The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 114

6H THE PALM BEACH POST SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2002 THE MATURE TRAVELER Readers, send us your postcards! CRYSTAL CRUISES At Hotel Vancouver, guests get in spirit June sections now available Miss any of the Florida special sections that ran in Travel every Sunday in June? Did you lose the guide to historic inns in Key West? Forgot the name of that great new hotel at Universal? Get the complete set of five sections Central Florida, West Coast, East Coast, Miami and The Keys for $5 plus tax in the lobby of The Palm Beach Post. Or we'll mail them for $9 plus tax. By mail, send a check for $9.54, made out to The Palm Beach Post, to PostFacts, Florida Travel Special, P.O. Box 24700, West Palm Beach, FL 1 GreetmgsT7 Happy Anniversary! July 1 marked the fifth anniversary of Hong Kong being returned to China from Britain. The Harbor is breathtaking at night Good buys are to be had at the Stanley Market, just bring an extra suitcase for your purchases.

Victoria Peak offers a panoramic view overlooking the Harbor. Public transportation such as ferries, buses and subways make it easy to get around inexpensively. John Shea North Palm Beach Dear Readers, Send us a postcard from your travels! When you write, please include your name and address, a travel hint a favorite hotel or restaurant with the phone number, or any other useful tidbit We'll run the best ones. Send them to Postcards, Palm Beach Post Travel Section, PO. Box 24696, West Palm Beach, Bring us your LOWEST PRICE 3 and we'll BEAT IT! A Guide to virginia's Horse Country pCall now for your free copy '1-877-TROT2VA fc-B iitiiiuiiMiiiiiiHii aclam's mattk.

and massage daytana beorh aeeoat U) Win't Ntrt honli and tMUmn pran tmia iH pnm Mtlwt nfirt IK rttw. Md Mm 'i Mjrt mwmitMii raid-nf Mikn wrH tr4 imiwn id ra (win u4 Nina tm Www ihi 1 taw iifmnat tiunmnum taw wm rrattri aMu), haw rait trie. Mm tt ug mm immm Baud ufi ivnljbtlily with mfriclnm breathtaking scenery. Celebrating their past, many of these hotels, including die Vancouver, are putting on "heritage tours." At the Fairmont LeCha-teau Frontenac, the "castle" overlooking the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, costumed guides introduce visitors to more than 100 years of history.

Fictional characters from the hotel's past a chef, bellboy and chambermaid, for example give the inside scoop on famous guests such as Grace Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock. Tours are held hourly 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a fee of $6.50, or $5.50 for mature travelers. The Fairmont Chateau Laurier, located next to Ottawa's Parliament, is celebrating its 90th birthday this year with tours led by guides in early 20th century attire.

Tours are part of the hotel's special anniversary Heritage Package. Non-hotel guests can book the tour, for $10, through the concierge. Resort by the sea The Fairmont Algonquin, Canada's first seaside resort, recently started its heritage program, which includes self-directed tours. Fairmont Banff Springs, a National Historic Site dating to 1888, has a Heritage Hall museum above the lobby directed by curator and historian-in-residence Bob Sandford. Veteran employee Dave Moeberg, who has been at the hotel for 40 years, leads complimentary hotel tours for guests on Wednesdays and Fridays at 4 p.m.

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise offers heritage tours at 4 p.m. daily that are free to guests, $5 for non-guests. Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello in Quebec has complimentary tours at least twice a week to introduce its past that began with Louis-Joseph Papineau, original owner of the land. The Fairmont Empress in Victoria provides a 50-minute "Bird's Eye View Walking Tour" daily from May to October at 10 a.m. It includes the gardens and archives, and describes how this unique hotel was built on water.

The tour costs $5. Hotels in Canada give big discounts to members of AARP (up to 25 percent) and CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons; 20 percent). Membership cards must be. shown at check-in. A standard room at a Fairmont hotel in early October would thus cost an AARP member $131 compared with the regular rate of $175.

Write to Adele Malott, co The New York Times Syndicate, 122 E. 42nd 14th Moor, New York, N. 10168; or e-mail MatureTrav aol.com By ADELE MALOTT The New York Times If it's true that ghosts return to the place where they were happiest, then the Hotel Vancouver in British Columbia has nothing to fear from its "lady in red." The first Christmas ball held at the Hotel Vancouver shortly after its grand opening in 1939 was anticipated with great excitement, especially by young socialite Jennie Pearl Cox. She planned to wear a full-length holly-red ball gown. Pearl (as she was known), her husband, Harold, and daughter Dorothy all perished in a car accident just six years later, but Pearl continues to "return" to the hotel.

A recently retired bell captain saw Pearl the first time when she emerged from faux elevator doors decorating the 14th floor. And a cameraman on a shoot for The Files TV series was so terrified by her hovering outside a 14th floor window that he quit and left it to others to collect and pack his gear! Hotel Vancouver, with its steep blue-green copper roof, is a midtown landmark surrounded by the Vancouver Art Gallery, Christ Church Cathedral and the Canadian Craft Museum. Locals loved that roof and the popular nightclub it once housed. Vancouver resident Eve Katan recalls that going to the "Roof" for dinner and dancing was the "in" thing when she was young, with its romantic views of the mountains to the north and Straits of Georgia to the south. Credited with saving a large chunk of the hotel's history is no-nonsense housekeeper Ethel Ferguson.

Hiding furniture On learning that Hilton Canada, who managed the hotel in the early 1960s, was about to sell off much of the furniture, she took things into her own hands. Squirreling away furniture throughout the hotel, she kept the pieces under wraps until Hilton's contract expired 20 years later. Ferguson and the owners, helped by historic drawings, were subsequently able to restore the hotel and have enough saved furniture to decorate 35 rooms. Some of the hotel's most illustrious guests include Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. Cowboy film star Roy Rogers stayed at the hotel and even took his horse Trigger with him up to the panoramic 14th floor roof! The Vancouver, a Fairmont hotel (www.fair mont.com), is but one gem in the elegant necklace of early hotels stretching across Canada.

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Chicago: The gym at the Hilton Chicago O'Hare is accessible by tunnel from the airport. It features an impressive array of aerobic and Nautilus equipment and changing rooms, all for $10. Details: (773) 686-8000, www.hilton.com. Los Angeles: 24-Hour Fitness at the Hilton (5711 West Century Blvd.) is just five minutes by taxi from LAX. The facility has good equipment, changing rooms and showers.

A day pass is $10. Details: (310) 410-4000, www.hilton.com. New York: The Cross Island Sports Fitness Center (219-10 S. Conduit about 15 minutes by taxi from JFK, has all the usual equipment, including weights, treadmills and exercise bikes. Day rates vary.

Details: 718-528-7592. At LaGuardia, the Fitness Center at the Marriott (102-05 Ditmars East Elm-hurst) is a more convenient seven-minute ride and you can take the hotel's free shuttle. It has a good range of Nautilus equipment, an indoor pool and a sauna. A day pass is $20. Details: (718) 565-8900, www.marriott.com.

For a list of health clubs near other airports, check out www.airportgyms.com. By GARY LEE The Washington Post What: Health clubs at or near airports. Why: With lengthy delays and layovers common at US. airports these days, working out is a good use of time that might otherwise go wasted. Recently confronted with a 3'-hour layover in Miami, I was torn.

Should I make a quick run to South Beach for an espresso and a stroll? Or while the time over a novel near my gate? In the end, I went with Option 3: a workout eight floors above Concourse in the penthouse of the Miami International Airport Hotel (800-327-1276, www.miahotel.com) It's open daily to travelers from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The $8 fee included use of all equipment, a towel, access to the outdoor pool and a grand skyline view. OK, the treadmill creaked a bit and the shower didn't have much power, but the half-hour jog and 40 minutes of pumping iron turned out to be one of the most productive intervals between flights I've ever spent And even with the prolonged check-in procedures, I was back at my gate in plenty of time. Other airports offer the same option: Atlanta: There's a lVknile jogging track at Hartsfield 1 888 wwiliscowrycmi.selinc.com THANKSGIVING Nov.

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