Just Ask Jeeves: The Rise of Butler Service in the Travel Industry
Walk into the Lanesborough Hotel at London’s Hyde Park Corner and you’re immediately escorted to your room, where you are introduced to your butler, who is there to be your personal assistant for the rest of your stay. He’ll unpack for you, set up your WiFi, make restaurant reservations, draw your bath, make hotel transfers, wake you up with coffee and tea, be a personal shopper, and a whole lot more if need be.
“We’ll do anything as long as it’s legal,” says the Lanesborough’s head butler, Daniel Jordaan. In the past, that has included cutting a businessman’s hair who was late for a meeting; finding reindeer from a farm, little people to dress up as elves, Santa, and a snow machine for an impromptu Christmas party; redecorating a private hospital room in the style of the Lanesborough after a woman had come to London to give birth; and sending a courier on the Eurostar train to Paris to have a confidential document signed urgently.
Blame it on Carson, the hard-working butler who runs a tight ship on the popular television series, Downton Abbey, but more and more high-end clientele are yearning for yesteryear when personal service extended from the hotel or cruise line’s concierge to inside the suite. With the addition of butlers, hoteliers now have the opportunity to service their guests behind closed doors.
Read the full story at Global Traveler.
I’m off with my son, Jake, to the first of many college visits this fall. I’ll be back on Tuesday, September 3rd. Enjoy the weekend, and, as always, keep active!
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A family ski trip offers the rare opportunity to spend quality time with every member of your family, including your significant other. In the morning, kids can improve their skills at ski schools, while you hit the slopes with your number one squeeze. In the afternoon, children can show off their new tricks while you ski together as a family. The best ski areas have gentle slopes for little skiers, first rate instructors to enhance skills of children ages 3 and up (in group or private lessons), childcare services for kids younger than 3, and more than enough activity to keep the kids busy when they need a break from the mountain. If you’re thinking of hitting the slopes this winter with the family, check out my list of 
We wake up to blinding sunshine at Buck’s Harbor in South Brooksville, best known as the spot where children’s book author and illustrator Robert McCloskey (“Make Way for Ducklings,” “Blueberries for Sal”) summered. FDR would also stop here on his way to Campobello Island for a short ice cream break. We found some of those famous wild Maine blueberries in our pancakes that morning before hoisting the sails and setting a course for that hump atop Big Spruce Island. Each one of these Penobscot Bay harbors and islands has a legacy and Big Spruce Island is no different. This is the place where artist Fairfield Porter and his brother, photographer Eliot Porter, would spend their summers and there’s still a working artists’ community on the island today.