Climb the St. Augustine Lighthouse

Good news out of Boston last week when Mayor Menino announced that the city will follow in the footsteps of Montreal and Denver and initiate a bike-sharing program this summer. Set to open in July, the Hubway will feature 600 bikes in 61 stations throughout the city. Pay a yearly or daily membership fee and the cost of rental for the ride (trips shorter than 30 minutes will be free) and off you go. Alta Bicycle Share, the company that designed the bike-sharing program in Washington, DC, and Melbourne, Australia, has been hired to oversee the Boston network. There are already plans to expand to neighboring Cambridge, Brookline, and Somerville in 2012.
All you have to do is tell Biosphere Expeditions a little bit about yourself and what you can contribute to one of their projects and you could be one of two lucky buggers who win a free one or two-week jaunt with the volunteer-oriented wildlife conservation organization. What exactly do these expeditions entail? How about photographing whales, dolphins, and loggerhead turtles off the shores of the Azores to help monitor their migration patterns in the Atlantic, tracking jaguars and pumas in the Brazilian bush, or finding the elusive Arabian leopard in the desert and mountains of Oman. Deadline for entry is November 1, 2010, and you can submit either a 300-word essay or a 1-minute video clip.
Dominica’s volcanoes might be dormant yet there’s still fire in the belly of this island. The Valley of Desolation was just one of the highlights on a 7-hour round-trip hike inside Morne Trois Pitons National Park. Our guide, Kent, led my friend and me over muddy trails through a dense forest of tall gommier trees, used to make dugout canoes for 20 to 30 paddlers, and past the massive trunks of the banyan-like chatagnier trees, some more than 300 years old. As we made our ascent out of the darkness of the rainforest canopy, purple-throated hummingbirds kept us company as they stuck their heads into the tubular red heliconia flowers.
The new Envoy Hotel, which officially opened in September, is already receiving press for its wonderful rooftop bar. The best views of the Boston skyline are from the water and the way the Envoy is located, across Fort Point Channel in the burgeoning Seaport District, you feel as if you’re on the water looking back at the city. If you want to savor that breathtaking view by yourself or with a loved one, book the corner suite, Room 604, just below the rooftop bar. The floor-to-ceiling windows overlook Boston harbor and all the tall buildings that edge the water. The room is spacious and stylish, with an antique map of the city painted on the glass doors that lead to the shower, and a large flatscreen television hidden into the wall, offering the latest Netflix and Hulu shows. Best of all, those windows bathe the room in light. If you can break away from the view, grab a cocktail on the roof or downstairs in the restaurant. Some of my favorite restaurants in Boston are within easy walking distance of the property, including Row 34, Legal Harborside, Trade, Sportello, Blue Dragon, and Barking Crab, located right next door to the Envoy. As part of the Autograph Collection, you can use your Marriott points to book the room. You can also take a water taxi straight from the airport to the hotel.
As many bird watchers will tell you, some of the best birding happens in the height of winter. North of Boston, Cape Ann is known for its exciting collection of winter seabirds, including loons, grebes, gannets, sea ducks, and the region’s signature winter bird, the harlequin winter duck. The Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce has teamed up with Mass Audubon to present a Winter Birding Weekend February 4-6, led by local naturalists. There will also be an opportunity to venture out on a wWhale watch boat to spot humpback, fin, and minke whales along with white-sided dolphins, harbor porpoises, and gray seals. The event will be held at the Elks Club at Bass Rocks and costs $25 per person (12 and under free), $45 per person for the boat ride.
When people find out that I’m a travel writer, they inevitably ask, “What’s your favorite trip?” It’s silly to distill the past two decades of work down to one locale so I try to evade the question. If they’re persistent, I’ll usually mention the Marquesas. In 1994, I took a 16-day cruise with my wife that ventured 750 miles north from Tahiti to the archipelago most distant from any continent. The only way to visit all six of the inhabited Marquesa islands was aboard the Aranui, an upscale freighter that offers air-conditioned cabins and three French meals daily. The ship’s main function, however, is to transport goods to the local residents. She comes bearing bricks and cement, pipes and tractors, fishing nets, medicines, and food, all the necessities for an isolated existence; and returns to Tahiti with copra, dried coconut meat that is processed into oil, soap, and cosmetics.
Since there are very few adequate docks in the Marquesas, travelers go ashore in wooden whaleboats to meet the locals. Burly crew members guide passengers on and off these boats quicker than they can toss a sack of rice to each other. Obviously, this is no normal luxury cruise ship. There is no shuffleboard, no stage where entertainment continually bombards you throughout the day, and no dress code for meals.
In its place, you’ll visit the island Nuka Hiva, where a 22-year old sailor named Herman Melville jumped ship and wrote about his experience with cannibals in his first book, Typee. Paul Gauguin’s gravesite rests on the neighboring island of Hiva Oa. Sitting under a plumeria tree on a hillside over the bay, the stone is simply inscribed, “Paul Gauguin, 1903.” A three-hour cruise from Hiva Oa brought us to the verdant island of Fatu Hiva. Here, you can take a ten mile hike into the stunning Bay of Virgins, the most majestic site of the voyage. Towering, storm-worn basalt rises from the ocean’s depth, forming a v-shaped buttress that’s illuminated by the sun’s yellow-green rays. In the distance, serrated ridges, cloud-piercing peaks and impassable gorges stand as a monument to the centuries of volcanic fires that formed this fantastic landscape. That sight is hard to forget.