And because we’re Ooh.com, our countryside mini breaks of choice are ones that offer a little more than just B&B and a country walk. As if fate would have it, we recently found ourselves reading the latest listing from Katy Galbraith, owner of Galvelmore House, a lovely Georgian  B&B in Creiff, Scotland.  What makes  Galvelmore House special for us is that not only can you enjoy the  beautiful Scottish countryside, walks in the nearby woods, home cooked food and cosy rooms, but you can also combine your stay with one of the fabulous residential craft weekends they run.

From mosaic making to clock crafting, classes are taught by skilled artisans who will help you find your creative flair. Why not take a look at some of  the great courses Katy runs and find your inner artist on a relaxing weekend away in the Highlands.

For other crafty breaks, book and have a look on Ooh.com.

A favourite adventurer of ours is Alastair Humphreys, who has recently returned from an unsupported crossing of Iceland with his photographer mate Chris Herwig.  Carrying 40kg packs containing all of the food they needed, camping gear, and equipment for both glacier crossing and packrafting, Alistair and Chris crossed Iceland, trekking inland from Iceland’s north coast and then paddling the length of Iceland’s longest river to the Southern coast and Atlantic Ocean.

Here Alistair shares with us his top ten highs and lows of their 24 day trip.

1. Discovering that one of the most varied, deserted, beautiful wildernesses I have ever been to is only 3 hours away from London with Iceland Express.

2. Carrying 25 days of food meant serious rationing. Eating just 2000 calories a day meant that I was permanently very hungry.

3. Getting up close to Eyjafjallajökull volcano which caused such chaos earlier this year.

4. On the rare occasions when it was not raining or very windy, clouds of flies would rise from nowhere and fly into our noses, ears, eyes, and mouth.

5. The sources of the two rivers we paddled: one flowing out from beneath a glacier, the other gushing boiling hot from the side of a volcano.

6. Trekking hundreds of miles carrying a brutally heavy (40kg) backpack.

7. Inflating  the packrafts and beginning to paddle downstream. Fun, fast, and no more carrying  those heavy packs!

8. Capsizing in major whitewater rapids in the depths of a canyon. And later realising that my waterproof video camera had not even recorded the drama!

9. Wallowing in a hot spring beneath the midnight sun.

10. Seeing the river in front of us open out into the brown waves of the Atlantic Ocean: the end of a successful, exciting, fascinating journey across Iceland.

Read Alistair’s brilliantly entertaining full diary of his Icelandic adventure and I challenge you not to want to experience the 4-day Laugavegur trek (which he undertakes as part of this trip) for yourself. Iceland looks incredible.

Fancy an adventure of your own? – have a look on Ooh.com for everything you might need – from courses in mountaineering and navigational skills to fully guided tours and treks.

Whale watching from sea kayaks in the lagoons of Patagonia anyone?

Leaping right off the page at us like Free Willy post Florida water park days is this fabulous Whale watching by kayak trip in Patagonia with spaces currently available for trips this October, November and December. Fully guided and catered, think kayaking with whales by day and  wine and tapas on the beach at sunset.

If you are more bird than fish, and hanging out at cloud level is the closest you’ll get to floating your boat then our front page has just the thing for you too – again,  this paragliding trip in Nepal looks incredible, described by paraglide pro Alex Ledger as ‘one of the best paragliding experiences of his life’.

Not for the faint hearted, this trip takes you to the highest mountain range in the world and culminates in an epic 2 day paragliding expedition to a remote mountain camp site.

So if you have a bucket list with boxes to tick  get browsing around on Ooh.com. There are plenty more big adventure trips where these came from, whether it’s a trek to Everest base camp or a Shackleton style Antarctic polar crossing you’ve been dreaming about.

Our friends at Zoombu tell us why Liechtenstein is the place to put on your travel itinerary this year.

Cuddled in the Alps, between Switzerland and Austria, Liechtenstein is a true intra continental country, and requires passing through two other countries to reach the sea.  Just 24 km long and approximately 6.5 km wide, Liechtenstein can be visited in its entirety in one weekend.

From the abundant flats of the Rhine Valley, to the steep gradients of the Alpine mountains that hide picturesque villages and classic old chapels, Liechtenstein is a rare tourist destination that surprisingly few people encounter.  A neutral country with no formal army, Liechtenstein is ruled by Prince Hans Adam II through a democratic monarchy regime. Citizens of this German speaking country, enjoy low taxes and some of the world’s highest living standards.

What to see: The capital, Vaduz, is booming with history and its buildings are some of the main attractions.

The most important being the medieval castle of Schoss Vaduz, the actual residence of the Royal family. Another stop worth making is at the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, an admirable contemporary art’s gallery.

One shouldn’t miss out on the 13th century Gutenberg Castle and the Schellenberg Ruins, a settlement dating back to 3,000 BC, either.

Where to stay: If you are looking to splash out, the Park Hotel Sonnenhof is the one of the smartest hotels to stay in Vaduz or if you fancy a budget sojourn in a mountain retreat, book a night in the Gafadura Hut high up in the Alps.

Events: In July, the annual International Guitar Festival is worth a visit, and if you happen to be there in time, the Christmas Market (10th -12th December 2010) and the New Year’s Eve parties in Vaduz are full of cheer.

In the winter, a must-go is Malbun, the heart of the ski and snowboarding area.  The alpine slopes are ideal for all kinds of skiing, hiking, or other mountain sports like paragliding, offering magnificent views of the surrounding mountains.

Insider tip: The local cuisine is Swiss with some Austrian influences. The traditional dish, käsknöfle (noodles baked with grated cheese and a layer of fried onions, often served with applesauce or a salad) is best served with a delicious local wine.

How to get there: Liechtenstein has no local airport, the closest one is in Zurich, Switzerland at 115 km or Friedrichshafen in Germany. The country is accessible by train, bus and private car from many cities in Switzerland and Austria. New website Zoombu, a door-to-door travel search engine is a great one to use if planning a visit.

So move off the beaten track, put a weekend in Liechtenstein on your itinerary and get ready to mark off a new country in your passport.

For more off the beaten track ideas, check out Ooh.com.

We have dug out some top tips from seasoned festival goers on what to do and see, what not to miss and what to eat at this year’s Bestival.

More than the music:

Fancy Dress Saturday – This year’s theme is fantasy; think Alice in Wonderland, meets Harry Potter meets Dungeons and Dragons…

Wise Advice: If you don’t dress up you will feel left out, trust us and as the weather’s not looking its best for this year make it waterproof so you can party all night without a care.

Comedy – Rufus Hound , comedian and owner of a very fine moustache, and Edinburgh festival heroes Frisky and Mannish are ones to watch in the Cabaret tent.

Come Dancing – Visit the Spiegeltent during to day and take a dance lessons – there is everything from Lindy Hop to Hip hop and even a break dancing lessons with the Cuban Brothers.

Wise advice: for some time out seek out the Gazebo in the Woods for acoustic, folk and bluesy type music and find Nanna and Rosie for a knees up around their gin fuelled mobility scooter.

Who’s talent is it anyway? – If you’ve always secretly wanted to audition for the X factor (but couldn’t be doing with spending what could feel like two good years of your life standing in a gargantuan queue outside an exhibition centre somewhere near Birmingham on the off chance that Louis is after something ‘different’) then your moment has arrived. Get thee to the Cabaret Tent sharpish on Friday and audition for Who’s talent is it anyway… if you win you will get to play your very own set on the Plugged In Solar Powered Bestival Bandstand.

Food:

Don’t fall into the trap of eating crap – remember the burger and chips will ALWAYS make you feel worse than when you started (if you insist go to Byron Burger in the Bollywood field), and the chow mein on the way home at two in the morning from a tent manned by four strapping Welsh men is never going to be worth the £6 it’ll cost you.

Wise Advice: Fuel yourself with some good stuff and eat at: Chai Wallahs in the Wishing Tree field for smoothies, noodle soups  and coconut water and don’t miss the Chapati Man outside the Big Top . Hugh F-W’s River Cottage Cafe will be serving seasonal delights to be washed down with nettle beer in the Fire Field and you can warm your cockles at The Sea Cow with fresh fish and chips or try the whitebait with lime mayo and minted mushy peas.

Yes there is an app for everything:

Even Bestival has one,  so download yours now – Bestival app - Useful indeed if your phone doesn’t die half way through Saturday afternoon (which it probably will).

Wise advice: Forget your phone. Agree on a base camp and meet there between sets – but make it somewhere you want to wait… i.e. corner of the Gamer’s tent.

If you need to charge your phone go to the 3 mobile bus – and check their blackboards for special acoustic sets from big name performers…

Gig Guide:

Carefully print off the playlist and coordinate a timetable of bands you want to see and highlight in coordinated flouro colours.  Lose this on your first night in a dance tent cider fuelled haze and just embrace the festival spirit.

Wise advice: spend the afternoon enjoying the more random bands on the main stage and in the evening leave the sheep to it and go exploring and discover some of the smaller acts . Don’t leave Bestival without putting in a good hour in the dance tent … it’s where the cool kids hang out.

However there are a few people not to miss:

Dizzy of course (What’s up Darlin?…nothing mate… though we suspect you may have lost some of your street cred of late but you’ve still got some tuuuuunes up your sleeve)
Tinie Tempah – so many clothes he leaves some in his aunt’s house
New Young Pony Club – neigh on the Rock and Roll stage
The Temper Trap – fine angsty harmonic rock
The Correspondants – Ella Fitzgerald meets Plan B
Prodigy - old and good… perfect for the Sunday night last blast
Simian Mobile Disco – digi, weird, genius
Jaguar Skills – because he’s the funnest DJ around and he sometimes plays a bit of the thunder cats theme in his sets

Enjoy revellers! Don’t forget your wellies.

Going to Bestival?  Upload your pictures on our facebook page - or tweet us and keep us updated on the goings on.

Not making it to Bestival this weekend? Don’t be sad, have a look on Ooh.com and do something more interesting instead.

He takes time out to give us this fascinating and personal insight into the world of a professional Knight and Jouster and tells us why the song ‘We are the Champions’ by Queen will always get him fired up!

1) If you could joust anywhere in the world (and any era)…. Where would you choose? When and why?

It would be the tournament at St. Inglevert which took place near Calais, France in May of 1390. Why? It was an informal tournament to test the skill of both French and English Knights but while it wasn’t officially judged or any prizes awarded it attracted some of the most notable knights of that time. The tournament was set up so you could choose the competitors you wanted to joust with. I think it would have been a real test of skill for me and at the same time have been friendly and laid back as there were no official winners or losers, just your own and others opinions of how you fared.

2)      Who do you most admire in the world of jousting?

My son’s Gino and Ermes

3)      Who is your jousting hero?

William Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 – 14 May 1219)

4)      Do you have a most memorable joust/ride?

I’m lucky to have had many memorable jousts with some exceptional competitors. The joust that most comes to my mind is when I first had the opportunity to cross lances with a fine knight, horseman and sword fighter Mathew Cross. His reputation precedes him in a big way. He had his own group for years and had unhorsed alot of men. I’ll have to admit I was a little intimidated. When he came out, he told me to give him the horse that nobody liked to ride! That horse was Tuck, a 14 hand high, 1600 lb stallion of the American Cream draft breed. I was riding the war horse Salazar, a 16hh 1700lb Percheron Stallion. We jousted open field, meaning no jousting list or counter list. We first traded hits to make sure we were dialed in. Then we had our match. It was a true Joust a` Plaisance, a joust for the pleasure of jousting. It wasn’t like there was going to be a winner or loser. We were just testing each other’s skills.

It was beautiful, the way he turned his horse and put his lance on his shoulder after each pass. There was such a rythym and consistency to it. He could have done this countless times. He held his lance tip so steady as he approached. You knew it would find its’ mark on the center of the shield. Now we were watching out for the other’s safety but at the same time the hits were HARD! It was so exhilerating. We completed our 5 or 6 courses, saluted each other and came to the end of the arena to be disarmed. Well, as you might imagine when I took my helm off, I was grinning from ear to ear and so was Mathew. We happily shook hands, gave each other a quick embrace and acknowledged the others skill and prowess. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I had just jousted with a true master of the sport.

5)      If you could pick any other activity on Ooh.com that you’d like to try – what would it be?

Understanding Owl Day in Suffolk.

6)      What is your ideal jousting soundtrack

Well, I would have to say “We Will Rock You” by Queen. To me, that’s the classic jousting song, made famous as part of the sound track of “A Knights Tale”. There are several other knights I joust with that really enjoy and get pumped up by that song. My good friend Jerry Gordon from Texas and I were about to have a joust for a group in Washington. As soon as the song was put on the sound system, he looked at me and said “oh, you’re in trouble now”.

7)      What three items you cannot live without?

Sugar Peanut Butter,Nature

8)      If you weren’t a jouster what do you think you would you be instead… ?

That’s a difficult question for me. Being a jouster and a knight and living by his standards, and my occupation are so closely interwoven. If I wasn’t jousting or training people to joust or breeding and training jousting horses I’m not sure what else i’d be doing. I think if I had to choose another occupation it would be raising endangered species of animals and working at helping to save their habitat. Oh, and my hobby would be planting trees.

9)   Where are you and what are you looking at while you answer these questions?

I’m sitting at the desk in my 2nd story office. It is solid windows on three sides. The view is trees and through the trees I can see part of the jousting field and part of the horse corrals. On occasion, in a tree right next to the house I get a bird looking at me, or a chipmunk chattering at me. If I look to my right I can see my fiancee Joanne typing away at the computer and at this particular time, I’m cradling my baby daughter Sonya in my left arm. She’s got a serious look on her face.

10)   What are you going to have for dinner tonight and who will you be eating with?

Fish, Spaghetti Casserole and Pineapple for dessert. I’ll be dining with my fiancee Joanne and our baby daughter Sonya.

When James and his talented family members are not staging jousting tournaments and displays or training for them, he runs the American Jousting Alliance in California and offers a complete Jousting Training program open to riders of all ages and skill levels.

James’ Training programmes on Ooh.com

How about signing up for The London Charity Treasure Hunt, 21st August

Join a bunch of young treasure hunting reprobates (by day probably sensible people like accountants and doctors and the like) but who for this day only, will be cutting loose for a proper London adventure with clue solving, team bonding and a nice big ole shin dig at the end of it.

During the day these teams of treasure hunters will solve clues and challenges around the capital – from uncovering the criminal past of local parks to selling produce from behind a market stall…

…all in aid of two great causes: Macmillan Cancer Support and Ragalla Aid (a Sri Lankan charity that specialises in giving shelter and education to orphaned children).

This year the hunt takes place in East London and you will need to be able to meet and register at Lincolns Inn Fields near Holborn on 21 August at 12pm. Did we mention that all this is followed by a prize giving BBQ party in Hoxton into the early hours!

For more information and to sign up click here for full London Treasure Hunt details.

Check out the London listings on Ooh.com for more inspiring events and activities to liven up your weekend.

What makes a perfect day in that city? Where should people eat, explore, walk or just watch?

If you’d like to write us a short piece about the city you love, and send us some photos we can use alongside, then we’ll publish your piece on our site (we get 45,000+ hits a month), give you full credit of course and link to any site or blog you have.

Get in touch and tell us all which cities we should be going to, and why! Contact us at contact@ooh.com or via Twitter @oohtravel.

Photos thanks to: Morrissey,  Allie_Caulfield, BBM Explorer, Ivan Mlinaric.

Here’s our visitors guide to the best bits and what not to miss.

1. Vintage is a state of mind – and a strong look:

Visit the Beauty Boutique salon on the High Street (pre book an appointment) and be transformed into a glamourous glamourpuss from a bygone era. Or… boys, visit The Salon and get yourself a ducks ass – it’s a kooky old hair style and we love it! You too can look like this guy…

2. Got kids? Engage in some old fashioned outdoor adventures

Ignite imaginations with a trip to The Hive - An amazing woodland grotto, built by artists from Invisible Structures. Learn bushcraft skills from real bushmen and in the evening visit the Hive hotel for campfire stories, night walks and acoustic sets from festival musicians.

There’s a charge for some of the sessions but looks like this could be one of the hidden highlights of the festival - click here for more details

3.  Whatever happened to photobooths?

Go in search of a Mighty Booth photo booth and take some retro snaps of you and your gang of chums.

4. Recreate the baddest (you know, bad but good) weddings you’ve ever been to.

Go to the White Wedding Club on Saturday night - 10pm – 2am –  - more brassy brides, bolshy bridesmaids, bad-dad dancing and cheap cava than you can throw a pissed vicar at.

5. Music …

Don’t miss Kid Creola and the Coconuts on Sunday afternoon, and Motown legends Martha & The Vandellas on the main stage on Saturday at 6pm. Check out the full line up here.

6. Eat 80’s cheese toasties … hmmm yum yum yum

There is a brilliant eat-the-1940’s-devilled-eggs etc type of place to eat (Tanqueray Touch Club) but the 80’s toasties just can’t be overlooked you’ll find them being made to order outside the 80’s Warehouse and Rollerdiscor…now we’re talkin… choosing the most bizarre flavour combinations of the period is a must – ours is a cheese and mango chutney purlease thanks.

7. Shop Vintage:

At the Classic Car boot sale on Sunday or visit some of the best vintage traders selling their wares on the Yellow brick road market place including the new and wonderful Rag and Bow , Preserved Vintage or Ruthie McCall for fashions or Bar Era for one off drink related memorabilia.

8. Chap olympics:  designed to reward panache

Daily in the 1940’s Victory Garden and allotment. Mines a Gin and Tonic, umbrella jousting anyone? - not to be missed.

9. Make your own pants: Y fronts for the boys and knickers for the girls.

Just really wanted to post this picture of some handsome chaps in pants.. also the class is on Saturday at 2:30pm – 4:30pm for the Y fronts and 4:30pm – 6:30pm for knickers at the Vintage Oxfam classroom on the High Street.

10. Tea Dance, Tap and Rock and Roll dancing at the Tanqueray Tourch Club

What ever you do, you cannot leave the festival without visiting the Tourch Club… the 40’s style night club – complete with proper dance floor, big stage for the big bands.

Take dance lessons in the day and enjoy the dinner and dancing by night.

Check the schedule for the dance lessons – and you too can learn to do it backwards in heels and eat your heart out Ginger Rogers style.

Interested in other vintage events and market check out this post on some of the best in the South.

If you’re really looking to get into that Vintage spirit before the show, try Jive lessons with Kav Kavenagh on right here..

Seriously, this is to go no further… It’s just this is one of the best entertainment events in London and we can’t keep it to ourselves any longer.

So a little bird had informed us that tickets for the Secret Cinema’s next presentation go on sale TODAY (6th August) from 1pm, for screenings on the 3th-5th September.

We can’t tell you what the film will be, as that’s the point – it’s a secret, and what’s more we don’t even know, but in true Secret Cinema style there are a few clues:

In the words of the little bird…

‘We are looking for the world’s journeymen, fighters, rebels, artists, musicians and dreamers who do not fear the dark of the nights or the heat of the midday sun’

Basically click here to register or to book tickets… and we promise you won’t regret it.

And you didn’t hear it here first.

Ooh.com loves the movies – see our recent post on the latest drive-in cinema in East London. See you there.