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Montreal Knows How to Party, Even in the Heart of Winter

Last winter, Montreal unveiled the continent’s first Snow Village at Parc Jean-Drapeau. This was no miniature dollhouse or a series of ice sculptures. No. The Snow Village included a 30-room ice hotel, an outdoor spa, ice bar, ice restaurant, ice chapel for marriages, a maze, slides, and much more. The show’s promoters first encountered the Snow Village concept in Finland and wanted to recreate the idea in North America. Entering its second season, Snow Village Canada will feature a New York theme in 2013, so expect to see the Empire State Building carved out of ice. If you visit in January, you’ll have the additional bonus of checking out Igloofest, a winter outdoor electronic dance celebration drawing up to 10,000 people a night over 3 weekends. 

 

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DuVine Cycling + Adventure Co. Offering New Trips to South Africa and Greece

Clients of ours just returned from a DuVine trip to Portugal and raved about the high level of biking, service, food, and lodging. That’s not surprising. DuVine is the crème de la crème of bike tours. The company is best known for their small-group trips to the wine regions of the world, like Burgundy and Napa, often bringing well-known sommeliers and chefs along for the ride. Another classic itinerary which clients love is the Tour de France trip where you ride part of the challenging Tour de France route while catching some of the race. Now DuVine has their sights set on Greece and South Africa. We sat down with DuVine’s Kyla Briggs this week and she told us the Greece trip is already selling out in 2018. Not a surprise when you look at the route, aboard a 10-passenger yacht to off-the-beaten-track Dodecanese islands of Kos, Nisyros, and Kalymnos, stopping to bike through the small villages and wineries on these islands. On the dreamy South Africa itinerary, you not only get to bike the famous Chapman’s Peak route south of Cape Town, but you’ll get a taste of off-road biking in the Stellenbosch wine country. 

If you’re interested in any of the DuVine trips in 2018, please let ActiveTravels know and we’ll look into pricing, availability, ages of riders already signed up, and pre- and post-lodging choices. 
 
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Stowe Earns My Respect

It was Martin Luther King Day, 2006, when I skied down an icy patch at Stowe, only to turn awkwardly and hear my ACL snap. The conditions had been horrible, raining all morning but I wanted to ski Upper Lord, one of the oldest runs on the mountain that swoops down along the ridgeline from the top of Vermont’s highest peak, Mount Mansfield. Since that time, I have been back to Stowe on several occasions with the kids but always stuck to the fairly easy trails on neighboring Spruce Peak. This past weekend, blessed with an excellent instructor, Mike Beagan, and a dusting of six inches of snow, I conquered my fears. Beagan started off on a couple easy blues like Ridge View and Sunrise, going off trail to ski through the trees. Feeling comfortable, we then did a couple jumps on the terrain park at Tyro. Then we hit Upper Lord. It was icy up top and I was feeling nervous, but I think the joy of skiing with my son, Jake, an excellent skier, and under the steady guidance of Beagan, who’s been teaching at Stowe for 15 years, I carved those turns and felt comfortable. Comfortable enough to take the gondola up to the top and ski Perry Merrill, one of my all time favorite New England trails, twice. That afternoon, I earned my apres-ski pint of Switchback ale at the Stowe Mountain Lodge. I had finally overcome my anxiety and relished the fact that I could ski this classic mountain once again. 
 
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Maine Windjammer Week, Specialty Cruises

Aboard an historic schooner sailing the Penobscot Bay islands of Maine’s mid-coast, modernity slows to a more languid pace. Cruising amidst the anonymous pine-topped islands, stopping at the occasional seaside village, you can’t help but relax aboard these yachts of yesteryear. Help hoist the sails, read a good thick book, or partake in an increasingly popular activity aboard a windjammer, photography. Lately, these schooners have been offering specialty cruises that cater to one particular passion.

If you’ve followed me on Twitter @ActiveTravels all week, you’ve learned about some of the specialty cruises. I’ll also be writing an upcoming article for The Boston Globe on the subject. Here is a small sampling of this summer’s offerings. For a full listing, visit the Maine Windjammer Association:

 
• Angelique will offer a 3-day cruise in late May that will allow guests to see newly born seal pups. 
• The Isaac H. Evans will night sail during a full moon and the Perseid Meteor Shower with an astronomer on board. 
• The Victory Chimes features an Irish Music Cruise in mid-August. Schooner sailing and foot-stomping fiddling go together like lobster and butter. 
• Captain Barry King aboard the schooner Mary Day is a passionate brewer of beer. You’ll sample Maine’s best microbrews on this mid-June cruise.
• The American Eagle will once again feature professional photographer, Greg Gettens, on their 4-night cruise in June to share his photography tips. 
• Stephen Taber is ideally suited to offer wine tasting cruises throughout the summer. Captain Noah Barnes wife, Jane, worked in the wine industry for many years.
• Captains Doug and Linda Lee of the Heritage share their wealth of knowledge about Maine’s people, islands, and seafaring history on their two Maritime History cruises this summer. 
• Lovers of lighthouses should book the 6-night Lighthouse Cruise on the Lewis R. French. You’ll get close up views of 15-20 historic lighthouses. 
 
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Bike the Texas Hill Country with Sojourn

Many of the people I meet who founded their active travel company have a genuine passion for the sport. Tom Hale spent over 5,000 miles on a bike the summer of 1979 prior to opening Backroads. When Susan Rand was in college, she would load her panniers witch camping gear and clothes and hit the road. Then she became athletic director at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, and worked for four years at Vermont Bicycle Tours prior to starting her own company, Sojourn, in 1995. Her fall foliage trips along the shores of Lake Champlain in her native Vermont are still the most popular weeklong jaunts. Yet, it’s the itineraries I don’t normally see in a catalog that I find most intriguing. In the summer, Sojourn heads to the Columbia River Gorge to bike between glorious Mount Hood and Mount Adams. In late fall and mid-winter, Rand takes riders to the Sonoran Desert outside Tucson to bike, hike in Saguaro National Park, and horseback ride in John Wayne country at the Rancho De La Osa Guest Ranch. New this spring is a trip to Texas Hill Country, an overlooked biking region outside of San Antonio that I’ve written about for National Geographic Adventure. Rand personally tries all of the trips she designs and this has quickly become one of her favorites. You’ll be biking under tall cypress trees on lonely backcountry roads past large cattle ranches and fields of bluebonnets that are in bloom in early spring. You’ll also visit the Alamo and LBJ Ranch. So saddle up and get out there on your next sojourn.
 

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The New 7 Wonders of Nature

A Swiss-based organization is sponsoring a campaign on the web to vote for your favorite natural wonder. A list of 28 finalists has already been announced and they include Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher, Table Mountain in Capetown, and New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy, and America’s lone entry in the contest, the Grand Canyon. Some 1 billion votes are expected by 11/11/11, when the final 7 will be announced.
 

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Nova Scotia Week: Trout Point Lodge, the Quintessential Canadian Retreat

When I think of the ideal Canadian property, I imagine a small timber lodge cut from rough-hewn spruce right next to a running river where you can walk out in waders and fly-fish for trout. A chunk of pristine wilderness thick in a forest of old growth pines, hemlocks, and stately birches, so far from civilization that the night sky twinkles brightly. A boutique resort that caters to your every whim, from dinners of fresh lobster and scallops probably caught off the coast of Nova Scotia that day, to a hot tub, sauna, massages, and guitar strumming around the fire pit at night. Throughout my years of Canadian travel, I must have stayed at over 250 resorts in the country, but it doesn’t get much better than the Trout Point Lodge. Less than an hour’s drive from where the Nova Star ferry arrives in Yarmouth, you drive down a long dirt road into the resort and soon hear the rushing water, welcoming you to the Tobeatic Wilderness Area. The only member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World in Atlantic Canada, expect to find wood everywhere—from the thick logs cut into the bathroom walls to wood floors in the rooms to a hot tub made from wood boards to the whimsical sauna, set in oversized wooden barrels. At dinner, you’re given a choice of activities to sample the next day, be it hiking with a naturalist, fly-fishing, mountain biking, or paddling one of the many nearby rivers and lakes. Then you head out to the fire pit and wait for the sky to shine. In 2014, Trout Point Lodge received certification as the world’s first Starlight Hotel from the Starlight Foundation, and is considered by astronomers to be one of the finest places in North America to view the night sky. Peer into lodge’s new Meade 10" telescope and you just might make out the rings of Saturn. 

 

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