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World’s Best Family Travel Destinations
Yellowstone National Park, London, Paris, Switzerland, Kenya, Tanzania, and Costa Rica all receive a worthy mention in my latest story for Global Traveler on the World’s Best Family Destinations. Thanks to Austin Adventures, Abercrombie & Kent, Backroads, and FanilyVacationCritic for providing the inspiration and the quotes.
Top 5 Caribbean Adventures, Sail the British Virgin Islands
Sailors know the British Virgin Islands as legendary cruising grounds. Here, in places like Virgin Gorda, Peter’s Island, and Tortola, you’ll find sheltered marinas where you can dock or throw down your anchor, shopping, restaurants, and small hotels that are popular with yachters. Even better, you can sail to these various islands without going outside the reefs into the open ocean. But you won’t have to worry about navigational charts on VOYAGE Charters 7-night night cruise around the BVIs, because a skipper comes with you. Their 44 to 60-foot luxury catamarans, which sleeps 8 to 10 guests in queen or king bedded guest cabins with private bathrooms, also comes with a Chef and liquor to make this the ideal all-inclusive package. The catamarans are perfectly suited for 4 or 5 couples or 2 families since the yacht comes equipped with water toys, like kayaks, a dinghy, water skies, tube, floats, and noodles. The weeklong jaunt starts in Tortola and includes snorkeling with sting rays in the caves of Virgin Gorda, a stop at Cane Garden to listen to the steel band play at Stanley’s, and a night anchored off Norman Island, the treasure island author Robert Louis Stevenson made famous in his book. Cost of the trip starts at $4595 per couple, including meals, a berth onboard, and, of course, transportation.
Top 5 Travel Days of 2015, Mountain Biking with Maine Huts & Trails
I was fortunate in 2015 to spend 5 days in Acadia National Park and 5 days visiting all the huts on the Maine Huts & Trails route. Seven years after the Poplar Springs Hut was first built, the nonprofit group is making good on its lofty goal to build 12 eco-lodges in the Maine wilderness. There are already four huts in the system across a 45-mile span. I loved the entire route, especially the chance to not only hike, but also mountain bike and paddle through the dense woods.
When a Friendship Becomes a Hardship
In 1990, I left my job as an insurance broker in Manhattan and booked a four-month trip to the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia. The day before I left on that fateful journey, I was strolling through the Fifth Avenue Book Fair when I found a book titled “Travel Writing, For Profit and Pleasure” by Perry Garfinkel. I did exactly what the author advised, kept a journal when I was away, and when I returned home I sold my first story, “Learning to Scuba Dive in the Cook Islands” to The Miami Herald. It was the start of a prolific travel writing career, where I would write more than 1500 articles and close to a dozen books. Another one of the stories sold from that inaugural journey was this disastrous hike I took in Fiji. It originally appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune, before other publications like The Boston Globe purchased the story.
Sampling Exceptional Wine at Niagara on the Lake
I knew the Niagara biking would be stellar and any performance at the Shaw Festival a treat, but to be honest, I wasn’t very excited to try the Ontario wines. Blame it on the annual Canada dinner in Boston each May when Ontario Tourism would bring the sweetest Icewine they could find for us journalists to sample. I admit, I was ignorant and thankfully this past week received a phenomenal education from Ontario wine expert, Erin Henderson. As co-founder of The Wine Sisters with her sister, Courtney, these two professional sommeliers introduce the world to the finest Ontario wines through corporate dinners in Toronto and private tours of the wine region.
Top 5 Dream Days of 2018, A Rejuvenating Stay at Gorman Chairback Lodge
My cabin at AMC’s Gorman Chairback Lodge overlooked Long Pond, a serene 4-mile-long body of water surrounded by the ridges of the nearby Appalachian Trail. As soon as we plopped down our luggage, we heard the first of many loon calls, that unmistakable yodel echoing across the lake. All was bliss from this point onward. Smelling the sweet pine and peering at mountains with few, if any signs of civilization. It’s no surprise that this locale in Maine’s North Woods has been hosting guests since 1867. We jumped in an Old Town canoe and followed families of loons and mergansers, before spotting a bald eagle atop a dead hemlock tree. The waters of Long Pond were like glass, reflecting the surrounding mountains atop the surface. All you could hear was that mesmerizing call of the loon and there was no other traffic on the pond. No boats, no canoes, nothing. Nothing but serenity.