Spirit Airbus A319

Photos: Spirit Airlines

Fort Lauderdale, Florida – Spirit Airlines launched new daily non-stop service from San Francisco International Airport to Detroit Metro with connecting service to Atlantic City, Cancun, Fort Myers, New York’s LaGuardia Airport, Orlando and Myrtle Beach, S.C. Service will begin on May 25, 2006.

These new flights will be served with Spirit Airbus A319 aircraft holding 138 passengers with eight in Spirit Plus, Business Class and 130 in coach. Spirit will complete its transition to an all new Airbus fleet by this fall.

Barry Biffle, chief marketing officer, Spirit Airlines

“We are thrilled to add the premier San Francisco area airport to our route map this summer,” said Barry Biffle, chief marketing officer of Spirit Airlines. “Customers have been clamoring for service to the City by the Bay and we are delighted to satisfy those cravings for sourdough, chocolate, and trolley cars for less. Providing low fares, great service and brand new planes isn’t virgin territory for Spirit. San Francisco will be our 29th city and we see blue skies ahead for a great start of service this May.”

“We are extremely pleased that Spirit Airlines has selected San Francisco International Airport,” said John L. Martin, airport director, San Francisco International Airport. “Spirit Airlines has already developed a reputation for high value, low-cost service and its addition to SFO will mean even more choices for our passengers, which also means more competitive fares for our travelers. We look forward to working with the Spirit Airlines team as they begin their operations in San Francisco.”

Fort Lauderdale-based Spirit Airlines is a low fare carrier to the Caribbean with hubs in Detroit and in Fort Lauderdale and service to 29 cities in the United States, Bahamas, and the Caribbean. In addition to Coach class service, Spirit offers Spirit Plus business class with 2-by-2 leather seats with an extra six inches of legroom in the new Airbus fleet, complimentary cocktails and snacks. For more information, fares, schedules and reservations call 1-800-772-7117 (en espanol, 1-800-756-7117) or visit SpiritAir.com . For information on San Francisco attractions read the Simon & Baker Travel Review San Francisco articles.

Tru spa waterfall

Photo: Tru

San Francisco, California — Tru spa introduced the Pair’s Polish, a romantic treatment for couples which takes place inside the facility’s Tropical Rainforest Room, where couples exfoliate with fresh fruit pulps and essential oils and then are immersed under tropical "rain," followed by a refreshing "waterfall" rinse.

Pairs Polish enables lovebirds to rub each other down with a sugar based exfoliating and brightening scrub of fresh strawberries, almonds and honey. Couples use the hand shower to rinse, then massage on a strawberry cream, and honey mixture. They are showered by hot "jungle mist," followed by warm "tropical rain" and a romantic trip to the bottom of a private "waterfall." The cost of this treatment is $200 per couple for 55 minutes.

Tru, an independently owned and operated modern day spa located in downtown San Francisco, offers facials, massage, nail services, waxing, microdermabrasion, skin peels, scrubs, and custom water treatments. There are eleven treatment rooms; five with computer controlled "colorblast" lighting to combine colored light therapy with massage. For additional information read our article about Tru

An attol in the Maldives

Male – Tourists are complaining to the Maldivian Tourism Ministry because Maldivian tourism has increased and resorts are overbooked. Tourism started to show signs of improvement during the last weeks of last year, following the huge drop in tourists after the December 26, 2004 tsunami.

Even though the average occupancy of August was 56.5 percent, some resorts stopped bringing in tourists because they were full. Some international tourist operators forewarned that with the beginning of this year the resort occupancy of resorts will increase and the problem of overbooked resorts might arise.

The Maldivian Tourism Ministry said in an announcement that since there is overbooking and tourists are complaining booking must be done according to the law. The Ministry said that 15,182 beds from 78 resorts are being used by tourists. While 12,788 beds were used during January of last year, the number of beds used during January of 2004 was 16,088.

The resorts overbooked at the moment are on Male atoll, on atolls close and far away from Male. Sun Island Resort with 426 rooms is the resort with the highest number of beds and has a current occupancy higher than 95 percent. Sun Island’s manager Abdurrasheed said that to prevent the problem of overbooking bookings have been controlled somewhat.

One and Only Reethi Rah Resort,  one of the most expensive resorts in Maldives, said that since December 2005, its occupancy has been 100 percent. the One and Only Reethi Rah has 130 rooms. Some tourists had to leave the Maldives during December 2003 without holidaying because resorts were overbooked and full.

To learn more about the Maldives, go to Maldives and for information on the island resort we visited, go to Royal Island