Portland’s Copper Goddess
Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches
Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches
I’ve been receiving a slew of requests from clients lately about sustainable lodging choices in Central America. Here are the ones I consistently send folks to, time and time again, because they love the experience and the environmentally friendly practices.
Those of you who have followed my writing over the years know I love biking on Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. All three locales are blessed with a network of bike trails that line the coastline, snake through the kettle ponds, or roll atop the dunes of the Province Lands Bike Trail at the tip of Cape Cod (a favorite family outing). So I was delighted to see that Massachusetts-based Great Freedom Adventures will be offering a 6-day guided bike tour to the Cape and Islands this summer. They’ll visit Provincetown, ride along most of the Cape Cod National Seashore to the Rockwellesque village of Chatham, before ferrying over to Nantucket and the Vineyard to bike a good chunk of both islands. Dates are June 14-19, July 12-17, and September 13-18. Cost is $2,595 per person, including all lodging, most meals, guides, and ferry tickets. Also ask about their Maritime Bike and Beer Adventure Tour which visits many microbrews while biking the scenic Cape Ann region of Massachusetts.
This seems rather intuitive but researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have found a correlation between walking at a brisk pace and living longer. Studying data from nine studies involving some 35,000 people, they found that only 35 percent of the slowest walking 75 year-old women made it to their 85th birthday. Males did even worse, with only 19 percent of slowest walking men reaching 85. Bottom line: try your best to maintain a good brisk pace throughout life.
In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the dozen or so Madeleine Islands are unlike any other destination in Quebec—green hillsides, long stretches of beach, red cliffs, and the brightly painted houses of its inhabitants. Once there, you can explore the islands by horseback or bike, try deep-sea fishing, scuba diving, sea kayaking, or the latest craze, kiteboarding. Home of the Kiteboarding World Cup in 2006, the Madeleine’s strong, prevailing winds are ideally suited to a sport that uses a kite to propel you along the water. Give it a go at the first kiteboarding school in Canada, Aerosport, with more than 10 years of experience under their belt.
Brewster Travel Canada has been involved with the Canadian national parks since 1892, when the founders, two teenaged brothers, Jim and Bill Brewster, began guiding guests through the Rockies. If they were around today, the Brewster brothers would be in awe of their company’s latest development. Opening in Jasper National Park this coming May is the Glacier Skywalk, a glass-floored observation platform 918 feet above the Sunwapta Valley. The bird’s eye view provides an unobstructed vista of the glaciers and snowcapped peaks of Jasper, accessible to all. You reach the Glacier Skywalk by a 5-minute coach from the Glacier Discovery Centre.