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Great Late Summer Savings from New England Inns and Resorts Association

While most of America is heading back to school, the northeastern part of the country can celebrate one more vacation with the family in late August before school starts after Labor Day. Many lodgings in New England offer deals the last week of August to entice families. NEIRA just sent me their latest listing including many last-minute deals. Rates at Meadowmere Resort in Ogunquit drop 30% the last week of August to $149 a night including breakfast. The Inn at Ocean’s Edge in Lincolnville, Maine, just north of Camden, is $188 a night including full gourmet breakfast starting August 25th. Or head to Newport and stay at Gilded where the mid-week rate is $229 a night. To find year-round savings with NEIRA, sign up for their Inn Crowd emails. 

 

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Visiting Grand Canyon National Park in Winter

At the mile-deep Grand Canyon, it’s not uncommon to start in down parkas at the South Rim (7,000 feet) and, two hours later, meet hikers in shorts and tank tops. Indeed, temperatures can be 20 degrees warmer on the shores of the Colorado River. The warmest winter corridor to the bottom is the route from Bright Angel to South Kaibab.  Hike down the steeper 7-mile Kaibab Trail and then loop back on the far gentler 9.5-mile Bright Angel Trail. You’ll find that the canyon’s colors look even more dramatic as winter’s sun casts long shadows. All campgrounds on the South Rim stay open year-round while the much colder and snowier North Rim (1,000 feet higher than the South Rim) requires a backcountry use permit and is inaccessible to cars. 
 
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Hiking Though Lush Fern Canyon

When it comes to natural beauty, California is blessed with an abundance of riches. So much in fact that many of its state park like Pfeiffer Burns in Big Sur, Crystal Cove in Laguna Beach, and Prairie Creek Redwoods in Orick easily rival the scenery of numerous national parks in America. To reach Prairie Creek Redwoods, you take a spectacular coastal route, Highway 101, north of Trinidad (a small beach community definitely worth a visit) to Orick and then take a twisting dirt road, Davison Road, through groves of mega-sized redwoods to reach the remote sands. Those in the know booked the campsite on Gold Bluffs Beach while others should drive to the end of the dirt road to the Fern Canyon parking lot. As the name implies, Fern Canyon is a gulch with steep walls covered in glistening ferns, rivulets of water dripping down like a soft sprinkler system. On the short walk over to the canyon, trunks of spruce and red alder are covered in moss, giving you a hint that you’re in for a treat. Enveloped in this sanctuary of green, you walk as far as you like, crossing a stream on logs numerous times, before simply returning. But don’t just jump back into your car. Head over to the beach, where we spotted a buck elk with huge antlers gnawing at the sea grasses. Yes, Prairie Creek Redwoods is home to a large elk herd. A nice bonus!
 
A big thanks to Humboldt County for a great week of traveling! I’ll be back on Monday with one more blog from my trip, the surprisingly good Humboldt County wine. 
 
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Skiers Should Purchase Their Epic Pass Now

Earlier this year, Vail Resorts added an additional five Northeastern ski areas to its portfolio of resorts. In addition to Stowe, Okemo and Mount Sunapee, the Epic Pass now provides unlimited, unrestricted access to Mount Snow in Vermont; Hunter Mountain in New York; and Attitash Mountain Resort, Wildcat Mountain and Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire. Add one trip out West to either Vail, Park City, or Whistler, and it’s worth the money. Sunday, November 24th is the last chance to purchase the Epic Pass and the entire suite of Epic Pass products for the 2019-20 season. Look through the options and see which one is best for you, including a new Epic Day Pass, with discounts of up to 50% off lift ticket window prices. The Northeast College Pass is $409 for the season with unlimited access to Stowe (except for the Holidays), Okemo, and Sunapee. 

 
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Excited to Add Amy Perry Basseches to the ActiveTravels Team

One of the true signs of any successful business venture are loyal customers. If our members return to us again and again to design their travels, then we know we’re doing something right. Amy Perry Basseches was already one of our closest friends in Boston when we started work on her travels 5 years ago. We have since planned trips for her family in one form or another (mother/daughter, father/son, father/daughter, mother/son, husband/wife, entire family) to Scandinavia, Italy, Morocco, Turkey, Croatia, France, Estonia, the UK, Costa Rica, Colorado, Oregon, Louisiana, California, even a college trip that passed through my hometown of Schenectady, New York on the way to Rochester (though I couldn’t recommend my favorite local burger joint, Jumpin Jack’s, because her daughter is a vegetarian). Each time she returns home with another travel request and we value her repeat business. 

Her passion for travel and gregarious personality are ideally suited for the travel industry so it’s no surprise that we’ve been trying to woo her to ActiveTravels for several years now. Our persuasive tactics have finally paid off. Amy is officially part of the ActiveTravels team, assisting us with marketing, travel planning (especially to her beloved Azores), and creating content for our newsletters and blogs. We’re overjoyed to welcome Amy to ActiveTravels and know that the honesty we value in our friendship and the love we share for authentic travel can only enhance the ActiveTravels brand.
 
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Drive the Sea-to-Sky Highway…in Your Own Lamborghini

The drive to Whistler from Vancouver is on one of the most breathtaking stretches of roadway in North America, the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The drive heads north away from the ocean high into old-growth forest. Just outside Squamish, you can see rock climbers scurry up the cliffs and spot the white dome atop 8,787-foot Mount Garibaldi. Then you pass two impressive waterfalls, Shannon and Brandywine, before making a final ascent to the lofty peaks of Whistler. I always love taking this route on the open-air compartment of the Rocky Mountaineer’s “Whistler Sea-to-Sky Climb.” But next time I might have to take the train down after first driving to Whistler in a Lamborghini. Scenic Rush, a Vancouver-based tour company that started in 2014, offers four exotic driving experiences ranging in price from $495 to $1,295 CAD per person. The 3.5-hour Sea to Sky Experience also includes the opportunity to take the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish or a helicopter tour above the alpine peaks of the Coast Mountain Range. Be sure to spend a night or two in Whistler to try the longest zipline in North America, take the spectacular Peak 2 Peak Gondola over a 2.5-mile span from Whistler to Blackcomb, and try the summer bobsled.  
 
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Active New Zealand

For thirty years, Active New Zealand has offered their signature Rimu trip. They’ve obviously doing something right because National Geographic Adventure called it one of the top 10 trips in the world. The location certainly doesn’t hurt. The two-week jaunt goes around the South Island of New Zealand. Start with a snorkel with the local seal colony at the seaside town of Kaikoura, then choose between three multi-day offerings: backpacking in Nelson Lakes National Park, sea kayaking in the Marlborough Sounds, or a mountain biking journey on the Queen Charlotte Track. The group reunites for a stroll in the Punakaiki Rainforest, before hiking at Franz Josef Glacier, and sea kayaking amidst the fjords of Milford Sound. I’ve been to the last three sites and even though it was close to 20 years ago, I still remember it vividly as some of the most stunning scenery I’ve seen on my travels. There are three upcoming trips in April, early fall in the Southern Hemisphere, so it’s a great time of year to go. Cost is $3399 US per person including guides, all lodging, and food.
 

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