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Refurbished Hawks Cay Resort Begins a New Era on the Florida Keys

Almost a year after Hurricane Irma passed through the Florida Keys, Hawks Cay Resort, one of the region’s most renowned properties, has reopened following a $50 million renovation. Owners of Hawks Cay, situated on Duck Key near Marathon, used the opportunity to enhance the resort’s appeal to travelers. Expect completely renovated rooms, two new restaurants and a new oceanfront, adults-only relaxation area called Oasis Cay with pool, food and beverage facilities. With the reopening of Hawks Cay, the Keys lodging inventory is now over 90 percent operational following the Sept. 10, 2017, hurricane and nearly all resorts impacted by Irma are projected to be fully open before the end of 2018. An added bonus is the addition of many new resorts. The all-inclusive adults-only Bungalows Key Largo is to be unveiled later this year. Also in Key Largo, the new 200-room Baker’s Cay Resort, a Curio Collection by Hilton, is scheduled to open by late fall. In Marathon at mile marker 47, the all-new 24-acre, 199-unit Isla Bella Beach Resort will offer a 4,000-square-foot spa, five pools, four food and beverage concepts and a marina when the property opens in early 2019. After last year’s hard winter rebuilding, the Florida Keys is ready to welcome you back this year. 

 

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Building Relationships in the Travel Industry

In a story for the Boston Globe last year, I interviewed Jacob Tomsky, author of the best-selling “Heads in Beds” (Doubleday). Tomsky spent a decade in the hotel industry, seven of those years manning the front desk at an upscale Midtown Manhattan hotel. He told me that folks who book their room online from websites like Hotels.com often received the worst room in the hotel while the people who booked through a travel agent often receive the best room. Why? Because the travel agent usually has a personal connection with the general manager or director of sales at that hotel and calls 2 to 3 days prior to ensure that the hotel knows their client is coming. Like many businesses, the travel industry is all about relationships. Our clients at ActiveTravels often receive free upgrades and that’s because we send a VIP email telling the general manager that our client will soon arrive. We’ve already developed wonderful relationships with properties around the globe so they know us and appreciate our book of business. Lisa will meet hundreds of those general managers next week when she’s in Las Vegas for the largest travel conference of the year, Virtuoso Week. She has over 400 meetings already lined up with the top hotels, outfitters, and representatives from countries around the globe. Meeting people face to face and having their contact info will help us ensure that you always get the best room available on your next trip. 
 
I’m off to Saratoga to hang with my high school buddies. Have a great weekend! 
 
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Hieronymus Bosch Turns 500

Seven years ago, the director of a small museum in the Netherlands set out on an impossible quest: he wanted to borrow every surviving work in the world by the wildest imagination in the history of art, Hieronymus Bosch, to celebrate his 500th anniversary in the city of his birth. In an exhibition opening in February (February 13-May 8), Charles de Mooij will unveil his haul at his Noordbrabants museum in Den Bosch, officially known as ‘s-Hertogenbosch. He has secured 20 of the 25 surviving panels, including several reunited triptychs, and 19 of the 25 drawings, a collection he believes will never be assembled again. Many of the paintings could only travel because money from the Getty Foundation paid for state-of-the-art conservation work to clean the surfaces of the oak panels. This small Dutch city is planning to go bonkers with Bosch fever. There will be moving projections of Bosch paintings in the marketplace, and 3D recreations of angels, demons, damned souls, mermaids riding on flying fish, drunken priests, lascivious women, and monsters with the legs of a giant chicken and the body of an egg. Sounds like one exhibition that should not be missed. 

 
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Drive the Golden Circle, Iceland

There are two types of travelers to Iceland, ones like me who spend the bulk of their time in Reykjavik taking day trips to see the countryside and others who simply stay in small guesthouses in the more remote areas of the island. Obviously, if you can do the latter, you’ll be treated to a far more authentic experience with majestic vistas of glaciers, volcanoes, and the coastline around every bend. I needed to be in Reykjavik for a travel writers’ conference, but even I had the chance to check out three incredible sites thanks to the daylong Golden Circle tour with Reykjavik Excursions. First stop was Thingvellir (Þingvellir) National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where the tectonic plates of Europe and North America meet. You walk on a narrow trail dwarfed by the rocky walls. Next stop was the surging waters of the Gulfoss Waterfalls, cascading down the tiers of rock. You take a short hike to the lip of waterfalls, sprayed by the cool water. Last stop was Geysir, Iceland’s version of Yellowstone where hot pools churn and bubble and the Strokkur geyser erupts every 4 to 5 minutes. Coupled with a trip to the Blue Lagoon, a whalewatching/puffin tour, even the opportunity to hike on a glacier, you can get a good taste of Iceland while spending your nights in Reykjavik. 

 
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Italy, Turkey, Lake George, and Favorite All-Inclusive Resorts in our August Newsletter

In this month’s ActiveTravels newsletter, we describe our recent trip with the family to Istanbul and Cappadocia, an outfitter our clients love in Italy, some of our favorite all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, a Quick Escape to my boyhood stomping ground, Bolton Landing, New York, on the shores of Lake George, and how Award Wallet can save all your airline mileage onto one nice app. 
 
Off to Ithaca to drop our son off at college. I’ll be back with a new entry on Tuesday. Enjoy this last glorious month of summer and Happy Travels!
 
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Maine Windjammer Week, Introducing the Fleet

Don’t fret. While still under the beastly spell of winter here in New England, the Maine windjammers will soon take to the waters for another memorable season. This week I’m excited to delve into the history of these tall schooners that ply the waters of Penobscot Bay, the activities including specialty cruises, the food highlighting the quintessential lobster bake, and the majestic scenery found along the mid-Maine coast. I’ve been fortunate to go on three Maine Windjammer cruises, all with my dad and his wife Ginny, and I’ll never forget the smile on my father’s face when asked to take the wheel by the Captain and sail that big boy. It’s a memory I cherish.

 
The 8 tall ships in the Maine Windjammer Association start plying the waters of the Maine coast in late May. Spring features ideal winds, quiet harbors, and the lowest rates of the season, averaging $140 per person per day, including berth, food (an all-you-can-eat lobster bake!), and activities. It’s hard to go wrong with any of these historic vessels, so choose whatever’s available. 
 
Each boat has a story to tell. The Victory Chimeswas built in 1900 in Bethel, Delaware, to carry lumber within Chesapeake Bay. Today, she’s the only remaining three-masted schooner on the East Coast. The 92-foot American Eagle was built in 1930 as part of the Gloucester fishing fleet. It was revamped in 1984 and, along with Victory Chimes, Lewis R. French, Stephen Taber, and the Isaac H. Evans, a historic Delaware oyster boat built in 1886, are all National Historic Landmarks. The red sails on Angelique are similar to the sails used by fishing trawlers in the 1880s to fish the North Sea. Heritage might be one of the latest schooners, launched in 1983, yet it also gives a nod to tradition by using an authentic 1921 deck engine. Launched in 1962, the 90-foot Mary Day was the first windjammer built specifically to take guests on overnight cruises. 
 
If you want an authentic Maine experience, where you can breathe in the fresh salty air dusted with the scent of pine, grab a berth on any of these schooners. You can follow me all week on Twitter @ActiveTravels to hear about some of the specialty themed cruises being offered in 2014, the source of an upcoming story for The Boston Globe. 
 
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How to Keep Your Money Safe While Traveling Abroad

Writer Carolyn Gatto asked me and other travel experts to offer tips on keeping your cash and credit cards safe while traveling overseas. The result is her latest story for US News & World Report, “20 Ways to Keep Your Money Safe While Traveling.” The article couldn’t have come out at a better time for me, since I’ll be implementing many of these suggestions before I leave for Tanzania on Friday. You’d be wise to do the same before your next trip. 

 

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