Mustang Monument Makes its Debut

Lovers of the Kimpton Hotels brand will want to know that they opened their first international property on Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach this week. Called the Seafire Resort, it’s the first new hotel to make its debut on Grand Cayman in more than a decade. The 266-room resort is home to an 8,500 square-foot spa, oceanfront bungalows, mega-sized pool, and the restaurant, Avecita, which is already starting to garner attention on an island known for its dining. Expect tapas-style small plates with local fish and vegetables, flavored on a wood grill. 

It’s not until you leave the town of Sedona and make the 15-minute drive to Enchantment that you realize the resort is smack dab in the middle of one of the most spectacular settings in America. Nestled against the red rock walls of Boynton Canyon without any other signs of civilization beyond the property, this is the quintessential Arizona landscape one dreams about when booking a trip to the southwest. Tall, serrated mountain ledges, once home to a Native American population is now an ideal playground to hike, bike, and unwind at the world class destination spa, Mii Amo. I was last here a decade ago to pen a story on Sedona for The Boston Globe. Lounging in the hot tub after a morning of hiking in the canyon and not passing any other hikers, I can’t understand what took me so long to return. The free-standing casitas are spacious, furnished with an adobe-style fireplaces and balconies to savor the vista every morning as the hot Arizona sun illuminates the rock. At night after dinner, everyone heads outside to look at the stars while sitting around the fire pit. The pools and children’s program attracts families, the destination spa attracts women on a spa package, and the junior suites are ideal for honeymooners. This is one place worth the splurge. 

Just in time for fall foliage, two new properties are opening in two of the most spectacular locations in New Hampshire. The Glen House will be making its debut in mid-September at the base of Mt. Washington. The 68-room hotel has deep historic roots in New Hampshire, being the fifth iteration of The Glen House to be built since the first hotel was erected in 1852. Adjacent to the Mt. Washington Auto Road, the hotel is also steps away from the hiking, biking and cross-country trails at the Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center. Just open this month on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro is the 10-room Pickering House Inn, the first luxury inn of its kind in the state’s Lakes Region. The historic building, built in 1813 and for many decades the residence of prominent businessman Daniel Pickering, was close to being torn down when Wolfeboro residents Peter and Patty Cooke purchased the property.  

To celebrate my wife’s birthday, we just spent a blissful night at Portland, Maine’s Pomegranate Inn and a sublime dinner at Fore Street. While the weather outside was frightful, we were cozy inside the Pomegranate Inn, warm near the fireplace. Few innkeepers can juggle modern art with 200-year-old antiques as skillfully as the Pomegranate Inn’s original owner, Isabel Smiles. Her eclectic tastes runs the gamut from faux marble columns and colorful mosaics in the living room to brightly painted walls created by local artists in the bedrooms. In fact, works of art cover the entire staircase and walls of the house, and remarkably, they all seem to fit together. It was hard to leave our room and face the blustery cold, but we didn’t want to miss Fore Street, the James Beard-award winning restaurant housed in a former wartime storage area. In the open-air kitchen, chefs busily sauté dishes on three long tables. Wood grilling local meats and seafood is Fore Street’s forte. We start with roasted Blue Hill bay mussels with chunks of pistachios. For our entrées, we shared Maine scallops, just off the boat, and tender arctic char. Happy birthday, Lis! 

Lisa and I call them Walkarounds. If a resort or boutique lodging impresses us, we immediately break out the iPhone and start filming the room upon arrival. I recently downloaded a good 12 videos we created over the past year or two at some of our favorite properties, including Sol Y Luna in Peru’s Sacred Valley; Silky Oaks in Australia’s Daintree Rainforest; the “trulli” magnificent Borgo Canonica in Puglia, Italy; the gem of a hotel, Corral del Rey in Seville, Spain; Mystique in Santorini, Greece; and Croatia’s Villa Dubrovnik. They join other videos I’ve already uploaded on lodging in Botswana, Tanzania, Hong Kong, and St. Lucia. All videos are short, around 2 to 3 minutes, and can be found on the ActiveTravels YouTube Channel. Please have a look!