Top Dream Days of 2018, Checking Out Jasper
Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches

Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches
I’ve been blogging since 2009, which adds up to quite a lot of content over the years. A good friend recently told me to emphasize the Advanced Search function on the blog page. Simply type in the locale you want to visit and up pops the blogs I’ve written about that destination. For example, I typed in "Mississippi" in the Advanced Search line and again on the second page Keyword line and 19 blogs I wrote on the state appeared. This includes one of my favorite stops, "Staying at the Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale, Mississippi" on March 28, 2011. Before you go on your next trip with ActiveTravels, be sure to use the blog as an added resource. Much of the content, like the Shack Up Inn, is still topical.
Tuscany is a destination often found on people’s bucket lists. Dreams of the unspoiled, authentic Italy where medieval hill towns, vineyards, olive oil and truffles abound. We’ve paired up with a wonderful Italian tour operator who can offer accommodations in farm houses, villas, apartments, or B&Bs in the region with activities that range from taking cooking classes to guided bike rides on the rolling hills past vineyards, Medieval homesteads, and Etruscan tombs. Also in this month’s newsletter, we disclose our 5 favorite off-the-beaten-path National Parks, lodging clients have enjoyed in Jackson Hole, why you should download the app, Yonder, and a gem of a renovated inn that we came across on a recent trip to Stowe. Enjoy!
Safari in Kenya, 5 recommended hotels in my wife’s hometown of Chicago, a tour operator we love in New Zealand, and a quick getaway to Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, just outside of Portland, are the handful of subjects we discuss in our latest newsletter. Have a look! I’m off to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to show my kids the campus where their mom and dad met. Think I’m putting pressure on my son to go to a certain school? I’ll be back on Monday. Enjoy the hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips in bloom and stay active.
Members of ActiveTravels know we’re big fans of the Salt House Inn in Provincetown. I’ve written about the property for The Boston Globe and Conde Nast Traveller UK and they’ve graciously participated in our hotel giveaway raffle. The 15-room property, originally cottages for salt mine workers in the 1850s, is on a quiet road, a stone’s throw from the hustle and bustle of Commercial Street. A rarity in Provincetown, the inn comes with parking lot and also offers a second floor sun terrace to relax in one of the rocking chairs. Breakfast is a high point, featuring scones, an egg dish like frittata or quiche, ham and cheese croissants, and a Vermont yogurt station with toppings like granola and jam. The inn is now offering a deal where you book two or more nights through May 25 and receive a 50% discount on your nightly room rate. Use promo code 2For1 when making your reservations online. Whale watching resumes in mid-April and the crowds don’t start pouring in until mid-June, so spring is a great time of year to walk the beaches or stroll the shops and art galleries.
The amount of musicians that began their careers in the small Delta town of Clarksdale, population 21,000, is remarkable. Muddy Waters was raised on the Stovall Plantation outside of town. Soul man Sam Cooke was born here, along with electric blues master John Lee Hooker, W.C. Handy, and Ike Turner, whose green house still stands on Washington Street. Learn about the birthplace of the Blues at the Delta Blues Museum, and then spend the night at one of the most intriguing properties in America, the Shack Up Inn. Set on the Hopson Plantation, where the mechanical cotton picker made its debut in 1941, owner Bill Talbot has converted six former sharecropper shacks into his own version of a B&B (bed and beer). The next morning head south on Highway 61 through the rolling green farmland that makes up the heart of the Delta. Eventually you’ll reach the trenches Union and Confederate troops dug during the Civil War’s bloody Siege of Vicksburg, now a National Military Park. Another hour of driving and you’ll find that gem of a town on the Mississippi River, Natchez. During its heyday prior to the Civil War, when cotton was king, Natchez had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the country. They built palatial estates, like Monmouth Plantation, your final stop. Monmouth’s meticulously landscaped grounds, shaded by centuries-old oaks and their thick dress of Spanish moss, is bursting with colorful azaleas come spring.