TRAVEL
Home & Away with Robert Walshe THE European Commission has announced details of a plan to make it easier for tourists to travel across Europe with the creation of a unified journey planner to allow people book and travel on all modes of transport across all countries in the EU with a single ticket bought online. A professional jury will also evaluate ideas for a new multimodal planner and the ultimate winners would receive financial aid from the European Commission to promote their ideas.Details of the challenge are available on www.eujourneyplanner.eu The site also features a selection of national journey planners on a clickable map of Europe. Airbus has revealed plans for see-through aircraft and in-flight entertainment powered by the heat of passengers’ bodies. The ideas are just some of the futuristic concepts being explored by the aircraft manufacturer. The Airbus of the future might also have:- relaxation and work zones in business and economy cabins and a fully stocked bar for socializing, - walls that change according to light conditions,- holographic pop-up gaming display - technology which allows travellers to read bedtime stories to their children back home. The aircraft structure would allow for an ‘intelligent’ cabin wall membrane which controls air temperature and can become transparent to give passengers open, panoramic views.
Holiday Hotspot
In 1923, Hollywood architect Wallace Neff designed the clubhouse that’s now the focal point of the splendid Ojai Valley Inn & Spa a sprawling Mediterranean estate located in the spectacular Ojai Valley 35 miles outside Santa Barbara in California. The resort set on 800 acres including the inn, its village and the golf course is a true luxury resort boasting a Triple A 5-star designation. That puts the resort in a pretty exclusive club because only a few resorts in California have achieved that status. After a $90 million renovation Ojai now features 308 new rooms and suites, a new lobby, entrance, new golf shop, new restaurants, new ballrooms and meeting spaces. The enhancements and up-
grades completed during the renovation preserve the resort’s original charming architecture and unique sense of place. The new guest rooms including 72 suites embody the romantic Spanish Colonial style with a ■ Mountain vista Ojai terra cotta, persimmon, cream and blue color palette. Fourposter beds, Spanish style corner fireplaces, terra cotta tiles in the entrance foyers and bathrooms, and colorful hand-painted tiles and lanterns accent the rooms. Outdoor terraces have wicker seating, and some suites feature Moroccanstyle banquettes with colorful pillows and gas fire pits. In the original 1923 Hacienda building, each room has been redecorated in the Spanish Colonial style with four-poster beds, Mor■ Ojai Valley Inn Poolside ris chairs, and carefully restored hardwood floors and decorative tile from the 1920s For Hollywood’s aristocracy, the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa is the favoured spot, a 220-acre in the world do, resort built in the Spanish colonial which means, according to style in 1923 by a wealthy Ohio glass believers, that it is the perfect spot manufacturer and including, among for communing with nature, specuother refinements, an 18-hole golf lating on the meaning of life, and alcourse, one of the most attractive lied activities. The Ojai Valley Inn & in America, and a 3,500 sq ft pent- Spa is 90 minutes from LAX and nuhouse suite, with private elevator, merous airlines fly direct from UK four bedrooms, two living rooms, airports. Aer Lingus or Continental treatment room, sauna, meditation depart daily ex Dublin & Belfast via loft, sunrise and sunset terraces their US gateways at JFK & Newark. and outdoor whirlpools. The jewel www.ojairesort.com Weekly Best Buy of the resort is 31,000-square-foot Take a seaweed safari on Achill Spa Ojai, where stylish spa treatments -- some modeled after Native Island in July and enjoy free oyster American traditions -- are adminis- tastings, a sandcastle competition tered inside a beautifully designed, and a cookery session with Ross exquisitely tiled Spanish-Moorish Lewis of Michelin starred Chapter complex. Mind- and body-fitness One restaurant. It’s all part of Achill classes, art classes, nifty workout Island Seafood Festival from July machines, and a sparkling out- 14th to 17th. Lewis takes the stage door pool complete the relaxation on July 16th to cook some of the 34 choices. The Ojai valley is believed species of fish found around Achill. to have special mystical significance www.feilebianamara.ie Theres free since it runs east-west rather than babysitting at the Wineport Lodge north-south as most other valleys near Glasson, Co Westmeath in-
Pet’s Corner...
Living
■ Spa Exterior
Home and Away Extra
cludes one night child-free from 7pm-11pm giving parents a chance to explore Athlone or dine alone. Three nights midweek with dinner on two evenings is €325pps (kids’ accommodation and meals are also free). www.wineport. ie or you can learn about Spanish wine on a four-night tour of Jumilla, Yecla and Alicante in October with Jeremy Shaw, specialist in Iberian wines. The tour also includes a one-day master of wine course. The cost from €875pps includes most meals, accommodation, tours and transfers. Flights extra. partner programme is €575. www.iberianwinetours.com Robert Walshe is a freelance contributor / broadcaster and guest travel writer for River Media newspaper titles across the island of Ireland
HOUSE keys, shoes and sunglasses are the top three things customers leave behind in a rental car according to a survey of over 40,000 car hires by Avis. Cameras and camcorders come close behind in the top 10 list of forgotten items while passports, CDs and books are also frequently left, ahead of mobile phones and wallets, said Avis, announcing that from now on it will send all unclaimed items to Oxfam. Among the more unusual items left behind in Avis cars were the top tier of a wedding cake, a jewellery box full of valuables and a bottle of rare whisky. “People can save themselves a lot of hassle by doing a final oneminute check of the car before handing it back,” says Mandy Young, marketing manager of Avis Ireland.“Some people quite literally leave their lives behind. We’re delighted that some unwanted lost and found items can now help charity.” Virgin Atlantic is to start flying to Cancun next summer.The service will fly twice weekly to the Mexican resort from June 12 2012 and the airline expects to carry around 94,000 passengers in the first year.The service, flying out of Gatwick, is set to strengthen the airline’s leisure network from the hub which currently includes nine long haul destinations in the Caribbean and the US www.virginatlantic.com
with Kathleen Murray
with Kathleen Murray: Animal Behavioural Therapist
Do you compare your old dog to your new one? I HAVE often heard people say that their new dog is giving them a lot of bother compared to their old dog. Maybe it was an older dog that had died and this new one was got after that or maybe the older dog is still there and the new one is playing up a bit. Whatever the reason, it is important to remember a couple of important things. When your old dog was young you may have had the same bother but you were younger then too and it might not have seemed so bad. Next up it’s good to remember that your new dog is not your old dog. It is young and has a lot to learn. It is doing many things for the first time in it’s life and the old one has it all nailed down at this stage after years of learning how. When you get used to a dog’s ways and they get used to yours life is easy and predictable. Along comes a new dog and the work begins again. The new dog will have a different person-
ality, a different way of picking up information and a different way of expressing themselves. They will have their own little endearments and ways and after things settle down, life will become calm again. It takes a young dog some time to bond, to learn important things and to trust that you know what you’re doing. If your old dog was a very easy going dog by nature then a new lively natured, fun loving, through-going dog will be quite a challenge for a while. It’s not that it won’t work out but it will need a different approach and way of handling it until you work it out between you. The basics are the same for every dog but personality, and other influences can make for a little bit more work in the early years for more wilful dogs. Exercise needs also vary from one dog to another, so the old one may never have looked for, or needed, as much exercise as the new
one. If your old dog was a big old laid back Newfoundland and your new one is a wired to the moon, Siberian Husky then you will no doubt see a change in exercise needs. What do you need to do to make it work? You need to inform yourself as much as you can about the breed of the dog and it’s needs and fulfill them. You also need to look at how it picks things up around the house. Does it watch you and show interest in you and what you are doing or do you mostly see the rear end of the dog. How does it get on with the family? Who does it listen to and who does it not listen to? Why is that? Is it easily scared or is it full of confidence? What do you think it needs to make sure that it grows into a responsible, responsive and respectful dog? If you don’t have these answers yourself then you need outside help from a trainer. You can never compare one dog to another. They are
all different, that’s the beauty of them all. There’s a place for them all. They’re all worth it so don’t give up.