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Three Mainers Complete the 100-Mile Wilderness Trail in Winter

April is usually the month when Appalachian Trail thru-hikers give themselves a nickname and start the 2,190-mile five to seven-month trek from the southern terminus, Springer Mountain, Georgia. For many, the most grueling 100 miles will be the last, on the notorious 100-Mile Wilderness Trail in Maine. This is an arduous up and down grind where the occasional logging road is the only sign of civilization. That’s why I love this story out of the Bangor Daily News, which reports that 3 Maine hikers completed the 100-Mile Wilderness Trail the beginning of March. Using snowshoes and backcountry skis, and carrying hefty backpacks, they trekked in hip-deep snow, summited 4,000-foot peaks in howling winds, and often had to clamber over downed trees. A remarkable inspiration, which I hope to remember when I next climb a mountain in summer. 

 

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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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Florence, The City of Chocolate

One of Florence’s best-kept secrets is taking place right now. The annual Fiera Del Cioccolato will be lining Piazza Santa Maria Novella in the Renaissance city from February 10-19. Vendors offer amazing chocolate masterpieces that are unique to the region and allow you to stock up just in time for Valentine’s Day. Offerings range from handmade crepes, waffles, chocolates, cookies, and much more. Along with vendors, the chocolate festival offers cooking shows and parties that allow visitors to truly engage with their love of all things chocolate. The festival’s close proximity to some of Florence’s well-known sights such as the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio make this a perfect place to relax as you take in the best the city has to offer.  
 
Guest Post by Mack Kingman 
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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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Good News from Conde Nast Traveler, Men’s Journal

While I was in San Antonio last week, Lisa and I were approached by Conde Nast Traveler to design a detailed itinerary along the New England coast for families. The finished column will appear in the summer issue and will include 3 of our favorite upscale lodgings, Castle Hill Inn in Newport, Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod, and Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Another piece of good news, Men’s Journal asked me to be their resident travel expert. I will be writing a column a week for their website and magazine. I’ll be sure to link many of the stories to my blog here, in addition to all the content I already write for The Boston Globe, FamilyVacationCritic, Yankee, Everett Potter’s Travel Report, and others. So be sure to check back! 
 
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My 5 Favorite Tanzanian Properties: Hatari Lodge, Arusha National Park

Less than a 45-minute drive from Kilimanjaro International Airport, you reach Hatari Lodge on the northern edge of Arusha National Park. While other properties, like Legendary Lodge, nestled in the coffee plantations of Arusha, might be more luxurious, Hatari is the perfect welcome mat to Tanzania because it immediately gives you the feel of being in the African bush. Rooms are spacious and you wake up to monkeys jumping on your roof, families of warthogs running across the property and magnificent views of the sun rising above Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru. At breakfast on the outdoor patio, you’ll spot your first giraffes and buffalos, then go on a game drive into the park to get close-up shots of elephants, hippos, and countless flamingoes. The lodge gives you the opportunity to canoe past the hippos, but a better option is to drive up the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro for a day hike and picnic. Hatari offers 9 rooms and is adding 3 new family suites this summer. It’s the ideal spot to start your tour of Tanzania, rest after the long flight, be immersed in the wildlife, and see mighty Kilimanjaro.

 
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Top 5 Eco-Resorts in Central America, Lapa Rios, Costa Rica

I’ve been receiving a slew of requests from clients lately about sustainable lodging choices in Central America. Here are the ones I consistently send folks to, time and time again, because they love the experience and the environmentally friendly practices. 

 
At the southernmost tip of Costa Rica, Lapa Rios is a 1000-acre private rain forest perched above the Pacific Ocean. 16 spacious bungalows feature hardwood floors, bamboo walls, and vaulted thatched roof ceilings created from local palm trees. Lie on a hammock on your own private deck or take a shower outdoors in a secluded garden. You might be woken in the morning by the loud cry of the howler monkey. Then rise and shine on a three-hour morning hike with a naturalist through the rainforest to a waterfall and swimming hole, stopping to view spider monkeys, scarlet macaws, toucans, parrots, and many other native birds. In the afternoon, sea kayak in the ocean around Matapalo Point, surf the Golfo Dulce, or saddle up those horses. At sunset, head outdoors to see a family of neon green scarlet macaws sitting on a tree in front of you. 
 
Sure, those outdoor showers are solar-powered and more than 70 percent of the materials used are renewable, but take a look at the big picture. Nearly 1000 acres of valuable rainforest have been saved from deforestation and the wildlife within those borders free from poaching, pollution, and real estate development. More than 45 local families are employed on the property and the resort has been instrumental in providing primary education for children in the area.  
 

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