Cruises That Will Get You Excited to Get Back on the Water: Viking’s Iceland, Greenland, and Canada Cruise

Viking Ocean CruisesOver lunch recently with the foremost cruise writer in America, Fran Golden, her enthusiasm over the current state of cruising was infectious. You couldn’t help but sense the excitement now that the world of cruising is finally back. It’s been a tumultuous 2 ½ years that started with passengers and crew being stuck on boats during the early stages of COVID and no ports allowing them to enter. Then came the inevitable bankruptcies like high-end cruise line, Crystal, going belly up earlier this year. But now Fran is jumping from cruise line to cruise line to report on all the changes, heading first on an expedition cruise with Quark to Greenland, then aboard the Paul Gauguin, now owned by the French company, Ponant, to cruise French Polynesia’s Society Islands, and finally the long-awaited arrival of Ritz-Carlton’s yacht on the Italian Mediterranean.

Here at ActiveTravels, we’ve been busy booking cruises to Alaska and the European rivers for fall 2022 and summer 2023. Our family of four will soon be on an AmaWaterways cruise on the Danube River in early September. The entire river cruise is taken over by the biking outfitter, Backroads, and each day we will have new cycling adventures in every port along the route from Prague to Vienna to Budapest. We’ll report on that trip once we return home.

In the meantime, we want to discuss the new cruises that gets us excited. First up, Viking Ocean’s adult-only cruises is quickly expanding in North America from the Great Lakes to Alaska. But we really like the 15-day Iceland, Greenland, and Canada itinerary that starts next summer in Reykjavik and ends in New York. You’ll visit 4 countries and 11 ports, and along the way see stunning remote seacoast and sea life.

Quick Escape: Boothbay Harbor, Maine

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, MaineA mere hour north of Portland, you reach the town of Boothbay Harbor, which sits at the end of one of the many peninsulas that dangle down from mid-coast Maine. In early July, Lisa and I headed out with our son Jake to Boothbay Harbor for the day. We started with an early morning cruise to see puffins at nearby Eastern Egg Rock, the southernmost nesting ground for puffins on the Maine coast. Even if we didn’t spot one puffin, the cruise would have been worth the money. The Atlantic waters were serene and the rugged shoreline was dotted with lighthouses. We spotted seals and porpoises enroute while we listened to a wonderful naturalist discuss the intriguing history of puffins being reintroduced to Eastern Egg Rock almost 50 years ago. Soon we were watching the small plump birds and their distinctive bright orange beaks flying to and from the island practically skimming the surface of the ocean waters. They were joined by other seabirds like the black guillemots.

Afterwards, we had lunch of lobsters and steamers just outside of town at Robinson’s Wharf on a large dock overlooking the harbor in Southport. Then it was on to my favorite stop in the region, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, that we put on practically every itinerary we design to the Maine coast. It’s not just the enchanting Butterfly Garden, whimsical Children’s Garden, and the sniff, touch, and taste Garden of the Senses that make this place so special. No, they really upped the ante by recently adding 5 mega-sized trolls created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo. You meander on pine-needle strewn trails along rivers and deep in the forest to find these massive sculptures hidden brilliantly in the brush. Guaranteed to captivate all ages!

We topped off the day with pints of Dinner at Maine Beer Company in Freeport, voted the best beer in the state by Beer Advocate, and a memorable dinner of tapas back in Portland at Chaval. That’s what we call a Dream Day!

If you’re looking for a Quick Escape to Boothbay Harbor or a Dream Day Itinerary to New England, let ActiveTravels be your guide.

Canadian Itineraries to Try This Summer or Fall: Vancouver, Whistler, Victoria, and Onward

Butchart Gardens One of the favorite trips we ever did as a family was to fly to Vancouver, take the train to Whistler, float plane from Whistler to Victoria, and ferry onward to Salt Spring Island and later Seattle. Wow, what a trip, especially since I didn’t need to drive once! Even on Salt Spring Island, I preferred biking to driving. Vancouver is blessed with fantastic Asian restaurants, seafood, and a bounty of fresh fruit that you can find at the Granville Island market. Whistler is just as magical in summer as winter, hiking above the treetops or paddling down lonely rivers, only to watch the bears amble down the road at twilight. Victoria is a charming seaside town on the southern tip of Vancouver Island that offers a variety of ways to see the neighboring pods of orcas and to visit the glorious Butchart Gardens. While Salt Spring Island is a soothing remote outpost for biking and sea kayaking, an ideal spot to unwind after a far too long pandemic.

Get out and enjoy the glorious wilderness found in Canada. ActiveTravels is here to help design an itinerary.

Canadian Itineraries to Try This Summer or Fall: Canadian Rockies

Canadian RockiesThe typical Canadian Rockies itinerary starts in Calgary, especially if you’re heading to town during the citywide party known as the Stampede, which starts tomorrow! Then it’s a 2-hour drive to Banff and the first of many hikes in the high alpine forest. Moraine Lake and Lake Louise are mandatory stops, before driving the spectacular Icefields Parkway north to Jasper. This region of Canada is home to classic resorts like the former Canadian Pacific Railway retreats Fairmont Chateaux Lake Louise and Fairmont Banff Springs. Or the Relais and Chateau property, Post Hotel, often rated one of the best in Canada, especially for its stellar view. From Jasper, you can drive 4 hours to Edmonton and fly home or continue exploring Canada on the train to Vancouver, where your travels continue as I’ll describe tomorrow.

Please let ActiveTravels know if you need a detailed itinerary to the Canadian Rockies, including all our favorite lodging, driving routes, hikes, guides, and restaurants

Canadian Itineraries to Try This Summer or Fall: The Atlantic Maritimes

Hiking in NewfoundlandI’ve stayed weeks in each of the four Atlantic Maritime provinces—New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia—and it’s honestly hard for me to distill this exquisite coastal landscape down to its highlights. Because there’s so much more! Like biking to small fishing villages on PEI’s Confederation Trail, backpacking Gros Morne National Park high above the fjords of Newfoundland, hiking the Skyline Trail where I always spot moose in Cape Breton, and going on a puffin cruise out of New Brunswick to the nesting grounds of Machias Seal Island. There’s no place I’d rather sea kayak more than along the shoreline of the Atlantic Maritimes, where I’ve spotted so much wildlife from whales to porpoises to seals to bald eagles and puffins flying overhead. And don’t forget the culture. There’s nothing like a live Celtic concert in Cape Breton in the summer or a Fisherman’s Wharf all-you-can-eat lobster supper in PEI. With the high-speed CAT now running from Bar Harbor, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (3 ½-hour cruise), we can connect the dots for you quickly. Please let ActiveTravels know your dates and budget and we’ll design a memorable trip!

Canadian Itineraries to Try This Summer or Fall: First Stop, Quebec

Saint-Benoit-du-Lac AbbeyWith new nonstop service from Boston to Calgary and Vancouver, it’s a great time to explore the Canadian Rockies and British Columbia. Closer to home, you can drive from Boston to St. Andrews, New Brunswick or Montreal in less than 6 hours and not have to be tested for COVID coming back into America. We’ve been fortunate to design over 100 Dream Day Itineraries to Canada this past decade and we have many more on the books this summer. It helps that I wrote more travel stories about Canada than any other country outside of America and continue to add to the collection, like this article on the expansion of the Fundy Trail Parkway last September. These are the Canadian destinations ActiveTravels members have loved the most:

Quebec
Cross over the border from Vermont and the first stop is on the shores of 28-mile-long Lake Memphremagog in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, where an impressive monastery sits high atop the waters. At Saint-Benoit-du-Lac Abbey, some 50 Benedictine monks create homemade cheeses and cider. Head to the store to sample the crumbly blue cheese known as L’Ermite, among Quebec’s most popular. Then it’s on to Montreal, the city of summer festivals, including comedy, jazz, and electronica. Montreal is home to one of the finest botanical gardens in the country and the fascinating Insectarium, which just reopened after a 2-year closure. Walk the cobblestone streets of the Old Quarter to snack on crepes at the outdoor courtyard of Le Jardin Nelson and buy French wares straight out of Paris. Quebec City is a 3-hour drive to the northeast, where you hopefully booked a room at the classic Le Chateau Frontenac, perched high on the hillside above the St. Lawrence Seaway. Walk the narrow streets to sample the patisserie at Paillard and visit the always intriguing Musee de la Civilisation before heading just outside the city to hike or zipline at Montmorency Falls. Most people stop their trip in Quebec City, but you should continue north to stop in the charming town of Baie-Saint-Paul and sea kayak with beluga whales in the Saguenay Fjord.

Sea Kayak with Beluga Whales in Saugenay

Most Memorable Trips We’ve Designed This Past Decade: Peggy’s Travels Through the Australian Outback

Peggy has long been one of ActiveTravels’ most beloved clients because she returns year in, year out to the same destinations, particularly India and Australia. You can’t push the typical highlights tour on her since she’s already peeled that onion back 10 layers. You must dig deep to find authenticity. In Australia alone, she has traversed the remote Northwestern part of Australia from Broome to Darwin, flew to one of the outlying Great Barrier Reef islands, and has crossed Tasmania. But the trip I remember most is the one where she wanted to visit Aboriginal art communities in the desolate Australian Outback. We’ve had clients visit Alice Springs to climb Ayer’s Rock, for example, but no one who wanted to use Alice Springs as their hub to see surrounding indigenous villages, often hundreds of miles away. I scoured the internet and found nothing. Then I want on a Sydney-based travel advisor chat room and found a recommended company called Spirit Safaris that lo and behold offered a weeklong Central Deserts Aboriginal Art Tour. In March 2018, Peggy and the owner of the company, Richard, drove to such obscure outposts as the Nyinkka Nyunyu Art & Culture Centre, Warlukurlangu Arts at Yuendumu, and Aboriginal Art Centers at communities including Amata, Ernabella, Fregon, and Iwantja. Fantastic!

Most Memorable Trips We’ve Designed This Past Decade: Sunshine and Ian, South America

Sunshine and Ian in South AmericaMay 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of ActiveTravels. Over the past decade, I’d estimate we’ve designed close to 2,000 trips. Some of those itineraries followed the fall foliage route in New England, others followed the orangutans of Sumatra or the gemstones of Estonia. We’ve designed itineraries to 116 countries and probably all the American states and Canadian provinces. Of those many trips we’ve had the privilege to work on, there were ones that were quite a challenge and incredibly rewarding to design.

When someone calls asking you to plan the first 4 months of their yearlong travel-around-the-world sabbatical, you immediately feel like that kid at the country store with brown paper bag in hand ready to grab as many Red Hots and candy necklaces as possible. Sunshine and Ian would eventually head to Hawaii, Australia, and SE Asia, but my job was simply to focus on the first third of the year in South America, September through December 2018. Peru was by far the most complex nut to crack, with its vast size and diverse terrain. But we managed to get them across the country—Lima, Cuzco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Lake Titikaka, Arequipa/Colca Canyon, Nazca, Trujillo, a yoga retreat in the rainforest outside Tarapoto, and a Treehouse Lodge overlooking the Amazon.

Sunshine and Ian in South AmericaThen it was on to Bolivia to visit La Paz, the drive down the world’s most dangerous road, Yungas Road (40 miles, 11,800-foot descent), the charming college town of Sucre, and the Uyuni Salt Flats. Next up was Ecuador with stays in Quito, Cotopaxi, Otavalo, a weeklong cruise in the Galapagos Islands, and a final stop in Cuenca. Last destination was Colombia to see Bogota, the street art of Medellin, the coffee country of Armenia, a yoga retreat in Santa Marta, and finally resting on the beach of Cartagena. At times, they followed in my footsteps, using the exceptional guide I hired to see the city of Medellin. Other times, I followed in their footsteps, taking the same Abercrombie & Kent trip to Machu Picchu they did a year later. The best trips inspire me and few trips excited me more than this one!

Quick Escape to Portland, Maine

Truffle fries at DuckfatWe love Portland in the off-season to dine at the acclaimed restaurants that are hard to get reservations in summer and to walk our dog, Theo, on the beach of Cape Elizabeth at that pet-friendly gem of a resort, Inn by the Sea. Portland has been making innovative food for the past decade. Just ask our kids who plead with us to stop at Duckfat every time we pass through town just to have another taste of their crispy French fries dipped in truffle ketchup. Fore Street, which led the food revival in town, is consistently nominated by James Beard for Outstanding Restaurant in the national category. Other longtime favorites include Evo and Street & Co. Also check out the fantastic baked goods at Tandem Coffee and Bakery, the deli food at Rose Foods, and the microbrews at nearby Bissell Brothers Brewing Company.

Portland’s 10-Day Carnaval Maine is going on right now at the Eastern Promenade. The winter wonderland features live music, art installations, light shows, a rail jam competition by Sunday River, professional ice and snow sculptures, and Bites and Brews, where award-winning chefs and craft brewers come together to make made-in-Maine pairings. Families looking for kid-friendly activities during school vacation week can visit The L.L. Bean WinterKids Fun Zone where activities include a snowshoe obstacle course, Bean Boot toss, and more. In the evening, the event shifts to popular local and regional bands who will turn up the volume for the adults, like Scott McCreery on Saturday.

Quick Escape to Chicago

Deep Dish Pizza in ChicagoChicago has so many exciting cultural events happening in 2022 we don’t know where to begin. Let’s start with the acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre, which in March presents the world premiere of King James, a play by ensemble member Rajiv Joseph that explores basketball star LeBron James’ impact on Cleveland through the eyes of two young sports fans. In April, comedian and storyteller Mike Birbiglia arrives for a four-week run of his new solo show, The Old Man and the Pool, collecting humorous (and serious) tales about life, death and a YMCA pool. May brings two blockbuster art openings, a retrospective of Chicago artist Nick Cave called “Forothremore,” which will bring the artist’s distinctive Soundsuits and an expansive installation of kinetic spinners to the Museum of Contemporary Art on May 14. Fans of post-Impressionist paintings will want to see the Art Institute’s new exhibition devoted to French artist Paul Cezanne, which goes on display May 15.

Stay just off Michigan Avenue, at the relatively new Virgin Chicago or wait until August to stay in the 3rd tallest building in town, a mere 101 stories tall, soon home to the St. Regis. Dine on sublime deep-dish pizza at the longtime family favorite, Lou Malnati’s, or splurge for a memorable meal at chef Grant Aschatz’s Alinea in Lincoln Park. In late summer, be on the lookout for Le Select on North Wells, the latest from Boka Restaurant Group, the company that’s worked with renowned chefs like Stephanie Izard at Girl & the Goat. They’re opening a French bistro with Daniel Rose at the helm. Rose will still run his other project, Le Coucou in New York, the 2017 James Beard winner for Best New Restaurant.