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Zegrahm Expeditions Branching into Adventure Tours in Bhutan and Uganda

Seattle-based Zegrahm Expeditions is best known for their naturalist-led small-size expedition cruises that venture to the far corners of the globe, from Antarctica to Iceland, Yap to the Azores. In 2011, the company plans to add active adventures to their excursions, featuring two 14-day land-based treks in Bhutan and Uganda. Scheduled from April 10-23, the Bhutan jaunt will be led by Asian-culture expert, Gary Wintz, and will include a hike to Tiger’s Nest, the most famous monastery in this high-altitude Himalayan kingdom, and Thimpu, Bhutan’s capital and main residence of the king. Uganda is slated for November 30-December 13, 2011, and will be led by Zegrahm field director Jonathan Rossouw. The itinerary includes two days gorilla trekking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, visiting the large community of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, and white water rafting down the Nile. 
 

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Our Picks for The Top Hotel Openings, Events, and Cruises in 2017

The January newsletter of ActiveTravels is always a fun issue to research, scouring the top travel trade and consumer publications for the most exciting news on resort openings and events. We go through at least 20 different publications and more than 1,000 press releases to find our Top 10 New Hotel Picks, 2017 Happenings Not to Miss, and What’s New in Cruising. We hope you enjoy our selections as much as we do. 

We’re off to Arizona today for a much-needed vacation with our son, Jake, back on January 18th. Wishing You a Happy, Healthy, and Active 2017.
 
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My Favorite Small Outfitters, Mahoosuc Guide Service, Newry, Maine

I’m very excited this week to divulge my favorite regional outfitters, the small guys who have no budget to advertise and create a catalog, but know their locale like the back of their hand. In fact, many of the larger outfitters hire these guys to take their groups out. First up, Mahoosuc Guide Service, based in Newry, Maine. The best introduction to Mahoosuc is to simply share the intro of the article I wrote about paddling the Maine Woods for Sierra Magazine. 
 
Wearing a felt hat, plaid shirt, and a graying beard, Kevin Slater sits in the back of his canoe, looking as comfortable as most men his age are reclining in a Lazy-Boy. His stroke is short, fluid, with a short inward snap at the end to steer him exactly where he needs to be in a river dotted with boulders. In front of him sits his faithful companion, a peach-colored husky named Kara. Several months from now, when the maples grow barren and the pines are heavy with snow, Kara will be in a raucous team of her fellow Yukon brethren pulling a dogsled through the melt. But now, at the peak of fall foliage in northern Maine, with the maples and poplars on the hillside radiant with splashes of yellow, plum, and purple, Kara can rest and she does just that with her head jutting out over the edge. 
Like the paddles we hold in our hands, the 17 ½ and 20-foot long wood and canvas canoes we sit in were all created by Slater. It takes more than 120 hours of work to carve one of these delicately ribbed beauties out of northern white cedar and cherry wood, using only native varieties. 
“I was taught that you can find anything you need to make in these woods,” says Slater.
His skilled craftsmanship was passed down from his mentor, who Slater refers to simply as the “Old Timer.” As in, “after paddling the entire Allagash, the Old Timer told me to go to the local store and get ten days of supplies. I was going to go back upstream on my own. That’s how I learned how to canoe these rivers.”
Slater is the latest in a long line of teachers and students who learned to live in the Maine woods and to navigate the maze of blue waterways, a seemingly countless number of lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds that branch off in every direction to form this capillary system deep in the forest. The baton, (or in this case, a paddle) has been passed over the generations from the Wabanaki Indians to European fur traders to a growing legion of naturalists with familiar names like Emerson and Thoreau to the timbermen of the 20th century, and lastly the recreational paddlers like you and me who yearn to get lost in a timeless bubble far away from the hyperkinetic mindset of modernity. 
 
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Dine Out Vancouver Festival in January

If your winter plans include skiing Whistler, you’d be wise to visit Vancouver from January 17 to February 2, 2014. That’s when the city plays host to Canada’s largest restaurant festival, Dine Out Vancouver. Not only can you sample menus from hundreds of restaurants around the city, all for a prix fixe cost ($18, $28 and $38 per person), but participating hotels will offer rooms priced at $78, $108 and $138 per night. As I mentioned in my Boston Globe article, Vancouver is one of my favorites cities for foodies in North America. From dim sum in Chinatown to the gluttony of local fruit and seafood found at the Granville Island Market to the intriguing food truck options around town, it’s hard not to be impressed. 
 
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Excited to Add Amy Perry Basseches to the ActiveTravels Team

One of the true signs of any successful business venture are loyal customers. If our members return to us again and again to design their travels, then we know we’re doing something right. Amy Perry Basseches was already one of our closest friends in Boston when we started work on her travels 5 years ago. We have since planned trips for her family in one form or another (mother/daughter, father/son, father/daughter, mother/son, husband/wife, entire family) to Scandinavia, Italy, Morocco, Turkey, Croatia, France, Estonia, the UK, Costa Rica, Colorado, Oregon, Louisiana, California, even a college trip that passed through my hometown of Schenectady, New York on the way to Rochester (though I couldn’t recommend my favorite local burger joint, Jumpin Jack’s, because her daughter is a vegetarian). Each time she returns home with another travel request and we value her repeat business. 

Her passion for travel and gregarious personality are ideally suited for the travel industry so it’s no surprise that we’ve been trying to woo her to ActiveTravels for several years now. Our persuasive tactics have finally paid off. Amy is officially part of the ActiveTravels team, assisting us with marketing, travel planning (especially to her beloved Azores), and creating content for our newsletters and blogs. We’re overjoyed to welcome Amy to ActiveTravels and know that the honesty we value in our friendship and the love we share for authentic travel can only enhance the ActiveTravels brand.
 
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Cleveland Rocks!

Last Saturday, my wife and I picked up our son, Jake, at Oberlin College after a weeklong electornic music workshop. Then we hightailed it to Cleveland for the weekend to check out the city. Must-see stops were the Cleveland Museum of Art, whose impressive collection includes noteworthy pieces by van Gogh, Monet, El Greco, and Bierstadt. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we viewed the famous jacket worn by John Lennon on the Sgt. Pepper’s album cover, Michael Jackson’s glove, and my personal favorite, Notorious BIG’s jersey. 
 
Then there were the pleasant surprises like the West Side Market, the historic food market that served a tasty bratwurst on a bun for 4 bucks and a Montrealer crepe that made Jake happy, created with brisket and Emmentaler cheese. West Side Market is located in Ohio City, a cool neighborhood of restaurants and bars like Crop Bistro, set inside the cavernous walls of a former bank. Nearby is Great Lake Brewing Company, a microbrewery that helped gentrify the neighborhood of derelict buildings when it arrived on the scene in the 90s. Also loved the milk shakes and falafels at Tommy’s in Coventry Village and the Italian fare at Mia Bella in Cleveland’s Little Italy. We stayed at a great locale, the Glidden House, a former estate across the street from the Frank Gehry-designed building on the Case Western University campus. We were within easy walking distance of Little Italy, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the resplendent Cleveland Botanical Gardens, in full bloom upon our arrival. The only thing we missed was a baseball game at Jacobs Field, now called Progressive Field. The Indians were out of town. There’s always next time!
 
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Under Canvas, Grand Canyon, Arizona

This week, I’m excited to feature five of the most highly participated resort debuts in 2018. Anyone who’s been on a mobile safari in the Serengeti knows that living under a tent can often be as luxurious as a suite in the Four Seasons. All the modern comforts of space, lighting, and private shower can be found inside. Now the upscale glamping scene is starting to catch on with America’s National Parks, thanks to Upscale Canvas. The company already offers luxury tent options in Zion, Yellowstone, Moab, Glacier, Mount Rushmore, and now have their sights set on the Grand Canyon. Located in Williams, a 40-minute drive from the South Rim, 56 secluded acres of forest will be transformed into the ultimate glamping experience. Head over to that big gaping hole for a hike or enjoy a sampling of nearby activities like horseback riding and mountain biking. 

 

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