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The Ocean Edge Resort Takes Advantage of its Waterfront Setting

With six pools, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, tennis courts, and bike paths that connect easily to the 22-mile long Cape Cod Rail Trail, the Ocean Edge Resort offers its guests more than enough outdoor activity. Yet, I’m most excited about the resort’s latest partnership with Cape Cod Museum of Natural History to go on naturalist-led walks on the mud flats of Bay Pines Beach. Throughout the summer, you’ll explore Cape Cod Bay at low tide, searching for clams, crabs, sea cucumbers, and other marine life. The beachcombing is appropriate for ages 5 and up and they don’t need to dress up like SpongeBob. Though it might help find other critters.
 

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Five Favorite Adventures in National Parks, Hiking the Rim of Crater Lake

I call it a “Holy Shit” moment. One of those rare occurrences in travel when you round a bend and see something so stupendous that you’re shouting expletives of joy. This is exactly what happens when you reach the rim of Crater Lake. You’ve never seen water such a shade of vibrant blue, the result of sunlight pouring down on the deepest lake in America. Ringed by jagged peaks, it’s a captivating site that you’ll want to see from every available parking site. Though if you were wise, you booked a room at the Crater Lake Lodge when they went on sale July 1st for the following year. Rooms with lake view are booked, on average, 13 months in advance says Assistant General Manger Tim Mahoney. That’s not a surprise when you realize the closest lodging after the lodge is in Klamath Falls, a good 59-mile drive. Throw down your bags and take the short hike from the lodge to 8,054-foot Garfield Peak. The views below, especially to the lone island, Wizard Island, are more astounding the higher the elevation. Afterwards, relax on the back porch of the lodge in the rocking chairs and listen to the daily 4 pm lecture by a park ranger on the rugged individuals who were determined to make this special caldera a national park. You can toast to them at dinner that night while dining on bison meatloaf. 

 
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My 5 Favorite Tanzanian Properties: Alex Walker’s Serian Kusini Camp

There’s something magical about being lost in the African bush for at least 3 nights in a mobile tent. You’re surrounded by wildlife, drink sundowners at sunset around a raging campfire, view the twinkling stars of the incredible African night sky, and then sleep peacefully with a breeze. One of the best mobile tent locales in the winter months is Kusini just past Ndutu Safari Lodge (where Mary Leakey stayed, along with numerous BBC documentarians) in the southern Serengeti. Alex Walker’s Serian is a master of glamping, offering six spacious tents with bucket showers and flush toilets that move close to the Mara River in the summer months for prime wildebeest crossing viewings. Not surprisingly, these camps are often booked well in advance, with the same clientele returning year after year. So plan accordingly. 

 
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Ski-In/Ski-Out Resorts, New York on a Budget, and Grand Cayman Featured in December Newsletter

Snowmaking is not a problem right now in America, now that more than half the country is experiencing an arctic freeze. In this month’s issue of the ActiveTravels newsletter, we divulge our client’s favorite ski-in/ski-out resorts, learn about the new adventure travel company called Life is Good Vacations, talk about the hotel deals in New York in January, and tell you where to stay on Grand Cayman now that the temps have dipped. With direct flights from most cities on the East Coast,  the island is perfectly suited for a Quick Escape. 

Have a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2018! We’ll be back next week with our Top 5 Dream Days in 2017. 
 
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KLM’s New Meet and Seat

Forget about Match.com. With KLM’s new Seat and Meet Program, you could have a marriage proposal by the end of that 11-hour flight from Amsterdam to Sao Paulo. Or a very uncomfortable situation where you want to be seated far away from that creepy guy immediately after takeoff. Here’s how it works. Go to KLM.com and log in to Manage my Booking. Go to the ‘Seating’ tab and click ‘Meet & Seat’ on the right. Log in to your Facebook or LinkedIn account and select the profile details you want to share. The seating map will show you other passengers’ details and which seat they have chosen. You can then select your seat next to someone with similar interests. Or you can simply remain anonymous and strike up a conversation the old fashioned way. Remember how to do that? 
 
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World Class Toboggan Run in Camden, Maine

Try to name another sport where you can win a National Championship without any prior experience? Just ask the two-man team from Tennessee who came in 2nd place at the U.S. National Toboggan Championships in 2005 without ever seeing snow before their arrival at the Camden Snow Bowl on the mid-Maine coast. This year marks the 21st anniversary of the event, which will be held February 11-13. Even if you’re not one of the 400-plus entrants, by all means try the thrilling chute, open throughout the winter. Originally built in 1936 and reopened in 1990, this two-foot wide track will have the whole family whooping it up as they drop off the side of the mountain at 30-plus miles per hour. Cost of the ride is a mere dollar if you rent a toboggan, half that price if you bring your own.

Camden Snow Bowl is the oldest ski area in the state and the only one still owned and operated by the town recreation department. Ride the double chair to the top of 1300-foot Ragged Mountain and you’ll soon understand the allure. The smell of early morning powder is overpowered by a blast of salty mist from the sea. Yes, this Maine ski area is the only spot in America where you can carve your turn and look at an expanse of ocean. Below is the rock-strewn harbor of Camden, a favorite anchorage of yachters come summer, but now only visited by fishermen hauling in their winter catch of shrimp. Close proximity to the Atlantic also means that the weather can be dicey. An early morning fog rolls in and the snow turns to cornmeal. That 440-foot-long ice coated toboggan chute is the only reason the Snow Bowl continues to thrive.
 

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Winter Survival in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

Nestled within Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its unique combination of quartzite rock and wetland terrain, the Long Range Mountains could very well be the one of the last remnants of pristine wilderness within a three-hour flight of New York and Boston. Yes, wilderness, one of the most misused words in the English language. Any green space with a chunk of land the size of a suburban backyard seems to fit the bill. But here on Newfoundland’s western coast, a mere hour drive from the airport in Deer Lake, there are no roads, no power lines. The only sign of humanity tampering with the terrain was the dock we landed on. 

This is a paragraph taken from a story I wrote on backpacking Gros Morne National Park that originally appeared in Backpacker Magazine. Now this spectacular park, a favorite of caribou and moose, is the setting for a three-day winter wilderness survival course run by Linkum Tours. Learn to build snow shelters, light a fire, and cross-country ski atop mountain ridges that overlook magnificent fjords. The course is being held from January through March, 2011.
 

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