Dear << Test First Name >>,

The other day I was listening to a podcast and I heard an interview with Oliver Burkeman. Have you heard of this author? He wrote the bestseller, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. His premise is that if you make it to 80 years old, you have just over 4000 weeks of a life to live. This finite number kinda makes you think about how much time you want to devote to busywork, getting ahead, and staying on the career treadmill. Perhaps now is as good a time as any to consider how to create a meaningful life and how to best use one of our most important assets, the time we have been given. After all, many of us will be contemplating our goals for the new year.

This week I also had an encounter with a client at an event. He was ruminating on his impending big milestone birthday and how he recently wrote his wish list of destinations to visit. His list was wonderful and diverse and very long! Mine is long, too, and I work in the travel industry!

All this is my way of saying, don’t wait! Take that trip now, even if it’s a short jaunt or epic drop-everything journey. We can help you get there! So, talk to us and we can map out a way to make it happen.

Just a reminder, for the rest of this month, you can give the Gift of Travel to a friend and/or loved one who enjoys traveling and not only will they receive our travel expertise on their trips for the coming year, but half of the proceeds will go toward No Kid Hungry. It’s a win/win for everyone. Send us an email to give this gift today.

This month our members are on the move. We have people traveling in the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Hawaii, Wyoming and Maine. How cool is that?

Please read on to find out where Steve was traveling last month (Scandinavia) and where we are heading for a few days next week (Vermont). And, we report on new nonstop flights to Europe beginning this spring in major cities in the US. Just in time to start ticking off your bucket list!

Amidst all the uncertainties of the world as well as all of the challenges we face each day, we are so very grateful to our ActiveTravels members who stick with us and keep exploring this amazing world of ours with our guidance and assistance.

We wish you all a happy and wonderful holiday season and, of course, many exciting travels ahead.

Warmly,

Lisa & Steve

ActiveTravels, LLC

As I walked hesitantly onto an iced-over lake, following directly behind Jonas, the owner of the Aurora Safari Camp, it was hard not be mesmerized by this vast winter wilderness of tall firs, sheet of ice, and a shimmering sky slowly starting to offer light by mid-morning. We reached a sauna on the lake that within a week would be a warm refuge for the intrepid who dare to make the icy plunge. In summer, this same self-contained unit, replete with bed, bathroom, and kitchen, would be moved behind an island on this remote body of water so that couples who crave privacy will get that cherished overnight away from everyone. Yet, in winter, this sauna is the ideal meeting place after a day of dogsledding, snowmobiling, snowshoeing at the nearby Arctic Circle, or meeting the indigenous Sami people and their requisite herd of reindeer.

Swedish Lapland was the last stop of a 10-day trip to Scandinavia in mid-November with the tour operator we love to work with in this part of the world, 50 Degrees North. It was a far cry from the crowded streets of our first destination, Copenhagen, busy with hordes of bikers making their commute to work or walkers on the pedestrian shopping street, Strøget. Tivoli Gardens was busy putting up some 2 million lights for their annual “Christmas in Tivoli” jubilee that runs from November 15 to January 5th. Holiday market stalls were also crowded with locals dining on Christmas specialties like Æbleskiver, small fluffy doughnut balls dusted with powdered sugar, and Risengrød, warm rice pudding topped with cinnamon and butter. All washed down with Gløgg, a hot, sweet, mulled wine spiced with cinnamon, cloves, orange, almonds, and raisins.

After the short direct flight from Boston to Copenhagen on SAS (translation: very little sleep), I was happy to spend the first two nights of the trip at the welcoming Nimb Hotel. This Moorish-style white palace was once part of Tivoli Gardens when it first opened in 1843, housing small boutique shops that sold chocolates, gloves, and flowers. Now the 38-room Small Luxury Hotel is home to spacious suites, a Turkish-style hammam and spa, and a French brasserie which served one of the best meals of the trip. But the main attraction is Tivoli Gardens, lit up magically at night. You not only have free access to the Gardens and its many restaurants and bars, including Grøften, a favorite restaurant for locals who yearn for their Danish specialties, but it’s a unique opportunity to find peacocks roaming outside your terrace on the ground floor. If your room is not ready yet after the international flight arrives early morning, staffers at Nimb will take the kids to the aquarium at Tivoli to feed the fish. 

Copenhagen is a fantastic walking city and I put in my steps visiting the narrow street Værnedamsvej, often referred to as “Little Paris” for its showcase of charming boutique shops and cafes. One morning I stumbled upon the King’s Garden, circa 1606, which once supplied fresh fruit and vegetables to the royal family, but is now a public green space favored by ducks who swim in canals under trees that glowed with late fall color. Of course, you have to make your way to Amalienborg Palace (pictured above) in the heart of Copenhagen, where you can visit the seat of one of the world’s oldest monarchies and see the Changing of the Guards every day at noon. Inside, you’ll find the long Gala Hall and reception rooms still used by the royal family to greet dignitaries, including one room covered with modern tapestries which I loved. Amalienborg will whet your appetite for the impressive Kronborg Castle, an hour north of Copenhagen by train or transfer, where you can find this UNESCO World Heritage site immortalized by Shakespeare as the basis for Elsinore in Hamlet. This is a must-stop and worth combining with the nearby Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on the train ride up. 

Another wonderful art museum, Moderna Museet, was my first destination after dropping my bags off at the Lydmar Hotel in Stockholm (pictured above), a 10-minute walk to the museum. There were intriguing shows on German Expressionism and the Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan, when I was there. The Lydmar felt like a museum itself, a small boutique property owned by the more classic Grand Hotel next door, where the walls are covered with large photographs of anything from Iggy Pop to a wet dog. The location is ideal, smack dab in the center of the city, an easy stroll to Stockholm’s Old Town (Gamla Stan) and even less time to catch a ferry to one of the many nearby islands.

We caught a short ferry to the island of Djurgården, where we would find one of the highlights of the trip, the behemoth of a warship that sank in 1628 called Vasa. You really can’t understand how massive this 68-gun ship (pictured above) is until you see it. But once you do, you’ll understand why it sank almost as soon as it launched from being far too top heavy. It remained intact on the bottom of the Baltic Sea until the 1960s, when they finally had the engineering acumen to miraculously get it on land. Also on the same island is the ABBA Museum, where you can follow the history of the band members as they made their way from playing small folk festivals in Sweden to becoming one of the most legendary pop bands of all time. Remarkably, they only toured for 6 years, but they amassed quite an empire through the hit play and movie, Mamma Mia, and now “ABBA Voyage,” a hologram spectacle in London that sells out nightly. According to Samuel, the GM at the Lydmar, Benny Andersson from the group still works out regularly at a gym next door to the hotel and you can see him roaming the city like a humble guy. 

From Stockholm, we flew north to Luleå and drove about an hour to Aurora Safari Camp. Five cozy cabins, including two glass-enclosed cones, are perched on the lake’s shore looking directly at the night sky to hopefully see the Northern Lights in winter. We saw the gleaming stars at night, but, most likely, a full moon prevented us from seeing the Northern Lights.

But talk about a toasty warm environment near the Arctic Circle come winter! There’s always a fire burning outside. Inside the main lodge, you dine on soup made from the local chanterelles, and then feast on lean reindeer and herring. They also own another lodge called The Outpost, which can be taken over by one family or group for private booking. We were shown another gloriously designed property of 3 huts called Arctic Retreat, located at a scenic river’s bend, owned by an Aussie sailor and his Norwegian wife who he met while she was traveling Down Under. All these properties are a gateway to a slew of activities in Swedish Lapland in both winter and summer. If you want to escape Europe’s crowds, this is the place. You can combine with Sweden’s Ice Hotel, located 3 hours to the north.

ActiveTravels is based in Boston, so we are delighted to hear about the new nonstop flights from Beantown to several major European cities. JetBlue will offer new nonstop routes to Edinburgh and Madrid starting this May. The airline is already flying from Boston to London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin so the possibilities are expanding for us. Another wonderful announcement is that TAP, Portugal’s national airline, will soon be offering a nonstop to Porto from Boston four days per week from May through October. You can also choose to do a stopover in Porto up to 10 days at no additional charge to your fare on your way to another point in Europe. Not to be outdone, Delta is adding direct flights to Milan and Barcelona from Boston this summer.

United Airlines is also doing some major expansion into the international airspace with lots of new nonstops from Chicago to Naples, Italy; Newark to Sicily and Bilbao, Spain, and the Algarve; San Francisco to San Jose, Costa Rica (finally!); and Washington DC to Nice, France and to Venice.

And now for a short quiz! Most fliers know the airport codes for JFK and LAX. However, you may not know the following codes! Questions are below and answers can be found at the end of our newsletter (but, you must read the whole newsletter to find out the answers)!

1. If you are flying out of Omega, Namibia, what is its 3 letter airport code?

2. What if your destination is Lovelock, Nevada? Any idea for it’s code?

And, please remember, if you are hoping to get away and want advice on the best and most direct routes to your desired destination, contact us and we’ll be happy to assist!

**Here’s the answers: OMG and LOL! Did you guess them?