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Italy, Turkey, Lake George, and Favorite All-Inclusive Resorts in our August Newsletter

In this month’s ActiveTravels newsletter, we describe our recent trip with the family to Istanbul and Cappadocia, an outfitter our clients love in Italy, some of our favorite all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean, a Quick Escape to my boyhood stomping ground, Bolton Landing, New York, on the shores of Lake George, and how Award Wallet can save all your airline mileage onto one nice app. 
 
Off to Ithaca to drop our son off at college. I’ll be back with a new entry on Tuesday. Enjoy this last glorious month of summer and Happy Travels!
 

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Appalachian Mountain Club Going Overboard to Attract Families

Calling all families! If you ever wanted to do a little hut-to-hut hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, this summer might be the best time. The AMC has just launched a new campaign called “Kid Spoken Here” that reduces rates for all children at the huts, introduces a new Kid’s Menu like pasta and quesadillas, and even entertains Junior with counselor-led scavenger hunts and kite flying while mom and dad can sit down to a relaxing dinner. If you like the idea of having a guide around during the entire trek, consider one of the 5-night family adventure camps. Hike, paddle, and fish at some of the most serene spots in New England while being led by AMC guides and naturalists. The program is available to all children ages 5-12 and their parents.

Also, as previously reported on ActiveTravels, the AMC will reopen Gorman Chairback Lodge in Maine’s North Woods on July 1st after extensive renovations. Unveiled as a private camp in 1867, it’s hard to top the locale of Gorman Chairback, located on the shores of Long Pond in the shadows of the Barren-Chairback Range. This is for families who really savor peace and quiet.
 

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A Necessary Stop at the Corning Museum of Glass on a College Road Trip

On our drive last week from the campuses of Penn State to Syracuse, we stopped about an hour south of Ithaca in the small town of Corning, New York. Here you’ll find one of my favorite museums in western New York, the Corning Museum of Glass. Founded in 1851, Corning Glass Works was instrumental in helping Thomas Edison create the light bulb on a mass scale, designed the first television screens, invente the first assembly-line bottling plant, and now the company is thriving with the proliferation of fiber optics. You can learn about the inventors and innovation of glass at the museum. Corning also features an exceptional collection of glass art from Egyptian times to the present that will only get bigger with the new $64 million Contemporary Art and Design Wing set to make its debut on March 20th. The 26,000-square-foot art gallery will be the largest space anywhere dedicated to the presentation of contemporary art in glass. It will also house one of the world’s largest facilities for glassblowing demonstrations and live glass design sessions, with 500 seats. Another highlight of the museum is the chance to create your own art, via glassblowing or sandblasting. My wife made a wind chime while my daughter created a glass pendant. 

 
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A Pleasure to Meet Chief Mi’Sel Joe on the Way to Miawpukek

Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches

Early on in the Adventure Canada circumnavigation of Newfoundland, I found myself sitting next to Chief Mi’Sel Joe, the Saquamaw and Administrative Chief of the Mi’kmaq Grand Council, First Nations community of Miawpukek (Conne River). In preparation for our visit to Miawpukek along the southern coast of Newfoundland, he was spending a few days on board, consistent with his public role in presenting a better understanding of the Mi’kmaq people.

Mi’Sel Joe was born in Miawpukek into a strong Mi’kmaq family; both his grandfather and uncle held the office of hereditary Saqamaw. Since 1973, he has been involved in First Nation Politics, first as a Councilor, and, after the death of his uncle, Chief William Joe, in 1982, he became Traditional Saqamaw and the Newfoundland District Chief for the Mi’kmaq Grand Council. Mi’Sel Joe is committed to preserving the language, culture and traditions of his people, and also to Miawpukek’s economically self-sufficient mandate. Around 800 people live on the reserve, with over 2,000 people living away, and businesses (together with a commercial fishery) lead to zero unemployment. A brand-new school for grades K4-12 opened in September 2017.
 
Last year, Mi’Sel Joe was appointed a member of the Order of Canada "for his leadership in developing and enhancing the well-being and financial vitality of the Miawpukek First Nation." It was an honor to meet him, to visit Miawpukek, and to learn more about how this vibrant First Nations community can be a model. 
 
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How a Travel Advisor Helps With Hotel Bookings

In a story I wrote for The Boston Globe on "The Key to Getting a Better Hotel Room," I interviewed Jacob Tomsky, author of the best-selling Heads in Beds (Doubleday). Tomsky, 35, spent a decade in the hotel industry, seven of those years manning the front desk at an upscale midtown Manhattan hotel. I asked him is it better to book a room via a travel agent than to reserve through websites like Hotels.com or Priceline? His response: "From a business standpoint, people who book through third-party travel sites are looking for a discount. The likelihood that they’ll return to your hotel is close to nil. So discount reservations are our last priority. They’re the ones we put next to the elevator." It also doesn’t help that these online travel agents or OTAs are reaping exorbitant finder fees from lodgings, up to 25 percent of cost per room from independent properties, compared to the average 10 percent commission for travel agents.

Hotels respond most favorably to repeat business. If a property like Relais Christine in Paris knows I call them first when booking my clients in that city, they will respond by giving our client the best service and room. Also, a good travel agent knows to call the hotel 2 to 3 days before you arrive to speak to the general manager or director of sales and "VIP the client." It’s a business of people serving people. The more you can connect with the hotel, the better your stay. If this is your first time in Paris in 10 years and you only represent yourself, realize you don’t have the same leverage as 50 bookings a year at the same property. If you’re booking a 4 or 5-star property on your own, you’re also missing out on hotels sweetening the pot during your stay. ActiveTravels is aligned with the travel consortium, Virtuoso. When booking one of the upscale properties in that network, we can offer free upgrades, complimentary spa services and breakfasts. 
 
Then comes the research that goes into finding that dream hotel. Google "Italian villas" and you’ll see over 59 million results. Have fun with that research. That number will surely increase with the deluge of travel content. In fact, travel advisors have even coined a phrase for the client who spends far too much time researching on his computer, "analysis paralysis." The whole scene is reminiscent of the financial sector a decade ago when investors were enamored with the $10 E-trade. Why use a financial advisor when I can trade on my own? Well, because you don’t want to spend a good chunk of your life micromanaging your investments. Today’s travelers want someone with expertise to give their stamp of approval, having personally stayed in these lodgings or having known clientele who have stayed there. Thankfully, travel agents no longer sit behind their desks all day researching a trip from afar. They’re often on the road gaining valuable expertise by visiting those hotels. 
 
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Spring Discounts in Bermuda

Need to get away? If you live on the East Coast corridor and just endured another snowstorm last week, I would say you’re due. Bermuda’s shoulder season is March to late May. The Fairmount Southampton is offering rooms at a 40% discount while rooms at my favorite lodging on-island, The Reefs, starts at $275 a night this time of year. I just checked the 10-day forecast and highs reach the upper 60s, heading to the mid-70s in April. Flights are direct and only 2 hours from New York, Boston, and DC. If you need suggestions on what to do while you’re there, check out my Boston Globe story. 

 
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Top 5 Travels of 2010, Strolling Kingsbrae Gardens, St. Andrews, New Brunswick

A good botanical garden has often been a highlight of my travels, from the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Capetown to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne to the Butchart Gardens in Victoria. So I was excited to walk through the Kingsbrae Gardens in St. Andrews this past July, especially after being cooped up in Down East Maine dealing with three solid days of rain. Due to inclement weather, I had to cancel a cruise to see puffins at Machias Seal Island, a sea kayaking jaunt on Cobscook Bay, and an oceanfront hike at Culter Coast Public Lands. So when the sun finally came out on the ferry ride over from Eastport to New Brunswick, I could breathe again. Those breaths of fresh air soon became flower scented as I made my way through the wave of colors from flowers in bloom at Kingsbrae. Just across the Maine border, the quiet seaside town of St. Andrews is an undiscovered gem with Kingsbrae Gardens leading the way. Hummingbirds flew under the tall chestnut trees, water lilies dotted the fountains, and everywhere you looked, there was some whimsical sculpture nestled within the 27-acre grounds. I bent down and inhaled from the sweet-smelling rugosas and for a moment, everything was bliss.

 

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