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Peru Week with Abercrombie and Kent: Two Magical Nights at Sol y Luna in Sacred Valley

After touring the historical core of Lima, including the impressive Museo Larco and its vast collection of pre-Colombian art, we flew to Cuzco and headed onward to Sacred Valley. Our lodging for the next two nights was Sol y Luna, where spacious casitas, all with fireplaces and some with hot tubs, dot the grounds of this majestic landscape, surrounded by the serrated ridges of the Andes. I loved it here. Everywhere you walk are flowering shrubs and tall cacti in bloom, another photo to be taken, especially when large hummingbirds would fly into the golden flowers of my back deck. Vases of yellow roses were also found inside the casitas, along with wonderful local painting and sculpture. At night, our group of 18 met in a ranch-style setting for cocktail hour and then a sublime dinner, worthy of the property’s Relais and Chateau rating. We started with pisco mojitos, created with the sweet local mint grown in these parts. Then we dined on trout carpaccio and beef tenderloin, finishing with a dessert of tres leches. This is one Virtuoso lodging that I will recommend highly to our clients. 

 

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Hong Kong Hotels

I loved all three properties we checked out in Hong Kong for various reasons. The Intercontinental Hong Kong (soon to change its name back to the Regent again) offered fantastic views of the Hong Kong skyline and waterfront from the floor to ceiling windows in the room. After long days of sightseeing, I enjoyed coming back to the room to watch the Chinese junk boats, ferries, fishing boats, and larger barges and cruise ships pass by. The Intercontinental also had the best breakfast buffet of the 3 hotels, with a lavish spread of American, Chinese (great dim sum), Indian, Japanese, and Korean choices, all washed down with fresh mango and guava juice. The W Hong Kong had fantastic service, like a welcome tray of goodies in our room, including a photo of our family from a recent trip to Switzerland. The concierge was excellent designing two days of travel and arranging tickets in advance for the cable car over to Big Buddha. While I probably liked the Intercontinental location a bit better since you could walk outside the hotel to catch the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong and find nearby restaurants at night, I did like that the W was perched above a large mall and subway stop, including the direct train to the airport, the Airport Express. The fitness center was also wonderful, sitting on the 73rd floor with glorious views of the city below. The Upper House on the Hong Kong side offered by far the most spacious rooms with good vista of the city and waterfront below. The concierge was also excellent, setting up free shuttles around the city to see the sights and hit the restaurants at night. In fact, service at the Upper House genuinely made us feel welcome. 

 
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Maine Winter Carnival Debuts in January

Based on the highly successful Carnaval de Quebec in Quebec City, Portland, Maine will be unveiling Carnaval Maine January 30-February 1. Most of the events will be taking place on the Eastern Promenade, including the requisite ice sculptures, light shows, and bonfires. There will also be a rail jam created by Sunday River resort. This being Portland, expect a fantastic selection of local food and brew, including beer by Bissell Brothers, Maine Beer Co., Rising Tide, and Allagash, and dining provided by Central Provisions and Scales, among others. ActiveTravels clients have been praising the Francis Hotel and Press Hotel in Portland. We’re happy to check availability and pricing. 

 
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Mad River Valley Bed and Brew This Weekend

What do you do in Vermont between fall foliage and the start of ski season? Drink! The state, and especially the Mad River Valley region around Waterbury, is home to some of the finest craft brews in the country. Take, for example, the beloved ultra-hoppy Heady Topper. The Alchemist, the microbrewery that now cans the beer, had to close down their store this week because it was just too popular and overcrowded. You can still sample the Heady Topper at Prohibition Pig, a favorite watering hole in Waterbury. In fact, if you sign up for the Mad River Valley Bed and Brew Weekend (November 15-17, December 6-8, December 13-15), a 14-seat tour bus will pick you up at your lodging for private tours of many of the region’s best microbrews, including Lawson’s Finest in Warren, and Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville. Cost starts at $85 per person and includes 2 nights at a hotel, lodge, or bed & breakfast in the Mad River Valley, the private Saturday tour of 3-4 craft breweries, a snack box with local Vermont goodies to get you through the day of touring, a Mad River Valley tasting glass, and discounts at local restaurants featuring local craft beers and farm to table food. 

 
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Put Naumkeag on Your Berkshires Must-Do List

If you’re heading up to Tanglewood this week to catch the NPR show, “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” on Thursday night or Harry Connick, Jr. on Saturday night, make a slight detour and check out what’s happening at nearby Naumkeag in Stockbridge. Formerly owned by the Choate Family of New York before it was bequeathed to The Trustees of Reservations in 1958, Naumkeag is a 44-room Berkshires “Cottage” from the Gilded Age, filled with arts, antiques, and collections around from around the world. But it’s the outdoor gardens that truly inspire, a masterpiece of 30 years of collaborative work by former owner, Mabel Choate, and her dear friend, Fletcher Steele, one of America’s first modern landscape architects. 

 
Described by the Library of American Landscape History as a “playground for the imagination,” The Trustees have just completed Phase 1 of an extensive 5-phase, 3-year, $3 million garden and landscape restoration project designed to rejuvenate the gardens and bring them back to Choate and Steele’s original vision. The transformation includes the renovation of Fletcher Steele’s iconic Blue Steps, one of the most photographed features in 20th-century American landscape design, celebrating its 75th Anniversary this summer.
 
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Bike Into the Maine Canvas

The rugged and raw beauty of Maine has been a lure to many of America’s foremost landscape artists. Man versus the chaotic forces of nature, particularly fishermen struggling against powerful nor’easters, kept Winslow Homer busy on the boulder-strewn shores of Prouts Neck for more than two decades. Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, George Bellows, and Rockwell Kent all painted Monhegan Island’s 160-foot cliffs, meadows, and quaint fishing communities in their own distinctive styles like the bold black and white woodcuts by Kent. Monhegan is also a favorite subject of Jamie Wyeth, whose father Andrew Wyeth and grandfather N.C. Wyeth all summered on the Maine coast. Indeed, Andrew met his wife and her best friend Christina Olson in Maine. Olson is the woman lying down in the tall grass of Wyeth’s iconic painting, Christina’s World. 

 
Summer Feet Cycling is taking full advantage of Maine’s stunning scenery and rich art history to present two guided weeklong trips this summer. Not only will you visit Prouts Neck, Monhegan Island, and the Olson House, but you’ll stop at 7 art museums in the state, including two of my favorites, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland. Cost is $2,595 per person and includes 6 nights lodging at iconic properties like The Black Point Inn in Prouts Neck, The Island Inn on Monhegan Island, and the Inns at Blackberry Common in Camden. Most meals, bike, and guides with van are all part of the package. 
 
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VBT Bicycling Vacations Debuts Self-Guided Itineraries

VBT just announced that they will debut self-guided bike vacations to five destinations in 2020. The locales include British Columbia’s Vancouver Island; the UK’s Oxford and the Cotswolds; Puglia, Italy; Porto and Lisbon, Portugal; and Barcelona and Costa Brava, Spain. All tours include a welcome orientation meeting and bike fitting; a custom VBT bike (road bike, hybrid bike or E-bike), helmet and bike bag; 24/7 support system including a local host and travel assistance hotline; a VBT Road Book with insider destination information such as restaurant recommendations and points of interest ranging from off-the-beaten-path attractions to secret beaches and spots with the best views; boutique accommodations in town centers for easy exploring and resupplying; daily breakfast; luggage transfers between hotels; GPS voice navigation and printed daily route notes; flat kit and multi-tool; and round-trip international air, if desired. Pricing is more affordable than a guided trip. For example, the BC trip costs $1695 per person for the land portion. The guided trip costs $3,095 per person. If interested in a self-guided or guided bike trip with VBT, please let ActiveTravels know and we’ll check availability. We can also help design pre- and post-trip itineraries and assist with flights. 

 

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