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Spain, DayTrip, Montreal, and More in May ActiveTravels Newsletter

We were picked up promptly at 9 am in Granada, Spain, by Damir, a driver and guide for a company we’ve been working with more and more in Europe, Daytrip. We could have rented our own car and made the 3-hour trek from Granada to Seville, but it’s so much more relaxing to have someone else drive, especially when you want to stop and visit another town along the way. Two hours later, after sitting in the back of a comfortable Mercedes sedan and peering out at the rolling hills and mountains of this bucolic region of Spain, we arrived in Ronda. Damir guided us around the town, walking along the edge of the famous gorge, touring the oldest bullring in Spain, the one Hemingway wrote about when he lived here (it’s also the town where Orson Welles retired and died), and the historic Moorish settlement at the bottom of the hill. After a lunch of tapas, we arrived in Seville around 4 pm. It ended up being one of the most relaxing days of our recent Spain trip. Daytrip is now expanding to Asia. It’s a wonderful way to connect the dots between destinations, while stopping at off-the-beaten track locales. 
 
To read more about our trip to Spain, a special deal on Relais and Chateaux properties, and what’s happening in Montreal this summer, please check out the latest ActiveTravels newsletter. Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! 
 

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Stay at the Grafton Inn for $150 a Night in March

If you want to stay at a quintessential Vermont town, close to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and downhill skiing, you might want to take advantage of the Grafton Inn’s latest deal. Pay just $150 for any room, any night at the inn, through the month of March. The price includes a full country breakfast and complimentary trail access to Grafton Ponds Outdoor Center. You must call the Grafton Inn to book this special: 800-843-1801. Online reservations will not apply. Never been to Grafton? Amble along Main Street past the Country Store, where I once spotted a sign posted outside asking if anyone’s seen a missing horse, and you swear you just stepped into a Currier and Ives painting. To the right is the red brick town hall, circa 1816, now home to the post office. Further up the road, past the white clapboard houses spewing smoke from their chimneys is the requisite white steeple. Across the street is the Old Tavern (now the Grafton Inn) , opened in 1801, and once the stagecoach stop on the ride from Boston to Montreal. Ulysses S. Grant spent a night here while campaigning for his presidency and Rudyard Kipling liked the locale so much he honeymooned at the hotel in 1892. For more information on Grafton, see the story I wrote for Preservation Magazine. 
 
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Skywalk Saint John Set to Open This Month

While in New Brunswick several weeks back, I was fortunate to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the new skywalk set to make its debut this summer. Saint John will now be the third spot in North America to open a skywalk, in addition to the Grand Canyon and Jasper National Park. Unlike those two skywalks, which are designed as semi-circles, the Skywalk Saint John is more like a long plank extending more than 25 feet out from the building. Look down through the glass flooring and you get an exhilarating view of the cliffs, bridge, and a unique tidal shift called a reversing falls. A series of rapids in the Saint John River can be seen switching direction in the churning whirlpool below. A 10-minute film will explain this unique phenomenon caused by the tidal shifts on the nearby Bay of Fundy. Below the skywalk, the Reversing Falls restaurant offers those same glorious vistas thanks to floor-to-ceiling windows. Expect freshly caught yellowfin tuna, halibut, lobster, oysters, and provisions from local farms once it opens. 

 
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Free Transportation Within 200 Miles of The Balsams in New Hampshire




Eyes widen and mouths gape as soon as you spot Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, and catch your first glimpse of The Balsams Hotel. The excitement builds on the long driveway up to this immense white edifice, created in an era when grand hotels were as common as one-room schoolhouses in the White Mountains. It’s a multi-tiered wedding cake topped with scarlet frosting and ringed by granite peaks. Turning 145 in 2011, the Balsams prides itself as one of the last beacons of civility in a world that spins far too fast on its axis. Come winter, the resort offers 95 km of cross-country trails and 15 downhill trails with a vertical of 1,000 feet. Expect a small ski area that’s ideal for young families or those who clamor for ego-boosting intermediate terrain.

To get new visitors to experience the Balsams, the hotel is offering to pick you up at your house if you’re within 200 miles of the resort. The offer is only available for first-time guests who stay at least five nights. For $149 per person, per night, guests receive free transportation, skiing each day, a ski lesson, equipment rental, lodging, breakfast and dinner.


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Spend New Year’s Eve at a Maine Hut

Make this New Year’s Eve memorable by snowshoeing or cross-country skiing to one of the four huts in the Maine Huts & Trails system, indulging in a four-course meal, and then waking up the next morning to a spectacular vista of mountains and lakes. Not a bad way to start 2015. Choose the Flagstaff Hut and you’ll be rewarded with views of Flagstaff Lake and the Bigelow range. Stratton Brook Hut offers stunning alpine views of Sugarloaf Mountain and is a great spot to catch the Sugarloaf fireworks at 9pm. Dinner consists of soup, salad, main course, dessert, and a variety of sides prepared by each hut staff with locally sourced organic ingredients. Beer and wine will be available for purchase. The package rate of $108/adult, $54/youth (17 and under) for MH&T members, and $120/adult, $60/youth for non-members include one night of lodging in a heated bunkroom, four-course dinner with a champagne toast, a full hot breakfast and a packed trail lunch. Sounds like a deal to me. 

 
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Chihuly at New York Botanical Garden

Vibrant Chihuly glass sculptures in nature go together like chocolate and roasted marshmallows come summer. The latest installment can now be seen at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. We ambled through the serene grounds yesterday afternoon on the way out of the city and found his familiar multi-colored balls juggled together on a rowboat, long red tubes jutting out of logs, and a spiky blue flower that contrasted well with the surrounding green meadows. It’s understandable to see why garden designers would go gaga over Chihuly’s objects. The tall cattails and reeds or the graceful allure of a heron-like sculpture seem to blend perfectly with the natural world. Far more exciting for me was seeing and smelling the many peonies in bloom, including one named after the acclaimed travel writer, Lowell Thomas. Chihuly’s work will be on view until October 29th. 

 
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Say No Mas to Cancun

n 1974, a team of Mexican government computer analysts picked a long sliver of land on the Atlantic shoreline as the country’s next Acapulco. The powdery white sands and turquoise waters, separated from the mainland by a lagoon were ripe for development.  Sheraton, Hilton, and Marriott swiftly built their hotels, soon joined by upscale Ritz-Carlton and the flashy Le Meridien, and Americans took the bait wholeheartedly. Today, Cancun is the number one tourist destination in Mexico. Sadly, however, the Mexicans catered far too much to their northern neighbors. With a Hard Rock Café, Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Café, Outback Steak House, and a McDonald’s or shopping mall on every other block, the 14-mile-long Zona Hotelera (Hotel Zone) looks much more like Miami Beach than any Mexican village. In fact, the Cancun version of the Miami Herald arrives at your hotel doorstep each morning. Roads are often flooded and prices for dinner are exorbitant in a country known for its affordability. 

 
But what really upsets me about Cancun is that a mere hour’s drive is the authentic Yucatan. The mega-resort sprawl on the coast leads to Playa del Carmen, once a sleepy outpost favored by European backpackers and scuba divers. You’ll have to hit the ruins and village of Akumal before you can snag a bungalow on the beach that feels genuine. If you really want to savor a slice of the Yucatan rich with history and culture, head inland to Merida. Here, you’ll find the oldest cathedrals on the North American continent, even a mangrove swamp that is home to a colony of pink flamingoes. South of Merida is some of Mexico’s finest Mayan ruins on the Puuc Route. The rounded pyramid at your first stop, Uxmal, stands majestically on high ground. Kabah is known for its almost maniacal façade of 250 Chaac sculptures that line one wall. Walk past the wild turkeys and brilliant red birds in the forest of Sayil to reach its grand palace. Whatever you do, don’t waste your time in that Disneyesque version of Mexico, Cancun.
 

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