Three properties owned and/or operated by Delaware North Companies named among the best in the world by readers
BUFFALO, N.Y. (Oct. 31, 2011)- Three hotels and resorts owned and/or operated by Delaware North Companies have been selected for Conde Nast Traveler’s 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards. The luxury travel magazine ranked the hotels based on more than 8 million votes cast in the annual survey. The awards reflect the combined opinions of 28,876 Conde Nast Traveler readers who rated the world’s best cities, islands and hotels visited in the past year.
The Delaware North properties cited by Conde Nast Traveler are:
- The Ahwahnee , Yosemite National Park, Calif., with 86.1 points is number 87 in the United States Resorts category;
- The Plaza, New York, N.Y., with 89.4 points, is number 60 in the United States Hotels category;
- Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, with 86.5 points is eighth in the Oceania Resorts category.
The Ahwahnee®, operated by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts for the U.S. National Park Service, is widely considered the crown jewel of national park lodges. It is listed as a National Historic Landmark and each year earns four diamonds from AAA. The Ahwahnee was recognized by Conde Nast Traveler magazine’s “Reader’s Choice Awards” in 2010 as one of the top 100 resorts in the United States. The Ahwahnee’s executive pastry chef, Paul Padua, was honored as Western Regional Pastry Chef of the Year by The American Culinary Federation (ACF) after winning a competition at the regional conference in May 2011. The Ahwahnee was named on Travel + Leisure’s list of the World’s Top 500 Hotels in 2008. In 2007, Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Dining Room, managed by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, was inducted into Nation’s Restaurant News’ Fine Dining Hall of Fame.
Delaware North is also an operator at New York City’s landmark The Plaza Hotel. Delaware North Companies co-manages event catering with Manhattan-based Great Performances in the Grand Ballroom, the Ballroom Foyer, the Terrace Room and meeting spaces. The Plaza’s Grand Ballroom has hosted dream weddings for celebrities and discerning people alike for more than a century, including members of the Kennedy family, Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, and Donald Trump and Marla Maples. The Plaza has also hosted many of the city’s most memorable parties – Truman Capote’s Black & White Ball and Sarah Jessica Parker’s 40th birthday bash – and scenes from countless classics were filmed in the ballroom including Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and the recent blockbuster Bride Wars.
Delaware North-owned and operated Lizard Island was recently chosen by the readers of luxury travel publication Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report as one of the world’s Top 20 Beach Resorts. Lizard Island was recently ranked in Australian Traveler’s Top 10 Luxury Lodges in Australia in 2011. In the 2010 U.S. Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards, Lizard Island ranked eighth among resorts in Oceania. Lizard Island was voted second in the category Best Australian Resort in the 2009 Gold List Awards. In 2008, Lizard Island was voted as the top hotel in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific and one of the top 100 hotels and resorts in the world at the Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards.