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Snow Village To Open In Montreal

It’s hard to think about snow right now, especially when I was walking barefoot through a bog yesterday in mid-60s Boston temperature. Yet, when I picture Quebec in January, how can I not think of snow? Once the temperature turns a wee bit frosty, Montreal will be home to a very special event this winter. On January 6, 2012, the city plans to unveil the continent’s first Snow Village at Parc Jean-Drapeau. This is no miniature dollhouse or a series of ice sculptures. No. Montreal’s Snow Village will include a 30-room ice hotel, an outdoor spa, ice bar, ice restaurant, ice chapel for marriages, a maze, slides, and much more. Indeed, you’ll find a replica of Montreal made entirely out of ice. The show’s promoters first encountered the Snow Village concept in Finland and wanted to recreate the idea in North America. The village will be open through March and rates at the hotel start at $175 per person for a limited time. While in the city, check out Le Bremner, the hot new restaurant from Iron Chef winner Chuck Hughes, owner of one of my favorite restaurants in town, Garde-Manger.

 

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VBT Partners with Emerald Waterways to Cruise the Danube

Ever since Backroads partnered with AmaWaterways to bring families to the Danube River in 2015, the demand has far exceeded number of available berths. The chance to ride along the river on bike paths during the day though small European villages and then catch up with the cruise for cocktails, dinner, and your room for the week (no packing and unpacking) is ideally suited for all age groups. Backroads is now bringing their active travel itineraries to the ocean liners, while other biking companies like VBT have formed partnerships to cruise the rivers. VBT has just announced that one of their new trips in 2019 will be aboard an Emerald Waterways ship cruising the Danube. 24 VBT guests will be part of a larger group on board the 182-passenger river cruise ship. The difference is that your shore excursions will be with a VBT group leader as you bike, on average, 15 to 35 miles per day through the German, Austrian, and Hungarian countryside. VBT can also package together the international air, and pre- and post-visits to Prague and Budapest. Prices start at $4395 per person, not including air. 

 
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Caribbean Comeback, Hotels Picks in Ireland, and MuseumHack in May ActiveTravels Newsletter

In a May 2nd travel story in the Boston Globe, writer Christopher Muther noted that due to the battering of hurricanes Irma and Maria, the Caribbean "lost nearly 1 million visitors and an estimated $900 million in tourism-related spending." He goes on to add that "the Caribbean could see losses totaling more than $3 billion during the next four years until visitor rates climb back." Thus the reason why it’s imperative to support the region now more than ever or thousands of jobs will be lost. Thankfully, many of the top properties have spent the year rebuilding and have announced opening dates for the upcoming winter season. Please consider staying at one of the resorts we mention in our May ActiveTravels Newsletter when thinking about escaping the cold this coming winter. Also in this month’s issue is a round-up of our clients’ preferred properties in Ireland and why Williamsburg, Virginia is far more than a historic hub. Please have a look! 

We’re off to Ithaca with the family to celebrate our son, Jake’s graduation from Cornell. Have a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend! We’ll be back next Wednesday. 
 
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Free Transportation Within 200 Miles of The Balsams in New Hampshire




Eyes widen and mouths gape as soon as you spot Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, and catch your first glimpse of The Balsams Hotel. The excitement builds on the long driveway up to this immense white edifice, created in an era when grand hotels were as common as one-room schoolhouses in the White Mountains. It’s a multi-tiered wedding cake topped with scarlet frosting and ringed by granite peaks. Turning 145 in 2011, the Balsams prides itself as one of the last beacons of civility in a world that spins far too fast on its axis. Come winter, the resort offers 95 km of cross-country trails and 15 downhill trails with a vertical of 1,000 feet. Expect a small ski area that’s ideal for young families or those who clamor for ego-boosting intermediate terrain.

To get new visitors to experience the Balsams, the hotel is offering to pick you up at your house if you’re within 200 miles of the resort. The offer is only available for first-time guests who stay at least five nights. For $149 per person, per night, guests receive free transportation, skiing each day, a ski lesson, equipment rental, lodging, breakfast and dinner.


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Canada Week: Biking the Confederation Trail, Prince Edward Island

Take a chunk of Vermont and plop it down in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and voila, you have Prince Edward Island. This sylvan setting lends itself well to road biking, especially in the spring when the summer crowds have yet to arrive. The Canadian Pacific railroad that once connected Prince Edward Island’s small villages last roared through the interior in 1989, leaving in its wake hundreds of kilometers of track. By 2000, the tracks were pulled and the line replaced with a surface of finely crushed gravel, creating a biking and walking thoroughfare called the Confederation Trail. Crossing the entire island, the trail starts in Tignish in the west and rolls 279 kilometers to the eastern terminus in Elmira. One of the most scenic stretches starts in Mt. Stewart in King’s County along the sinuous Hillsborough River. You’ll soon reach St. Peter’s Bay, a large inlet dotted with mussel farms and lobster traps. After crossing a bridge that rewards you with glimpses of the island’s fabled red cliffs, you’ll arrive at the rolling Greenwich Dunes, a perfect place to bring that picnic lunch. Stay at the Inn at St. Peters, a favorite stopover in PEI for our clients. 

 
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Ski Jay Peak, Vermont

It was unusually cold in Boston this weekend, which is good for many of the ski areas in New England that are now open. First on my wish list this season is Jay Peak. Over the past 8 years, the northern Vermont ski resort opened the 176-room Hotel Jay, the largest indoor waterpark in Vermont, an indoor skating rink for ice skating and hockey games, the Stateside Hotel and base lodge with restaurants and locker rooms, a rental center, 84 new mountain cottages, and a complete redo of the resort’s entrance. Most of the funds used to revamp the resort were collected through an elaborate EB-5 program, where international investors were offered green cards if they invested $500,000. Then in April 2016, a federal lawsuit accused the owners of misusing $200 million raised through the EB-5 program in a Ponzi-like scheme for other projects and their own personal use. Many folks in the ski world thought Jay Peak would shut down once the owners were arrested, but Jay was placed in federal receivership and all employees were told to stay on. They even continued with their construction plans and opened a new theater this summer. What we have now is a world-class ski resort that receives more annual snowfall than any other area in New England, often in excess of 400 inches. I’m ready for a return trip, having last visited when they opened their indoor water park in 2012. 

 
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Dream Trips 2010, Safari in Botswana

With the World Cup heading to South Africa in 2010, that should be reason enough to head back to Mother Africa. Catch a game, then head to Kruger for a little safari action, surf in Plett, grab some wine in Stellenbosch, hike up Table Mountain in glorious Capetown, my vote for the most beautiful city in the world, then bike around Hout Bay. But I’ve already done that, so it’s time to check out some neighboring countries like Namibia, Mozambique, and Botswana. What’s attractive about the Okavango Delta in Botswana is that you can actually ride atop an elephant on safari. My brother, Jim, and I took the elephant trek through the Hill Tribes of Thailand and it was a blast. It certainly beats sitting in the back of a jeep all morning, smelling exhaust. I prefer to see the lions atop an elephant, though I’m not sure how close an elephant would get to the king of the jungle before being scared away.
 

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