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Top Dream Days of 2017, Silky Oaks Lodge, Australia

Guest Post and Photos By Lisa Leavitt

A major perk of being a Virtuoso travel agent is the fam trip. Fam is short for familiarization and these trips are usually low cost to travel advisors to appealing destinations around the globe. Nevertheless, once you arrive, you are fair game to any tourism professional or hotelier in the region. Each one wants to show you their property, activity and special corner of the universe. When I went to Queensland, Australia, in March of 2017, I expected countless hotel viewings and long-drawn out meetings with crocodile park owners.
 
Instead I was pleasantly surprised to experience one of my dream days of 2017. I woke up in Silky Oaks Lodge in Mossman Gorge, in the middle of the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest living rainforest on earth. After a breakfast overlooking the flowing river, we boarded helicopters to view the dense forest from above. The pilots surprised us by landing on rocks next to a waterfall so we could experience feeling completely surrounded by this wet tropical landscape. Whisked away moments later, we were brought back to the lodge for a luscious swim down a cool river.
 
The best part was yet to come! We boarded a van to go into Port Douglas the largest town in northern Queensland and home to many boutique shops, great restaurants and a harbor where Quicksilver Cruises is based. We boarded Wavedancer, a large catamaran that soon was cruising out to sea toward the setting sun. With drink in hand, I toasted with my new friends and watched a spectacular sunset. Back on land, we ate a delicious dinner involving Moreton Bay “Bugs,” which look and taste a lot like our Maine lobster. On the way home, we stopped on the side of the road, got out and took a moment to take in the magnificent Southern Hemisphere stars together. It was certainly a day I will always remember.
 

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Four Seasons Debuts New Resort in the French Alps

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Hotel Rooms in Manhattan for $79 a Night!

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La Loma Jungle Lodge, Isla Bastimentos, Panama

I’ve had my fill of snow this winter in Boston. So now I’m dreaming about the warm weather and an upcoming trip to Jamaica. This week, I’ll delve into my favorite eco-resorts in the Caribbean and Costa Rica. The sustainable tourism movement has grown leaps and bounds in the past decade. No longer can you simply throw compost in the back of a Marriott and call it an eco-resort. To be green, destinations have to offer indigenous culture and food, encourage outdoor recreation that highlight the region, curb greenhouse gases that impact the environment, and involve the entire community in the tourism effort. Many resorts even go a step further by helping to support local school systems and food banks. These five lodgings are green in every sense of the word. 

Increasingly, the small eco-retreat design that made such an imprint in Costa Rica has slipped farther south into Panama. On an archipelago in the northwestern part of the country, a short boat ride from the town of Bocas del Toro, is a three-cabana lodge socked in the middle of the verdant jungle and surrounded by a working cocoa plantation.  All of the cabins at the Jungle Lodge were created from fallen trees and inspired by the architecture of the local Ngobe Indians. The employees are also local, including your guide through the rainforest and beach to see sloths, armadillos, small crocs called caimans, and the graceful blue morph butterfly. At dinner, lobster and conch will not be served, as the owners try to use only sustainably harvested fish like yellow jack. Rates are $110 per person a night, including three meals, the boat ride over from Bocas town, and some of the excursions.

 

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It’s wonderful to be back in Cape Breton, especially on a hot cloudless sunny day. After crossing Canso Causeway and following Route 19 on Ceilidh Trail, we picnicked on the rocks of the Celtic Shores Coastal Trail, a hard-packed gravel trail which snakes along the western shores of Cape Breton from Port Hastings all the way north 92 kilometers to Inverness. In Glenville, we stopped at the Glenora Distillery to sample the single malt whisky (can’t call it Scotch since we’re not in Scotland). We stepped into the bar and listened to the live Celtic music from local fiddlers and singers while sampling a flight of five whisky choices. The Glen Breton 10 year-old whisky was smooth, but we loved the 19 year-old cask strength whisky finished in a barrel used for ice wine to add a hint of sweetness at the end. Then we took a tour around the distillery to see how they produced 150 barrels of whisky this past year. Built in 1990, Glenora is the first distillery in North America to attempt to make single malt scotch. The water stems from the shimmering McClellan’s Brook which runs through the bucolic property, while the malted barley comes from Saskatchewan and the fast-acting yeast from South Africa. The finished product is aged in oak barrels from the Buffalo Trace bourbon distillery in Kentucky.  The result is award-winning single malt whisky, worthy of a stop. 

 

A Relaxing Stay at the Iberostar Quetzal

The first week of January, we took the kids and my mother-in-law to an all-inclusive resort just outside of Playa del Carmen called Iberostar Quetzal. Less than a 5-minute walk from the room is one of the most glorious stretches of beach in Mexico, a wide swath of spanking white sand that goes on and on and on. We would take long walks to the remote stretches of the shoreline to watch large lizards hide in the rocks, then take a dip in the heavenly ocean waters. Unlike other all-inclusive properties I’ve stayed at on the Riviera Maya, it was a short walk to both beach and the restaurants, including the ones we could venture to on the neighboring property, Iberostar Tucan.

The jungle-like interior, replete with boardwalks over cenotes past waterfalls, was just as much a joy as walking on the beach. We would spot wonderful wildlife and birdlife including cute little agoutis, howler monkeys, the racoon-like coatis, flamingos, peacocks, cranes, large tortoises, and egrets. What a treat! We would spend most of the day down by the beach, grabbing our paella or tacos for lunch, while often listening to a live band. Then wander back to the room later in the afternoon to read on the balcony, cerveza in hand, while watching monkeys jump from branch to branch. We took a taxi into Playa del Carmen to have dinner one night, another half-day tour to the ruins of Tulum, but we were very pleased to spend most of our time under an umbrella, reading our stack of books, before another beach walk and ocean swim. A perfect warm-weather escape.
If interested in an all-inclusive stay in Mexico or the Caribbean, please let ActiveTravels know and we’ll send you a list of our favorite properties.

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