Windstar Cruises is expanding its offerings to include Easy Stays, which was designed in partnership with hotels and destination management companies across the world. Guests can select from hotels in more than 30 cities where the cruises embark and disembark. Windstar Cruises says the variety of properties allows guests to select the hotel that best suits their travel style—whether a quaint, boutique hotel or modernist accommodations.
Easy Stays allows guests to lengthen their stay on either end of their cruise at properties such as the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel in Bali, the Hotel Granvia Kyoto, Mandarin Oriental in Singapore, Hotel Grande Bretagne or St. George Lycabettus Hotel in Athens, Hotel Borg or Hilton Reykjavik Nordica, Ambasciatori Palace in Rome, Bristol Hotel Panama, and Sheraton Puerto Rico.
Windstar Cruises says all hotels in the program have been fully vetted with site visits by Windstar’s team of travel experts. Hotel properties are chosen for characteristics such as prime location for sight-seeing, as well as local charm.
Local culinary specialties also come with booking Easy Stays. A complimentary daily breakfast at the hotel of choice is included with every overnight stay. Guests may have regional breakfast specialties such as poisson cru, fresh-baked croissants, and vanilla honey in Tahiti; dolmades, yogurt and goat cheese in Greece; and in the U.K. a traditional British breakfast with bangers, mushrooms and grilled tomato.
As an extension of the Windstar experience, with Easy Stays the cruise line handles all transportation details and luggage porterage between hotel and ship whether pre- or post-cruise, or both. Another Easy Stays program perk guarantees preferred category rooms and upgrades when available. Transfers between hotel and ship or ship and hotel are also included.
Most Easy Stays properties also feature an onsite Windstar hospitality desk staffed by locals who can recommend restaurants, shops and attractions; map out a walking or jogging route for guests; or share a bit of local lore. All taxes and resort fees are included and most hotels in the program offer complimentary Wi-Fi.
The Easy Stays program also offers hotel experiences in non-turn ports as well, such as the overwater bungalows of the Tahitian Islands on both Moorea and Bora Bora. Windstar Cruises says these locations were strategically selected to offer guests an on-land experience in a destination already included in a Windstar itinerary but not located at the beginning or end of the itinerary.
This story was originally published on luxurytraveladvisor.com
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