Oktoberfest, Coolum-style

The Oktoberfest is the world’s largest festival

The Oktoberfest is the world’s largest festival. It was started in 1810 to celebrate the October marriage of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen but the ever-practical Germans moved it to mid-September to catch the last rays of summer.

If you fancy joining the crush in the famous beer tents, mark down September 20 - that’s the starting date for next year’s 16-day festival. Expect to pay about $10 for a litre of beer if the Aussie dollar holds its ground. Or a bit closer in time and distance is the Hyatt Regency Coolum International Beer Fest on November 10-11. Lots of beer - 40 stalls no less - and lots of food.

Interestingly, when it opened the Hyatt Regency Coolum was touted as health retreat with high-profile health professional Dr John Tickell devising the program. Beer festivals and oompah bands were not on the menu back then.

Opening the door to happiness

When Brook Ramage started the Golden Door health retreat 14 years ago holidays were about getting wrecked, not getting healthy.

In those days, the Golden Door at Willow Vale in the Gold Coast hinterland struggled to attract 20 visitors a week. Not any longer. Alternative health is no longer the preserve of mung bean munchers; it is firmly entrenched in the mainstream. These days the Golden Door’s Queensland property regularly runs at 90 per cent occupancy and the company also operates Elysia in the Hunter Valley, as well as three day spas. The company’s success has spawned a number of similar retreats, namely Gwinganna and Gaia, as well as scores of smaller operations.

"When we started it was all about loss - body fat and bad habits. Today, it’s all about gain," Ramage says. "Our clients are largely fit and healthy when they get here; what they want is to improve their lives.

"People are looking for greater fulfilment; they want to find ways to make life better. They want to be happy."

Which is why Ramage has put together the Golden Door’s inaugural Happiness Weekend at Elysia from November 9 to 11. Principal speaker will be psychologist Dr Timothy Sharp, who has written three books on the subject of happiness and was, along with the Golden Door, a sponsor of the Dalai Lama’s conference on happiness in June.

"There are proven ways to make your life better, to get you thinking positively and acting in a way that will make you happier," Ramage says.

The Happiness Weekend is $360 a person (workshop only); food and accommodation at Elysia is $305 a day (twin share) or $445 a day (single).

The majority prefer to holiday

The Federal Government has not done much of a job convincing us that we need to save up for retirement if an internet survey by Expedia has any clout. The internet travel booking agency asked 5000 users what they would most like to do with their tax return.

Not surprisingly, given that this is a travel site, more than 50 per cent said they would blow it on a holiday, preferably a big holiday overseas. Europe topped the list, US came in second and Japan third, with 11 per cent of respondents saying it was their preferred destination.

Expedia also asked which politician respondents would like to sit next to on a long flight. (Who thinks up these questions?) The politician least in favour was the Prime Minister, John Howard. But that is hardly likely to worry our PM, who maintains there is only one poll that counts.

Americans are armchair fans

Americans love Australians and we’re not just talking about the relationship between our leaders. For the 11th year, the Harris Poll, an online survey, has named Australia as the country Americans most want to visit.

But unfortunately there is a huge gap between intent and reality. We might be the most popular in theory but the reality is that only 460,000 Americans visited us last year.

The tyranny of distance might help to explain this discrepancy. Americans’ chronic lack of paid holiday leave - they get two weeks - is another. Both factors we can do nought about but fortunately Tourism Australia seems to be moving on our image with warm rumours that the "So Where The Bloody Hell Are You?" campaign is to be rejigged.

No one is talking officially but there have been discussions with director Baz Luhrmann, who is currently working on Australia, the movie. A bloody good move.

Mega jumbo to jet into Sydney

All eyes will be on Sydney Airport at 7am on Friday when the A380 is scheduled to touch down on its first commercial flight.

Melbourne’s sneak peek of the mega plane last week went smoothly. The plane spotters’ preferred stomping ground was Operations Road, directly under the main runway. Several hundred people turned out to catch their first glimpse of the next phase in the aviation revolution. No one was disappointed.

Foreign affairs

More than a million Aussies have married a holiday honey, a survey by lastminute.com shows. The online survey of 3000 people, Travel and Lifestyle Trends Report, found that half of those holidaymakers have since had children together.

The survey found that Australians give Qantas the thumbs-up as the best all-round airline. It also confirmed a growing affection for gap-year travel: a third of Australians make their first overseas trip aged 18-24. The favourite country for travelling Australians is still New Zealand, with Great Britain and the US next but London and Paris are the preferred cities.

David Scott