Travellers' checks

Travellers with a yearning for the golden age of air travel can get a taste of what it was like to fly with Pan Am in the 1960s and 70s with the Pan Am Experience (below), a four-hour "flight" that never actually leaves the ground. The experience takes place at the studios of Air Hollywood, in Los Angeles - a facility that provides aircraft and airport sets for the film and television industry. Your ticket to the past will get you a seat on the upper deck of a Pan Am Boeing 747 mock-up, where you will be welcomed by appropriately attired and unusually friendly stewardesses, and plied with period-correct inflight dishes such as shrimp cocktail and chateaubriand, carved seat-side, the old-fashioned way. After the meal, a movie from the era is played on the overhead projector while you "enjoy the company of your fellow travellers". Passengers are also expected to play their part by dressing smartly. This slice of history costs US$267 for a seat on the main deck and US$297 for the upper deck. This might sound like a lot for a flight to nowhere, but such is the nostalgia for the kind of service once offered by airlines that seats are fully booked until mid-December. Reservations can be made at airhollywood.com.

Although it might not readily conjure up images of Cap Ferrat, Cannes or St Tropez, the coastal region of Zhuhai has been known for some years now as the Chinese Riviera. The west coast of Hainan Island has more recently acquired the same nickname, and with perhaps more justification since the quality of hotels and resorts there far outweighs the generally quite dismal offerings in Zhuhai. Opening next month, however, the Sheraton Zhuhai (below) promises to redress the balance slightly with 548 rooms, "enchanting views of the glittering Macau skyline" and what looks like a standard collection of hotel restaurants and bars. Located in the new Shizimen district, the hotel will probably be catering more to business travellers than holidaymakers in search of an Oriental Cote d'Azur. An opening package available from November 12 to December 31 includes deluxe room accommodation, buffet breakfast, free internet, a 500 yuan (HK$630) dining voucher and free minibar (excluding alcohol) for 1,288 yuan per night. For more details, visit sheraton.com/zhuhai.

Banyan Tree Lang Co (top), located just north of Danang, on the central Vietnam coast, is offering unlimited free golf and spa treatments with its Ultimate Banyan Tree Lang Co package. Advance booking for both is required but, from US$490 per night, two guests receive accommodation, breakfast, round-trip airport transfers, a free shuttle service to nearby Hoi An and Hue, and a 6pm checkout. Spa treatments are administered at the resort's own Banyan Tree Spa while golfers will be heading to the 18-hole, Nick Faldo-designed course at the nearby Laguna Lang Co Golf Club. A two-night minimum stay is required and the package will be available until December 17. For a closer look at the resort and online reservations, visit www.banyantree.com.