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Greece Week with Heritage Tours

Just back from a dreamy week in Greece with New York-based Heritage Tours, the travel company best known for designing authentic custom-made itineraries to Spain, Morocco, and Turkey. Now they have their sights set on Greece and they invited a small group of travel consultants including ActiveTravels to experience the new product. Let’s just say Lisa and I were highly impressed. You can always book a Greek hotel on your own, but then you’ll miss out on the genuine Greek experience. Heritage has always been known for their unparalleled guiding and Greece was no exception. All the guides we met on this trip, especially to the ancient Greek sites at the Acropolis in Athens, the island of Delos, and Akrotiri on the island of Santorini were exceptional. We were introduced to stellar properties like the family-owned Poseidonion Grand Hotel on a gem of an island called Spetses and the Canaves Oia Suites built into the hillside of Oia, Santorini, beloved by a number of our clients. 
 
Yet, it was the genuine Greek experiences that created memories we won’t soon forget—dining in the courtyard of a home down the block from the Parthenon, a farm-to-table lunch at an actual farm in Mykonos, hiking at sunrise from Oia to Imerovigli on Santorini, wine-tasting at sunset overlooking the caldera in Santorini, a private boat ride from Mykonos to Delos and the island of Paros, biking along the shoreline of Spetses, and dining on tasty Greek salads, fresh octopus and fish at far too many wonderful restaurants. I’ll be spending this week highlighting my favorite activities in Greece. Please follow along! 
 

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Exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville

Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches 
 
At ActiveTravels, we often assist clients who seek to add "fun" to the slog of college visits with offspring. We recommend activities to do and great restaurants to try, and, of course, we arrange good hotels to rest your weary feet. Several years ago, when my daughter Sophie and I were trekking across NY State on a spring break college tour, we spent time at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, and ate at the award-winning Revelry in Rochester. Today, I have a chance to tell you about Charlottesville, Virginia, for those of you who may tour the University of Virginia. 
 
In late June, my sister and I drove our 90-year-old mother from New York City to Charlottesville to visit her 89-year-old sister (who relocated there recently). We had a narrow window for the trip before my mother traveled to Vermont with a friend for a long-scheduled series of classical music concerts, and before my aunt left for yet another scuba diving expedition in the Cayman Islands. Nothing slows these women down! 
 
Once in Charlottesville, we enjoyed two main adventures. First, we spent a lovely several hours at Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyards, just outside of town. I read about it ahead of time: "The picturesque vineyards and Winery Tasting Room are pure magic. But the real highlight is top-notch lunch cuisine on the veranda – with a bountiful cheese plate and big deck chairs, the setup is straight out of a magazine." Sounded right up our alley! We indulged while overlooking the green, very lush hills and fields, tasted several wines (our favorite was their Viognier), and ate delicious salads and smoked fish. "Farm-to-table" is a familiar expression these days; now, there’s "vineyard-to-table," too. There are many wineries within ½ hour of Charlottesville, including one owned by Dave Matthews. 
 
The next day, we set out to explore Shenandoah National Park, established in 1935. The scenic Skyline Drive is a prominent feature of the Park, and we drove it to the highest point, where we stopped for lunch at Skyland Resort (originally called Stony Man Camp, built in 1895). The origins of this beautiful Park are not completely benign, however. Hundreds of "mountain people" were moved off their land by the government after it was deemed by so-called "experts" that they were "steeped in ignorance, wrapped in self-satisfaction and complacency, possessed of little or no ambition." Segregation also reared its ugly head when the park debuted. We viewed a very interesting exhibit on segregated picnic areas within Shenandoah National Park. All sites in the Park, except one, were "whites only," and this lasted through the 1940s. 
 
Sadly, we missed the vibrant theater scene in Charlottesville (my cousin Dan is almost always in a show: this summer, he’s in "Harvey," with the professional Heritage Theatre Festival). If you are passing through Charlottesville, that’s another big plus. Monticello (Jefferson) and Montpelier (Madison), historic Presidential homes, are nearby. Let ActiveTravels know if you are headed to Charlottesville, or, really, to any college town, and we can help design a Dream Day Itinerary!
 
Caption: Vineyard View at Pippin Hill Farm
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See Mount Rushmore in Winter and Then Ski Terry Peak

I’ll be devoting all next week to visiting America’s National Parks in winter, my favorite time of year to go since traffic is at a minimum. But to get us in the right frame of mind, I’m going to start with that iconic granite sculpture, Mount Rushmore. Approximately 3 million people a year visit the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Honest Abe. Come winter, visitation drops from highs of 5,000 a day in summer to less than 100 people daily. That’s a lot more wiggle room. And just like Yellowstone is an hour away from the ski area, Big Sky, the Black Hills of South Dakota is home to Terry Peak. With a vertical rise of 1,100 feet and an elevation over 7,000 feet, more snow falls on Terry Peak than anywhere else in the region. New this winter is the Gold Corp Express, Terry Peak’s third high-speed quad chairlift. 

 
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Ski-In/Ski-Out Resorts, New York on a Budget, and Grand Cayman Featured in December Newsletter

Snowmaking is not a problem right now in America, now that more than half the country is experiencing an arctic freeze. In this month’s issue of the ActiveTravels newsletter, we divulge our client’s favorite ski-in/ski-out resorts, learn about the new adventure travel company called Life is Good Vacations, talk about the hotel deals in New York in January, and tell you where to stay on Grand Cayman now that the temps have dipped. With direct flights from most cities on the East Coast,  the island is perfectly suited for a Quick Escape. 

Have a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2018! We’ll be back next week with our Top 5 Dream Days in 2017. 
 
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Buy An ActiveTravels Membership and Support Heifer International

For our holiday promotion this year, we’re partnering with Heifer International. With your help, we hope to give the gift of a water buffalo to a deserving community. Why a water buffalo, you ask? Water buffalos provide rich milk with lots of protein and nutrients, and they help farmers to plant four times as many crops, till the fields, and provide necessary fertilizer. Join ActiveTravels or purchase an annual membership for a friend or member of the family and $10 will go towards the purchase of a water buffalo. If we get 25 new memberships during the months of November and December, our goal will be met and we can provide sustenance for a needy community. Already, we have 4 new memberships in the past 2 weeks. Thank you!
 
Still not convinced you need a travel agent in this day and age. Here are some thoughts to consider:
 
Overcome Analysis Paralysis—A recent study said that the average person spends 29 hours researching his next vacation. Spend as much time on the web as your heart desires, but realize that as a member of ActiveTravels, you can bounce ideas off a travel writer that’s been to over 80 countries. You’ll get unbiased travel advice from someone who’s been to that exact location. 
 
Better Rooms—In an upcoming article I wrote for the Boston Globe, I discuss how hotels treat third-party bookings from Priceline, Travelocity, Hotels.com, as their least important priority. You’re given the worst room in the house because there’s no sense of loyalty with these sites. The travel business is all about relationships. Aligned with Virtuoso, we have relationships with hotel GMs around the globe and we call them personally when we book one of our clients.
 
Customer Service—Flight cancelled? Lost luggage? Have to reschedule a flight? Good luck dealing with Orbitz and Expedia. If you’ve gone through this recently, you know the pain. A travel agent makes those calls for you and has contacts at the airlines the public does not have. 
 
Contacts Around the Globe—Want to travel independently to India, Patagonia, or Thailand? Have fun researching that journey on the web. It’s an exhausting task. We work with excellent ground operators in Delhi, Buenos Aires, and Bangkok who know their country intimately and can help with all the logistics. 
 
Annual membership to ActiveTravels is $60 per year, less than dinner for two at a halfway decent restaurant. We guarantee you’ll get your money’s worth! 
 
 
 
 
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The Linehouse is the Latest Addition to Stowe Mountain Lodge

Travel writers adore properties like Stowe Mountain Lodge, the wonderful upscale resort at the base of Stowe Mountain. I started writing about this hotel in 2006, two years before it even opened. There was such a buzz that even then you knew it was going to be the best ski-in/ski-out resort in the northeast. It seems like every year since its opening in 2008, I’ve been back to report on some update as Stowe Mountain Lodge continues to expand, be it a new spa, theater, or indoor climbing wall. This week, I was back in town to pen a story on the exceptional craft brew and cocktail scene in Stowe. On Monday, I had the good fortune to meet master mixologist Dan Hatheway, who tends bar at the Linehouse, an invitation-only speakeasy found just outside the premises (sorry, I’ve been sworn to secrecy to not tell the exact whereabouts). Inside the cozy space of stained Vermont maple wood and lined pickle jars, we sat at the bar as Dan placed retro glassware (from Vermont estate sales) in front of us. Soon he was breaking out an eyedropper to place the bitters atop my rum-saturated Smugglers Barrel and firing up the rye in a devilishly good concoction of bourbon and blended scotch he coined the Kashki. The presentation of all his drinks were drop dead gorgeous, especially the drink he made, Lisa, the aptly named Fancy Lady. Needless to say, if you get an invite to the Linehouse, run, don’t walk. 

 
Photo by Lisa Leavitt 
 
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October Newsletter Now Available at ActiveTravels.com

Analysis Paralysis. That’s how one of our latest members described the galling task of going through thousands of pages on the web to decide where to go, where to stay, where to eat on your next vacation. A recent study said that the average traveler spends 29 hours on the web researching his next trip. 29 hours! There’s nothing with doing a little exploration to get yourself excited about your next vacation, but 29 hours definitely sounds like analysis paralysis to me. One of the reasons we started ActiveTravels.com is to give unbiased travel advice on the 80-plus countries I’ve already visited as a travel writer. We can cut through the layer upon layer of unnecessary travel content and pinpoint the exact locale that suits each client based on his or her passions. By all means, research a country to your heart’s content, but please call us to hear our viewpoint long before analysis paralysis sets in! 

 
October, when each day gets a wee bit chillier in the Northeast, is the time of year when folks start to think about winter escapes. In our October Newsletter, we discuss five of our favorite affordable Caribbean lodgings, a Costa Rican land operator already beloved my many of our clients, and getting away from Cancun to see Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and the numerous Mayan sites on the Yucatan Peninsula. I also talk about one of my favorite cities in North America, Toronto, perfect for a quick escape in October, and Lisa will share her newfound affection for the TravelPro Carry-On. 
 

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