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Simon Pearce Unveils His New Glassblowing Site in Quechee, Vermont

Last August, I was saddened to hear that one of my favorite covered bridges in New England, the one that sits over the Ottauquechee River in Quechee, was swept away by the surging water of Tropical Storm Irene. The bridge and the rushing water of the river are best seen while dining at the Simon Pearce restaurant. Pearce and his glassblowing facility were also hit hard last year. But as I noted in a recent story for The Boston Globe, he’s up and running with a rehabbed store and much larger space for viewing the glassblowers at work. If your fall plans take you to the Woodstock region to see the foliage, make a pitstop at nearby Quechee to dine at Simon Pearce. Lifting one of those sturdy glass goblets full of a local microbrew, you’ll be happy you took my advice.  

 

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Mad River Valley Bed and Brew This Weekend

What do you do in Vermont between fall foliage and the start of ski season? Drink! The state, and especially the Mad River Valley region around Waterbury, is home to some of the finest craft brews in the country. Take, for example, the beloved ultra-hoppy Heady Topper. The Alchemist, the microbrewery that now cans the beer, had to close down their store this week because it was just too popular and overcrowded. You can still sample the Heady Topper at Prohibition Pig, a favorite watering hole in Waterbury. In fact, if you sign up for the Mad River Valley Bed and Brew Weekend (November 15-17, December 6-8, December 13-15), a 14-seat tour bus will pick you up at your lodging for private tours of many of the region’s best microbrews, including Lawson’s Finest in Warren, and Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville. Cost starts at $85 per person and includes 2 nights at a hotel, lodge, or bed & breakfast in the Mad River Valley, the private Saturday tour of 3-4 craft breweries, a snack box with local Vermont goodies to get you through the day of touring, a Mad River Valley tasting glass, and discounts at local restaurants featuring local craft beers and farm to table food. 

 
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Why We Love Rick Steves European Guidebooks

In a May/June 2000 story for Transitions Abroad magazine entitled “The Best and Worst Of Europe—with Apologies to None,” Rick Steves writes “the area south of Edinburgh is so boring the Romans decided to block it off with Hadrian’s Wall.” In another section of the piece (still found online and worthy of a download), Steves notes, “Oxford pales next to Cambridge, and Stratford is little more than Shakespeare’s house—and it’s as dead as he is.” Then there’s this juicy tidbit: “A hundred years ago, Athens was a sleepy town of 8,000 people with a pile of ruins in its backyard. Today, it’s a giant mix of concrete, smog, noise, tourists, and four million Greeks. See the four major attractions (the Acropolis, Agora, Plaka, and great National Archaeological Museum) and get out to the islands or countryside.”

 
Best known as the host of the PBS series Rick Steves’ Europe, the man is also a prolific guidebook writer, one who is not in the least bit bashful about sharing his opinion. This is what we want in a travel guidebook, someone with an expert opinion we trust who can break down the destination for us. We don’t want a book the size of Anna Karenina detailing every nook and cranny of that country with little or no judgment (the old Lonely Planet guidebooks come to mind). Most of us have a week or two on vacation, if we’re lucky. We simply want someone to tell us you’d be a fool to miss the Sognefjord fjord in Norway or Burg Eltz castle in Germany, according to Steves. 
 
To see my latest column for Men’s Journal on how to pick a trusted guidebook, click here. 
 
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Adventures in the Florida Keys, Sea Kayaking with Big Pine Kayak Adventures

The Florida Keys are basically small spits of land connected by bridges on the Overseas Highway. Surrounding you is the water of ocean and bay, but it’s hard to get too far off the beaten track on land. No Name Key off of Big Pine Key is arguably the most remote section of the Upper Keys. The best to way to see the island is from the seat of a sea kayak with Bill Keogh as your guide. For 18 years, Keogh, owner of Big Pine Kayak Adventures, has led paddlers across the channel and into the mangroves of No Name Key. Within moments of my stepmom, Ginny, and I paddling on the calm waters, we would spot the swift frigate birds, tricolored and green herons, and kingfishers. Then we were following Bill and his dog Scudder through a narrow tunnel of mangroves, pulling roots to move us forward. We would soon reach a large salt pond where we would spot numerous upside-down jellyfish in the clear waters. It was just us and the great white egrets in this serene locale. After breathing in our fair share of salty air, we would go back through the sinuous waterway in the mangroves, flowing with the current, and wishing it would never end. 

 
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Stocking Stuffer No. 1—100 Things to Do in Boston/Rhode Island Before You Die

One of the earliest blogs I wrote, almost a decade ago, was on how to find the best travel guidebook. One of the points I touched on was who is the author and where does he live? If the guy lives in Texas and writes about South Africa, I’ll put that book down in favor of a local writer in Cape Town who knows his country far better than any foreigner. Which brings me to my first Stocking Stuffer of 2019, 100 Things to Do in Boston Before You Die and 100 Things to Do in Rhode Island Before You Die. Not only do I know the authors of these books, Kim Foley MacKinnon and Bob Curley, respectively, but I have no qualms saying that they are the best qualified people to pen these titles. Both MacKinnon and Curley have written countless articles and books on their hometown destinations, so if anyone would know the hidden nooks and crannies of Boston and the state of Rhode Island, it would be these two. This is one of those rare travel guidebooks that’s best suited for locals to know their city and region better. I can’t wait to dig into Curley’s book to savor sunset on the deck of the Coast Guard House in Narragansett and check out Charlestown’s River and Roots Festival over Labor Day Weekend. 

 
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Top 5 Fall Foliage Picks in New England, Golfing at the Equinox or Stowe Mountain Lodge

A favorite in autumn, when the hillside is aflame in color, the dramatic ups and downs of the Equinox course offer quintessential New England vistas of white steeples, Mt. Equinox, and the grand hotel. You won’t forget the seventh hole, a par-five that plays over a road. Take a break at the ninth to have lobster rolls for lunch at the Dormy Grill. Over at Stowe Mountain Lodge, Bob Cupp’s ego-boosting design has five sets of tees to ensure that birdies, not bogies, are a reality. That is, if you can concentrate on your putts instead of peering off at the majestic views of the Green Mountains that form a silhouette of peaks around you. Celebrate your low score with a drink at the golf cottage, created from the yellow birch trees found on the course. For more information, read my story on fall foliage golfing in Vermont at The Boston Globe.
 

"Photo credit Destination360 Vermont Golf"

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Spain, DayTrip, Montreal, and More in May ActiveTravels Newsletter

We were picked up promptly at 9 am in Granada, Spain, by Damir, a driver and guide for a company we’ve been working with more and more in Europe, Daytrip. We could have rented our own car and made the 3-hour trek from Granada to Seville, but it’s so much more relaxing to have someone else drive, especially when you want to stop and visit another town along the way. Two hours later, after sitting in the back of a comfortable Mercedes sedan and peering out at the rolling hills and mountains of this bucolic region of Spain, we arrived in Ronda. Damir guided us around the town, walking along the edge of the famous gorge, touring the oldest bullring in Spain, the one Hemingway wrote about when he lived here (it’s also the town where Orson Welles retired and died), and the historic Moorish settlement at the bottom of the hill. After a lunch of tapas, we arrived in Seville around 4 pm. It ended up being one of the most relaxing days of our recent Spain trip. Daytrip is now expanding to Asia. It’s a wonderful way to connect the dots between destinations, while stopping at off-the-beaten track locales. 
 
To read more about our trip to Spain, a special deal on Relais and Chateaux properties, and what’s happening in Montreal this summer, please check out the latest ActiveTravels newsletter. Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! 
 

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