|

Give the Gift of Travel

Don’t worry if you missed Small Business Saturday. Buy a yearly membership to ActiveTravels today and we’ll still extend our half price offer to Cyber Monday! For a mere $30 a year, you’ll receive guidance from travel advisors who’ve spent more than 25 years in the business and have traveled to over 90 countries. Fill out our questionnaire and we’ll custom-design a Dream Day Itinerary suited to your passions. You’ll also receive VIP service and complimentary upgrades from hotel General Managers we know first-hand around the globe. Want more? How about receiving our monthly newsletters which will keep you updated on the world of travel, and you’ll automatically be included in our raffles for free 2-night hotel giveaways. Last but certainly not least, there are no hidden costs or service fees. Don’t be left at the airport service counter this winter trying to reschedule your flight or at the hotel front desk fighting for a better room when you have someone at ActiveTravels always here to help. It will be the best 30 bucks you’ve ever spent. 
 

Similar Posts

|

Drive the Puuc Route

The Mayan day of doom, December 21st, is almost upon us. There’s no better way to commemorate the occasion than to actually visit some of Mexico’s finest Mayan ruins. A mere hour’s drive south of Merida is the Puuc Route. This hillier region of the Yucatan attracts fewer travelers than the better-known sites of Chichen Itza and Tulum since it is farther from the resort towns of Cancun and Rivera Maya. The rounded pyramid at your first stop, Uxmal, stands majestically on high ground. At the Nunnery Quadrangle, four buildings just behind the pyramid, serpents and heads of jaguars can easily be seen on the motifs. Other Mayan sites along the Puuc Route are also worth a quick detour. Kabah is known for its almost maniacal façade of 250 Chaac sculptures that line one wall. Walk past the wild turkeys and brilliant red birds in the forest of Sayil to reach its grand palace.  

 
|

A Wonderful Week at The Basin Harbor Club

To celebrate my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday, my wife’s family headed to the Basin Harbor Club last week. And what a spectacular week it was! 127 years after Ardelia Beach started taking in summer boarders at her 225-acre working farm on the shores of Lake Champlain, the club’s fourth-generation hosts, siblings Bob and Pennie Beach, are proving that a family business can prosper over time. It helps that they have one of the premier locales on the lake, 740 acres overlooking one of the narrowest parts of Champlain. We did it all—golf, tennis, sail, sea kayak, stand-up paddleboard, swim to the trampoline, and my favorite activity of all, biking. Basin Harbor Club is based in Addison Valley, one of the most fertile parts of the state, where around every bend is a dairy farm, rolled hay, a carpet of emerald green, views of the lake, and the Adirondack and Green Mountains forming a ridge of peaks on either side of you. 

 
Basin Harbor Club is perfect for multi-generation family reunions, because everyone can do what they want during the day and meet for dinner that evening. The food was surprisingly good for a property that offers all-inclusive rates. A highlight was the lobster clambake on the shores of the lake while the sun was setting. Magical! The following day, we danced to a live band playing Nat King Cole favorites as we celebrated my 16th birthday (at least that’s what it said in the daily newsletter). Not surprisingly, many families book the same cottage for the same week the following year before they leave. No doubt, we’ll be joining them. 
 
|

Bike the East Bay Bicycle Path, Rhode Island

All it takes is several miles on a paved path to leave a highly industrialized section of Providence and reach the sheltered coastline of Narragansett Bay. No wonder, locals would rather bike to the beach than deal with car traffic. The 14.5-mile long East Bay Bicycle Path, originally part of the Providence/Worcester line, heads southeast from Providence along the scenic shores of the Bay to the town of Bristol. Less than two miles into the ride, fishing trawlers and sailboats start to appear on the right and small inlets and wetlands can be seen on the left. In the warmer months, you’re likely to see locals clamming for littlenecks in the shallow waters along the route. That’s quite a contrast from the view of the Providence skyline that lurks behind you. 

Soon the trail becomes more scenic as cliffs line the bayside, home to pelicans, egrets, and the occasional swan. South of Riverside, East Bay feels more secluded as you head through forest. Prior to mile 6, you reach Haines Park, your first choice of beaches along the route. The trail then swerves inland through the town of Barrington and crosses two wooden bridges before reaching Warren. Just past the 10-mile mark, Warren is the best place to stock up on food and drink. South of Warren, the trail hugs the shoreline of Narragansett once again as the bay widens before reaching the ocean waters. Soon you’ll reach Colt State Park and Bristol Town Beach, the finest spot for sunbathing along the route. The trail ends in Bristol at Independence Park, near a handful of seafood restaurant choices that sell those freshly caught littleneck clams.
 

|

Vermont Winter Retreat for Adventurous Women

Vermont Outdoors Woman has begun registration for its Annual Winter Doe Camp at the Hulbert Outdoor Center, March 1-3, 2013. Winter Doe Camp is a women’s weekend retreat for outdoor skill development, adventure, health, and just plain fun. Participants can camp out or stay in heated cabins at night, enjoy great meals and play in the snow all day. Spend the weekend learning winter outdoors skills while staying near the shores of Lake Morey in Fairlee. Classes such as dogsledding, fire making, traditional winter camping, survival, camp fire cooking, cross country skiing, orienteering, ice fishing, nature studies, pond hockey, nordic skating, and tai chi, will be offered. The minimum age is 15 and minors must be accompanied by an adult. Cost for the all inclusive weekend program is $290. 

 
|

Raft the Deerfield River in Massachusetts

This coming spring, due to excessive snowfall these past three months, New Englanders are blessed with more water in our backyard than we’ve had in years. “This May proves to be one of our best yet,” says Bruce Lessels, co-owner of the rafting outfitter, Zoar Outdoor in Charlemont, Massachusetts. Many of the whitewater rivers, like the Deerfield that Zoar Outdoor runs, gain their momentum from dam releases at power plants. The more water these plants have in their reservoirs from snow and rain, the more water you have to surge over rapids in a raft or kayak. Raft Zoar Outdoor’s most popular trip, the Zoar Gap. Minimum age is 7 and rates range from $69-$97 depending on age. Their highly regarded white-water kayaking school is also one of the best places to learn the sport in the northeast.

 
|

Urban Renewal Awards, Los Angeles State Historic Park

For most of the 20th century, this large plot of land in downtown Los Angeles was used as an immense Union Pacific railroad yard. When Union Pacific closed shop in 1989, the property laid dormant until 2001. As California State Parks hemmed and hawed about how best to convert the space into a park, artist Lauren Bon, backed by a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, had her own ideas. With the help of The Trust for Public Land, they excavated some 5,000 tons of soil contaminated with hydrocarbons and metals, planted more than a million corn seeds, and installed an irrigation system to create her artwork, Not a Cornfield. The large crop has now been harvested to make way for bike trails and fields of wildflowers. Los Angeles State Historic Park is still being landscaped, but close to half of the property is open to the public.
 

Leave a Reply