Jetsettersblog

Agriturismo is a form of holidaying in farm house resorts. This type of holiday is very popular with the Germans, French and Dutch and is slowly becoming an interesting holiday choice for the British. An agriturismo holiday is perfect for the whole family although many options can be very romantic and also very luxurious. An Italian agriturismo will usually serve food to guests prepared from produce direct from the farm or at least produced locally.

Essential Italy are pleased to recommend the following two agriturismo options in Sardinia.

Agriturismo Tenuta Pilastru http://www.essentialitaly.co.uk/tenuta_pilastru.php

Situated in the middle of the beautiful ‘Gallurese’ countryside amidst the time-weathered rocks, Tenuta Pilastru is both stylish and comfortable in a real oasis of peace and tranquillity. With a superb fresh water swimming pool set below stunning granite rock formations (with their own grottoes) and just a 10 minute drive to the beach this is an ideal base from which to enjoy a Sardinian holiday. All 32 rooms are charmingly furnished to a very high standard with local and natural materials and are situated in the gardens in three groups.There area also 3 suites which comprise of a small kitchen and dining area plus a separate bedroom – perfect for families.

The restaurant offers a delicious selection of local dishes and delicacies. Choose from the hotel menu or to experience a true Sardinian meal, the restaurant also offers various hand made pastas and suckling pig roasted on the spit.

Location: Arzachena beach 10 km, Arzachena town centre 6km, Costa Smeralda 15kms, Olbia Airport 35kms, Alghero Airport 150kms

Prices: From £35 – £82 per person per night B&B (depending on season).

Lu Ciaccaru http://www.essentialitaly.co.uk/lu_ciaccaru.php -
This is beautiful accommodation and pretty upmarket for an agriturismo. The owner has converted her childhood home into a small and elegant residence with bed and breakfast accommodation so that she can share with guests the magnificent Mediterranean countryside that surrounds the carefully restructured buildings (2 villas) and suites / bedrooms. The spacious grounds are all grassed and roll over to the fantastic pool. All the local vegetation has remained untouched, and the whole ambience is one of peace and tranquillity.

The fantastic restaurant, with a vast terrace for al-fresco eating serves a tasty continental breakfast and local fare for evening dining. An à la carte menu is also available along with a comprehensive wine list.

Location: Arzachena 1.5 km, nearest beach Cannigione 10km, Pevero 18 hole golf course 15km, Olbia airport 35kms, Alghero airport 150kms.
Prices: From £95 – £172 per person per night B&B (depending on season)

Invitation to Tuscany is offering an introductory discount on beautiful holiday homes for bookings made online through its stunning new website.

For the first time, Italy’s most appealing collection of cottages, villas, farmhouses and village apartments is available for booking online at www.invitationtotuscany.com with the 10% discount applying to a selection of properties booked by March 10.

The website abounds with beautiful and evocative images and makes it easy for visitors to find their perfect property, check availability, reserve it for 48 hours at no charge, book and pay. Homes can be searched by region, size, price or type, while different categories include romantic, family-friendly, large, luxurious, or within a walk of a restaurant and shops. There is a useful in-depth guide to Tuscany and a section on pre-bookable activities ranging from cookery classes, wine-tasting and opera, to cycling, sailing, and riding.

The introductory offer for online bookings includes a beautifully-restored old stone farmhouse for six people overlooking Lake Trasimeno on the Tuscany/Umbria borders. With the discount, a seven-night stay at Castelonchio costs £756 in low season (from now until May 7 and October, November and December); £1,260 mid season (May 8-June 25); and £1,639 high season (June 26-August 27).

Among properties featured for the first time on the new site is a very classy apartment for six people within a Liberty villa on the outskirts of Siena (£752-£1,400 per week); a magnificent villa sleeping up to 19, directly on the coast near Grosseto (£4,762-£6,666); and a luxury designer retreat for 14 with private pool and sea views across to the island of Elba (£8,095-£12,189).

As a bonus, all bookings are entered into a draw to win one of ten unique coffee table books worth £80 featuring sublime watercolour paintings and drawings of Tuscan architecture and countryside by Invitation to Tuscany’s director Dan Wrightson.

Friendly, family-run Invitation to Tuscany still welcomes phone calls on 020-8444 9500 and is always happy to advise on suitability of different properties and locations. Prices, which are for accommodation only, start at just £378-£630 per week for a charmingly rustic home sleeping two or three in a converted farm building on a beautiful country estate near Siena, with shared use of a pool.

Alsace is well known for its beautiful scenery, good food (it has more Michelin starred restaurants than any other region of France other than Paris), wine, and welcoming people. Now it also has a growing reputation as a golf holiday destination. For the 2010 season the region has produced a new golf brochure (Let’s Go(lf) in Alsace) which includes information on a selection of Alsace’s attractive, uncrowded and value for money courses which are ready to welcome golfers of all standards from the UK.

Listed amongst the thirty most outstanding courses of continental Europe and ranked No 2 in France by the authoritative Peugeot Golf Guide is the 18-hole, championship standard, par 72 Kempferhof course (www.golf-kempferhof.com) at Plobsheim, 15 km from Strasbourg. It was designed by the famous course architect Robert Von Hagge and is set in over 200 acres. Adjoining the course is the 29 room Kempferhof Hotel, located in a 17th Century stately home. The accommodation includes five suites, each one being dedicated to a famous movie star.

Golfers who like a challenge should head for the Golf de Soufflenheim course (www.golfclub-soufflenheim.com) designed by former Masters Champion Bernhard Langer. The course, within easy reach of Strasbourg, has 18 lakes and is set in 270 acres of peaceful, undulating countryside. However bring extra balls as Soufflenheim has the reputation of being the third most difficult course in France! The course hotel has 15 rooms and there is a club house restaurant and bar. Golf coaching is available for children aged 8-18.

Golf de la Wantzenau (www.golf-wantzenau.fr)is also close to Strasbourg and is an 18-hole course which offers free lessons on Sundays and has a specially designed training school for under 18’s. The course has a clubhouse with a restaurant and bar plus a pro shop selling all the necessary gear. For beginners there is a compact four hole course and synthetic and grass practice areas.

The Ammerschwihr Trois-Epis course (www.golf-ammerschwihr.com) is only 10 km from Colmar and is situated in a beautiful setting, surrounded by vineyards and forests. The undulating 18-hole par 72 course is 5,386 yards in length and offers a range of different challenges. There is also a 9-hole compact course plus driving range and a Pro Shop and restaurant. The four-star Domaine du Golf Ammerschwihr Trois Epis hotel is next to the course.

The Alsace Golf Club course at Rouffach (www.alsacegolfclub.com) has a links feel and beautiful panoramic views of the Vosges Mountains and the stunning Alsatian wine route. The par 72 18-hole course has a practice area with three practice holes and a driving range and the clubhouse is set in a historic water mill complex.

A favourite family orientated course is Golf des Bouleaux (T: 3389555507; E: info@golf-bouleaux.asso.fr) at Wittelsheim close to Mulhouse. The par 72, 18-hole course has an academy which runs lessons for both adults and children. It was built in 1984 and claims to be the cheapest golf course in Alsace! The course has over 90 acres of breathtaking countryside and a delicious restaurant offering a wide variety of dishes and Alsatian specialities.

Another course just 30 km from Mulhouse is the Golf de la Largue (www.golf-lalargue.com) which was built in 1988. It has an 18-hole par 72 course and a 9-hole practice course designed in the heart of a magnificent forest surrounded by ponds and lakes and crossed by the river La Largue. The club features one of the best restaurants in the region and Le Petit Cohlberg hotel is a short drive from the course.

Golf Planet Holidays (www.golfplanetholidays.com 01277 824100) offers a four night self drive break at the Kempferhof Hotel from £599 pp. The price includes two rounds of golf at Kempferhof, one at Golf de la Wantzenau and one at Golf de Soufflenheim, bed and breakfast accommodation based on two people sharing and Eurotunnel travel for a car and passengers.

Independent travel to Alsace from the UK is easy with Air France flights from London City to Strasbourg while British Airways and Easyjet fly from Heathrow and Gatwick respectively to the European Airport near Mulhouse.The increasingly popular train takes just over five hours from London to Strasbourg( Eurostar to Paris and the TGV Est to Strasbourg,Colmar and Mulhouse).

For more information on golfing in Alsace visit www.golfsinalsace.com or to discover all that the region of Alsace has to offer visit www.tourism-alsace.com. Copies of the new Lets Go (lf) in Alsace brochure are available from both organisations.

For larger families or groups of friends wishing to holiday together, Coastal Cottages of Pembrokeshire has increased its choice of properties sleeping eight-to-14 people.

New into the portfolio this year comes Rumours, a detached house set on a hill above the popular resort of Saundersfoot. Sleeping ten in five bedrooms, the house boats a terrace with a heated swimming pool and superb sea views.

Rental per week is between £1372 and £3497.

Also coming onto the books from July is Rydal Mount, a spacious Victorian mid-terrace house in the popular seaside town of Tenby and with easy walking distance of the north beach as well as shops, bars and restaurants.

Sleeping 14 in a seven bedrooms, Rydal Mount costs between £807 and £2335 for a week’s rental.

The company’s website – www.coastalcottages.co.uk – features a listing for bigger properties with a choice of more than 65 sleeping between eight and 14 people.

Reservations: 01437 772760,

www.coastalcottages.co.uk

Rezidor announced the latest addition to its portfolio of European properties — the 132-room Park Inn Dresden in Germany, formerly the Tulip Inn.

The Park Inn Dresden is situated in Dresden Neustadt near the bank of the river Elbe, only 15 minutes on foot from the historic town center.

“This hotel is our third property in Dresden and further strengthens our presence on the local and regional market.

We are delighted to once again cooperate with our partner Provent Hotels which belongs to our most important franchisees in Germany,” said Kurt Ritter, president and CEO of Rezidor. Provent already manages the Park Inn hotels Cologne City-West, Berlin City-West, Papenburg and Heppenheim.

The Ministry of Finance of Saxony, the town hall and the government seat of Saxony are in vicinity, as well as Dresden’s most famous sights such as Semperoper, Zwinger and Frauenkirche.

Besides 132 guest rooms and suites, the property features a restaurant, a lobby bar and a meeting room.

It was originally opened in 1997 and fully renovated in 2007.

Maison Moschino, the latest project from Stefano Ugolini of Hotelphilosophy, is a 65-room hotel which opened its doors in March.

Converted from an 1840s railway station in Milan, the hotel features 63 guestrooms and two junior suites over four floors. The rooms, with names like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Clouds” and “Sleeping in a Ballgown,” feature bespoke and surreal designs which invite guests to immerse themselves in a world of imagination and fantasy.

Ugolini, founder and president of Hotelphilosophy said, “This project shares little with the other ‘fashion hotels.’ Our venture is the first where the interiors are entirely conceived by the label’s creative staff. I wanted to give birth to a hotel that takes the synergy between fashion and hotel design a step further. I had in mind an elegant and absolutely exclusive ambience that my guests could experience thoroughly, the kind of hotel you just die to tell your friends about.”

Outside, the hotel retains its neoclassical 19th century features but the design changes dramatically once inside.

The individually-designed rooms feature imaginative designs, including one where silk rose petals dangle from the chandelier as if falling from the sky. “The Forest” room, “Luxurious Attic” and junior suites on the second floor are inspired by Alice in Wonderland and offer wide spaces and unusual spacious mezzanines with a desk and chaise lounge.

The hotel’s “Clandestino Milano” restaurant is headed by Italian chef Moreno Cedroni, who serves a wide range of pasta, meat, vegetarian and vegan dishes, including “Colorful Sushi” creations.

The hotel is situated on Milan’s Viale Monte Grappa 12 in the Corso Como district, guests staying at Maison Moschino are close to the city’s most famous landmarks including the Santa Maria Delle Grazie, the Pinacoteca di Brera and Pinacoteca Ambrosiana art galleries and the Royal Palace.

For more information, call 800-337-4685 or visit www.designhotels.com

STA Travel confirmed that Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, tops the list for the least expensive destination, based on the main ingredients for a good holiday — a pint of beer, a meal in a local restaurant, a night in a hostel, a bus ride and a sight-seeing bus tour around the city.

The top eight “cheap” destinations are: 1. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, $19.76; 2. Hanoi, Vietnam, $27.60; 3. Seoul, South Korea, $27.74; 4. Mexico City, Mexico, $34.47; 5. Beijing, China, $37.46; 6. Istanbul, Turkey, $41.32; 7. Bangkok, Thailand, $41.35; and 8. Cape Town, South Africa, $47.81.

Malaysia was also ranked fourth among the world’s best-value destinations, according to the largest travel guide firm, Lonely Planet. The British-based company, in its “Best In Travel 2010” guide, said Malaysia “is a clever choice for travelers on the lookout for a bargain.”

For more information, visit www.statravel.co.uk  or www.tourismmalaysiausa.com

InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is now equipping its concierge teams with Apple iPads, starting next week.

As part of a global pilot at InterContinental New York Barclay, InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta, InterContinental London Park Lane and InterContinental Hong Kong, travelers can look forward to receiving enhanced local destination advice from the hotel concierge teams, guided by mobile, multi-touch, content-rich Apple iPads.

Travelers who have had the opportunity to experience this new service, and those who would like to provide ideas and feedback to aid the future development of this service, are invited to tweet InterContinental at www.twitter.com/WorldConcierge

To view the full collection of concierge videos, visit

www.intercontinentalvideo.com

For more information, visit all the IHG hotels at the banner at the right.

The Viva Hotel Group opened Viva Residence Bahia Estela in Las Terrenas, located on the Dominican Republic’s Samaná Peninsula.

Each beachfront unit includes two bedrooms and serves as the third residential vacation property offered by the Viva brand and comes in the wake of several major infrastructure investments being made by the government along the Samaná Peninsula.

For more information, visit www.hotelsviva.com

Air Berlin is stepping up its efforts in Berlin. In 2009, the airline managed to increase its passenger figures by seven percent to around six million.

Air Berlin is adding 11 new destinations to its Berlin flight schedule: Bari, Brindisi, Calvi, Chania, Gdansk, Graz, Naples, Reykjavik, Rimini, Venice and Visby. The following routes will also be reincorporated from Schoenefeld: Antalya, Djerba, Hurghada, Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Monastir, Palma de Mallorca, Nuremberg and Varna.

Air Berlin will also be adding two additional flights per week to Malaga and Catania in Southern Europe, and six additional flights to Gothenburg and Zurich, as well as three to Tel Aviv.

Passengers also can now fly more often with Air Berlin in major European capitals with an additional four flights in Moscow DME, three flights in Rome FCO, five flights in Helsinki and seven flights in Oslo. Domestic flights from Berlin will also improve significantly: with 15 new flights to Cologne/Bonn, five new flights to Düsseldorf, four new flights to Stuttgart and three new flights to Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Munich and Saarbrücken.

One extra long-haul flight per week to Bangkok will be added to this year’s summer flight schedule, making the total number of flights to Bangkok three per week. Extra flights to Italy and Southern Europe and to Scandinavia and Eastern Europe are expected to lead to an increase in passengers for Berlin Airports.
For more information, visit www.airberlin.com