SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An entomologist from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed recently that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists made a first in port discovery of an insect within an imported air cargo shipment of cut flowers arriving…

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China’s HNA Group has announced the purchase of a 25 percent equity interest in Hilton Worldwide Holdings from affiliates of Blackstone.

The value of the transaction is approximately $6.5 billion, or $26.25 per share in cash, and reduces Blackstone’s interest in Hilton to around 21 percent.

As part of the deal, HNA has entered into a stockholders agreement with Hilton, and into similar deals with Park Hotels and Resorts and Grand Vacations.

“Hilton is an iconic global hospitality company with an unmatched portfolio of high-quality brands and a reputation for operational excellence,” said Adam Tan, vice chairman and CEO of HNA Group. “This investment is consistent with our strategy to enhance our global tourism business, and we look forward to working together on new initiatives that leverage our respective strengths, expertise and tourism platforms to provide travelers more choice, value and world-class services.”

Following Hilton’s spin-off of Park Hotels and Resorts, which had previously been announced, HNA will own approximately 25 percent of all three companies.

“We are pleased to welcome HNA Group as a long-term investor and strategic partner,” said Christopher J. Nassetta, president and CEO of Hilton. “HNA Group has a broad portfolio of successful travel and hospitality businesses and a proven track record of creating value in this industry. We believe this mutually beneficial relationship will open new opportunities for our brands and guests around the world, particularly in light of HNA’s strong position in the fast-growing Chinese travel and tourism market, the largest outbound travel and tourism market in the world.”

The post China’s HNA Pays $6.5 Billion For Hilton Stake appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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It’s a new kind of Caribbean cruise.

Entertainment Cruise Productions, Don Was of Blue Note Records and Steven Bensusan of the Blue Note Jazz club have announced a five-year partnership for jazz cruises in the Caribbean.

ECP’s Contemporary Jazz Cruises will now be known as Blue Note at Sea, with seven Blue Note artists among those performing on the venture’s maiden voyage from February 4 to 11, 2017.

Among the Blue Note artists booked for the first cruise are Marcus Miller, Terence Blanchard, the Robert Glasper Trio, Gregory Porter, Dianne Reeves, Chucho Valdes and Pat Metheny.

Also appearing on the cruise will be David Sanborn, Joshua Redman Quartet, Lalah Hathaway, Ben Williams, Geoffrey Keezer, Reuben Rogers, Greg Hutchinson, Aaron Goldberg, Peter Martin, Alex Han, Grace Kelly and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz All Stars.

The first Blue Note at sea will be aboard Celebrity Summit, and will set sail from Fort Lauderdale on February 4, with calls to the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

— Dana Niland, CJ Contributor

The post How to Take a Jazz Cruise in the Caribbean appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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AGUADILLA, Puerto Rico — US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) seized 283 pounds (128.8 kilos) of cocaine on Sunday night after intercepting a “yola” type vessel near the northwestern coast and arresting two men onboard. The estimated value…

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Graycliff, the Caribbean epicenter of luxury 

By Alexander Britell
CJ Editor in Chief

In the middle of a room in an old pirate mansion in Nassau there is a piano.

Every night, the sound of this piano weaves through cigar smoke and robust laughs, the soundtrack for an instantly memorable dinner.

There’s a story that Billy Joel, dining here, was once asked to play this piano, and a single song turned into an hour and a half set. The Piano Man simply could not leave the bench.

That’s not a surprise. Because here at Graycliff, the Garzaroli family has cultivated a unique kind of energy, one that draws guests back again and keeps the old mansion permanently, wonderfully sealed away from the mundanity of the world.

No matter if it is your second or 20th visit, when you climb the steps from West Hill street and enter the Lounge, you’ve returned to the instant you left, the room a memory you can come back to and relive, an elixir for nostalgia.

As the rest of the world gets newer and loses something of itself, Graycliff remains a fixed point in time and space.

While it began life as a pirate mansion, then a retreat of British nobles, the Garzarolis have turned it into something far more – first, the Caribbean’s first five star restaurant- then a boutique hotel, then, a world class cigar factory (Avelino Lara, once Fidel Castro’s personal roller, developed the brand).

Next was a chocolate factory, and now the family is restoring and reinventing West Hill Street into a historical village, replete with an artists’ colony, a cafe, shops and, soon, even a winery. (In the old dungeon of the manor sits the worlds third largest private wine collection).

They are always tinkering, always looking for new avenues of delight, cleverly building a luxury empire.

Yes, you can stay here in the hotel’s charming rooms and spend an afternoon at the stunning pool puffing on a Chateau Grand Cru, or take a chocolate lesson and then eat a full fledged Neapolitan pizza. You can spend a weekend or a week on a getaway from the artificial, surrounded by the authentic.

It is an understatement to say there is nowhere like this in the Caribbean – it is a removal from modern, more synthetic concepts of luxury that is instead a loving tribute to the fundaments of luxury – all the things we already know to be great – wines; aged spirits (including a broad selection of cognacs); cigars; Classic continental gastronomy with a Bahamian accent; and, most importantly, overwhelmingly good service, the kind meant to make you feel not just like royalty but royalty staying in a fellow royal’s home.

Because luxury is not about bar programs and wellness concierges — it is about changing the way you feel, making you feel grand.

There is a pull here, something magnetic. It brings you back, and if it’s your first time here, it makes you a regular. There is a soul here, floating in the cigar smoke and the robust laughs.

Just be careful about sitting at that piano. Because you may never leave.

The post Graycliff: The Jewel of the Bahamas appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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