International Airlines Group’s new low-cost carrier is off to a strong start.

The new airline, LEVEL, has already reported more than 100,000 tickets sold since launching on March 17, the company said.

The low-cost brand has kicked off operations with low fares on flights from Barcelona to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Buenos Aires and the Caribbean destination of Punta Cana, with more than 60 percent of customers booking on mobile devices.

The company also announced that customers traveling to Punta Cana could now book everything-included holidays including flights, hotels and car hire through the airline.

“Selling more than 100,000 tickets in such a short period with a new brand is incredible,” said IAG chief executive, Willie Walsh. “The response has been fantastic in all markets. We´re enabling many people to fly longhaul for the first time and stimulating demand by providing them with more choice.”

Walsh said the plan was to have more aircraft beginning in the summer of 2018, with more destinations from Barcelona and an expansion of operations to other European cities.

The first LEVEL flight to Punta Cana will take off June 10.

The post A Strong Start for IAG’s New Low-Cost Carrier, LEVEL appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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Canadian travel giant Sunwing is adding more flights from Canada to the Caribbean this summer.

The carrier will be offering service to three Caribbean destinations from Vancouver via Toronto.

From May 17 to Sept. 3, Vancouver travelers can reach Punta Cana, Montego Bay and St. Maarten.

From June 1 through Sept. 1, connections to Punta Cana will be available on Thursdays and Sundays, while Montego Bay can be reached weekly on Saturdays from June 3 through Sept. 3.

Those heading to St. Maarten can fly Wednesdays between May 17 and Aug. 31.

Sunwing is the largest vertically integrated travel company in North America.

— Caribbean Journal Staff

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MARTINIQUE — It’s a rainy afternoon on the outskirts of Fort de France. We drive up a road through the waving green of cane fields and enter a dimly-lit distillery, vibrant with the clang of steam-powered machinery, raw and primal.

This is La Favorite, the venerable rum house just outside Martinique’s capital where some of the island’s most beloved rhum agricole is made.

There is no flash about the place, just good, honest rummaking,

But if you make your way to the far back corner of the warehouse you will find a tiny boutique filled with gold. Black gold.

Here at La Favorite’s tasting room and shop is one of the few places on earth where you can find a very special rum: Privilege de La Favorite.

While we’ve extolled the wonders of the single-vintage La Flibuste, an annual-release rum boasting 30 years of aging in oak barrels, the Privilege is the next level up.

Inside this dark green bottle designed to look even older than it is, sealed with wax, is a blend of rums of between 30 and 35 years of age, making for one of the world’s greatest rum blends.

There are just 2,500 bottles of this produced every year, and it is, in a word, out of this world.

More than three decades of waiting in oak barrels in the humid tropical heat of Martinique have given the rum a dark brown color to the point of nearly being black.

The aroma is sweet and robust, with notes of caramel, milk chocolate, molasses and licorice.

The flavor profile is marked by caramel, cocoa powder, sugarcane juice, coffee, vanilla and even a hint of chocolate syrup, at once earthy and sweet.

There is a perfection about this rum, the sense that you truly can taste what time has done to a decades-old rum.

Even better still, you can still taste the simple, pure La Favorite rum at its core, calling to you from the past, reminding what this rum was like at its origins.

It’s an effect that takes you simultaenously to two points in time, now and three decades before, fusing into one unforgettable experience.

This is a legendary rum, the kind of rum that one must make the trip to this place to obtain.

But those who journey here will be rewarded.

— Alexander Britell

The post Rum Journal: A Bucket-List Caribbean Rum appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

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There’s no better way to appreciate the Caribbean than by actually getting out onto it. So if you’re sailing to the islands by boat (or planning to charter a craft when you get there), you’ll need to know where you can park your boat  – and that’s often at a marina hotel. Fortunately, we’ve rounded up a bounty of resorts where you can do just that. Here is a broad look at the Caribbean’s marina hotel offering — although they’re of course equally enjoyable if you simply want a great place to stay that’s right on the water.

Staniel Cay Yacht Club When you’re in the Bahamas’ Exuma Cays it’s all about getting out on the water. And we can’t think of a better launch pad than this homey clutch of water’s edge bungalows, which have direct access to an 18-slip marina. If there’s a marina hotel Mecca in the Caribbean, it’s this, a pilgrimage destination for boaters everywhere.

The post The Top Marina Hotels 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 1,320 pounds (600 kilos) of cocaine on Wednesday after intercepting a vessel near the southern coast of Puerto Rico and arresting two men onboard. The estimated value of the cocaine…

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