Tesla last week released its latest distraction product: a set of karaoke microphones dubbed TeslaMic for use in its vehicles (via Electrek) and works with accompanied in-car software. The accessory, which is only available in China for now, was released alongside a Chinese New Year software update that includes a companion karaoke app called Leishi KTV.
The TeslaMic was available on the Chinese Tesla online shop for 1,199 CNY ($188.48 USD). We say “was” because it apparently sold out within an hour, and the listing does not currently load anymore. There are accounts of people already scalping the product for more than it’s worth:
TeslaMic is a hot seller. Sold out 1 hour after launch. Now this scalper is selling it for 3300 CNY. h…
From boutique properties to luxury resorts, there’s no shortage of accommodations for travelers opening in 2022 across the United States. And after two years of limited travel, we’re thrilled to be checking out (or perhaps more appropriately, checking into) these new hotels in the coming months.
It’s impossible to categorize all of the new and recently opened hotels across the country, so we focused on some of the buzziest openings, and a few clear trends emerged. In the coming year, a greater number of properties will lean into making the hotel itself a destination, others will focus on giving a second life to much-loved historical buildings, and more still will put an emphasis on the outdoors.
While this is by no means an exhaustive list, these new and upcoming hotel openings stand out from the crowd—and have us excited to hit the road this year.
With these properties, the hotel is the destination.
Grand Bohemian Lodge GreenvilleCourtesy Image
1. Grand Bohemian Lodge Greenville
Greenville, SC
The focal point of Greenville is, without a doubt, Falls Park on the Reedy River. It’s a sprawling urban green space a stone’s throw from the city’s main thoroughfare, and it’s filled with local art, manicured flower displays, winding pathways, and the waterfall for which the park was named. When the 187-room Grand Bohemian Lodge Greenville opens in May, many of the rooms will overlook this dazzling slice of open space. But the view isn’t the only perk: The luxury hotel will also feature an art gallery, wine room, spa, restaurant, and bourbon bar.
It seems like there’s always a new hotel going up in Los Angeles. The latest offering: A new Conrad property, part of a more luxurious portfolio of hotels within the Hilton brand. Although it’s part of a chain, this hotel differentiates itself because it’s integrated into a larger complex designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. The result? A hotel with a vast range of amenities, including shops, restaurants, gathering spaces, 305 guest rooms, a spa, an indoor-outdoor lobby, a public concert space, a 16,000-square-foot rooftop with a private pool, and more. It’s slated to open in June.
Tupelo doesn’t get enough love. The city has a thriving music scene (which makes sense—it was the birthplace of Elvis Presley), dynamic restaurants, grand green spaces, and great shopping. The opening of this sexy new 79-room boutique hotel (the first in town) might finally help the city get the attention it deserves. It’s located right on Tupelo’s main street, and it’ll be an ideal base for helping travelers discover this hidden gem in the South.
This new hotel in Orlando is a triple threat. It’s incredibly high-tech: Rooms feature View Glass smart windows and voice-automated controls. It’s also wellness-focused—it boasts a start-of-the-art wellness facility, a spa helmed by Dr. Deepak Chopra, and exercise classes with Limitless Minds, a company co-founded by Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. And it’s art-forward, with more than 500 pieces of art on the property and a 50,000-square-foot sculpture garden. If that’s not enough, the rooms are visually stunning, too.
When the First National Bank was built in downtown Roanoke in 1910, it was considered ahead of its time, largely because it had a newly invented electric elevator. This spring, 111 years later, the building will reopen as The Liberty Trust, a swanky seven-story boutique hotel with 54 rooms. While there are plenty of nods to the building’s historic past, they’re paired with modern amenities like a FitnessOnDemand app for in-room workouts, high definition TVs, and Nespresso machines in every room.
2. Roost Apartment Hotels
Cleveland, OH and Detroit, MI
With the rise of remote work, more and more people are taking advantage of the ability to work from anywhere. Because of that, extended stay hotels (where guests stay for weeks or even months) are experiencing a bit of a renaissance. The Roost Apartment Hotels brand already has three stylish outposts in Philadelphia where each room (studio, one-, and two-bedroom units) is equipped with a kitchen and work space.
In 2022, Roost will open two more locations. One will be in the historic May Company Building (a former department store) in Cleveland. It’ll have 62 apartments and amenities like a rooftop terrace, a gym, a library, and complimentary e-bikes for exploring. The other will be in Detroit’s Book Tower (an iconic skyscraper) and will boast 118 units, two restaurants, a bar, a bakery, and a rooftop event space.
Space in Denver is at a premium—the city’s real estate market is scorching and has been for a while. Some clever designers, however, are getting more bang for their buck by reimagining existing buildings, and the soon-to-open Slate Hotel is a great example. The 251-room hotel will be housed in a former school building in Golden Triangle, one of the city’s most happening neighborhoods. The revamped building will also have meeting areas, an on-site restaurant, retail spaces, a library (aptly called “The Study Hall”), and an “activation alley” for displaying local artwork.
At these properties, communing with nature and unwinding in luxury go hand-in-hand.
The Lodges at Knapp RanchCourtesy Image
1. The Lodges at Knapp Ranch
Vail Valley, CO
One side effect of the pandemic has been a renewed interest in nature—travelers are increasingly seeking out destinations where they can enjoy the outdoors. The Lodges at Knapp Ranch, a retreat nestled in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, will offer just that. The Ranch has four cabins (sleeping up to 16 people total), so it’s meant to be rented out by groups. Considering the property covers more than 300 acres, your squad will have plenty of room to hike, bike, fish, snowshoe, cross-country ski, and more, all right on the property.
If your ideal date with nature also includes wine, Stanly Ranch was made for you. The former ranch and current winery estate has 78 suites and standalone cottages with unique outdoor spaces and terraces that overlook the vineyards. The Ranch boasts a hilltop wellness center and spa, hiking trails, farm-to-table dinners at its on-site restaurants, and of course, plenty of wine.
After a two-hour drive from the frenzy of Manhattan, you’ll find an oasis of calm at Chatwal Lodge. The elegant boutique hotel is located on an 18,000-acre private game and wildlife reserve, and it’s an ideal location for exploring the beauty of the Catskills. Here, your days will be made up of boating on the Toronto Reservoir, learning to fly fish, horseback riding, and maybe even catching a concert at the nearby Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, located on the site where Woodstock took place in 1969.
Even though Montage Big Sky just opened, it’s already getting a lot of buzz. Arguably the most luxurious hotel in Montana, the resort has 150 guestrooms and suites (plus 39 Montage Residences, which are apartments available for purchase), as well as amenities like an 18-hole golf course, bowling alley, indoor lap pool, fitness center, spa, various eateries, and more. It’s also well situated—guests have ski-in/ski-out access to Big Sky Resort, and you can drive to Bozeman or Yellowstone National Park in about an hour.
Scheduled to open in May, Ambient’s unique architecture—plus its location in one of the most breathtaking landscapes in the country—makes it particularly special. Each of the hotel’s 40 rooms is housed in a cube-shaped, glass-encased “atrium.” Basically, that means that each room has floor-to-ceiling windows for 360-degree views of the surrounding red rock mountains and cliffs. Bonus: It’s adults-only, and each room comes a self-serve wine dispenser.
When did the Earth reach oxygen levels sufficient to support animal life? Researchers have discovered that a rise in oxygen levels occurred in step with the evolution and expansion of complex, eukaryotic ecosystems. Their findings represent the strongest evidence to date that extremely low oxygen levels exerted an important limitation on evolution for billions of years.
A Tennessee School Board has voted unanimously to ban Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, prompting blowback from critics who say it’s essential to teach children about the genocide. What do you think?
The nucleus is guarded by a highly secure door, the so-called nuclear pore, that controls the transport of substances from the cytoplasm to the cell nucleus and back. A research group has now shown that different shuttle proteins occupy the nuclear pore to prevent unsolicited leakage of molecules. These proteins form an escape-proof, failsafe mechanism by compensating for one another to fortify the pore.
A few hours after a long workout, do you like to reward yourself with a glass of wine? Past research has shown a link between regular exercise, moderate drinking and a longer life, but a new study has found that people who exercise more tend to drink more as well.
The study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, was led by Dr. Kerem Shuval of the Dallas-based research center the Cooper Institute. He and his team surveyed nearly 40,000 participants who enrolled in the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study, comprising patients ages 20 to 86 who visited the clinic for preventive medical examinations between 1988 and 2019. The study’s mean age was 45.9 and about two-thirds of participants were men.
Cardiorespiratory fitness was measured with a maximal treadmill test—participants run on a treadmill while a machine measures how much oxygen they use. Based on the final speed and grade, researchers computed participants’ maximal metabolic equivalent (the amount of oxygen their bodies require during rest). Subjects were then grouped into low, moderate and high fitness groups.
Alcohol consumption was measured via questionnaire, focusing on how many drinks per week participants consumed. (One drink was defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor). Researchers separated the participants into three groups: light drinking (three or fewer drinks per week), moderate drinking (more than three and up to seven drinks for women and more than three and up to 14 drinks for men) and heavy drinking (more than seven drinks for women and more than 14 drinks for men). In addition, alcohol dependence was measured via a separate questionnaire, aimed at screening for clinically relevant alcohol problems.
The results showed that fitter study subjects were more likely to drink. Women within the moderate fitness category were 1.58 times more likely to drink moderately or heavily in comparison to their low-fitness counterparts, and those classified as high fitness were 2.14 times more likely to drink moderately or heavily. Men in the moderate fitness category were 1.42 times more likely to fall into the moderate or heavy alcohol consumption groups, and high-fitness men were 1.63 times more likely to drink moderately or heavily compared to the low-fitness group.
Despite their higher odds of drinking more, men who were classified as higher fitness were less likely to suffer from alcohol dependency issues. Among male heavy drinkers, low-fitness subjects had a 45.7 percent chance of alcohol dependency, while moderate fitness subjects had a 41.7 percent chance and high fitness subjects had a 34.9 percent chance.
“The study findings indicate that current drinkers with higher fitness levels exhibited an increased tendency for alcohol consumption,” the authors write. “Interventions focusing on increasing fitness might consider concurrently aiming to reduce alcohol consumption.”
The authors add that this relationship between exercise and alcohol could be explained by a psychological mechanism called “licensing effect,” where achieving goals provides a “license” to drink as a reward mechanism. More research is needed to confirm this hypothesis.
One limitation of the study is that participants were self-reporting their alcohol consumption, which can often be subject to inaccurate measurements. (It may be that higher fitness participants felt more comfortable sharing their drinking habits.) Another limitation is that the study population was predominantly white and with high education levels. Further studies would need to look at a more diverse population to see if these results stand up.
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Global superstar and savvy entrepreneur Rihanna is expecting her first child, with rapper A$AP Rocky. She debuted her baby bump during a photo shoot in New York City.
(Image credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for the Met Museum/Vogue)
