Text № 15. Tourist attractions and entertainment (2)

Natural scenery has always been an attraction for tourists. Mil­lions of people have visited Niagara Falls, for example. Its reputation as a place for a honeymoon is world-famous. The United States has institutionalized, so to speak, the wonders of nature, in its National Park system.

Areas such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon have been set aside for the enjoyment of the public. The parks contain hotels, restaurants, camping areas, and other facilities that have made them major recreation centers. The hardier species of tourist will travel further and undergo discomfort and difficulty just to look at beautiful or unusual scenery in the remote corners of the world—a glimpse of Mount Everest, for example, or of the Angel Falls in Venezuela.

In connection with the big cities, we mentioned shopping as a tourist attraction, but urban centers are not the only tourist destina­tions that concentrate on this activity. Hong Kong is perhaps the most famous example. Hong Kong is a large city and commercial center, but its principal draw for tourists has been the bargains offered in its shops. Shopping has been made a tourist magnet by government policy in some places. For instance, Charlotte Amalie in the U.S. Vir­gin Islands are a free port where buyers can purchase goods from all over the world without paying customs duties. Handicrafts also appeal to touring shoppers in many places. In fact, the souvenir shop that sells this kind of merchandise is as much a feature of most tourist areas as the hotel. Take, for example, the hand-woven fabrics of Gua­temala. Most people who visit that country take home at least one sample of this local handicraft.

We have already discussed the holiday resorts at some length. These usually attract tourists because of their sunny beaches, their snow-covered ski slopes, or their championship golf courses. In addi­tion, they frequently offer other kinds of entertainment to their guests. At the ski resorts, it is often an atmosphere of informality around a roaring fire after the day's skiing is finished. Many of the resorts give instruction in scuba diving combined with visits to coral reefs. And of course most of them have a variety of stores and souvenir shops.

Text № 2.

QUALITY WESTMINSTER

The Quality Westminster Hotel in London is a 19th century property situated in the heart of the city on a quiet central square, 250 meters from Victoria Station. This five-floor hotel features 107 guestrooms with modem furnishings in warm neutral tones with white and red fabrics. Private bathroom with complimentary toiletries and hairdryer. All include tea and coffee making facilities, PlayStation games consoles, satellite TV with pay movies, dial up Internet connections, and direct- dial telephones. The hotel is fully air- conditioned. Multilingual staff can also assist with currency exchange and room service requests and arrange transport around the local area.

After breakfast in the Brasserie restaurant of the Quality Westminster Hotel, guests can browse through the complimentary London newspapers in the lobby or over a pot of tea in the coffee lounge. The Quality Westminster Hotel, London, also features multilingual staff at the 24- hour front desk to advise on local attractions and make bookings for restaurants or the theatre. In the evening guests can enjoy a drink in the hotel bar before going to one of London's West End shows or having dinner in the Connaught Brasserie, decorated in traditional English design and serving an al a carte menu of modem continental dishes. Guests with laptops can enjoy access to the wi-fi Internet zone situated in the Coffee Lounge Car parking is available nearby; guests can collect a 40% discount voucher from reception. The hotel is conveniently located for both business guests and holiday- makers. Buckingham Palace is within 500 metres and Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben are one kilometre away. The shops of Oxford Street, Bond Street and Carnaby Street are within walking distance or only two stops on the tube from Victoria station (250 metres from the hotel). London Gatwick Airport is 20 miles away with an approximate driving time of 60 minutes.

Text № 3.

THE COMMODORE HOTEL

The Commodore hotel is centrally positioned in London’s famous Hyde park area. The hotel is just five minutes from Kensington Palace and only ten minutes from the popular and trendy shopping area of Oxford Bond Street. Some of London’s top tourists attractions, including Buckingham Palace, are within fifteen minutes walk from the hotel. The hotel is conveniently located for both business guests and holiday­makers. For the business guest staying at the hotel, it is only 20 minutes away from the Financial District, Hammersmith, and Woodlane.

Under the new ownership of the luxury Grecian Hotels group, The Commodore Hotel has been revitalized into an outstanding new London Townhouse hotel to cater for the demands of the business and leisure traveller. It is unique with its stunning combinations of London styles. For your culinary delights, the Mediterranean restaurant is awaiting your taste buds. The Commodore Hotel will provide impeccable service and memorable stay. The air- conditioned guestrooms include satellite television with pay movies, high-speed Internet connections, minibars, tea and coffee making facilities and hair dryers. All guestrooms are furnished in a modem style with wooden furniture. After breakfast guests can relax with coffee in the 24-hour lounge bar or ask in the tour desk for advice about sightseeing in the city. Multilingual staff can also assist with currency exchange and room service requests. Car parking is available.

Traditional Victorian elegance is blended with contemporary interior designs to create an elegant and comfortable ambience in all of the hotel’s spacious guest rooms.

Text № 6.

CALIFORNIA

Standing on Twin Peaks, high up above San Francisco, the panorama of this geographically hilly city is like a model before you. The white buildings rise and fall with the contours of the land, twisting in and out of themselves to provide a life for fast-paced, urban, American melting pot.

The name San Francisco reminds us for Spanish Catholism, rising up from the south and Mexico. Fresh, salty Pacific breezes and mists pour into the Bay through one of nature’s finest harbour gates, keeping the air clean.

With its physical appearance, climate and mixture of nationalities, San Francisco is unique. If you walk through its Chinatown you will be in what is the largest Chinese settlement outside of Asia. Beautifully coloured carved wooden dragons glare at you with gleaming eyes; the smell of steamed rice, sweet and sour sauce; the beauty of paraffin lamps and paper lanterns; hot tasty water for drinking; tiny little bananas, and many other exotic fruits on sale all around, and smiles...

There are numerous restaurants and supermarkets, to look at and visit, where every possible taste is catered to. The delicatessens load up on the city’s famous sour dough bread, every kind of cheese, and enormous salamis.

Early in the morning the flower market bursts into life. You think and feel that you can close your eyes for a moment, and when you open them the glorious A. Hepburn in the costume of Pygmalion’s Eliza Doolittle, a flower- girl, will stand in front of you.

Then there is Golden Gate Park with roller skaters, or joggers, or crowds listening to classical music, rap. Nearby Cliff House offers you a drink and the chance to spy on the seals around Seal Rock.

San Francisco takes everything and absorbs it without question, and that is why it is like a melting pot, or a mix, the roads boast everything from Cadillacs and four- wheel-drive trucks, to imports from the Japanese market and Volkswagens filled with people. Everything blends in San Francisc

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THE CARLYLE. A ROSEWOOD HOTEL

The Carlyle Hotel is located in New York City, N.Y., in the Upper East Side. The hotel is one block from the Whitney Museum of American Art and Central Park. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is five blocks from the hotel. The Guggenheim Museum and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts are within one mile. The United Nations headquarters is two miles away.

The Carlyle Hotel offers three dining options and one bar. The Carlyle Restaurant serves Greek cuisine with regional American ingredients. Cafe Carlyle features live jazz performances.

The Gallery restaurant serves complete English tea with tea sandwiches, scones and pastries. Bemelmans Bar features Art Deco style with glass tabletops and a black granite bar. This New York City hotel's front desk is open 24 hours a day and offers safe-deposit boxes. The lobby features a fireplace and coffee is available. The hotel includes meeting space and a business center. The hotel offers translation services. Limousine and Town Car service is available.

The hotel includes a fitness center and health club offering massage treatments. Personal trainers are available, and Pilates and yoga classes are offered. The hotel features a sauna and steam room. On-site shopping is provided with boutiques including L'Olivier. Guestrooms at the Carlyle Hotel feature hardwood floors, antiques and original artworks. Bedding includes down duvets and 440-thread count Egyptian cotton linens designed by Rivolta Carmignani. Bathrooms feature telephones, makeup mirrors, bathrobes and slippers. Guestrooms are equipped with cable television. Complimentary newspapers are delivered to guestrooms on weekdays. In-room safes are provided.

Guestrooms include minibars and complimentary bottled water.Room service is available 24 hours a day. The Gallery restaurant is modeled after the sultan's dining room at the Topikapi Palace in Turkey

Text № 12.

JUMEIRAH ESSEX HOUSE IN CENTRAL PARK

The Jumeirah Essex House is located in New York City, N.Y., between Central Park and Broadway. The Central Park Zoo is less than six blocks from the hotel. The Museum of Modem Art and Rockefeller Center are within nine blocks. The Broadway theater district is five blocks from this Midtown Manhattan hotel. Times Square is less than one mile away.

The Jumeirah Essex House offers two dining options and one lounge. The hotel's restaurant, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, serves a seasonal menu with a sommelier available to suggest wine mixtures. Cafe Botanica serves American cuisine and features views of Central Park. The Journey's Lounge is a 1930s themed space with a fireplace, leather sofas and mahogany paneling on the walls. The lounge offers beverages and light fare. Complimentary newspapers are available in the lobby. The hotel offers business services and high-speed Internet access. Meeting and event space is provided. The hotel's Grand Salon accommodates up to 550 people. The front desk is open 24 hours daily and offers safe-deposit boxes for guest use. The on-site fitness center includes cardiovascular and weight training equipment. Personal trainers are available. The hotel's spa offers massage treatments, steam baths and saunas. This New York City hotel offers on-site shopping. The 39-storied hotel has a rooftop sign with its name in red letters. Guestrooms at the Jumeirah Essex House are equipped with cable television and high-speed Internet access. Marble bathrooms feature makeup mirrors and bathrobes. Guestrooms at this New York City hotel include coffeemakers and minibars. Complimentary newspapers are delivered to the guestrooms Mondays through Fridays. In-room safes are provided.

The Jumeirah Essex House is across the street from the 843-acre Central Park which offers live entertainment and horse- drawn carriage rides. The hotel is currently undergoing renovations to its lobby.

Text № 19.

LE GRAND CAFE

Le Grand Cafe is among Kyiv’s top chic and posh restaurants with sumptuous and original style, located right in the heart of the city, in Muzeyny Provulok. The

neighbourhood of the restaurant became the center of Kyiv’s business life way

back at the end of the 19 century, when Kyiv saw an economic and construction boom. New apartments blocks were built and designed in the latest fashionable architectural style.

Le Grand Cafe occupies the ground floor of the building which is perfect example of the Modem Style in Kyiv. It was built and designed by the architect Valerian Rykov in 1909. The building stands next door to the National art Museum, designed by the leading architect of Kyiv Gorodetsky, and constructed at about the same time in the early twentieth century.

The restaurant boasts the most refined and stylish interior. The fashionable French designers Laure Welfling and George Patrick de Richmont have done a truly splendid job. The interior is stylized to remind us of the art style prevalent at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Every little detail has been taken care of the harmoniously fit the whole atmosphere: hand-made carpets; painted decorations; bronze lamps with sensuous ostrich-egg lampshades; exclusive cutlery; china graced with the fancy Le Grand Cafe logo, to name just a few things. The elegant fin de siècle interior is enhanced with paintings of the Ukrainian artists, photographs and theatre posters.

The interior design, the whole atmosphere of the restaurant is such that you cannot help thinking about Paris, Parisian life and tastes. And of course, Le grand Cafe is not an imitation of a fancy French restaurant. It has a style of its own. It has a spirit of the early twentieth- century Kyiv with its French-oriented culture.

Le Grand Cafe combines Ukrainian and French traditions even in dishes it offers. To talk about Le Grand Cafe and the dishes it offers, no matter how long, is to say very little. You must experience Le Grand Cafe, this unique phenomenon of Kyiv, directly. Seeing and tasting is the only way.

Text № 20.

HOTEL SUPUTNYK

Lviv, a city of a long history, is a place of warm hospitality and urban vitality. The most natural and convenient place to explore it from is the Hotel Suputnyk, situated close to the city center. A short ride in a street car will take you right to Stare Misto- Old Town and Ploshcha Rynok - market Square full of Medieval and Renaissance architectural wonders.

The Hotel Suputnyk**** offers 37 one-bed, 144 two-bed, 5 semi-deluxe and 13 deluxe rooms which can accommodate 392 guests at a time. The hotel boasts 8 conference halls, one of which can seat 250 people, two others can seat 60 people each, and four halls can seat 30 people each. Modem means of communication- telephones, Fax-machines, computers with Internet connection, photocopiers, etc- are at the guests’ disposal.

The Suputnyk restaurant offers dishes for all tastes in four halls which can seat up to 500 people at a time. The hotel provides a wide selection of services and has all necessary facilities and expertise to make your stay a pleasurable experience. A currency exchange outlet, a beauty parlour, a dentist, and a sightseeing-and- excursion bureau are also there to take care of your needs. Guided tours can take you to architectural and historical landmarks and sites. Interpreters and guides will see to it that you have no problems in communicating with people in your native language, or in finding your way about town.

The foundation of Lviv dates to 1256 in the seven intervening centuries between the thirteenth century and the present day, the city saw prosperity, destruction in wars, and revival. Various ethnic communities that existed in the city have left an indelible mark on the architecture and spirit of Lviv. All the architectural styles from Gothic down to Constructivism are represented in the city. Stare Misto has been put on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list.

Parks in the city, castles in the surrounding, the Carpathian Mountains a couple of hours ride away are major tourist attractions. Don’t miss an opportunity to enjoy them. The Hotel Suputnyk will provide this opportunity.