and private plunge pools. "Each suite has a deck and shaded area," explains Stephanie. "And plunge pools are usually about six-foot square and two or three feet deep. They're right off your deck and you step down into them. At Cobblers Cove, they're like a small above-ground pool. They're not meant for lap swimming, but you have a bird's eye view out over the Caribbean. It's absolutely spectacular."
Travel Tip:
Almost every destination around the world has good weather in May.
Travelers investigating their Scottish ancestry can try the museum on the Isle of Skye or a new facility in Edinburgh with digitized records. It's in the National Archives, just off Princes Street.
Stephanie directs travelers with Irish ancestry to the heritage center at Cobh, Ireland, or Doonbeg Golf Club Resort in County Clare. The Doonbeg resort staff includes a resident genealogist who helps visitors trace their family trees.
Fun Facts:
A high school student in Missouri was kicked out of a school dance for wearing a kilt. The young man had been studying his heritage after seeing "Braveheart" and was inspired to dress up, only to have the principal tell him that he looked like a clown. When Stephanie found out about it, she arranged for the young man and his parents to spend five nights in Scotland's manor houses and castles, tracing their family's history.
Guests Include:
Ann Herring, Guest at Cobblers Cove, Barbados, Resident of Bicester, England, Oxfordshire, UK.
www.cobblerscove.com
Robert Herring, Guest at Cobblers Cove, Barbados, Resident of Bicester, England, Oxfordshire, UK.
www.cobblerscove.com
Topics Include:
Franck Arnold, General Manager, Relais & Chateaux Jefferson Hotel, Washington, DC, USA.
www.jeffersondc.com
Travel Expert Stephanie Abrams and the "Travel With Stephanie Abrams!" Radio Show welcome Franck Arnold, General Manager of the Relais & Chateaux Jefferson Hotel in Washington, DC. The Jefferson is located on 16th Street, a few blocks north of the White House and close to Georgetown, Penn Quarter, Chinatown, and the National Mall. "It's centrally located for visiting, but also for business activities," Franck notes.
The hotel recently underwent a massive renovation and restoration. "We closed the hotel in March 2007, when the new owners took over, and reopened in summer 2009," Franck explains. "It was truly a restoration, a beautiful historic project for a historically-protected building. It has a lot of architectural features that we wanted to preserve and enhance. The facade, for example, is 1923 and Beaux Arts-inspired. It was originally designed by Jules Henri de Sibour, a French architect who also influenced the design of the Capitol building in the 1920s."
The Jefferson's impressive lobby has a restored skylight and ceiling with ornate moldings that represent the statesman's passions for music, wine, nature, architecture, travel, and more. "We have a collection of 8 original signed documents that are displayed between reception and the concierge desk," adds Franck. "Opposite those, we have a sculpture of Jefferson and one of John Adams."
Jefferson developed an appreciation for wine while serving as the US ambassador to France. "He was the biggest oenophile of the 18th century," says Franck. "He wrote the most about wine during his travels. When he was ambassador, he spent 3.5 months discovering the wine-making processes and storage in different regions of France. He was passionate about it, but when he lived at Monticello, he had trouble importing wine, so he missed that. He said that he couldn't live without books, but he could have also said that he couldn't live without wine."
The skylight is made of translucent glass, which allows the hotel staff to manage the temperature, lighting levels, and even the mood of the lobby. The feature is lit by hundreds of invisible LED lights that can be individually programmed to change color. Like many skylights in eastern American cities, the Jefferson's was painted over during World War II in case of air raids. If the buildings were lit from the inside, bombers could use the skylights to target the buildings or navigate around the city.
Given his French roots, Franck is particularly interested in Jefferson's connection to his homeland. Both Jefferson and fellow statesman Ben Franklin spent quite a bit of time in France. "Historically, France has assisted the US, starting before the Revolution," Stephanie observes. "But there are so many Americans who cringe at the mention of France and will give you all kinds of misinformation." She adds that she has always received a warm welcome in France, especially when people hear that her father served in France during World War II.
"I don't know where [the perception] comes from, but to be fair, French people are very opinionated," Franck replies. "It doesn't mean that they're not interested in friendship. It's the same way that Americans are opinionated! And it's a perception shared by a lot of other people, including the French. That's how they are. We actually have a lot in common with Americans. The US and France are probably the only countries in the western world who have never had any wars. It's a long-standing friendship."
Franck is originally from Strasbourg, Alsace, France, which is close to the German border. It's just 40 miles from Colmar, home of Frederic Bartholdi, who designed the Statue of Liberty, and close to the town where Stephanie's father was stationed as a soldier. "It's such a storybook part of France, with all the white stucco and dark timber," says Stephanie. "When you read fairy tales – Pinocchio, Hansel and Gretel – the pictures look like that region."
Travelers411 Community Forums - This interview's thread:
http://www.travelers411.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2755
For more information visit www.jeffersondc.com
Travel Tips:
Stephanie recently returned from a trip to Relais & Chateaux Cobblers Cove on Barbados. She stayed on the Caribbean side of the island, which she describes as "a big lake," with calm, clear turquoise waters. "Cobblers Cove has a kind of refined, chic, casual Caribbean charm," she says. "It's not quite elegant; it's not a sequins kind of place. But it's really lovely and worth your investigation." The Atlantic, or eastern, side has a few more waves, while the south coast has a younger, hipper crowd.
Cobblers Cove is styled as an English country house. True to form, tea is served every afternoon at 4 p.m. Guests may want to save room, however, for what Stephanie calls the "exquisite" food. "Every meal, every day – it was consistent," she says. "Everybody was just raving about whatever they had ordered." Listeners can find recipes and photos from chef Brian Porteus on Stephanie's blog.
Stephanie reminds travelers that the use of cell phones is not permitted in immigration or customs halls at US airports. "When you land in the US from an international destination, you go through immigration, then customs," she says. "You may not use a cell phone for calls or photos while in those areas. They're supposed to announce this on the plane, but even if they don't you still can't use phones. Sometimes you can use cell phones when you land; sometimes you can't use them until the seatbelt sign is turned off."
Stephanie was reminded of the rule when she returned from Barbados and thought it was intended to prevent smuggling. "Years ago, there were all these reforms passed rapidly in an effort to fight drugs and illegal substances," she explains. "People used to land, go through immigration, and use the pay phones in the luggage claim area to call their handlers. They would be given instructions on which customs officer had been paid off, so they knew which line to get in. In an effort to clamp down, the phones were removed from those halls. So I assumed the no-phones rule was related to drug smuggling."
In fact, the rule is intended to prevent passengers from using cell phones to detonate explosive devices in luggage. "If someone put a device into a suitcase and it made it onto the plane, into the airport, and onto the carousel, they could trigger it with a cell phone," Stephanie says. "So it's actually a very serious issue. When I came back from Barbados, I found that the airport had no signs anywhere indicating the rule. But even if there are no signs or it's not announced, it's not allowed. Just don't use your cell phone in customs or immigration."
Fun Facts:
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day, 50 years after the Declaration of Independence.
Many of the Pennsylvania Dutch Amish community come from the Alsace region of France, just across the river from Germany. According to Franck Arnold, they were called 'Dutch' not because they came from Holland, but because they spoke 'Deutsch.'
Guests Include:
Franck Arnold, General Manager, Relais & Chateaux Jefferson Hotel, Washington, DC, USA.
www.jeffersondc.com
