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Four Seasons Debuts New Resort in the French Alps
Next week, I’m excited to divulge my 5 favorite hotel openings in 2018. But I thought we’d get things started early with the debut of the Four Seasons’ first European mountain hotel. Especially since Megeve, France has been getting dumped on this past week, with a foot of fresh snowfall in the past 24 hours. A modern interpretation of an alpine chalet, Four Seasons Megeve offers 55 guest rooms and suites, and five restaurants and lounges, including a new incarnation of the Michelin two-star restaurant Le 1920. The only hotel directly on the Mont d’Arbois slopes, expect 235 groomed runs at your front door.
Gorman Chairback Lodge Opens January 27th
Mention the 100-Mile Wilderness Trail to a hiker and they’re certain to get a bit misty-eyed, dreaming about this last 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Maine. Slicing through the legendary North Woods, this is a land of seemingly endless forest filled with mile-high mountains, immense lakes and too many ponds to count. The large swath of wilderness feels like a chunk of Alaska remarkably placed in our congested Northeast. Lured by the opportunity to hunt, fish, and take large gulps of pine-scented air, “sports” have been making the long trek north from Boston and New York for close to 150 years, following in the footsteps of that highly opinionated naturalist Henry David Thoreau.
Over the past two decades, many of these historic sporting camps, with their communal dining lodge and rustic cabins, have fallen into private hands. When the opportunity arose in 2003 to purchase the Little Lyford Pond Camps, nestled in a grove near the 100-Mile Wilderness Trail, the Appalachian Mountain Club decided to buy the lodging. Then they made the bold move to acquire 37,000 acres of surrounding land and two additional sporting camps, Chairback and Medawisla. Last November, the AMC purchased an additional 29,500 acres from the Plum Creek Timber Company for $11.5 million and are now partnering with a fourth sporting camp, West Branch Pond Camps.
The sporting camp-to-sporting camp network in the North Woods is a new variation of the AMC’s hut-to-hut system in the Whites. With each sporting camp spaced some seven to ten miles apart, folks can cross-country ski, snowshoe, and dog sled from lodging to lodging, creating the perfect four-night stay. This is especially true now that Chairback, renamed Gorman Chairback, will reopen on January 27th. First opened as a private camp in 1867, it’s hard to top the setting of Gorman Chairback, located on the shores of Long Pond, in the shadows of the Barren-Chairback Range.
Celebrate Labor Day Weekend at Vermont’s Wilburton Inn
Last time I stayed at the Wilburton Inn, I tried to belly dance, sang children’s songs in a big singalong, and learned about the history of conflict resolution from ancient Greek times to the present. No, Manchester’s Wilburton Inn is not your typical New England inn. Come here for a stay and you leave as part of the multi-talented Levis family. This is especially true on Labor Day Weekend, when the whole family joins in the festivities. It all starts with a Celebration of the Arts cocktail party on Friday night, September 1st, when southern Vermont’s leading artists schmooze with the patrons and the public. On Saturday morning, innkeeper and psychiatrist Dr. Albert Levis discusses how creativity is the best way to resolve conflicts as he takes you on a tour of sculptures on the Inn grounds. Things start to heat up that evening when Melissa Levis turns her year of 50 blind dates into a naughty cabaret with songs of love in the age of Tinder in "The Innkeeper’s Daughter." Brother Oliver Levis and his wife Bonnie, founders of Earth Sky Time Community Farm, host the 3rd annual Moonshine Music Festival on Sunday, September 2 at 6pm. Billy Wylder and Rootbrew perform, while organic pizza washed down with artisanal cocktails are served. The Boston Globe said it best when it noted: "This family is all inn."
Warm Weather Getaways with a New England Connection
For the first time in its 80-year history, Yankee Magazine has ventured outside the borders of New England to focus on warm weather destinations this winter. Yet, to be fair, my story is only online and my editor insisted that the line-up of locales had to have some connection to New England. Whether it’s the youngest Vanderbilt brother escaping his siblings in Newport, Red Sox fans flocking to spring training, or New Englanders of yore forming new communities in the south and west, we’ve come up with a list that will hopefully inspire New Englanders to “keep it local.” Please tell me what you think.
My Top 5 Adventures in 2009, Climbing Masada, Israel
This past January, almost exactly a year ago, my family spent several weeks in Israel. On our final day, we drove south of Jerusalem past Bedouin villages into the rolling hills of the Judean desert. This is where you find the mountain fortress, Masada, known as the site where the Israelites committed mass suicide rather than serve as slaves to the Romans in 73 A.D. Climbing Masada is a rite of passage for most people heading to the country. Fortunately it was January, so the heat wasn’t too bad as my daughter Melanie counted all 865 steps to the summit. As a reward for the hike, we brought the kids for a swim in the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth. It was late in the day, the waters were rough, and we forgot our towels. No one seemed to care as we floated in the salty sea, staring at the mountainous ridges of Jordan on the opposite shores. See the full story in The Boston Globe.
Bike the Big Island with Backroads
Home to two of the most active volcanoes in the world, one would expect Hawaii’s southernmost island to be an angry land of deadened rock and rivers of red. But this ever-expanding island has a myriad of moods—the gentle rolling hills of Waimea; the inviting sand of the Kohala Coast; the almost impenetrable jungle-like interior of the Hamakua Coast; the enormity of two mountains that are nearly 14,000 feet; even a rain forest on the backside of a volcano. Indeed, Hawaii is more like a miniature continent than an island in the Pacific.4 Comments
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It’s always good to see that the gorilla population in Bwindi and Mgahinga are rising.
And what is even better, is that the promotional gorilla permit prices don’t only apply to foreigners, but also to Ugandans and other East Africans. In the period advertised by UWA, they only have to pay 150’000 UGX per person! This is about US $58!
Cheers
Good to hear, Niels. Thanks for sharing!
Steve
The price for gorilla trekking has increased from $ 500 to $ 600, from next year 2014.
That’s good to know, Sandra. Thanks for sharing!