Give the Gift of Travel This Holiday Season and We’ll Donate to Ryan’s Well Foundation
On the last day of our recent safari in Botswana and Zambia, we visited the community of Nakatindi, not far from where we stayed in Livingstone, Zambia. We would learn that the villagers here once had to walk through a national park to get their water from the Zambezi River and were frequently attacked by wildlife. Thankfully a water pump was donated to the community and people can now get fresh water piped to their village directly. This was the impetus behind this year’s charity donation. If you purchase a membership to ActiveTravels, whether for yourself or someone else, we will donate half of the proceeds to Ryan’s Well Foundation. This charity brings clean water and supports sustainable water and sanitation projects to 16 countries around the globe. It was started by a first grader in 1997, named Ryan, who learned that people across the globe were getting sick or dying because they didn’t have access to clean water. He and his parents decided to change that as best they could.
As an added gift to the buyer of the membership, we will be sending a children’s book called The Water Princess written by Susan Verde and illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators, Dedham’s own Peter Reynolds, that tells the real-life story of an African girl’s quest for clean drinking water.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and keep active!
Myanmar (Burma) will have a landmark year in 2015, when it holds its first national elections since 1990. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy is favored to win a sweeping majority of seats, but foreign diplomats are already worried that the military will rear its ugly head once again, rigging the election in favor of its de facto party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The reforms of late 2012, early 2013 brought much needed democratic changes, optimism, and a surge of international travelers, many of whom were waiting for the release of Suu Kyi, the Burmese activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner. These last two years have also brought a surge of capital primarily from China to build up the cities. Chinese investments have already changed the look of Vientiane, the historic capital of Laos on the Mekong River. Now the cranes and condos could very well change the look of Yangon (formerly Rangoon), Myanmar’s major city. If you want to visit the golden pagodas, colonial-era buildings, traditional shops, and 40s-era mansions, go now before the city is dotted with sleek new skyscrapers. Then take a river cruise to Mandalay, stopping at small villages along the way to get a real taste of Southeast Asia. 
Thanks to Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the historic hamlet of Concord, Massachusetts, 20 miles west of Boston, has achieved legendary stature as a literary outpost. After all, it was here that Thoreau ventured to the woods with ax in tow in March 1845 to build his hut on 
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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. 
After years of toying with the idea of designing our own group trips utilizing the talent that we know as guides, we’ve finally decided to take the plunge next year. We’re delighted to announce that one of the most renowned cruise writers, Fran Golden, former travel editor of the Boston Herald and author of Frommer’s EasyGuide to Alaskan Cruises and Ports of Call (2018), will be 
All it takes is a one-minute conversation with Dr. Mathieu Duguay to understand how he persuaded the finest harpsichordists and cellists in Amsterdam, New York, and Berlin to come perform Bach in a 300-seat seat church on the island of Lamèque. A genuine lover of music, Duguay knows the most talented period performers of the day and has flown them over to New Brunswick to play in a church, acclaimed for its exceptional acoustics and vibrantly painted interior. Today, the