New Data Based Study on the Best Hotels in Las Vegas

Carriage House, Las VegasMax Tour, a Las Vegas-based tour company that helps travelers visit Antelope Canyon and the Grand Canyon, took advantage of their downtime during the pandemic to create an algorithm that ranks the top hotels in Las Vegas. Scores are based on reviews from TripAdvisor, Google, and other online travel sites, location, price, and entertainment venues. Using the criteria, they collected more than 20,000 data points that would help pick the winners in each price category. In the 4 to 5-Star Category, Cosmopolitan won Best Hotel, Treasure Island received Best Value, and Caesars Palace was Best for Partiers. In the 3.5-Star and Under Category, Carriage House won Best Hotel and Best Value and Flamingo received top billing as Best for Partiers. Thank you, Max Tour, for doing this invaluable research, ideal for ActiveTravels when deciding on the right hotel for our  clients!

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Top Dream Days of 2017, Silky Oaks Lodge, Australia

Guest Post and Photos By Lisa Leavitt

A major perk of being a Virtuoso travel agent is the fam trip. Fam is short for familiarization and these trips are usually low cost to travel advisors to appealing destinations around the globe. Nevertheless, once you arrive, you are fair game to any tourism professional or hotelier in the region. Each one wants to show you their property, activity and special corner of the universe. When I went to Queensland, Australia, in March of 2017, I expected countless hotel viewings and long-drawn out meetings with crocodile park owners.
 
Instead I was pleasantly surprised to experience one of my dream days of 2017. I woke up in Silky Oaks Lodge in Mossman Gorge, in the middle of the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest living rainforest on earth. After a breakfast overlooking the flowing river, we boarded helicopters to view the dense forest from above. The pilots surprised us by landing on rocks next to a waterfall so we could experience feeling completely surrounded by this wet tropical landscape. Whisked away moments later, we were brought back to the lodge for a luscious swim down a cool river.
 
The best part was yet to come! We boarded a van to go into Port Douglas the largest town in northern Queensland and home to many boutique shops, great restaurants and a harbor where Quicksilver Cruises is based. We boarded Wavedancer, a large catamaran that soon was cruising out to sea toward the setting sun. With drink in hand, I toasted with my new friends and watched a spectacular sunset. Back on land, we ate a delicious dinner involving Moreton Bay “Bugs,” which look and taste a lot like our Maine lobster. On the way home, we stopped on the side of the road, got out and took a moment to take in the magnificent Southern Hemisphere stars together. It was certainly a day I will always remember.
 
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My 5 Favorite Tanzanian Properties: Mwiba Lodge

Fly 40 minutes from the domestic airport in Arusha over the Ngorongoro Crater and you reach Mwiba Lodge, the latest upscale property from Legendary Expeditions. All 9 rooms and main lodge are filled with modern African art to give it a contemporary flair. There’s a small infinity pool, wine cellar filled with South African selections, two dining areas, and a small library, all looking over a watering hole where I spotted more than 20 elephants strolling leisurely down to the spot. Rooms are spacious and a bath filled with warm water, bubbles and salts is waiting after your afternoon game drive. Mwiba is located in a vast game reserve, not a national park, so you have the option to take night drives and veer off-road straight to the wildlife. Ideal for honeymooners or couples celebrating an anniversary, I would probably recommend staying at Mwiba after first staying at a mobile tent in the Serengeti bush. It offers a great dose of comfort before leaving Africa.

 
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Saint Lucia Week: What I Loved About the Resorts I Visited

It’s been a great week of new adventures in Saint Lucia and I’m sad to leave, knowing what’s waiting for me in Boston this winter. I covered a lot of territory on the island, heading north, then west and south. There were a slew of things I liked at each of the resorts I visited that I didn’t have time to discuss. The new spa at Windjammer Landing is wonderful and so was the masseuse who delivered that signature massage, a mix of defoliation, hot stones, bamboo, and deep tissue digging. Ti Kaye has one of the finest wine lists I’ve seen in the Caribbean, including a rare sighting of a 1998 Joseph Phelps Insignia. Sample it in their wine cellar along with a prix-fixe menu. Anse Chastanet has a second beach near the Jungle Biking excursion that’s often far less crowded than their main beach. I went snorkeling at their reef yesterday morning by myself, before the tour boats arrived, and spotted one of my favorite tropical fish, the yellowfin chromis. Atop Anse Chastanet, the rooms at Jade Mountain are a dream. Check out the infinity pool in the photo to the left leading to wondrous vistas of the Pitons ahead. Also ask to tour the chocolate laboratory on premises where they make their own organic dark chocolate bars from a nearby cocoa plantation. The sand at Sugar Beach is the whitest I’ve seen in Saint Lucia. I also love their two grass tennis courts. 
 
I want to thank Maria Hunte at the Saint Lucia Tourist Board and Shannon Overholser at Redpoint for designing a perfect 6-day itinerary. Next time I have to bring my wife or she’s going to poison me. I teased with her far too many gorgeous photos this week. 
 
I’m taking next week off. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and remember to work off that turkey and stuffing by being active! 
 
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Ontario Lakes Week: First Stop, Bartlett Lodge, Algonquin Provincial Park

As soon as you step foot in that large wooden boat and are whisked away a mere 5 minutes from the parking lot to Bartlett Lodge, tensions start to melt away with the calm Cache Lake waters. Traveling with Amy and Josh from their home in Toronto, it took us about 3 ½ hours to reach Algonquin Provincial Park in central Ontario. Amy had met the owners of Bartlett Lodge, Marilyn and Kim on an Adventure Canada cruise circumnavigating Newfoundland last fall, and she wanted to make this our first stop on a tour of classic Ontario cabins. She started with a winner, the circa-1907 Deil Ma Care cabin, created before the resort even opened by a doctor from Ottawa who would bring patients with TB and other respiratory ailments to Algonquin as a salubrious retreat. After 3 nights at Bartlett Lodge, I’m happy to report that the lodge is just as therapeutic today as it was a century ago! 

The 12 cottages and 4 tents sit on the shores of the inviting Cache Lake. Grab a canoe like we did one early morning before breakfast and you’ll be listening to the distinctive call of the loon echoing across the waters. But even more heavenly than a placid paddle is the chance to swim from the small deck in front of our cabin in the clean refreshing waters. As soon as we arrived, we went for the first of countless swims we would take on our 9-day foray into the lakes of central Ontario. 
 
All meals are included in the price, the highlight being the 4-course dinner, beloved just as much by locals as visitors to Bartlett Lodge. Start with hazelnut gnudi (gnocchi-like dumplings) or wild mushroom arancini before moving on to entrees of chinook salmon or beef tenderloin. But save room for dessert, especially Marilyn’s sublime signature pies, like wild blueberry or strawberry rhubarb. Marilyn is the quintessential host, walking over between courses to all the tables to discuss the history of the place and her love for the region. Not only did her husband Kim and her revive this dreamy waterfront property (they’ve been owners since 1997), but they run a nearby overnight girl’s camp. Off-season, they have a farm outside of Toronto known for its team of Clydesdales. 
 
Swim, paddle, take a Tom Thomson tour with Malcolm (which I’ll discuss tomorrow), hike through old growth forest or up the hillside for vistas of the shorelines, and then return to the Bartlett Lodge for gin and tonics in the Muskoka chairs (the Ontario version of Adirondack chairs) and another fantastic dinner (BYOB, so stop at the province-run liquor store, LCBO, on the way in). It’s a winning recipe for a 3-day add-on to Toronto or Ottawa. Share your dates with ActiveTravels and we’ll check on availability and pricing. 
 
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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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Riu Palace Peninsula Week—The Rooms

When I tell people that I work as a travel writer, their usual response is “wow, what a dream job.” 99% of the time, they’re right. Yesterday, I had one of those 1% days where it was dreadful. I awoke at 4:30 am to catch a 6:30 plane out of Boston’s Logan Airport, which was supposed to connect in Miami and reach my final destination of Cancun. Usually an easy morning of travel. We board the flight and are about to fly away when the pilot discovers an electrical problem. We head back to the gate where my flight is now delayed two hours…Then delayed another three hours…Then cancelled. I’m lucky that my wife is a travel agent who booked me on a 2:30 flight to Miami. All the other flights to Miami were already overbooked for the Holidays. 

 
I grab lunch and do some work, when I hear over the loud speaker that all passengers on the cancelled must go downstairs to baggage claim, grab their luggage, and rebook it again at the departure counter. The self-service counters at American Airlines are now a chaotic mess, with countless people waiting on line after using the computer to get their boarding passes. I wait and I wait once again on the long security line. The flight to Miami was a breeze. Unfortunately, when we arrived in Miami, there was no gate to pull into, so we’re delayed. By the time I get off the plane, I only have 20 minutes before my flight to Cancun leaves. As I depart, I hear “this is the final call for American Airlines, Flight 2139 to Cancun, Mexico.” With at least 20 pounds of computer equipment in my backpack, I sprint like a Marine to my gate, which feels like it’s a mile away (those elliptical machine workouts at the gym finally paying off). I’m covered in sweat when I reach the next flight, but remarkably the gate is still open. I beg the flight attendant for a glass of water and he looks at me like it’s a major inconvenience. I finally make it to Cancun, 8 hours later than I was supposed to arrive, only to find out that my luggage is still back in Miami.
 
Then I reach the stylish lobby of the new Riu Palace Peninsula, all lit up for the Holiday festivities, and I can finally breathe again. When I drop my trusty backpack off in the room, I was delighted to spot the king-sized bed, the sunken Jacuzzi tub, the pleasant blue and white décor. A fruit plate was waiting, along with all the rum, vodka, and cervezas I needed to take the edge off. The liquor was certainly appealing, but another reason I love an all-inclusive property is that the restaurants stay open late. So I went downstairs to have dinner, my first fish tacos, guacamole, and refried beans of the week. Ambled over to the theater to watch the scantily-clad dance troupe work their way around a couple Bob Fosse tunes. Then took the elevator to the 17th floor and that king-sized bed. I slept wonderfully and awoke to the morning sun lighting up the Cancun sands and the shimmering Atlantic waters. Ah yes, back to my dream job. 
 

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