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Headed to the National Parks This Summer? Download the Just Ahead App

If you want the feel of having your own personal park ranger by your side as you drive through America’s most spectacular scenery, then do yourself a favor and download the Just Ahead audio guide. Just Ahead utilizes GPS technology to know exactly where drivers are on the road, and delivers stories and maps relevant to their exact location. The app points out not-to-miss features while also helping drivers avoid getting lost by providing suggested directions. It works without an Internet connection or cell phone service. Simply turn it on and enjoy a narrated tour that describes the history, geography, and wildlife of each national park. 

 
Just Ahead guides are currently available for the following national parks: Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Zion and Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands and Arches. Additional park guides are in production and are expected to roll out in time for the busy summer travel season. They include Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Badlands, Black Hills, Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, and Mesa Verde. The Just Ahead app is a free download, while guides range from $4.99 to $9.99.
 

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Canada Week: Walk in the Footsteps of Canada’s Group of Seven Artists

Enter Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario and you can’t help be mesmerized by Canada’s source of artistic pride, the Group of Seven. These renowned landscape painters first exhibited together in 1920 at this same museum. Peering at the impressive mountains, lakes, and sky, I’ve often thought to myself that I’d love be at these exact spots in person. Over the years, some of my favorite stories have been following in the footsteps of artists, like visiting Winslow Homer’s Prouts Neck, Maine, or Georgia O’Keeffe’s Lake George. Now I’m hoping to get the chance to visit the landscape that inspired several of these Canadian greats, specifically A. Y. Jackson and Franklin Carmichael who used northeastern Ontario as their backdrop. First stop is Sudbury, where I’ll see many more works by these artists at the Art Gallery of Sudbury, and my first scenic overlook, the A. Y. Jackson Lookout outside of town. The highlight is Killarney Provincial Park where I’ll be hiking and paddling smack dab in the middle of a Carmichael canvas, ringed by the La Cloche Mountains. I’ll continue along the Georgian Bay coastal route, with a must-stop at Manitoulin Island before returning to Sudbury. 

 
Franklin Carmichael
Light and Shadow, 1937
Courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario 
 
 
 
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Botswana A&K Guide, Kebby Arabang, Debuts Ilanga Tours

Lisa and I were fortunate to travel with Kebby Arabang on a magical 10-day trip with Abercrombie & Kent to Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia in September 2016. Kebby’s knowledge of the outdoor world was encyclopedic. He knew every mammal, every bird, every tree, even the planets in the sky above. But it was his genuine passion of the subject, seamless communication skills, infectious smile and sense of humor that made him one of the best guides I’ve ever met. I loved mimicking his Botswana accent, especially when he emphasized the letter r when naming the next exquisite bird like the lilac-breasted roller or southern carmine bee-eater. He took it in stride and laughed along with me, even when the joke lasted far too long. 

Kebby emailed me last week and told me that when he’s not leading A&K tours in 2018, he’ll be guiding Botswana trips through his new company, Ilanga Tours. Based on your budget, he’ll take groups through the Okavango Delta and up to Chobe National Park to visit the largest herd of elephants in Africa and cruise the Chobe River on the Namibian border. If you have time, he’ll add on the spellbinding Victoria Falls. If interested in traveling with Kebby, either with A&K or Ilanga Tours, please contact ActiveTravels and we’ll look into availability. 
 

Canadian Itineraries to Try This Summer or Fall: The Atlantic Maritimes

Hiking in NewfoundlandI’ve stayed weeks in each of the four Atlantic Maritime provinces—New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia—and it’s honestly hard for me to distill this exquisite coastal landscape down to its highlights. Because there’s so much more! Like biking to small fishing villages on PEI’s Confederation Trail, backpacking Gros Morne National Park high above the fjords of Newfoundland, hiking the Skyline Trail where I always spot moose in Cape Breton, and going on a puffin cruise out of New Brunswick to the nesting grounds of Machias Seal Island. There’s no place I’d rather sea kayak more than along the shoreline of the Atlantic Maritimes, where I’ve spotted so much wildlife from whales to porpoises to seals to bald eagles and puffins flying overhead. And don’t forget the culture. There’s nothing like a live Celtic concert in Cape Breton in the summer or a Fisherman’s Wharf all-you-can-eat lobster supper in PEI. With the high-speed CAT now running from Bar Harbor, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (3 ½-hour cruise), we can connect the dots for you quickly. Please let ActiveTravels know your dates and budget and we’ll design a memorable trip!

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Photography Apps & Tools to Enhance Your Travel Photos

Guest Post by Lisa Leavitt

I still lug around my heavy 35 mm Canon camera, just like I still tend toward actual books and dirty bulky newspapers. However, you can’t be but amazed at what your iPhone camera is capable of doing. Here are some excellent apps and tools that will give you a hand toward creating those memorable pictures you’ve yearned to be able to take:

 
Ollo Clip
Ollo Clip is a four-in-one lens that can be easily attached to your iPhone or iPad. The four lenses include a wide angle, fish-eye (think strange distortions), 10x macro lens gets you 10x closer and the 15x lens gets you 15x closer (yep, peach fuzz). Pocket sized and very handy, these are extra cool. Remember, the one downside is you have to attach the lenses to the naked iPhone, so cases need to be removed before use. They did invent a special Quick-Flip case for it so you may want to check those out. The four-in-one for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus should be ready to ship by late November, just in time for the holidays. Made for iPhone 4, 4S, 5, 5S, and 6 is to come shortly. Also works on Samsung Galaxy. Only $79.
 
Galileo
You likely have a dock for your iPod that amplifies the sound of your music. The Galileo is a dock for your iPhone that gives it a robotic spin rotating in every direction, expanding your photographic possibilities to the extreme. Features include time lapse video that can capture the transformations of the sky during sunrises and sunsets and passing cloud formations, face tracking technology allowing for hand free selfies, object tracking for hand free videography, and spherical photos featuring a composite picture taken from 360 degrees of angles.  $99.95-$149.95
 
GroupShot
This app merges a series of photos into one that everyone loves. Ever take a fantastic family photo but one person manages to blink so it’s just not perfect? Here’s your solution. Load all the pictures you have of that latest family photo, and replace the less than optimal face with one from another take. Problem solved. GroupShot costs .99 in the App Store.

 
ProHDR X 
Incredible definition for smart phone photos, called High Dynamic Range, combines several different exposures into one so you can create a single well-exposed image. You can easily turn on the HDR setting on your iPhone camera by tapping on the options button and turning on the HDR switch. It may take a bit longer to take an HDR photo, but it’s usually worth it. If you want even better HDR quality, try ProHDR X, which was just introduced last month. This app allows your iPhone camera to simultaneously get details on the object in focus, get the lush, saturated color you desire, show shadows with depth and produce a final image that looks almost surreal it’s so focused and highly contrasted. $1.99 from the App store.
 
TouchRetouch
This app will remove unwanted people and content from your photos. Use your finger to change your photos at will. The photos look very convincing and the app is a cinch to use. TouchRetouch is .99 in App Store.
 
 
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Head to Quebec’s Winter Carnival This Week

Now that Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow, it’s time to savor those next 6 weeks of winter. To get the party started right, head to the best winter carnival in North America in Quebec City. Quebec’s Winter Carnival (which runs through February 12) is the largest in the world, attracting more than one million people. I was one of the lucky people to arrive in this fortified city on the first day of the 2015 Winter Carnival. I spent the morning sledding down an ice chute, viewing the impressive ice castle, made from 1600 blocks of ice, eating maple syrup on snow, and playing a human game of foosball. Top DJs from Montreal and Toronto played a mesmerizing mix of hip-hop and electronica, while locals carried cane-like red sticks filled with a potent drink called Caribou, made of whiskey, red wine, and maple syrup, adding to the dancing frenzy. When Bonhomme, the popular snowman and revered host of the festivities started to boogie, the crowd went wild. For those of us who choose to embrace winter in all its snowy charm, there’s no better event than a Winter Carnival.

 
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Peru Week with Abercrombie and Kent: Two Magical Nights at Sol y Luna in Sacred Valley

After touring the historical core of Lima, including the impressive Museo Larco and its vast collection of pre-Colombian art, we flew to Cuzco and headed onward to Sacred Valley. Our lodging for the next two nights was Sol y Luna, where spacious casitas, all with fireplaces and some with hot tubs, dot the grounds of this majestic landscape, surrounded by the serrated ridges of the Andes. I loved it here. Everywhere you walk are flowering shrubs and tall cacti in bloom, another photo to be taken, especially when large hummingbirds would fly into the golden flowers of my back deck. Vases of yellow roses were also found inside the casitas, along with wonderful local painting and sculpture. At night, our group of 18 met in a ranch-style setting for cocktail hour and then a sublime dinner, worthy of the property’s Relais and Chateau rating. We started with pisco mojitos, created with the sweet local mint grown in these parts. Then we dined on trout carpaccio and beef tenderloin, finishing with a dessert of tres leches. This is one Virtuoso lodging that I will recommend highly to our clients. 

 

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