Become a Home Based Travel Agent

The Continuing Travels of the Big Dog
By: Joanie Ogg
(Contributions made by: Tom Ogg and Zoe)

A few years ago, I wrote part one and part two of Have Big Dog, Will Travel for this newsletter. In those articles, I discussed the process and challenges of traveling with our St. Bernard, Zoe. As some of you may know, we live at our home in Puerto Vallarta for several months of the year and we take our beloved Zoe with us. We have made this trip for the last three years on Alaska Airlines and suffice to say, each year we learn something new or encounter a new challenge.

Perhaps some of you have clients that want to travel with a pet by automobile. The commissions earned on the hotel stays can certainly be lucrative and well worth the effort. So, this article is about a recent Road Trip we took with Zoe from San Diego to the Napa Valley with many stops along the way in Los Angeles, Solvang and Carmel. Planning this trip was very time consuming, so I thought I could offer some tips.

Doing my research, I uncovered some really cool sites about traveling with pets. I focused my attention on the dog-friendly sites but I am sure there are others for cats and other domesticated critters. I basically just used them as a tool to locate pet friendly venues and then contacted the properties individually to be sure they were dog friendly and commissionable to agents. There are a good number of hotel chains that are dog friendly that can be booked online, as well. I would always recommend checking with the actual property to be sure the pet policies on the websites are correct and up to date. I found a few discrepancies in allowed size and weight of a dog, which in our case was a BIG factor.

Here are some links to helpful sites in the planning and discovery phase of dog travel.

DogFriendly.com® publishes worldwide pet travel guides for dogs of ALL sizes & breeds. View FREE listings by clicking on the links. They also have a newsletter and dog travel books.

PetFriendlyTravel.com® provides easy access to pet friendly hotels and hotels that allow dogs, pet friendly vacation rentals, bed & breakfasts, cabins, motels, campgrounds and RV parks, resorts and spas in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica.

This site has some great information but they also offer travel-planning services, so they are good for research only.

There are some fun links here but I found much of the information to be outdated.

This is a great site for travel information when taking a dog to Mexico. I bookmarked this one for our next trip in December!

I know there are probably many more to list here, however I found these to be the top picks during my discovery phase. As I mentioned earlier in the article, please be sure to check with each individual property you plan to use to be sure the pet friendly information is up to date.

Zoe has been in our family for more then five years and this was really the first time we had driven with her any distance to speak of.

Day one…
Drive from our home in San Diego to LAX airport area for the first night. La Quinta at LAX was our landing place for the night. It was nothing fancy but it worked well for a brief overnight stay. La Quinta Hotels are known to be very dog friendly and this property lived up to it. Trust me, when you check in with a St. Bernard as your hand luggage, you have to expect some raised eyebrows from fellow guests. This proved to be true but the hotel staff did not seem to blink at her size and slobber. They welcomed us and we all slept great.

Up early and began the drive to Solvang for our second nights accommodations. Zoe was not in the best of moods as we drove leisurely up the coast of California. She was having a hard time with the long car journey and did a fair amount of whining in our ears as well as heavy breathing down our necks mixed with slobber. Our lesson learned was to stop more frequently for “out of the car” breaks on our next long drive.

Arrived in Solvang tired and so ready to get out of the car. Stayed at a great hotel called the Wine Country Inn where dogs are welcome in certain rooms. As with many hotels that accept canine guests, they charge a dog fee and make you sign a waiver that your dog will not destroy the room. Luckily, Zoe likes to sleep and snore more then destroy. Found Solvang to be VERY Dog Friendly. Many wineries and restaurants welcome you with your pet. We had a great evening and a terrific nights sleep.

We were up and at it early for a journey to the next stop, Carmel by the Sea. We had read that Carmel is very dog friendly so we were excited to enjoy the beauty of the lovely town and their amazing beach. It seemed that Zoe was getting the drill on Day Three and she slept most of the way to Carmel with no whimpers or barks. We stopped a number of times for convenience breaks and arrived in Carmel ready to party.

We stayed the Happy Landing Inn, a small bed and breakfast close to the town and the beach. Most of the area was sold out and especially dog friendly accommodations, so we did not have too much option. They were very accommodating and we had a nice little one-bedroom cottage (that is stretching it on size) for two nights. Zoe is a big girl and it was a small room. We laughed a great deal as we tripped over one another and Zoe and spent as much time out of the room as possible. I would not recommend this spot, as it was really run down. We found out it was for sale for $8 million and we figured they were kind of letting it go in the meantime. I wanted to buy it as it could have been really cute, but Tom was not going for it, LOL.

Carmel is an amazing place and very dog friendly. Dogs of all sizes are everywhere. Zoe fell in love or should I say Socrates fell in love with Zoe on the beach in Carmel. You will see a picture here of the two lovebirds and an onlooker on the beach in Carmel. Socrates is a Bernese Mountain Dog and a handsome guy to say the least.

Our favorite spot in Carmel was the Cypress Inn where we enjoyed two dinners and met some great fellow dog lovers. We will stay at the Cypress Inn on our next visit to Carmel. When Doris Day took co-ownership of Cypress Inn in 1985, one of her priorities was ensuring that four legged furry guests were as welcome and accommodated as their owners. It was at this point, twenty-five years ago, that Cypress Inn cemented its position as Carmel’s original “Pet Friendly” Inn. It is a beautiful hotel that dates back to 1925. Each night they have what is fondly referred to as “Yappy Hour” where dogs and their owners relax and enjoy drinks and terrific food in the garden and bar area of the hotel. This place gets a 10+ in our book. We cannot wait to take Zoe back and stay there.

We happily checked out of the Happy Landing Inn and after a last romp on the beach we began the drive up to the Napa Valley. By this point in our dogcation, we were all in sync and enjoying even the time in the car. In Napa Valley we stayed in the downtown area of Napa at a bed and breakfast that was recommended to us by a fellow travel agent friend. The Inn on First is amazing! It was beautiful and I would highly recommend it. The two innkeepers Jamie and Jim were terrific hosts and their home and guest rooms are impeccably decorated and the gardens were gorgeous.

Speaking of the gardens, Zoe made her entrance at the inn with her usual “Here I am, aren’t I cute” fashion. We had taken a long walk before checking in since we had arrived a few hours prior to the 3:30p check-in time. It was quite warm in Napa and Zoe does wear a heavy fur coat. After our walk and as I was checking in, Zoe found the only small pond in their lovely garden and took a dip. Tom had her off the leash and had turned to look at some plants in their gardens when she decided to cool off. As I walked out of the lovely estate home with the innkeeper holding the keys to our room for the next two days, out comes Zoe wet from head to tail in muddy pond water and smiling her hellos. Of course, I was mortified and figured we would be booted out before we even saw our room. However, he calmly smiled and showed me the Doggy Shower they had installed in the rear of the house so I could prepare her for her grand entrance to our room. Luckily we had booked the private room that was on the ground floor and had it’s own patio (perfect for drying off a wet St. Bernard). The accommodations were so beautiful and featured a fireplace, a heart shaped Jacuzzi tub (see below) and a bed and doggie bowls for Zoe. We were in heaven!

We enjoyed a full day of wine tasting at the many Dog Friendly vineyards in Napa Valley on our last day in Napa. There are more then 70 dog friendly wine tasting rooms in Napa and we did not even make a dent in the number. We need to go back. However, we found some great wine and as you will see below in the pictures, Zoe had a great time and made loads of friends of the human variety.

They have a great Farmer’s Market in Napa each Thursday night downtown where hundreds gather for music, food and even wine tasting. It was the perfect place to end our day in the Napa Valley.

We drove back down to Solvang in order to break up the long journey back to San Diego. We felt right at home back at the Wine Valley Inn and enjoyed another great evening of more wine tasting and dinner with Zoe. Solvang is such a lovely town and the people are as warm and welcoming as they can be.

We arrived home on Day Eight in San Diego ready to spend a few days out of the car if possible. Zoe got so excited when she saw her home and her yard that I swear she was smiling from jowl to jowl. There is no place like home, even for a dog.

How would I rate our first Dogcation? A perfect ten is my score. If you had asked me that question during some of the long drives or while trying to sleep at the Happy Landing Inn, I might have rated it differently. Tom and I have to laugh when we think about all the incredible places across the globe that we have been so lucky to see during our many years in travel and we both agree that this was one of our all time favorite trips. I bet Zoe would agree too.

Joanie Ogg CTC MCC
Joanie Ogg Marketing Group
Editor

Joanie Ogg is a thirty-five year veteran of the travel industry and has been involved with the independent contractor evolution since 1988. She is the principal of Joanie Ogg Marketing Group, which specializes in consulting and speaking on the topic of Home-Based Travel. She also provides marketing and sales for wide variety of products under the umbrella HomeBasedTravelAgent.com.

A demonstrated industry leader, Joanie most recently served as the President of the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents (NACTA) and TravelSellers. She and her husband Tom acquired NACTA in 1996 and sold it to The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) in 2000. Joanie’s tenure in the travel industry includes owning and operating one of the first successful host agency models. She has owned and operated several storefront travel agencies (both commercial and leisure), as well as a Hawaii wholesale tour company.

Her decades of success have garnered her numerous accolades over the years. Her accomplishments have been recognized by receipt of two Lifetime Achievement Awards from major trade groups, being named as one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in Travel” by Travel Agent magazine on several occasions, voted as “Travel Agent of the Year” by the readers of Travel Trade magazine, and has been recognized by many other industry organizations throughout her tenure in the industry. In 2008 Joanie Ogg was inducted into the CLIA Hall of Fame, an honor held by some of the most influential executives in the travel industry.

Joanie is a Master Cruise Counselor (MCC) and a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC). Joanie has co-authored two popular travel industry books for cruise specialists and home-based travel agents and has authored hundreds of travel trade articles. She has inspired tens of thousands of travel agents attending her presentations at trade events, cruise seminars, international trade gatherings and numerous local educational venues throughout the United States. With a time-honored background and forward-looking vision, she is often featured as a speaker at many of the travel industry’s major conferences and events. Joanie’s speaking talents are widely sought as a travel industry emcee by the most recognized travel organizations. She has emceed such events as Cruise-A-Thons, ASTA’s CruiseFest, The Trade Show, The Travel Institute Forum and all of NACTA’s National and International Conferences.


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