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Guided Tours on the Kingdom Trails

Those of you who have followed my writing over the years know that I frequently write about the Kingdom Trails, the network of stellar mountain biking trails in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. In my humble opinion, there’s no better place to ride in the Northeast. The Kingdom Trails Association has maintained and mapped some 150 miles of trails. This can be a quandary for the first-time visitor. That’s why I was delighted last week to hear that Caitlin Foley at Lyndonville’s Village Sport Shop has unveiled a customized tour of the Kingdom Trails. Depending on your experience, some of the area’s top local riders will guide you, have catered meals delivered right on the trail, set you up with a bike that can handle the terrain, even help you with child care and arrange massages to soothe those weary legs afterwards. Just make sure they take you on Webs, my favorite! 

 

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Seven Trips to Try, Quick Escape to Porto in ActiveTravels April Newsletter

Every March or early April, Lisa and I go to an annual 4-day travel conference arranged by our fantastic host agency, Largay Travel, the gateway to all those Virtuoso amenities clients receive including complimentary hotel room upgrades and breakfasts, shipboard credit on cruises, spa treatment freebies, meals, and much more. Largay celebrated 50 years in the industry at the latest bash, so all the finest hoteliers and suppliers came out to introduce themselves in 15-minute meetings throughout the event. In this month’s ActiveTravels newsletter, we present the trips that left us most excited from the event, including seeing the monarch butterfly migration with Natural Habitat Adventures, a South African safari on a budget, and active yoga trips with Backroads. April is also a wonderful time to visit Portugal, especially Porto, with its excellent restaurants and port wine tastings on the banks of the Douro River. Please have a look! 

 
Have a Happy Easter and Happy Passover! 
 
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Walking Through Venice and Veneto with the Wayfarers

Named by National Geographic Adventure as one of the “Best Hiking Companies,” The Wayfarers offers an eco-sensitive “walking” holiday that merges fitness with culture in 15 countries across the globe.  Now in its 28th year, founder Michael West is particularly excited about the upcoming Venice and The Veneto trip. Averaging 7 to 10 miles a day of walking, the weeklong journey will take you to Asiago to sample the famous cow’s milk cheese, visit the birthplace of grappa in Bassano del Grappa, and view two of Palladio’s magnificent villas, including the Renaissance architect’s masterwork, La Rotonda. “The highlight,” says West, “is when we arrive in Venice at the finale of the trip on a private launch directly from the mainland. I have never experienced (in almost fifty years in the business) a thrill like arriving at the steps of our hotel having cruised in celebrity style through one of the most famous skylines in the world!” The farewell dinner is in a restaurant known only by locals on the quayside watching the sun set over the city. “Magic!” says West.
 

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Backroads Family Trip to Switzerland, Biking from Kandersteg to Thun

If you stared at a map of the Swiss Alps, you could find hikes to do on your own thanks to the wonderful train and gondola system in the country. Where Backroads really excelled on this trip was its design of biking routes, which no rider could possibly emulate. Biking from Kandersteg to Thun took place on an intricate network of narrow backcountry roads and bike trails. We started with an exhilarating downhill run comprised of three hairpin turns. We were soon on a small road that only people who lived on the street could drive. It snaked through a velvety green valley where tall snow-capped peaks stared down from either side. We passed the requisite cows and the jingling of cowbells, and small villages where chalets were lined with colorful dahlias and red geraniums in planters. Soon we were crossing over grated bridges where you could peer down below at the rushing rapids of a river before taking a bike trail through heavy forest into the town of Thun. We dined on pizza at an Italian joint and then strolled the old quarter before taking the train onward to Grindelwald, our home for the next two nights. 

 
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Top 5 Fall Foliage Picks in New England, Mountain Biking the Kingdom Trails, Vermont

Just thinking about the Kingdom Trails in autumn, whipping through the red and yellow leaves on the maples behind the Inn at Mountain View Farm, and I want to jump in my car immediately. This 150-mile circuit, linking former farming roads with slender singletracks, offers the best of Vermont riding. One moment, you’re banking narrow turns on Coronary Bypass, the next you’re zooming through the tall barren pines in Webs. In fact, it’s such a glorious network that you’ll want to keep biking even when your legs are cramping and your Camelbak runs dry. Check out the article I wrote last summer for The Boston Globe on biking the Kingdom Trails with my son, Jake.
 

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Exciting Times at ActiveTravels!

These are busy times for us at ActiveTravels as we listened to our growing membership and have started to design food, art, biking inn-to-inn, family adventure, and yoga trips exclusively for our clientele. We are partnering with some of our favorite people, including food and cocktail writers, restaurateurs, art historians, renowned adventure outfitters, and beloved yoga instructors to help lead these tours. Lisa and I hope to finalize the pricing and dates (starting in the fall of 2016) by the new year, when we also roll out our new website redesign. Yea! Thanks again for your continued support! What a long strange trip it’s been. As my dad used to say, “Enjoy the ride.”
 
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One Year After Irene, Vermont Is Fully Open for Fall Foliage Traffic

All eyes were on the Atlantic shoreline one year ago today as Hurricane Irene, downgraded to Tropical Storm Irene, slowly made her treacherous way north. We would soon find out that this perilous storm had far more of an affinity for New England’s mountains than sea, wreaking havoc in her wake as she followed the spine of peaks from the Berkshires into Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Southern Vermont took the brunt of the hit, not necessarily from the wind as much as the deluge of rain causing rivers to overflow, washing away bridges and resulting in more than 200 sections of collapsed road. Fall foliage season, the height of travel to the region, was reduced to a trickle. This season, there hopefully will be no surprises. After Labor Day, I’m going to spend the week talking about my favorite places to be in Vermont during fall foliage, including biking Addison County, mountain biking the Kingdom Trails, sea kayaking the Lake Champlain islands, and hiking Mount Hunger. Stick around. 

 

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