On safari, you have the choice of booking a lodge and going out on game drives with their respective guides or hiring a company like Epic Private Journeys where former lodge owner and Tanzanian native Rob Barbour will act as a private guide. Obviously, there’s an extra cost involved, but if you’re splurging for this amazing opportunity, it’s important to do it right. The lodge guides we had the past two weeks were hit or miss. Laser-eyed Lazarus at Lamai Serengeti was brilliant, spotting a leopard high up in a tree after a kill and a male lion hidden in the tall grass. We watched as other Land Rovers simply drove past, not seeing the amazing sights we were witnessing. At other lodges, however, I could barely understand the guide’s English, and some couldn’t get the right position for getting the best photo, like a cheetah resting under a tree at sunset.
Rob works with the driver and guide, telling him when to stop, spotting lions others had missed, and giving us a well-rounded description of each animal, including probable age. Just as important, he was with us practically the entire trip, helping with travel logistics. Don’t take this for granted. There are no airports in the Serengeti, Grumeti, or Mwiba, simply strips of pavement for small airplanes to land. So you better double-check to see exactly when your plane is arriving the next day or you won’t be leaving. Most of all you develop a relationship with a private guide that lasts far beyond one trip. Rob travels all around east and southern Africa, from Uganda to Botswana, with clients who request his services year after year. Travel with Rob and you have a genuine friend for life, one who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the African bush.
This is the time of year that I usually receive press releases from tour operators announcing new trips in 2018. Since I just returned from an outstanding Backroads trip to Switzerland, that one caught my eye. They are introducing 38 new trips in 2018, expanding greatly into South America and introducing more ocean cruise trips after the great success they had with Iceland this summer. The multi-adventure family trip to Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park sounds intriguing to me. My good friend, Eric Lucas, who writes regularly about Alaskan travel, has told me this is one of his favorite parts of the state—spectacularly beautiful with far less people than Denali. Biking around Cuba sounds like a great way to see the island. There’s also a new trip to northern Iceland that focuses on the Northern Lights. If interested in any of these trips, let ActiveTravels know and we’ll look into availability. 
Wayne Curtis is best known as author of 
One doesn’t drive in New England simply to get from Point A to Point B. No, we like to linger, savor the beauty, cherish the history. We’re fortunate to be blessed with a diverse landscape full of majestic sights like the jagged shoreline of Maine, the granite notches of New Hampshire, the verdant farmland of Vermont, and the long stretch of white beach found in Rhode Island. We stop not only to post photos to our Instagram and Facebook accounts, but to dine on lobster rolls and fried clams at renowned seafood shacks, hike on the same shoreline and forest paths that inspired Winslow Homer and Robert Frost, and stop to stay at legendary inns or a new cabin built into the vast Maine wilderness. To read my story for Yankee Magazine on 8 Great Summer Drives, including maps, 
In 2012, Boston, a city that prides itself on its fresh seafood, was rocked to its ocean-loving core when a two-part expose published by the Boston Globe revealed that a significant number of fish were mislabeled at area restaurants, grocery stores, and fish markets. Diners were served cheap Vietnamese catfish instead of the succulent and more expensive grouper, haddock instead of cod, tilapia in place of pricey red snapper. Indeed, 24 of the 26 red snapper samples tested were some other species of fish. The two reporters went on a fish collecting spree, sending samples of their findings to a laboratory in Canada for DNA testing. The outcome? A whopping 48 percent of the seafood was mislabeled. In his latest book, 
Travel as much as I do and it’s always wise to have several