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Five Favorite Spring Break Adventures for Families, Tubing the White River, Jamaica

A family favorite, great for all ages, is the chance to tube or raft down one of Jamaica’s rivers. High in the hills above Ocho Rios, the water of the mountainous White River is cool and as clear as gin. Guides sing Bob Marley songs as you flow with the slow-moving current. Or listen to the high-pitched call of the yellow banana quit bird and peer out at the green mosaic of ferns, banana trees, and thickets of bamboo that climb the banks of this sinuous waterway like ivy climbs a wall. For a break, you dine on jerk chicken at picnic tables next to the riverbank. A perfect outing and the ideal breakaway from an all-inclusive resort or cruise. As you can see from the big smile plastered on my face. 
 

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Africa Week—A Romantic Escape Near Vic Falls

It’s hard to forget our last stop on Abercrombie and Kent’s trip to Botswana and Victoria Falls, the Sanctuary Sussi and Chuma on the banks of the Zambezi River. On the outskirts of Livingstone, Zambia, we spent the days touring Vic Falls, tracking rhinos in a nearby reserve, and paddling on the Zambezi River past hippos and crocs. If the hippo attacks the canoe, said our guide, swim as fast as you can to the shore. Yeah, thanks for that advice, buddy. Fortunately, the hippos were pretty mellow that day. If we were advising honeymooners or couples who want a romantic interlude on the Zambezi River, not too far from Vic Falls, we would recommend the Relais and Chateaux property, Royal Chundu. Stay at one of their four villas on a private island in the Zambezi. They not only will pick you up from the Livingstone Airport, but they’ll provide a guided tour of Vic Falls and all the adventure you desire on the Zambezi, including rafting, paddling, or flying high above the river and the falls. It’s ideal for a 3-day add-on to any safari in Botswana or Kruger. 

 
I’m off to New York next week to celebrate my niece, Sarah, who will be showing her amazing art at the gallery Shrine. If you happen to be in Manhattan on Tuesday night, the 19th, for the opening, head on over to 179 East Broadway between 6 to 8 pm and say hello. 
 
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Quebec’s Winter Carnival

Just up the road from Montreal, 30 minutes outside of Quebec City, is North America’s first ice hotel, Hotel de Glace. 32 new rooms are created each year out of 12,000 tons of snow and 400 tons of ice, along with an Absolut ice bar, Jacuzzis, and a dance club. Bring those long johns. Temperature inside is a mere 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Quebec City is also home to one of the finest winter carnivals. For 16 days, January 27-February 12, the party never stops. More than one million people descend upon the fortified city to cheer on the competition in Le Grande Virée, a dogsled race that cruises through the heart of the historic Old City, or watch paddlers sprint across the turgid waters of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The French-flavored festivities continue with tours of the Ice Palace, a giant medieval castle constructed of pure crystalline water, parades, snow sculpture contests, inner tube sled rides, dancing to live music, and late night jaunts to heated tents to sample the potent drink called Caribou, made of whiskey, red wine, and maple syrup. One swig of this and you might be running naked through the snowfields.

 

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Top Dream Days of 2017, E-Biking Emmental Valley, Switzerland

We spent a glorious week in Switzerland in July before the start of our Backroads hiking and biking trip in the Swiss Alps. We loved our stay in Bern to see the inner workings of the famous Medieval Clock Tower, visiting the apartment Albert Einstein lived when he proved his Theory of Relativity, and stopping at the wave-like building Renzo Piano built to house the works of local talent Paul Klee. But my favorite day was getting on electric bikes to roam the narrow and mountainous country roads of neighboring Emmental Valley. Our guide, who looked like Roger Federer, led us through the farmland and small villages to a restaurant known for creating fondue from the local emmental cheese. We returned to Bern on the train with more than enough time to swim in the Aare River. An easy walk down the hillside from our wonderful hotel, the Bellevue Palace, led to a park where hundreds of people lined the river catching rays. We strolled down a path with a long line of folks who dragged their tubes, rafts, and dry bags. Then jump in the cool water anywhere and off you go with the strong current. The hardest part was finding a place on the shores to stop and pull yourself out. 

 
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The Trustees of Reservations Week, Central Massachusetts Highlights

Massachusetts might border the ocean, but it’s not until you drive the interior of this state on backcountry roads that you really appreciate the abundance of water. I woke up at Tully Lake Campground this morning and took the 10-minute trail to Doane’s Falls. Little did I realize I was about to witness one of the most majestic sites in New England. An onslaught of water came gushing down a series of rock ledges under a perfectly sculpted stone bridge, one that was built by the CCC under FDR’s helm. It would set the theme for the day—the rushing water of springtime and the wall of rock that’s continually shaped by these rapids. 
 
Chapel Brook in Ashfield is a popular swimming hole in summer, when this tributary of the South River snakes through a dense hardwood forest before cascading over ledges and forming natural pools. Earn that dip by walking across the street and taking the half-mile trail up Pony Mountain. You’ll be rewarded with a panorama of mountains and valley. 
 
The sound of rushing water also greets me at the next stop, Chesterfield Gorge, a 30-minute drive from Chapel Brook. Here, the East Branch of the Westfield River drops dramatically through rock walls that are close to 70-feet high. Below the gorge, fly-fishermen were seen casting their lines in the riffles in the hopes of hooking a trout. I took deep breaths of sweet pine and walked a ways through the thick forest on the East Branch Trail. This 7-mile long dirt road is open to both hikers and mountain bikers who can cruise through the adjacent Gilbert Bliss State Forest, perfectly suited for a day trip. 
 
Even my last stop of the day, the homestead of William Cullen Bryant, has a water theme. Stroll under the tall and ancient-looking sugar maples and hemlocks his family planted 200 years ago, when the great poet was just a boy, and you’ll reach a rivulet, a trickling stream. The Trustees has posted Bryant’s entire poem from 1823, “The Rivulet,” next to the spring. “The same sweet sounds are in my ear, my early childhood loved to hear,” wrote Bryant. Long after his family had sold off the land and moved to Illinois to farm, the poet and abolitionist would buy the land back in 1865, the same year his good friend Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Bryant, as he documents so well in his poetry, always preferred country life to city life and he would spend all of his summers here until his death in 1878. Look out at the meadows, forest, and Berkshire foothills and you realize little has changed thanks to conservation efforts. It’s still a sylvan slice of heaven, one that I’ll return to next time with a picnic lunch made by the Old Creamery in Cummington, just down the road. 
 
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Best Summer Drives in New England

Yesterday, as I was taking a spin to the local coffee shop on a Vespa, I was thinking how great it is to cruise on any form of transport in weather this sublime, be it a moped, bike, skateboard, or car. On Sunday, I plan to bike along the Charles River to grab my chicken shawarma sandwich at Inna’s Kitchen at the Boston Public Market. This is the time of year to truly see the authentic seaside villages and rolling rural mountain roads of New England. If you need ideas on routes, be sure to check out my recent story for Yankee Magazine on 8 Great Summer Drives, including maps. Have a great weekend! 

 
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A Moronic Move in Maine

In 1995, I was hired to write a book called Outside Magazine’s Adventure Guide to New England. My task was to partake in as many outdoor adventures as possible both summer and winter and write about that experience. Seemed pretty simple for the five southernmost states in New England. Then there was Maine. Just the thought of traversing close to 3500 miles of coastline had me second-guessing my decision. An even more absurd task was trying to find the hidden gems in Maine’s vast interior. I needed help, so I contacted Nancy Marshall Communications, the public relations firm that was hired by the State of Maine’s Office of Tourism to work with media.
 
Much to my delight, I would quickly learn that few people know Maine better than Nancy Marshall and none are as impassioned about its travel opportunities. Nancy divulged everything, from the French chef working the stoves at Chesuncook Lake House to a Registered Maine Guide who would bring guests at the Rangeley Inn on a 5 am paddle to view moose to the small B&B in Georgetown that specialized in sea kayaking.
 
Since that fateful day, I would work with Nancy and her amazing team of Charlene Williams and Kevin Gove on more than 100 stories on Maine for The Boston Globe, Yankee Magazine, Outside Magazine, Sierra and many other publications. Just this past year, I would snowmobile and see the Northern Lights in Aroostook County, sail Linekin Bay, and visit the Cushing house that inspired Andrew Wyeth’s famous “Christina’s World.” All of those story ideas came from the people at Nancy Marshall Communications.
 
Now I have learned that after 20 years on the job, as of last week, the Maine Office of Tourism will replace Nancy Marshall Communications with a PR firm from New York. Oh sure, there will continue to be travel stories about Portland, Freeport, Camden, and Bar Harbor, locales New Yorkers know best. For those of you who work in the travel industry in the rest of the state, the Maine government just threw you off the Penobscot Narrows Bridge.
 

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