If you’re fortunate to have spent a night or two at the Winnetu Resort on Martha’s Vineyard, you quickly realize that owners Mark and Gwenn Snider have a passion for entertaining, especially the little ones. The parents of three go overboard to keep kids happy, whether it’s a drive aboard a 1947 fire truck Mark found on EBay or free lemonade and fresh baked cookies every afternoon at 3 pm. Expect the same genuine welcome at their new property, the Nantucket Hotel on the neighboring island of Nantucket. One of the last grand dames still standing on the island, the Nantucket (previously the Point Breeze) was built in 1894 in a sprawling neo-classical style. Smack dab in the heart of Nantucket town, the resort will undergo a major refurbishment, retaining the classic façade while vastly improving the interior, making its debut on June 29, 2012 with 60 guest rooms and suites.
With a high-speed ferry that connects Martha’s Vineyard with Nantucket in a little over an hour, the Sniders have the unique opportunity to offer their guests the first ever two-island resort package. Spend the first part of your vacation at the ultra-sybaritic Winnetu, waking up to morning yoga on the resplendent front lawn, walking to that long stretch of fine white sand at South Beach, swimming in the pool, playing tennis on one of the many courts, and savoring an authentic New England clambake. Then simply shuttle over to The Nantucket to stroll on the cobblestone streets, under gas lamps and gaze at more than 800 buildings that were built before the Civil War. The historic setting is so remarkably preserved that you’ll feel like young Herman Melville himself, doing research on the book that made him famous, “Moby Dick.”
From Quito’s new international airport, it’s over an hour drive to the heart of the city (a $28 taxi fee). The Andean metropolis stands at an elevation over 9300 feet, ringed by volcanic ridges. It’s a sprawling city that fills up the valley, but once you reach its core, you’ll find impressive colonial squares and Spanish churches dating from the 1500s. We stayed on the oldest street in the city, La Ronda, that dates from Incan times in the late 1400s. It’s a narrow winding street lined with restaurants, cafes, and music clubs that once attracted the city’s noteworthy writers, poets, and musicians. Today, locals fill up the street on weekends to dine and listen to music. We stayed at a wonderful property smack dab in the middle of the street called La Casona de La Ronda. Rooms were spacious, designed with contemporary Ecuadorean art, overlooking an inner courtyard. Outside, La Ronda Street was a festive scene while inside this tranquil retreat welcomed us every time we flew back into Quito on our travels. 
The Olympic venues from the 1980 Games in Lake Placid are still used today for national and international competitions, and are open to the public. Visitors can tour many of the 
On the road one-third of the year, you can often find me at night watching the latest House of Cards or Boardwalk Empire episodes on my laptop. Rarely do I find something worthwhile to watch on the hotel television. That’s why I was excited to hear last month that 
The ferry ride from Piraeus to Spetses island is a little under 3 hours or you can take the long drive we did through the Peloponnese peninsula to reach the town of Kosta, then take a 10-minute boat ride over to the island. Either way, it’s worth your effort. On Spetses, time stands still, especially when we ran into a large group of bikers circling the island in Victorian garb for the annual Tweed Day celebration. A 26-kilometer loop circles the island past beaches and the rugged shoreline, ideal for bikers since Spetses is a car-free island. Soon we were back at the main square in town, dominated by the classic façade of the 
Take a chunk of Vermont and plop it down in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and voila, you have Prince Edward Island. This sylvan setting lends itself well to road biking, especially in the fall when the summer crowds are long gone and the maples provide a colorful backdrop. The Canadian Pacific railroad that once connected Prince Edward Island’s small villages last roared through the interior in 1989, leaving in its wake hundreds of kilometers of track. By 2000, the tracks were pulled and the line replaced with a surface of finely crushed gravel, creating a biking and walking thoroughfare called the 
Massachusetts might border the ocean, but it’s not until you drive the interior of this state on backcountry roads that you really appreciate the abundance of water. I woke up at