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Bike Puglia with DuVine Cycling this Fall

All it takes is one ride along the Adriatic Sea to appreciate the splendor of Puglia, the region of southern Italy close to the heel of the boot. Last October, we biked up and down sweeping hills with the blue expanse of water always by our side. The sweet smell of honeysuckle the best form of aromatherapy as we cruised past seaside villages, peering down in awe at the greenish/blue waters hundreds of feet below. We stopped in Santa Maria di Leuca to gaze at the lighthouse, church, and large plaza before making our way back to the port of Tricase where a fresh seafood feast was waiting for us. According to my trusty Strava app, we had biked 43 miles with an elevation gain of over 3,000 feet, so I was definitely ready for a break and the chance to dig into fresh calamari, mussels, grilled aubergines, tomatoes, and the creamy burrata cheese the region is known for. We were on Day Two of a 6-day bike ride through Puglia with DuVine Cycling. The trip would continue northeast to the town of Locorotondo, where we would begin blissful days of riding through the heart of the countryside. I savored the riding here, rolling hillsides dotted with centuries-old gnarly olive trees, vineyards, and the distinctive mushroom-shaped houses called trullis. All on country roads with little or no traffic. 
 
DuVine still has availability on their September/October trips. Let ActiveTravels know your dates and we’ll check pricing. 
 

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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. 

Lisa and I are off to New Jersey tomorrow for a conference with other Virtuoso-affiliated travel agents. Then it’s on to Boca Raton to celebrate Ken Leavitt’s 85th birthday and to see family in Naples and Marco Island. We’ll be back on March 19th. In the meantime, be well and keep active! 
 
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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.  

 
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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. 

 
One of the highlights of the trip was a chance to ride with local Jon Boehmer who knows a thing or two about mountain biking, having lived in that legendary mountain biking town of Crested Butte, Colorado, for 6 years. Boehmer led my wife and I on some of his favorite singletrack runs, many that branch off from the Narrow Gauge Pathway, a rail trail that hugs the Carrabassett River. Meade is a gem of a trail that lines the banks of the river, bopping up and down around tall pines and over roots and rock bridges. Sargent and Crocker Town are more technical runs, with short uphill and downhill turns thrown into the mix. Boehmer also took us to the nearby Sugarloaf Outdoor Center, where you can rent bikes and venture onto their vast network of trails that loop around lonely ponds, with that mountain view always looming in the background. 
 
We rested our legs on a downhill run on the Narrow Gauge while watching families swim in the boulder-strewn river. Then we headed uphill on a tough climb to the Poplar Hut, our lodging for the night. Lisa and I said goodbye to Jon and thanked him for a memorable day of riding. To top it off, we walked down to a nearby waterfalls and watched the water careen down the craggy old rock into a cool pool of water. There was no one else enjoying this serene scene. Well, at least not yet, but word will spread. 
 
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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.

 
If you want to know more about my early years as a travel writer, check out this Q&A with Highbrow Magazine. 
 

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. 

 
Yesterday in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Erin introduced me to two pioneers of the Ontario wine region, Chateau des Charmes and Peller Estates. Both wineries were instrumental in wisely ripping up the Concord grapes that were growing in the region for almost 200 years, better suited for jelly, and replacing them with vinifera from Burgundy, Bordeaux, and the Mosel. More than 30 years later, these vineyards are producing not only world-class Rieslings and Chardonnays, but Cab Francs and Bordeaux blends that have serious nose and body. Since it was International Chardonnay Day yesterday, I’ll discuss Niagara’s whites, which are cool, crisp, often dry, like biting into a green apple off the branch. They were not nearly as cloying as some of the oaky warm-weather variety. Tawse and Stratus Wines both made a chardonnay that could compete with the best of Burgundy. Hidden Bench and Cave Spring Cellars make a Riesling Germans would spew expletives of joy over. Peller has a 2010 Cab Franc that’s a steal at $40 a bottle, with hints of plum and pepper. They also make an Icewine from Riesling that has the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity. I had it with my blue cheese appetizer for lunch, surprisingly not with dessert. 
 
Ontario wines have been hiding in obscurity for far too long. I’d happily purchase a bottle at a dinner in Boston, New York, or Chicago if I could find them on the wine menu. Unfortunately, few of these beauties have international distribution. So you’re just going to have to follow in my footsteps and cross the border to see firsthand why I’m so excited. With lake winds keeping mildew and mold off the vines and the Niagara escarpment sheltering the vineyards from early frost and providing much needed limestone terroir, the unique microclimate has created a Burgundy of the West. I’m happy to be witness to this explosion of good taste.
 
Thanks to Butterfield and Robinson, The Wine Sisters, and Ontario Tourism for a great week. Have a relaxing Memorial Day Weekend. I’ll be back on Monday. 
 
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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.

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