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Consider the Briarcliff on Your Next Visit to the Berkshires

I’ve always loved the location of the Briarcliff Motel, even when it was called the Briarcliff Motor Lodge and I was reviewing the property for the Lonely Planet Guide to New England back in 1999. The motel sits on a quiet stretch of Route 7 directly across from historic Monument Mountain (the hike Herman Melville once took with Nathaniel Hawthorne) and within an easy five-minute drive of the restaurants and shops in Great Barrington. Now under the more than capable watch of Londoners Clare and Richard, the lodging is much more stylish, comfortable, and homey. Breakfast, included in the price, features freshly made scones and muffins, yogurt, fresh fruit, and a tasty homemade granola (no, Richard, won’t give you the recipe). At night, there’s a fire pit to share stories with other travelers about your day at the Clark, Tanglewood, Norman Rockwell Museum, Naumkeag and many other sites in the Berkshires. But don’t miss the opportunity to climb Monument, only a 90-minute round-trip trek that rewards you with a glorious vista of the valley below. 

 

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Honesty Leads to the Best Travel Writing

Pressured by travel editors to write flowery prose about a destination so that publications can secure those necessary advertising dollars, most travel writing is a bore. Even worse are travel writers who pen stories in return for a free press trip. Their writing is often indistinguishable from a publicist’s press release. Take it from a travel expert. Rarely have I ever encountered a perfect trip, where the travel, accommodations, and destinations are all stellar during the same jaunt. There is always some adventure you’re thrust into willingly or not, some bizarre local you meet that helps define the place, and a slew of mishaps. Place those anecdotes into the article and you have a great read, not unlike the writings of Bruce Chatwin or Paul Theroux. 
 
Rarely do I see a scathing review of a destination, so when I came across this little gem from a writer at the Sydney Morning Herald, I was thrilled. I was researching a trip to northern Sumatra for a client who wants to see the orangutans at Gunung Leuser National Park. Unfortunately, they have to fly in and out of Medan, the third largest city in Indonesia and the focus of this story. 
 
All week, I’ll be sharing with you some of my least favorite misadventures in print. Enjoy. 
 
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Allegiant and Frontier Airlines Start Flying From Providence

Providence’s T.F. Green Airport is quickly becoming a hub for low-cost carriers. On the heels of Norwegian Air’s new routes this past summer from Providence direct to Dublin, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cork and Shannon, both Allegiant and Frontier Airlines announced that they are starting new routes from T. F. Green this autumn. Allegiant is flying direct to Punta Gorda in southwest Florida (a 35-minute drive north of Fort Myers for you Red Sox spring training fans), St. Petersburg, and Cincinnati. Colorado ski lovers will want to know that Frontier now flies direct to Denver as well as Orlando. So the next time you think of booking a flight out of Boston’s Logan Airport, be sure to add Providence’s T.F. Green (PVD) to the mix. 

 
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Multi-Generational Family Retreats Featured in July/August ActiveTravels Newsletter

The kids are stand-up paddle boarding near the middle of the lake. Lisa is sea kayaking with her siblings and their spouses closer to the shoreline. Steady wind blowing through my hair, I’m at the tiller of an 18-foot sailboat accompanied by my mother-in-law, Fran. I grew up sailing on the large lake to the south, Lake George, where there’s far more boat traffic and large passenger steamboats like The Mohican, which I always seemed to be on a direct line to hit. But here on the southern tier of mighty Lake Champlain, there is little traffic on this July weekday and I don’t feel a worry in the world. Vermont’s Basin Harbor Club is one of a handful of resorts that we like to send clients in summer who are looking for a large family get-together. One that’s suitable for all ages, from toddlers to octogenarians. Please see the latest ActiveTravels newsletter to find other recommended resorts. We also discuss the Canary Islands, a popular getaway for the Brits, but not yet on the American radar. 

 
Lisa and I will be traveling to three outstanding lodges in northern Ontario next week with our ActiveTravels colleague, Amy, and her husband, Josh. We’ll be back on August 7th. In the meantime, enjoy the summer weather and stay active! 
 

Club Med Quebec Charlevoix to Open in December

Club Med Quebec Few industries have been impacted more than travel this past year and a half. Navigating through the dizzying array of restrictions and requirements is no easy feat and can leave this eternal optimist exhausted and disheartened. But then I read about a new hotel opening in an area of the globe I’d like to check out and I’m just as excited as I was 30 years ago when I first entered the travel world, writing a story on the hotel Robert Louis Stevenson stayed when visiting Levuka, Fiji in the late 19th century. This pandemic has been a long slog, yet remarkably hotel groups continue to build and invest in the travel industry. That alone gives me a glimmer of hope.

Opening December 2021 is Club Med’s first foray in Canada and it’s a beauty. Having written about skiing Le Massif for the Boston Globe, I’ve had the good fortune to witness the exquisite views of the St. Lawrence Seaway from the slopes. Located 90 minutes northeast of Québec City in the Le Massif de Charlevoix region, the four-season all-inclusive mountain resort is spread across 300 acres. The new Club Med offers 302 rooms and a private luxury space featuring 25 suites. All-inclusive dining features the main restaurant, Le Marché, the gourmet lounge, Le Chalet, and the family restaurant, Terroir & Co, where kids and parents will enjoy fondue and raclette, local Québec cheeses and charcuteries, freshly baked cookies, and Québec’s famous maple taffy. Aside from ski-in/ski-out access, guest will enjoy ice skating, dogsledding, and sugar shack visits in the winter; biking, guided hiking tours, and whale watching in the warmer months. Let ActiveTravels know your dates and we’ll check availability and package together with Quebec City.

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Abercrombie and Kent Week—Living with Elephants and Other Philanthropic Projects

On the second day of our safari, I woke up at sunrise to the cacophony of high-pitched bird calls. French-press coffee arrived at my lodge at Stanley’s Camp and I drank a cup overlooking the high grasses of the Okavango Delta. After breakfast, our group of six was driven to a clearing where we soon stared in awe at a massive 11 ½-foot high, 5 to 6 ton elephant named Jabu. A gentle giant, Jabu was joined by two other elephants, the playful Thembi, and the oldest of the trio, 40 year-old Morula. The elephants were led by American Doug Groves and his South African-born wife, Sandi, two zoologists who adopted the threesome when culling operations in South Africa and Zimbabwe left them as orphans more than 25 years ago. 

Doug first came to the continent in 1987 to help with a feature film about the early days of South Africa. He met Sandi, adopted their elephants, and never returned. In 1999, they founded the charity, Living with Elephants, dedicated to creating a harmonious relationship between people and elephants. That morning, I had the opportunity to touch the ears and tusks of Jabu, walk Morula by the trunk, even get a slimy kiss from Jabu before we had lunch. But this is no hokey tourist trap. The primary goal of Living with Elephants is to help Botswanian schoolchildren overcome their fear of elephants and other large mammals that could very well have killed members of their family in the past. An estimated 30,000 elephants are now killed every year in Africa due to poaching. That leaves some 350,000 elephants on the continent with more than a third of these amazing animals in the small country of Botswana. If the Groves can show locals how compassionate elephants really are, this can only help stem the mass killings. 
 
On our last day of the trip, we visited the community of Nakatindi, not far from where we stayed at Sanctuary Sussi and Chuma in Livingstone, Zambia. When the government promised this village a medical clinic, fresh water, and a primary school and never came through on that promise, Abercrombie and Kent came to the forefront. They built a clinic that now serves 10,000 people annually. They were also instrumental in educating the community about Malaria and AIDS, the two killers that have left many children in this village as orphans. When the villagers had to walk through a national park to get their water from the Zambezi River, they were frequently attacked by wildlife. So Abercrombie and Kent created a water pump to get fresh water piped to their village directly. They also opened a bike shop, shipped old bicycles directly from America to Zambia and Botswana, trained locals to become bike mechanics, and then bought those refurbished bikes back. They are now used by schoolchildren who need to bike 7 kilometers each day to get to school and by farmers who need to get their goods to market.
 
I was once skeptical of these philanthropic projects in Africa. Saw it as a drop in the bucket, especially when you consider that the cost of one day on safari is comparable to the yearly earnings to someone in the village of Nakatindi. Then I visited a school in the Maasai Mara that was built largely due to the donation of one safari client on vacation. I met a young woman there who was continuing her studies at Oxford. She told me that before the school was built, no girls were allowed at the local public school. In one of the largest slums in Nairobi, I saw how a Johnson and Johnson executive on safari returned to donate a factory that created tampons. That way, girls would not miss 2 to 3 days of school when they had their period. Another executive, this one from Warner Brothers, created a computer room where locals could not only play video games but learn about the risk of AIDS. Then, of course, there’s Bill and Melinda Gates, who also went to Africa on safari. Eradicating malaria is now their top priority. I often say to clients that you visit Africa the first time to see the wildlife, but you return often to be with the people. Those people need a helping hand. 
 
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One Helluva Climb

39 year-old Dan Nevins lost both his legs in Iraq. Neil Duncan, 26, had both his legs blown off in Afghanistan driving over a buried explosive in 2005. Kirk Bauer, 62, lost one of his legs in Vietnam. Together, the trio just finished climbing to the peak of 19,334-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. If you’re doing the math at home, that’s three men with a combined one leg they were born with. The six-day climb was part of Wounded Warrior Sports Challenge, a series of extreme adventures aimed at permanently disabled veterans. Designed by Disabled Sports USA, out of Rockville, Maryland, the company holds the same belief as me that adventure is the best form of therapy. Along with mountain climbs, they also feature a 26-mile run in the desert of New Mexico, scuba, sailing, and a 100-mile bike trek. Kudos to Dan, Neil, and Kirk for not only attempting but making it to the top!
 

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