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Italian Travel Expert Reid Bramblett to Lead Trip to Italy in 2015

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the work of travel writer Reid Bramblett since we were both contributing editors at Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine some 15 years ago. He’s the foremost expert on Italy, where he spent his adolescence and then proceeded to pen ten guidebooks (including Frommer’s and DK titles) and far too many articles to count. He has since launched ReidsItaly.com, a travel planning website that I often use to design itineraries for clients heading to Italy. So I was excited to hear that Reid will be guiding a weeklong tour to Tuscany July 2015 in conjunction with Bliss Travel. A dozen lucky people will have Reid as their tour guide as he heads to Florence and then the cherished Tuscan hill town of Montepulciano. You’ll sample Vino Nobile wine from barrels aged in Etruscan-dug tunnels, take private cooking classes, and tour the spectacular towns and vine-draped hills of the surrounding Sienese countryside. Cost is $3500 per person. 

 

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Time to Put the Azores on Your Bucket List

As a long-time ActiveTravels client, I’d strongly recommend the Azores for an easy retreat: just a four-hour direct flight from Boston. On the island of São Miguel, stay at the historic villa of Quinta Minuvida, with orchards, gardens, pool, and yoga studio, surrounded by acres of green pastures, and framed by old stone walls and beaches. Hosts Rimi and João lead “curated” adventures and know local drivers and guides. 

Eat fresh fish, cheese, bread, fruit and jam. Don’t miss the geothermal stew (cozido nas caldeiras), chouriço (smoked sausage) and bacalhau (salted cod). Soak at Caldeira Velha and Poça da Dona Beija volcanic hot springs. Hike in Furnas, or all over the island. Ascend winding roads to Sete Cidades crater lakes. Explore lava tunnels in Ponta Delgada. Learn about unique-to-the-Azores pineapple production at Arruda plantation. Walk the black sand beaches of Santa Bárbara and Santana. Don’t miss Quinta dos Sabores, a farm-to-table restaurant. Enjoy Minuvida’s firepit. Also kayak, go canyoning or birding, bike, ride horses, see whales, learn about local ceramic and tea production, and more. 
 
July and August are busy, but the island is enjoyable year-round. I loved February! High season runs May – September, “shoulder” season is recommended (March/April, and October/November). Enjoy! 
 
Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches 
 
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Budget Beach Option in Belize

Located at the southern tip of a long, narrow peninsula, Placencia attracts sun worshippers from all over the globe with more than 16 miles of white sand. If you tire of the beach, a popular day trip is a half-day kayak through the mangroves of Monkey River. Crocodiles, howler monkeys, even manatees can be spotted here. A popular beachfront restaurant in town is De’Tatch Seafood Beach Bar, where you dine on shrimp burritos or fish tacos. If you’re lucky enough to snag one of the six beachfront cabanas, all air-conditioned, at Blue Crab, you’ll also be treated to some great Asian fare, courtesy of the Taiwanese-born owner. 

 
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Save Money on Rental Cars

Last week, I took the family to Miami Beach and Marco Island for Presidents Week vacation. Flying into Fort Lauderdale Airport, rental car prices were averaging a ridiculous $750 a week for a mid-sized vehicle. But if you picked up that same car down the road from my hotel in Miami Beach, the price was significantly reduced to a more affordable $300 a week. With a cost of taxi from Fort Lauderdale Airport to Miami Beach being a mere $35, I saved myself over $400 simply by not booking the rental car at the airport. It seems that rental car companies are intentionally jacking the prices at airports, assuming that travelers don’t want to hassle with picking up the car at a downtown location. But if you do the search like I did on the Dollar website, you’ll be happy with the savings of dollars!
 

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Stay at the Old Tavern in Grafton, Vermont for $222 for Two Nights, Including Breakfast

If you want to stay in a quintessential Vermont town, close to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and downhill skiing, you might want to take advantage of the Old Tavern in Grafton’s latest deal. Pay just $222 for two nights at the inn (through March), including a full country breakfast and an afternoon cider and Grafton Cheese social. Down the road, The Grafton Ponds Outdoor Center features 15 km of groomed Nordic skiing, wine and cheese snowshoe tours, tubing down a 600-foot high hill, and, new this year, horse-drawn sleigh rides. Never been to Grafton? Amble along Main Street past the Country Store, where I once spotted a sign posted outside asking if anyone’s seen a missing horse, and you swear you just stepped into a Currier and Ives painting. To the right is the red brick town hall, circa 1816, now home to the post office. Further up the road, past the white clapboard houses spewing smoke from their chimneys is the requisite white steeple. Across the street is the Old Tavern, opened in 1801, and once the stagecoach stop on the ride from Boston to Montreal. Ulysses S. Grant spent a night here while campaigning for his presidency and Rudyard Kipling liked the locale so much he honeymooned at the hotel in 1892. For more information on Grafton, see the story I wrote for Preservation Magazine. 

 
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Woodstock Inn & Resort Debuts the Red Barns at the Kelly Way Gardens

When we caught up with Woodstock Inn General Manager, Gary Thulander, over dinner last month at the property, he was very excited about the opening this spring of the Red Barns, renovated rustic barns down the road from the property that will showcase the wealth of produce already growing at the surrounding Kelly Way Gardens. Certified organic by the Vermont Organic Farmers Association, the gardens boast more than 200 varieties of produce including 55 varieties of tomatoes, 75 berries and orchard plantings, 50 herbs and edible flowers, a mushroom glen, annual and perennial flowers, honey, and hops. Taking advantage of this bountiful harvest, the Red Barns will combine rustic charm with a state-of-the-art cooking and dining facility to offer the Red Barn Dinner Series this summer. Join Gardener Benjamin Pauly and Executive Chef Rhys Lewis on Sundays in July and August for an evening of dining that features the local artistry of Vermont’s cheesemakers, farmers, beekeepers, and dairymen while celebrating the abundant produce of the Kelly Way Gardens. Dinners will start at 5 pm and cost $55 per person. Reservations are a must. You can also enjoy tea in the gardens, Tuesdays in July, August, and September, free to inn guests, or a sensory stroll through the gardens on Thursdays. 

 
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Half Price at Maine Resorts this Spring

All you have to do is donate $35 to Habitat for Humanity and you become eligible for 50% off room rates at participating Maine inns this spring. It’s all part of the Maine Innkeepers Association annual Habitat for Humanity fundraiser, which has raised over $115,000 for local Habitat projects across Maine since 2004. The reduced rate is available at 24 participating inns and resorts throughout the state between April 21 and May 23. They include several of my personal favorites like Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth, the Beachmere Inn in Ogunquit, and Harraseeket Inn in Freeport. 

 

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