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Caribbean Getaways, Munich Hotels, and Away Luggage Featured in Our September Newsletter

This is the time of year when ActiveTravels is busy booking warm weather destinations for clients who want to escape the cold this coming winter. So it’s no surprise that we focus on the Caribbean as our main feature in the September newsletter. Oktoberfest has also arrived, a good time to discuss favorite Munich hotels. We also describe Lisa’s latest luggage, Away, where you can charge your phone directly to the carry-on. She’ll put it to good use as we leave for Italy today. We’ll be checking out Florence, the Amalfi Coast, and ending in Rome. The highlight is biking with good friends on a 6-day bike ride in Puglia with DuVine Cycling. We’ll be even more well-versed in all things Italy upon our return, so we can better help you on your forthcoming trips there. Amy is also out of the office as she is taking an exciting cruise circumnavigating Newfoundland with Adventure Canada. We’ll all be back on October 17th. Until then, enjoy Autumn and keep active! 

 

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ActiveTravels Presents the Fran Golden Cruise to Alaska in 2019

After years of toying with the idea of designing our own group trips utilizing the talent that we know as guides, we’ve finally decided to take the plunge next year. We’re delighted to announce that one of the most renowned cruise writers, Fran Golden, former travel editor of the Boston Herald and author of Frommer’s EasyGuide to Alaskan Cruises and Ports of Call (2018), will be hosting an Alaskan cruise June 15-22, 2019. On the Inaugural Fran Golden Alaskan Cruise, we’ll board the newly refurbished Eurodam (see the latest review in Travel & Leisure) in Seattle. Then make our way up the Pacific coast with stops in Juneau, Glacier Bay, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Victoria, before arriving back in Seattle. Fran will select her favorite shore excursions along the route and provide anecdotes from her other memorable cruises. For more information, please contact ActiveTravels. 

I’m off to San Francisco for a family reunion, back next Tuesday. Have a great week! 
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Mexican Travel is Safe and on the Rise

The time between America’s Thanksgiving and Christmas is usually slow season for many resorts and travel destinations. For warm-weather locales, the big surge happens from late December through early April. So I was surprised to find that many of the resorts I was visiting on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula were filled to capacity with a mix of Americans, Canadians, Europeans, and South Americans. Destination Weddings are still the big trend in travel, with daily nuptials being held as many as three times a day at some of the resorts I stayed at. American media loves to focus on crime in Mexico, but I found the Yucatan to be incredibly safe. The United Nations Climate Control Conference was being in held in Cancun while I was there, with many heads of state including the Mexican president, staying next door to me. So Federal Police were everywhere. Yet, even away from Cancun, making my south to Tulum, I never felt unsafe. That is, until I made my way to the swim-up bar at Iberostar Paraiso Maya and was surrounded by a group of drunken Saskatchewanians. That’s always dangerous.
 

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Introducing the Collapsible Water Bottle, HYDAWAY

I like to carry my trusty Hydro Flask water bottle when traveling, but it takes up a lot of space in my carry-on. That’s why I was excited to try a new collapsible water bottle called HYDAWAY. The foldable 17-ounce bottle is leakproof and made of BPA-free plastic. Plus it can go in the dishwasher. The best part is it only retails for $25 so it won’t break the bank. 

 
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Rafting the Kananaskis River with Rainbow Riders

Riding the Class III rapids of the Kananaskis River surrounded by the towering peaks of the Canadian Rockies is a favorite 2-hour family jaunt in these parts. It’s a rip-roaring ride on glacial-fed waters that will definitely cool you down when splashed. They call that a Canadian Kiss in these parts. I was enjoying that Canadian Kiss wholeheartedly while surfing on a rapid, the waters pouring over me. In fact, I was having such a great time that I didn’t notice my son was tossed out of the raft next to me. Suddenly I hear my wife scream, “Jake, Jake” and a rope being tossed to him by our guide, Cory. Lying on his back, we pulled him into the raft by his life jacket. A decade from now, those snowcapped peaks of Alberta will be a distant memory. But I’ll remember vividly my wife screaming her head off and seeing my son ride the rapids outside of the raft. Those are genuine travel memories.
 

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The Eureka Art Scene

They say Eureka has more artists per capita than any other place in California. A walk around town Sunday introduced me to many of the impressive local wares. My first stop was the Morris Graves Museum of Art housed in the circa 1904 Carnegie Free Library. A jazz quartet was playing to a packed crowd in the atrium as I wandered over to the Humboldt Artists Gallery to see the inviting watercolors of poppies and hydrangeas by Karen Berman, photographs of the seascape by Jim Lowry like Camel Rock, a favorite surf spot in the region. In the upstairs gallery, Corey Drieth creates mesmerizing geometric shapes of gouache on wood. From Morris Graves, I walked down to the historic Old Town waterfront district of Eureka and stopped in at the First Street Gallery. Run by Humboldt State University, the fine arts gallery features the works of students, faculty, alumni, and visiting artists. Inside, Don Gregorio Anton’s 3D Lazergraph produced intriguing faces and mist etched in glass, while Teresa Stanley’s “The Waters No. 6” was an enticing play of color and geometric patterns, all created on yupo paper. 
 
That evening I wisely chose to spend the evening at The Hotel Carter, one of four Victorians that form the Carter House Inns near the shores of Humboldt Bay. The hallways are lined with contemporary art, a sign that owner Mark Carter is a longtime supporter of the local art scene. Carter is perhaps best known as a winemaker in Napa Valley. Paired with a sublime beef tenderloin, I had the pleasure of sampling his 2006 Carter Cellars Cabernet at Retaurant 301. A perfect way to end a perfect day. 
 
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Ogunquit’s Cliff House Receives a Total Makeover

With a 3-mile stretch of beach, a Cliff Walk that introduces you to the rugged Maine coastline, James Beard-award winning chefs, and one of the finest summer theaters in New England, it’s not surprising that I named Ogunquit as my top Beach Town in this Yankee Magazine story. The one missing link, however, is that they never had a top-end resort. At the iconic Cliff House resort, originally opened in 1872, rooms felt old and service was lacking. Thankfully, that’s all about to change. Destination Hotels, the brand behind such properties as Stowe Mountain Lodge, L’Auberge Del Mar, and the Vail Cascade Resort, has taken over the Cliff House and poured millions into renovations. Rooms and pool area have been entirely redone. When it reopens this May, Ogunquit will finally have the world-class resort it deserves. 
 

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