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Holiday Cheer in Toronto—A Return to Luxury

On the heels of Toronto’s architectural achievements came a slew of high-end hoteliers. In February 2011, the Ritz-Carlton opened its first property in Canada, a 53-story high-rise overlooking the CN Tower in the entertainment district. This past January, the $500 million Trump Tower was unveiled. In September, Shangri-La, the Asian-based luxury hotel group, opened its second hotel in North America. And last, but certainly not least, the Four Seasons just debuted their new flagship property in one of the liveliest sections of town, Yorkville. 
 
The demand is obviously here, with Tourism Toronto reporting a banner year in 2011, with more than 9 million hotel rooms sold. But what I love about each one of these properties is their utter lack of pretension (c’mon, this is Canada), excellent service, and unique features. The Ritz-Carlton offers diners at the restaurant, Toca, a chance to visit the cheese cave and sample more than 200 cheeses. Also those hand-painted plates, which pay homage to the Toronto International Film Festival and the Canadian landscape, were created by one of the servers. At Trump’s expansion of the Quartz Crystal Spa, you’ll find a heated saltwater lap pool. The most welcoming lobby is at the Shangri-La, where you can recline on a cushiony couch in front of the fireplace. Then there’s the Four Seasons, whose properties I’ve always cherished simply because their fitness rooms and men’s spa were light years ahead of the competition. At Four Seasons Toronto, they have equipped their treadmills, elliptical machines, and bikes with a Virtual Active by Matrix. It’s basically a virtual reality system where you can choose to take a run through the streets of Chicago, the lush interior of Hawaii, or in the Swiss Alps. It’s already been filmed! Forget the Duck Egg dish at the new Café Boulud (which was delicious, by the way), I’d return to Four Seasons Toronto solely for the chance to sweat all over the world. 
 

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The Birdmen of Bocawina

Guest Blog by John Reed
 
Set in the southern Belize and surrounded by 7100 acres of lush jungle, waterfalls, and ancient Mayan sites, you’ll find Mama Noots Eco Resort. This “off the grid” style jungle lodge is home to Bocawina Adventure & Eco-Tours, site of the longest zipline in Belize, in the heart of Mayflower Bocawina National Park. And as always, getting there is half the fun.
 
The month of June in the southern part of this Central American country is in one word, wet. The diving is incredible, the lush rainforest something out of a Tarzan movie, but after 2 hours of sleep at an ancient Mayan site the night before, in a massive thunderstorm that easily reached the nearby Guatemalan border, I was convinced that by morning we would be paddling our way to Bocawina. But mysteriously, as in a dream, the rainforest was once again at peace.
 
As we groggily stepped out of the car, met our guides, and ascended to our first zipline tower, donned in harness, helmet, and gloves (the tools of the trade), the skies and my mind seemed to instantaneously clear. “Pick up your feet, keep your hand behind the pulley, and pay attention when I signal you to break, but don’t break too soon, otherwise …”, and all of a sudden I was flying through the canopy.  
 
The afternoon turned out to be one of the most exhilarating things I did in Belize, and if constant ear to ear grins and laughter are indicators of true praise, then there is no higher compliment for the experience provided by Bocawina’s fully accredited guide team. The next time you’re in Belize looking for some high flying fun, check out Bocawina in the heart of the Belizean jungle. 
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Availability on Thomson Family Adventures Trips to Galapagos, Costa Rica This Xmas

If you still don’t have Christmas plans and want to surprise the family with a memorable vacation, you’ll be happy to know that Thomson Family Adventures has availability on their Galapagos and Costa Rica trips. The Galapagos trips leave either 12/20 or 12/21, returning 12/29. The itinerary includes three nights in the Andean highlands at Cuenca where the family will tour this impressive Colonial city, see Incan ruins, rock climb, and hike in El Cajas National Park. Then you fly to the Galapagos Islands, where you embark on a 4-night cruise that includes stops to see century-old tortoises, blue-footed boobies, flamingoes, and colonies of tame sea lions. Having just been to the Galapagos Islands with my family this summer, I can tell you without hesitation that it’s magical. The 9-day Costa Rica Multisport Adventure is scheduled 12/22-12/31 and 12/25-1/2. Activities include whitewater rafting Pejibaye River, seeing the turtles of Tortuguero, then hitting the Pacific coast to zipline and go on a naturalist-led hike through Manuel Antonio National Park. If interested, please contact ActiveTravels.com to book. 
 
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Connecticut in Autumn, The Mark Twain House in Hartford

Twain, aka Samuel Clemens would publish his greatest works, including The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn while living in a three-story red-brick home in Hartford from 1874 to 1891. Many scholars believe, however, that the bulk of his writing was done in a small cottage in Elmira, New York, since his wife, Livy, hated the smell of his cigars in the house. That didn’t stop Twain from having fun in his Hartford abode. If you watch the Ken Burns documentary on Twain before touring his home, you’ll learn that he would use the same props on the mantelpiece to tell a different story to his three young daughters every evening. Enter the house with a guide and you’ll see his billiard room on the third floor, where he would entertain guests long after his usual four-course dinner was finished. The interior was designed by none other than Louis Comfort Tiffany and many objects like Twain’s bedpost from Venice, where carved angels sit atop the headboard, are the writer’s original purchases.
 
Even if I was zipping through Hartford on my way to New York with no intention whatsoever of stopping at Twain’s House, three blocks away, I would get off I-84 at Exit 46 and make a beeline to Mo’s Midtown (25 Whitney Street, 860-236-7741). The Polish owners are known for their large, fluffy potato latkes and crispy hash browns, but I’ll order their buttermilk pancakes every time. Take a seat at the counter or one of the booths and dive into a short stack of blueberry pancakes. One bite of this heavenly creation, chockful of wild blueberries, and you’ll be stopping in Hartford far more often than you think.
 
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Dining in Bloomington, Indiana

After my visit to Kentucky Bourbon Country, I drove 3 hours from Lexington to Bloomington, Indiana for the Dad’s Sorority Weekend with my daughter, Melanie, at Indiana University. First stop was Mother Bear’s, the classic pizza joint in town that I’ve been visiting regularly since Mel’s first visit to campus. That night, Mel and her friends brought me to a new Mexican restaurant on North College Avenue called Social Cantina, which features a great taco selection, washed down with potent margaritas. The place was hopping and it’s a great space, with a long bar serving a vast selection of tequilas. The same owner also has plans to open a nearby barbecue and bourbon joint called Smoke Works. We always end our weekend at Mel’s favorite brunch spot, Uptown Café, for omelets, fresh baked bread, and good coffee. There’s usually a wait on Sundays but the line moves fast and it’s worth the wait. 

 
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Luxury Resort Openings in the Fall

Having just returned from Virtuoso Travel Week, Lisa will update you on the resorts she found most intriguing from her 386 meetings in our September newsletter. This includes one Phuket property that offers unlimited spa treatments. Also in our January newsletter, we always report on the hotels we’re most excited to see open or reopen. I’m sure the Ritz in Paris, closed since 2012, will lead that list now that it will finally reopen next spring. But I just wanted to keep you updated on a handful of upscale lodgings opening later this year that are already starting to garner excitement in the travel world. 
 
Leading the list is the new Aman resort, Amanera, in the Dominican Republic. Overlooking the north coast’s Playa Grande Beach, the 25 casitas are surrounded by 2,000 acres of virtually untouched jungle and a nearby mountain range. It will also be the first Aman Resort to feature a golf course, this one designed by Robert Trent Jones. Another opening creating a lot of buzz is Faena Miami, opening in November on a six-block span across mid-Miami Beach. Baz Luhrmann, director of Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby, has been tapped to the lead the design team. So this will be the place to be during Art Basel. Finally, another Ritz-Carlton Reserve resort, Mandapa, will open later this month on the island of Bali. The third in the brand’s ultra-exclusive collection, suites at this Ubud property start at 1,000 square feet and and keep growing to 2 and 3-bedroom villas with private pools overlooking the rice terraces and rainforest. 
 
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Be Wary of Circuit Routes and Name-Brand Hotels When Choosing a Safari

The last two weeks I had the privilege of traveling with Rob Barbour around northern Tanzania, with stops in Arusha and Arusha National Park, the southern Amboseli plains, Mwiba Wildlife Reserve, Ngorongoro Crater, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Kusini Camp in the southern Serengeti, the Grumeti Wildlife Reserve, and the Lamai section of the northern Serengeti, where the legendary wildebeest migration takes place across the Mara River. Rob not only serves as director of African operations for the safari operator, Epic Private Journeys, but he’s a native Tanzanian who formerly owned his own lodges in Lamai and Ruaha National Park in southern Tanzania. It seems like every restaurant, hotel, and airport stop we made, he ran into an old friend. What was invaluable to me was the wealth of information he shared on taking a safari in Africa, knowledge accumulated over a lifetime. This week, I’ll be sharing some of his tips to ensure that your next safari is indeed a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

 
Throughout the trip, Rob emphasized that you can’t pick a safari based on hotel name. You design a safari itinerary on where the wildlife will be that time of year and than combine 3 or 4 properties near the wildlife that will best suit your needs, whether an upscale boutique hotel or a mobile tent deep in the African bush. Actually, to get the true African flavor, it’s best to have a combination of both, like 3 nights at Alex Walker’s Serian camps in Serengeti, combined with an exclusive stay at one of the private wildlife reserves say Singita Grumeti or the relatively new Mwiba Lodge. 
 
The most important thing is not to be seduced by name. Outfitters like Abercrombie & Kent or andBeyond will design a circuit solely based on their properties. That’s wonderful when staying at A&K’s Olonana Sanctuary on Kenya’s Mara River, where you wake up to breakfast with views of the hippos swimming. Not so great if you’re staying at A&K’s outpost near the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, where tents were lined up practically on top of each other. andBeyond’s Ngorongoro Crater Lodge and it’s over-the-top “Out of Africa” style is easily the best property in the region. But in Grumeti, andBeyond will put you in their own tents, which doesn’t offer the same privileges of staying at Singita Grumeti, like night drives and off-road driving to get closer to the wildlife. So it’s best to mix and match with a company like Epic Private Journeys who simply want the best experience and don’t have loyalty to one name. Also be wary of the big name hotelier. For example, Four Seasons Serengeti is located in central Serengeti in a locale far away from the both the wildebeest migration in summer and winter. It’s actually best in late February and March.
 

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