When MVL Hotel Kintex in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, opens its doors on March 20, it will be the area’s largest premium hotel.MVL Hotel Kintex is the second hotel to open after MVL Hotel Yeosu, the six-star deluxe hotel which served foreign VIPs attending the Yeosu Expo last year, earning the hotel its title as “the accommodation spot for stars.” MVL Hotel Kintex features 377 guest rooms, including 34 suites. The rooms are traditionally styled with a modern twist. The hotel also features a sauna,

India has dispatched police officers for tourists in most of its states and plans to launch a help line from which tourists can seek help in emergency situations, according to India’s secretary of tourism. A series of highly publicized rape cases, including the alleged drug rape of a 23-year-old Korean woman and the death of a 23-year-old Indian woman after a gang rape on a bus in south Delhi last December, has raised questions about the safety of female travelers in India.“We are very much conc

SAN FRANCISCO ― There are two Chinatowns in San Francisco, one where tourists can buy conical straw hats and tacky souvenirs, and a second where the locals live, shop and eat.There are no defined boundaries ― you don’t cross a street and step from Tourist Chinatown to Authentic Chinatown. Rather, the two overlap. A visitor can leave a neon-lit store, loaded down with bamboo back scratchers and plastic Buddhas, and a half-block away turn down a dingy alley dotted with shops and businesses where n

FREDERICK SOUND, Alaska ― “There’s a whale right here, next to us!” whispered 15-year-old Will, leaning over the railing and frantically trying to focus his camera on the shiny black hump off the port side bow. “And there’s another one, right there!” he said, pointing at the second giant head that rose up and tipped sideways, fixing a round black eye on the ship.Humpback whales, too many to count, circled the Sea Bird as the 62-passenger vessel, a Lindblad Expedition cruise ship, idled in Alaska

Ski resorts woo winter sports enthusiasts with discount package programs

KRABI, Thailand ― Krabi province is Thailand’s representative resort area. Unfortunately, it’s not as easily accessible as other tourist spots in Thailand. Unlike Phuket, you have to arrange flights, jeep rides and boats to get around. Yet the area is one of the most desired destinations in Thailand, a true “hidden gem” that remains untouched by mass tourism.We started the tour by taking Thai Airways International from Bangkok to Phuket. Working our way to the northwest coast of Phuket, we arriv

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ― Despite threatening skies, the Mardi Gras party carried on as thousands of costumed revelers cheered glitzy floats with make-believe monarchs in an all-out bash before Lent. In the French Quarter, as usual, Fat Tuesday played out with all its flesh and raunchiness.Crowds were a little smaller than recent years, perhaps influenced by the forecast of rain. Still, parades went off as scheduled even as a fog settled over the riverfront and downtown areas.Police, who had to deal wi