Gallagher's Travels

My View: Comments and Travel Trends for 2008

By Mary Gallagher

Here are some growing trends for 2008 that I've noticed in recent travels.

Using the Internet

It's been obvious for several years now that potential guests are on the Internet and relying less and less on print stories and/or bound guides, turning instead to social media websites, travel sites and blogs. Just like newspaper and magazine articles you still need to read between the lines and realize that sometimes people even if they are writing for the Washington Post or Frommers don't have a clue.

Any restaurant, hotel, Inn, B & B or attraction that doesn't have easy access and navigation on their website with loads of information just lost out on a mucho business. I constantly search websites for information and am appalled at how poorly some are constructed and virtually unusable. In surveying travelers, we've found they like to view your website and then call for the more "touchy feely" information especially in the categories of Inns and B & B's. One restaurant owner told me he hasn't had time to work on his website and in my mind that lost him at least 25% of possible new reservations.

Farewell to large lobbies

Many stylish hotels are trading in the cavernous traditional lobbies for vibrant lounge environments. You'll find hip social spots for cocktails, lite menu items and music that attract guests and locals alike, as we found at the Dylan and Shelbourne hotels in Dublin.

Then again from a $$$ point of view why not use all that space to produce revenue?

Wired

The technology boom continues. Free wireless Internet, remote paperless check-in and check-out, on-line reservations, Ipods and docking stations, movies on-demand and in-room Play Stations are now expected by today's upscale traveler. At the Dylan and other exclusive properties in Ireland it took about ten minutes for the concierge to explain the high tech operations of my suites features. Hotels like the new Ritz Carlton Powerscourt, and Capella, in Ireland use electronic finger tip control panels in a bedside drawer and on room walls to open and close drapes, adjust heating and air conditioning, and the lighting. There are thermostats for the heated bathroom floors and towel racks, television screens set in the bathroom mirror and multipurpose phones. Unfortunately not enough European hotels understand the importance of having one American style plug-in as most of us no longer carry heavy converters expecting this availability especially at the high end properties.

We did discover one downside to all this technology i.e. it doesn't always work and therefore one can become quite a friend of the properties engineering staff.

Eco friendly but…

Don't interfere with my luxury features or add to my bill. High-efficiency light bulbs (ut brighter please), non-toxic paints and carpeting, low-flow showerheads and toilets, non-toxic cleaning materials, organic cotton towels and linens (laundered only on request), air filtering systems and hotel paperwork printed on recycled paper using soy-based inks are all fine.

Disposable swim wear would be nice for those of us that occasionally forget our suits.

"Rein" in hotel "souvenir" theft

Today just about anything in your hotel is available for purchase. Like the cozy robe or monogrammed towels? We had someone ask at the Dylan if the lounge furniture was for sale. The restaurant Salt at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island will be happy to sell you one of the rock salt candle holders that grace that beautiful dining room. I didn't ask about the Vera Wang flatware which may acquire legs on its own.

Like all theft none of us benefit as the prices just have to rise to cover replacement costs.

Mega Spas and healthful living

From Yoga to Tai Chi along with the usual array of massage and beauty treatments, hotels are seriously focusing on your well-being by offering every kind of personalized treatment package including diet coaching and outdoor excursions. ESPA at the Ritz Carlton, Powerscourt features 20 treatment rooms, plus two private Spa Suites, a 20-meter Swarovski crystal-lit pool, exercise room and a state-of-the-art thermal suite, relaxation areas, hot-pools and saunas all offering superb views of Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Many luxury properties like the Amelia Island Plantation don't require you ever leave the grounds for a spectacular week of R & R. You can bicycle the hotels 1300 plus acres, take a on-property and off-property nature tours (which I did and thoroughly enjoyed), eat at any of their 8 plus restaurants, golf and then hit the health & fitness center, spa, beach, pools and so much more. The whole family will return home healthier and rested. This is an ideal situation for your multigenerational vacations.

Many spas have been transformed from what I thought was pretty wonderful to even more fantastic like the Willow Stream at Fairmont's Turnberry Isle Resort in Miami. Here we had a spacious suite overlooking the golf course with a spectacular view of the Miami skyline, exemplary service and at the Willow Stream spa the best foot massage I've ever had. Well I must say for a foot massage it included my shoulders, arms and hands all by a masterful masseuse.

I do wish some spas would do a little mystery guest spying on their personnel occasionally. A $200+ massage that feels like you they just moved a little air around you isn't worth a dime or the room that is so cold it's impossible to relax as you shiver under the thin sheet.

The spa at the new Capella in County Cork was an oasis of calm as is the entire property. Take a ride in a horse drawn carriage, walk with the two resident dogs, or ride a bike around the lavish grounds before enjoying the sauna and whirlpool. My favorite here was having breakfast in the beautiful main dining room which then necessitated my using their very well furnished gym.

Cooking Schools and other educational vacations

Whether you're in France, Italy, Asia, Spain or Ireland; every country including the US and multiple cruise ships offer fabulous opportunities (and they are growing as we write) to expand your cooking skills and knowledge.

I visited Ballymaloe Cookery School and gardens in east County Cork for the thrill of a lifetime morning tour with multiple award winning Chef Darina Allen and would go back to spend my life there in an instant. Darina and her husband Tim have gone far beyond their famous school, restaurant and Inn started by his mother Myrtle Allen and a tradition to be continued by daughter in law Rachel already a television chef.

In addition to an amazing school facility, the restoration of 19th century gardens and the amazing shell house, their organic farm, store and more. You can take half day observation classes or come for days and weeks of courses learning not only cooking skills and techniques but about real food, organic food and the future of organizations like the Slow Food Movement.

Darina is Founder of first Farmers Markets in Ireland and she and Tim are involved on an ongoing basis in helping set up new markets. She is a strong supporter and Councillor for Ireland in Slow Food Movement and President of East Cork Convivium of Slow Food.

I've attended many cooking classes as well as seminars by the Dames de Lescoffier and organizations around the world but Ballymaloe gave me something to save up my personal vacation time for.

Probably one of the next choices on my list would be an intensive language immersion week or two with cooking lesson let's say in the Italian countryside or Provence?

Pet Friendly

I'm glad so many hotels are becoming pet friendly as my daughter and I have traveled many times with her "doggies". Unfortunately they tend to weigh in at 100 lbs or so and most hotels keep a limit on dog size. My only concern as a traveler is similar to when we had smoking and non smoking rooms; I don't want to stay in a room that has been occupied by dogs or cats. The dander will never leave nor the smell and what about fleas or if they have an accident?

Actually I'd take a room someone smoked in before one occupied by a strangers pet.

And just a few restaurant trends…

Salt, salt and more salt

At a Chef Richard Gras tasting menu in the kitchen at Salt, in the Ritz Carlton, Amelia Island we had a little divided tray on our table with an outstanding assortment of salts. I had recently visited Penzy's spice store in Pittsburgh on the famous "foodies"dream street aka The Strip and for years have been a big fan of Vann's, out of Baltimore, especially their smoked salt. I tasted every one of Chef Gras' assortment at Salt and it was amazing as some you would hardly have known were salt and others had an intense lingering salt taste.

We've used a sea salt from our trip to Wales a few years ago (we bought a lot!) and it's always had a better flavor than ordinary table salt.

At the amazing Alchemy dinner at Chef Kevin Sousa's Bigelow Grille in Pittsburgh an entire 17 course dinner that had occasional touches of salt. Alchemy dinners are quite unique with or without artisan salts and there were some plates I still don't understand while others soared. A popular idea now is "foam" on plates and to be honest it never seems to have any taste or obviously substance impact for me.

Eating in the Kitchen and tasting menus…

Can put you up close to the kitchen team. My first time was many years ago in a Baltimore waterfront hotel. We sat at a rather ordinary table in the kitchen, no glass walls or fancy chairs and accoutrements like so many today. The food was wonderful and the chef ever present to explain the ingredients and techniques.

Tasting menus can be an ethereal experience even in the main dining room as with our visit to Aquavit and interview with Chef Marcus Samuelson a few years back. Every few minutes another dish rolled out from the kitchen for us to try. Three hundred pounds later I rolled out to the street with a gigantic smile.

Another beautiful room with an extensive tasting menu including hot full sized dessert soufflés was at the Marriott on Marco Island. This trend continues and our recent tastings at the Ocean Grill at Amelia Island Plantation, the Dylan Hotel in Dublin, in the kitchen at Salt, Ritz Carlton and a number of other places shows that the trend hasn't faded and special intimate rooms in the kitchen continue to grow in popularity.

My best advice is to try and book a night when the main dining room isn't over booked allowing the Chef and his team plenty of time to devote to you and your friends.

The Gardening Chef

Not a totally new idea but Chefs Sean Minahan with Levy Restaurants at the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh has a bountiful container roof garden with a million dollar view (we snuck a few cherry tomatoes off plants hmmm). This is also the first "green" convention center and the world's largest LEED-certified 'green' building.

Some chefs have their own farms or herbs and baby lettuce growing behind or in front of their restaurants. Visit the spectacular restaurant at Patowmack Farm in the Virginia countryside for seasonally prepared menus featuring the farm's "beyond organic," Certified Naturally Grown produce, organic/natural meats, sustainable seafood and fine wines.

David Kinch at Manresa in Los Gatos, California has his biodynamic vegetables grown especially for him at Love Apple Farm, Darina Allen at Ballymaloe, Ireland with her organic farm and livestock and the esteemed Inn at Little Washington, in Virginia, has completed the planting of a cherry orchard allowing them to harvest Montmorency cherries for preserves and pickling. On your next visit stroll through their new herb and flower Garden.

Unisex Bathrooms

Will you please put the seat down when you're done? They tell me unisex bathrooms are appearing in more restaurants, bars and lounges across the country and I can't say YES and thank you loud or fast enough. If you've been out with me and there is a line for the women's you know I will take over the men's with or without your assistance. European countries have had unisex bathrooms for a longtime. As long as architects and town boards don't care that women waste hours of their life in bathroom lines while men breeze in and out; why not take over theirs? Recently at a theater we had to wait so long during intermission that it was time for the second act to start before I got to a stall.

This rings with same lack of consideration shown people with disabilities by architects, builders and governmental planning boards through their lack of experience and planning with blinders on. Try riding around in a wheel chair or covering your eyes for an entire day, I guarantee you'll be convinced of the travesty of consistently repeated planning disasters.

Sources

Darina Allen
Ballymaloe Cookery School, Restaurant and Inn
Shanagarry, Co. Cork, Ireland
www.cookingisfun.ir

David Kinch
Manresa Restaurant
Los Gatos, CA
www.manresarestaurant.com

The Ritz Carlton at Amelia Island
Restaurant Salt
Florida
www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/AmeliaIsland

The Inn at Little Washington
Washington, Virginia
www.theinnatlittlewashington.com

Patowmack Farm
Lovettsville, VA
www.patowmackfarm.com

Chef Sean Minahan
Levy Restaurants
David Lawrence Convention Center
Pittsburgh, PA

Ocean Grill
Amelia Island Plantation
Amelia Island, Florida
www.aipfl.com/Restaurants/Ocean_Grill_TOC.htm

The Dylan Hotel
Dublin, Ireland
www.dylan.ie

Marriott Marco Island
Marco Island, Florida
www.marcoislandmarriott.com

Chef Marcus Samuelson
Aquavit
New York City
www.Aquavit.org

Bigelow Grille
Pittsburgh PA
www.bigelowgrille.com

Vann's Spices
www.vannsspices.com

Penzey's Spices
www.penzeys.com

Capella
Castlemartyr, Cork, Ireland
www.capellacastlemartyr.com

Fairmont's Turnberry Isle Resort
Miami, Florida
www.fairmont.com/turnberryisle

The Ritz Carlton, Powerscourt
County Wicklow, Ireland
www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Powerscourt

The Shelbourne Hotel
Dublin, Ireland
www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/dubbr-the-shelbourne

 

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