A few notable travel-related news bites from around the Americas…

- Honduras situation resolved…sort of. The U.S. dropped Honduras from its travel advisory after recent elections had a good turnout and went peacefully. Unfortunately, that’s still not the end of it since most governments are not recognizing the new leader as legit and the kicked-out former president is still holed up in the Brazilian embassy. Bottom line though, traveling there should not be affected while this is worked out and places where tourists spend any time, like Roatan and Copan, were never impacted much to start with.

- Speaking of Honduras, lovely Pico Bonito Lodge is offering a 2-for-1 special through January 3.

- We recently reviewed the new Bristol Buenaventura hotel, but parts of it were still under construction at opening. Tomorrow the spa officially opens.

- During the annual World Travel Market  held  in London, the members of LATA (Latin American Travel Association) chose Awasi as the Best Boutique Hotel in Latin America, for the second consecutive year. Awasi is located in the Atacama region of Chile.

- Argentina is once again threatening to impose a reciprocal visa fee ($131 for Americans) for foreigners landing in Buenos Aires by air. Each time they have announced this in the past it has been struck down, presumably because the massively important ourism industry would take a huge hit if it goes into motion, right during a worldwide recession that is especially affecting Argentina. We’ll see if common sense prevails again or if Argentina follows the path of countries that receive fewer North American visitors, like Brazil and Bolivia.

Last week we posted reviews of two luxury hotels that opened recently in Peru and Brazil.

The Peru opening’s name makes it sound like it should be in Colombia—Casa Cartegena—but it’s actually in Cusco, just a shuffle away from the reigning Monasterio and the upscale Inkaterra boutique hotel La Casona.

This hotel dispenses with all the Spanish Colonial antiques and religious oil paintings though and presents something Cusco didn’t really have before: a hotel with a sleek contemporary design aesthetic.

Our new Brazil addition is not a new hotel really, but a makeover. Orient-Express took over a hotel near Iguassu/Iguazu Falls a few years ago and then shut the place down to renovate it up to their standards. Hotel das Cataratas is still a work in progress, with the spa, some other public areas, and a third of the rooms left to finish, but it’s open for business and showing off its fresh new face.

Orient-Express operates lots of fine hotels and the Hiram Bingham train in Peru, plus the Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio. We’re sure this new addition to their roster will get plenty of acclaim from guests and the press in the coming year, plus everyone who has been to both sides of the falls says the view is more dramatic on the Brazilian side.

Michael Brown is half of the partnership of Mead Brown, a boutique vacation rental firm serving Costa Rica. The company offers private villas and homes plus premium condominiums for those who expect excellent value, personal service and supremely comfortable accommodations. Co-founders Mark Mead and Michael Brown once enjoyed successful careers in the U.S. working with the likes of princes, presidents, celebrities and sports stars. We asked Michael about the appeal of Costa Rica and what makes Mead Brown the go-to company for travel in this popular destination.

Tell us where your Costa Rican rental villas are located and how your clients get there from North America.
Mead Brown villas are located in Los Sueños Golf Resort and Marina, Manuel Antonio, and the lively beach town of Jaco. Guests fly into Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) in San Jose and then transfer by private Mercedes van or helicopter.

What are the draws of this region and the developments where you have properties available?
People are attracted to Costa Rica specifically for the adventure; for the flora and fauna. Because Costa Rica is such a relatively narrow bridge of land connecting North and South America, the country has a remarkable abundance of nature. Costa Rica boasts more than 1,000 species of butterflies and 1,300 types of orchids. Sixty-five world-record fish have been caught here. Beaches, rainforests, and the championship, par-72 golf course designed by Ted Robinson, Jr. in Los Sueños are all draws.

(Punto de Vista in Manuel Antonio)

What makes these rental properties ideal for a vacation or honeymoon?
For the price of a hotel room, one can have a spacious 1-, 2- or 3-bedroom condo with the amenities of a hotel and the space found in a private home, including a fully-equipped kitchen, plus washer and dryer! All Mead Brown vacation rentals include daily housekeeping and wireless Internet. Some even have room service from a close-by hotel. Spend less, and get a greater value at every price point.

Continued – Full Mead Brown interview here

As I mentioned in an earlier post specific to Latin America, I attended the Luxury Travel Expo last week and got to hear what people in the industry had to say about the state of upscale travel in late 2009.

They were more upbeat than I expected, especially since travel to Europe has fallen off a cliff and the convention/incentive market is having a terrible year. And of course there are too many new hotels and too many new cruise ships for any of them to be much more than half full without major discounting. (Tough for them, good for you. There are some amazing deals on sites like LuxuryLink.com.)

Besides the obvious search for value though, lots of other interesting luxury travel trends came out that I thought were newsworthy.

1) More family travel
It used to be that “luxury” and “family travel” didn’t mix much, but that has changed in a big way. People are having kids later, they’re having fewer of them, and the grandparents often have more money than the parents do. I started noticing this shift a couple years ago when I’d go to a Four Seasons and find the pool packed with kids, but this has extended to safaris, soft adventure trips, and nature excursions. African safari operator Micato said in a panel discussion that their family travel bookings had gone from 10% to 35% in eight years. This bodes well for villa rental places and small-ship cruises, but not so well for cookie-cutter hotels that think connecting rooms are going to be enough to serve this demand.

2) Deeper travel experiences
It used to be that bragging about shopping in Paris or Milan was what you did to impress the neighbors. Now it’s more likely to be that you visited some place they’ve never even heard of or you did something worth talking about on your vacation. Adventure travel is way up, volunteer travel is way up, and travel to former pariah destinations is way up—to places like Colombia, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Luxury travelers are becoming more like backpackers—wanting to mingle with real people and get authentic experiences instead of just being sheltered away in an artificial world.

3) Rising influence of green hotels and travel
Have you been paying more attention to the environmental practices of the hotels where you stay? If so you’re not alone. Tour operators are finding that guests are becoming steadily more demanding about how “green” the hotels are where they stay and are no longer looking at “luxury” and “eco-friendly” as being different things. Since Costa Rica is considered the birthplace of eco-tourism and a large portion of trips to Latin America are by nature lovers, parts of the Americas are perceived as being in better shape than many other parts of the world in this regard.

What has changed in what you are looking for when you travel now? What are you willing to pay more for…and not?

Up the road from Los Cabos, some new golf resort communities are springing up. We’ve got the lowdown on them in this new Mexican real estate article we just posted: Golf Communities Sprout in La Paz, Mexico.

This probably sounded like a better idea when there was a flood of California real estate bubble money flowing south, so the developers spared no expense in designing the golf courses and working out the water issues with desalinization and specialized turf. Homes are going up in phases, with the developers targeting those retirees and vacation home owners who find themselves priced out of Los Cabos—or just wanting to get more for their money.

If you’re interested in buying real estate on the Baja Peninsula but your eyes bulged out when you saw the prices in Cabo, read our article and follow the links on golf real estate in La Paz.