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You are receiving DG Amazing Experiences as a user of private aviation. Our travel briefs are specifically designed for private aviation users, with insider reports the best suites, new hotels, villas, travel adventures, and security while traveling. We have over 20,000 readers weekly in over 80 countries. If you would no longer like to receive our reports, unsubscribe here. 


 
         

In This Issue:

DG Amazing Experiences
Insider Travel Briefs For Private Aviation Travelers

Vol. 2, No. 22

W Comes To Vegas - We Preview The Suites;
Inside Four Seasons Lanai’s Alli Royal Suite;             Two Special Villas In Greece, and
How To Prevent Being Robbed While Traveling




Check-out Our DGAE Library featuring:

Insider previews of top suites and villas at hotels and resorts across the USA, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Austria, Brasil, China, England, France, French Polynesia, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Oman, Portugal, Russia, Seychelles, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, Tahiti, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Vietnam, plus on the high seas aboard Regent Seven Seas Explorer, Seabourn Encore, Crystal Esprit and Norwegian Breakaway, plus more!


November 2016, Vol 2, No 22






Security Matters

Even if you’re not a celebrity, being a senior executive, company owner, director and traveling via private aviation can make you a target for criminals. Whether you travel with valuables or not, thieves may believe you do. Tail numbers can still be tracked. Schedules for press conferences are circulated in advance. When you visit customers, the knowledge that you are coming to town may fall into the wrong hands. So even if you don’t have 3 million followers on Instagram, we asked our security contributors at          AS Solution to offer some quick tips that can give you a higher level of protection.

On a separate note, earlier this month NBAA held its annual convention in Orlando, and it’s worth remembering next time you step onto a plane or helicopter, private aviation directly employs over 1.1 million jobs in the U.S. alone. 


PS — We keep all past issues on an easy to access website DG Amazing Experiences where you can find both newsletters and special reports.


Thanks for reading. I hope all your trips are amazing experiences!

All the best,

Founder/Editor-in-Chief
DG Amazing Experiences
 
Please Note - DG Amazing Experiences is not commercially affiliated with any of the resorts we profile or travel advisors we reference

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In This Issue:


1.  W Las Vegas Top Suites Preview

2.  Four Seasons Lanai’s Alii Royal Suite

3.  Two Spectacular Villas In Greece

4.  Security Report:  Preventing A Robbery While You’re Traveling

5.  DGAE Special Reports Library Highlights





Our Security Reports (Links Below):


Should you drive a car in Cuba?

How to survive a terrorism attack

7 easy ways your flight crew can improve security


Recommended Reading (Links Below):


More CEOs Join NBAA No Plane No Gain Campaign



Holiday Gift Shopping (sponsored)

Faberge and Ulysse Nardin are two of the most storied brands in luxury. The Fabergé Visionnaire DTZ earlier this month won the Grand Prix D’Horlogerie Geneve award for Best Travel Watch (below). Ulysse Nardin continues to be one of the most innovative watchmakers (it counts 4,300 awards) and had a record four watches nominated for the Grand Prix awards, including its Executive Skeleton Tourbillon, and for women its Skeleton Tourbillon Pearl (below).







1. W Las Vegas Top Suite Preview


W Hotels is landing in Las Vegas as a conversion of the 289-room LUX Tower (one of three operating as SLS Las Vegas) Dec. 1 with a soft opening, and a grand opening February 2017. The top suite is the 2,382 sq.ft. Extreme WOW Suite, with separate living room and oversized bath with mountain views. The suite looks onto downtown and the Nevada Mountains. There is original artwork, and design by Lenny Kravitz. 


W Las Vegas will have a private entrance for guests and will offer signature W brand amenities, including “lively social venues,” a WET rooftop pool and The Living Room. The hotel will also feature a multimillion dollar new build tower by Gentler Architects, designed by AvroKO Hospitality with 15,000 sq.ft. of meeting and event space. 


Dining and drinks options include Bazaar Meat by José Andrés; Katsuya; Cleo; Umami Burger; 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza; Northside Café; Chinese Kitchen; and The Perq, as well as nightlife venues.


   

 

2. Inside Four Seasons Lanai’s Alii Royal Suite


Earlier this year, before it opened, we gave you an insider preview of the top suites at Four Seasons Resort Lanai, so we were interested to catch up with luxury travel advisor Jeff Traugot of Traugot Travel who just returned from a site inspection. While we try not use too many superlatives in these reports, Traugot calls the 3,894 sq.ft. Alii Royal Suite “spectacular.” He likes that the 2-bedroom suite connects to an additional “prime ocean front studio suite” providing a 3-bedroom possibility.




He says, “It has a lanai that runs the entire length of the suite, facing the ocean and has a wall, so if you are in the master bedroom, you have privacy from the rest of the terrace.” Traugot adds, “There are three separate bathrooms, a kitchen and wet bar, unique art throughout, and furniture created especially for this space. The suite also has a separate unmarked exit from the master bedroom.”




Located on the second floor, Alii Royal Suite has views of the Hulopoe Bay marine sanctuary, with its spinner dolphins, coral reefs and a wide variety of colorful fish. There is a formal living room with adjoining powder room, media room as well as a separate dining room seating six. The bathroom features a double Japanese soaking tub, a double walk-in steam shower with seating, dual vanities and a vanity mirror television. The large private lanai has a dining table, lounge chairs and an daybed. There is a walk-in closet, library area, drop-down television and binocular tripods for observing the Bay. 






3. Two Spectacular Villas In Greece



From time to time, we hear from you, and so when a CEO from a company in Switzerland told us to check out Dellos Palace Villas in Mykonos, we followed up.


Achilleas is 6,050 sq.ft. with two floors and includes seven big bedrooms with seven private bathrooms, two kitchens and one living room. There is a swimming pool and access to a private beach. 

 

The decoration of the villa is the traditional combination of blue and white of Cyclades with luxury finishes. All Achilleas Villa’s bedrooms have been traditionally furnished, comfortably designed, with private bathrooms. Five bedrooms have double beds and two have single beds. 


 


There is one big swimming pool outside the house with panoramic view of the town which, which is particularly pretty at night.



Villa Aphrodite is 5,170 sq.ft. on two floors and includes three large bedrooms in Cycladic colors with three private bathrooms, a kitchen and sitting room. Outside the villa, there are two swimming pools, one for adults and one for children. 


 


All Aphrodite Villa’s bedrooms have private bathrooms. One bedroom has double bed and two bedrooms have two single beds per room.

 

Both villas have complimentary WiFi and parking, and are air conditioned and can be bought out singularly or together as well as partially.






4. Preventing A Robbery While Traveling 


Even if you’re not a celebrity, being a senior executive, company owner, director and traveling via private aviation can make your a target for criminals. Whether you travel with valuables or not, thieves may believe you do. So even if you don’t have three million followers on Instagram, we think the following from our security contributors as AS Solution will be worth a read.


By Christian West & Brian Jantzen

Guest Columnists 

AS Solution 


The world was shocked by the news that Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in a Parisian apartment. The American celebrity and the French capital had again made headlines – this time, regrettably, for all the wrong reasons.

 

Although shaken by the incident, Kardashian was fortunately not harmed. In this column, we attempt to draw a few lessons from this tragic event from the perspective of executive protection professionals.

 

We’ll to try to understand the nature of what happened in a brief “after action review” so we can learn from it – and hopefully make it more difficult for something like this to happen again.

 

First off, let’s make one thing clear: This column is inspired by news stories we’ve read in the media like everyone else – not on facts that have been 100% verified.

 

Second, let’s make another thing even clearer: We’re not here to raise questions about any security agent or cast stones against colleagues in the industry. We know what it’s like to be in charge of protection, and we know that things can go south for any number of reasons.

 

Executive protection is not a one-person job, and it doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Like so many other things worth doing, protection is a team effort that can be enhanced by technology – and always faces financial constraints.

 

Like so many other things worth doing, protection is a team effort that can be enhanced by technology – and always faces financial constraints.

 

Protection specialists come in all shapes and sizes. We all have different types of training and backgrounds. One thing that we do have in common is that we all have to make do with what we’ve got, and do the best possible job with the available resources.

 

Jewels worth millions went missing. Various media have reported that Kardashian had been tailed by suspicious people, posing as paparazzi or police, prior to the robbery. Fingers are being pointed at everyone from Parisian police to lax security and Eastern European gangs. Talk of an “inside job” has captured imaginations.

 

We’re going to let all of these speculations rest, and focus instead on a few takeaways from the situation – and what we in the industry can do to minimize the probability of similar attacks.


What we – and many others – know about the victim and her situation.

 

Kim Kardashian is a high-profile celebrity that is in near-constant public scrutiny, has tens of millions of followers on social media, and is often in the news. As such, it’s no wonder that the perpetrators – along with millions of others – knew some important facts about Kardashian:


- She often carried valuable jewelry

- She was in Paris for Fashion Week

 

But the robbers knew more than that. Through either effective surveillance or a tip off, neither of which would be extremely difficult to come by, they could also figure out that:


- Kardashian was staying at a private residence

- She was protected by one unarmed security agent (who also keeps an eye on others in her entourage)

- She was likely to have even more jewelry than normal, since it was Fashion Week

 

Given this background, and the assumption that the perpetrators knew that Kardashian was in the apartment and that her security agent was with others in her group at a night club, five armed robbers overpowering one concierge and gaining access to Kardashian’s apartment is not an impossible task.

 

In fact, the heist would have to be considered a low-risk, high-reward job for the criminals.

 

So what could have been different…

 

There’s nothing like hindsight, and it’s easy to play armchair quarterback when it wasn’t your principal, your butt, and your budget constraints that were on the line of scrimmage. Still, a few tactical considerations are worth thinking about.

 

Given the principal’s apparent risks and vulnerabilities while in Paris, some measures could have been taken to make her a harder target.

 

…and what can other high-profile travelers do in order not to be the next victim?

 

- When possible, maintain a low profile.

- Check into hotels and other accommodations under a pseudonym.

- Utilize hotels and residences that have visible security personnel and systems.

- Do your social media posts and check-ins AFTER you leave a place where vulnerability might be higher than normal – instead of broadcasting your current location.

- Avoid time and place predictability.

- Based on risks inherent to high-profile activities and locations, and situations that preclude time and place predictability, be sure to staff properly for effective threat deterrence. This could include “residential” coverage (for private homes or hotels) as well as a halls & walls team. Consider this also when you have items of high value – not necessarily expensive jewelery – but things that many of our clients consider as “work tools” – laptops, cell phones, etc.

- Provide a way to communicate an emergency to your security staff, for example some kind of duress button/system.

- Utilize portable, temporary alarm and surveillance systems that are monitored by someone that can initiate local emergency response.

- Ensure your EP resources have training to identify hostile surveillance.

 

We hope that Kim Kardashian recovers from what was surely a traumatic experience and that she and her family remain safe, no matter where their travels take them.

 

We also hope that executive protection professionals everywhere will continue to learn from these unfortunate events, so that we can all work together to make things harder for the bad guys.

 

 


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Visit our library of previous news and reports from DG Amazing Experiences.


DG Amazing Experiences 
is by luxury expert Doug Gollan

My name is Doug Gollan. I am a strong advocate of the private aviation industry.  You can read my frequent coverage of private jets and luxury travel at  Forbes.com.
 
I've chosen you to receive  DG Amazing Experiences  because I believe you share my passion for both business aviation and the best travel and luxury experiences in the world.
  
DG Amazing Experiences  is your e-newsletter guide to the best places and experiences for private jet travelers like yourself.  Each recommendation is personally selected by me with the help of some of the smartest and best travel advisors in the world.  

My goal is to give you a look ahead at what's new, what's hot, and the best of the best. To make it easy for you, the stories are short, but detailed, and I provide plentiful links to additional, relevant information.

You will know links because they are underlined in red. Where relevant, I provide  email contacts of top travel professionals who will personally answer any questions you might have.  Key contact email addresses are underlined in blue.




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