London has a new place to sip champagne. The Gilt Champagne Lounge is now open at London's decadent Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel. The drink menu offers Pommery Champagnes and more than a dozen specialty champagne cocktails as well as the usual bar drinks and a selection of decadent snacks such as langoustine tempura and foie gras pancakes. The lounge features Murano hand-blown glass screens made up of 4,500 glass balls and a chandelier made of 140 larger Murano glass spheres created by New York artist Suzan Etkins. The room also features a huge hand-cast glass champagne bowl with Pommery Champagnes. The bar has a 1940s replica brass door, custom-made metals floors, lucite tables and chairs and cream leather banquettes of soft Scottish leather contrasting with chocolate velvet mohair seating. If you get tipsy the hotel hotels has a variety of temptingly luxurious places to crash.

Hotels and resorts are starting to use podcasts and video more and more to lure tourists to their luxurious offerings. The latest is from Jumeriah which offers a new J Cast service that features biweekly promotional videos which can be downloaded to your iPod or watched from your computer. They are currently featuring a short video of the Jumeirah Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa , a  hotel styled to resemble an Arabic fort. It's a lovely little bit of hotel eyecandy but watch with the sound turned down, the music is dreadful.

Food and wine festivals are always happily decadent events but when an event is hosted by the Jumeirah hotel group, luxury takes on a whole new level. Th  first annual Jumeirah Festival of Taste takes place May 21-26, 2006 in Dubai and features perhaps the most over-the-top dining event I have ever heard of. It is called the Ultimate Dinner Party and will take four people on an unparalleled dining experience. It starts with a cocktail reception at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers where they can mingle with the celebrity chefs participating in A Festival of Taste, then they are taken by helicopter to the  Burj Al Arab for a first and second course. A luxury car then takes them to the Villa Beach Restaurant at Jumeirah Beach Hotel for a hot entrée. Then a limo takes them to the Pisces in Souk Madinat Jumeirah for the main course, followed by a short walk to Napa for dessert, coffee, cigars and digestifs. The evening ends with an overnight stay in a suite at Burj Al Arab and a morning breakfast as well as a receive a gift from Jumeirah to commemorate the night. The party costs AED 100,000 for four (around $27,230). Other more traditional events that are part of the festival include cooking demonstrations, wine tastings and book signings.  The festival kicks off with the ‘1001 Nights Meet the Stars Opening Event’ which includes a champagne reception,wine tasting, live cooking stations featuring renowned chefs and live entertainment.