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Austin Adventures Offers Mother/Daughter Hiking Trip to Zion and Bryce

Austin Adventures recently announced the wise decision of making Kasey Austin president of the company. I had the pleasure of traveling with Kasey and her dad, Dan, founder of Austin Adventures on a fantastic trip to the peaks surrounding Colorado Springs in 2015. I’m happy to announce that one of Kasey’s first moves as president is creating more multisport trips for women, including a 6-day mother/daughter group trip to Zion and Bryce August 23-28, 2020. Cost is $2898 per person, double occupancy. Other women-only trips include hiking in the Canadian Rockies September 6-11 and a multisport adventure to Peru and Machu Picchu September 12-20. ActiveTravels is happy to check availability and help with airfare and lodging/route before or after your adventure.

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Not Your Father’s Holiday Inn

I visited two Holiday Inns in the Cartagena area and was impressed with both properties. At the Holiday Inn Express Cartagena Bocagrande, I met the representative from Colombia Tourism, who noted that the country has had a remarkable surge of travelers, a 28% increase between 2016 and 2017. It’s not surprising when you consider that a room at this new hotel (not like any Holiday Inn I’ve seen in the US) is less than 100 dollars a night including a buffet breakfast, with rooftop pool, and only a 5-minute walk to the beach. Even more impressive was the Holiday Inn Cartagena Morros property just north of the airport. This is a contemporary resort on the beach with outdoor pool, large fitness center, and breakfast buffet. I just looked at the cost for tonight and it’s only $103 US. A 15-minute drive from Old Town on a wide stretch of beach, this is an affordable find. 

 
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Hot Off the Press: ActiveTravel’s June/July Newsletter

This is our combined June/July issue. Like many of you, we’ll be traveling with the kids once school ends in late June. This summer, we’re off to Istanbul and Cappadocia. We’ll report back on our adventures in the August issue. As many of you know, I just returned from a memorable week of travel in Nova Scotia. To give you a little taste of what I experienced in this Atlantic Maritimes province, our “News from the Road” feature is devoted to Nova Scotia. In mid-July, Lisa and I will be hiking, biking, and paddling our way to the four huts of the Maine Huts & Trails system, as discussed in our Quick Escape. Also in this issue, Lisa talks about her favorite hotels in Hong Kong, an outfitter we use in Asia to book trips to Bali, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and luggage that has its own GPS system, so you know exactly where it is at all times. 

 
Next week I’ll be partnering with The Trustees of Reservations, the Massachusetts-based nonprofit conservation organization, to design Dream Day Itineraries for families based on their 112 locales in the state. So please stay tuned and also follow me on Twitter @ActiveTravels. Enjoy the weekend and stay active!
 
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April Newsletter Now Available at ActiveTravels.com

Besides being on call when mishaps happen and earning the chance to win free hotel stays, another integral part of an ActiveTravels membership is our monthly newsletter. These stories are not the usual travel fluff you see in magazines. They’re first-hand insightful commentary curated from over 20 years of being a travel writer. Or a topical news peg like an intriguing new resort that comes across our desk. Since we started ActiveTravels, we have been churning out these monthly newsletters hoping to inspire your travels. One of our long-term goals was to categorize each of our headings, so you can have this library of information at your fingertips. We’re happy to report that it’s now available on our website. Simply type in your password and you’ll find more than 15 Quick Escapes, ideal for a weekend getaway. Or check out our main feature, “News from the Road,” which tackles one region at a time, like the Greek Isles, Kenya, French Polynesia, or the Canadian Rockies. 

 
Hopefully, we inspired you to travel this month with our feature story in the April issue on Bermuda, hotels we recommend in Prague, a Quick Escape to Portsmouth, and a new website that allows you to reserve flights for extended periods of time without full payment. 
 
Happy Travels!
 
Steve and Lisa 
 
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Backroads Family Trip to Switzerland, Hiking the Classic Eiger Trail

Day Four of our Backroads family trip to the Bernese Oberland was the most strenuous and arguably the most memorable day. We took a short train ride from Grindelwald to Alpiglen to start our long uphill climb, over 3,000 feet on the well-trodden Eiger Trail. As we made our ascent, we could see the town of Grindelwald in the valley below. Lofty Eiger Peak, standing 13,020 feet, was socked in with clouds, until we were practically beside her near the trailhead to mountaineering’s epic climb, the North Face. Then the clouds started to part and we were treated to magical views of Eiger and Jungfrau and the hanging glaciers that snaked down the hillside in between. For the next hour, we walked alongside these craggy snow-topped peaks before reaching the village of Kleine Scheidegg, home to the highest major train station in Switzerland and thus a tourism hub in the middle of the Alps. After lunch, we left the crowds behind as we made our way on relatively level ground to the Männlichen Gondola. The only obstacle was a herd of cows we met up with on the narrow path. One cow came straight toward me and I wisely ran into the grass above the trail to avoid being trampled. My legs weren’t working too well at that point but I’m happy to see my brain was. 

 
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Top 5 Beaches in New England to Be Active: Mountain Bike Bluff Point Beach, Connecticut

Feel like mountain biking to the beach? At the 778-acre Bluff Point State Park in Groton, a dirt road lines Poquonock River as you head straight to Bluff Point Beach. If you want to ride by your lonesome, numerous singletracks spread out in every direction from the main trail like spokes on a wheel. Choose one and ramble along the shores or inland to the John Winthrop house, dating from the early 1700s. Take a breather on the rocky bluffs where you can see directly across the Long Island Sound to New York’s Fishers Island and left to Rhode Island’s Watch Hill.
 

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Nova Scotia Week: Oyster Farming at Eel Lake

With its slight mix of salt and fresh water, the 5-mile long Eel Lake is ideally suited for oyster farming. The clean, cool water is home to the premium Ruisseau oyster, high on the chef’s wish list of oysters in Toronto. On our first day in Nova Scotia, after the smooth and easy ride on Nova Star Cruises and a stroll around the stunning seascape of Cape Forchu Lighthouse, we met up with Colton D’Eon. Colton’s dad, a lobster fisherman, Nolan, started Eel Lake Oyster Farm with his wife Kim. Now the business is thriving with over 4,000,000 oysters in various stages of growth. Colton and another employee, Jed, took us out on their boat to show us the many rows of oyster beds. Through use of hydraulics, they pulled up one cage to show us how much one oyster had grown just in the past month, no longer dormant in winter. The oyster you typically suck down in a restaurant is approximately 3 years in age or 3 ½ inches in length. When harvest starts in the fall, Colton notes that there are often 100,000 oysters being shipped from their small plant. When we get back to the docks, Colton shucks one of his oysters and we quickly understand what all the fuss is about. The meat is tender, rich and sweet. But it’s that Eel Lake water, with its slight brine that enhances the flavor. Tours are open to the public, so be sure to schedule one for an intriguing glimpse into the life of a Nova Scotian oysterman. 
 

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