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My Top 5 Places to Scuba Dive, Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos

The Turks & Caicos are an archipelago of eight islands and forty relatively flat limestone and coral cays, some of which are little more than dusty specks in the aquamarine waters. The relative anonymity of these islands stem from their location. They are south of the Bahamas, yet not part of the Bahamas; north of the Caribbean, yet not technically part of the Caribbean. Indeed, the Turks & Caicos are a British Crown Colony whose 15,000 inhabitants or Belongers, as locals like to call themselves, slip through the pages of most guidebooks. This is especially true of Grand Turk, a sleepy 6-mile long island where you stroll past the Victorian homes on Front Street in a matter of minutes. Nestled amongst the homes are a handful of inconspicuous hotels, restaurants, dive shops, and government offices that seem to add to the British charm. 

 
Underwater, Grand Turk is home to the Wall, where without warning the reef plummets to a mind-boggling 7,000 feet to mark the edge of the Turks Island Passage. On the rim of this great blue abyss, it’s not uncommon to see humpback whales migrating in winter, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles swimming gracefully, and herds of spotted eagle rays, with wingspans upward of eight feet, their thick black tails churning behind. Researching a scuba diving story for Islands magazine, I was 45 feet below the surface with excellent light and visibility, when suddenly it turned to darkness. I looked up and spotted six massive eagle rays swimming above me, one of the highlights of my scuba diving life. 
 
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My Top 5 Places to Scuba Dive, Rarotonga, The Cook Islands

You can get your scuba diving certification at the neighborhood indoor pool over the course of 3 months or you can do it in the South Pacific over the course of three days. Cook Island Divers is where I learned to scuba dive and it resulted in one of my first travel stories back in 1991. Perhaps I’m feeling nostalgic, but it’s hard not to praise Greg Wilson, one of the finest instructors in the business. It also don’t hurt that the surrounding ocean offers visibility over 100 feet and water temperatures in the 75 to 85 degree range. If you’re thinking about obtaining your scuba diving certification, this would be my top choice. Then continue onward to the pristine waters of Aitutaki, Taveuni’s Rainbow Reef, and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Stay at the Sunset Resort, where you can recline on the beach.

 
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My Top 5 Places to Scuba Dive, Taveuni, Fiji

To get my mind off the cold in Boston and another snowstorm headed our way on Wednesday, I’m going to discuss my favorite places to scuba dive this week. I first dove off Taveuni, Fiji, on the way to the Great Barrier Reef after recently being certified in the Cook Islands. It would end up being far more memorable than any of my dives on the Great Barrier Reef. It’s not just the multi-colored coral they dub the Rainbow Reef or the myriad of neon-colored fish that provide divers with a kaleidoscopic view of the sea. No, it’s the big boys like white-tip sharks, sea turtles, and manta rays that make you feel like Jacques Cousteau. No wonder Jacques’ son, Jean-Michel, has his own resort in nearby Savusavu. He’s no fool. 

 
Northwest of Taveuni, Matangi is one of the many small offshore islands with a limited amount of bures (thatched huts), perfect for romance, not so great for writers traveling solo. I was hired by Bride’s Magazine to write a story on the resort and ended up on Matagi with four other couples, all celebrating their honeymoon! At dinner, I remember trying to act comfortable while everyone around me was kissing, wrapped arm-in-arm, feeding each other. I begged them to please get me off the island within 24 hours or I’d be dangling from a noose from that Treehouse Suite. 
 
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Lark Hotels to Debut The Break in Narragansett, Rhode Island

Yesterday, I wrote about one of my favorite places to stay in the Portland area, the Pomegranate Inn. The 8-room B&B is now managed by Lark Hotels, who manage six boutique properties in New England, with a 7th on the horizon. They just announced the opening of their latest lodging, The Break, set to open in June in the surfing community of Narragansett. In the off-season, the waves at Narragansett’s Town Beach provide local surfers with enough action until their next trip to Rincon. In the summer, the beach is a bit milder, attracting families who can walk easily from The Break and restaurants like the Coast Guard House, where you can dine on Point Judith calamari and native littleneck clams on the outdoor deck. 

 
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A Perfect Night in Portland, Maine in the Heart of Winter

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! 

 
 
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Liftopia Offering Discounted Lift Tickets for Super Bowl Sunday

Liftopia should always be your first stop before heading to the mountain. They have deals at over 150 ski resorts in America. Pick the date and ski area you’re headed to and you could get a serious reduction on the price of a lift ticket. This week, Liftopia is offering its biggest sale of the year. You can grab savings of up to 70% off lift tickets at more than 200 ski resorts for Super Bowl Sunday. With the game starting at 6 pm EST, you have plenty of time to hit the slopes before the game. In Vermont, lift tickets at Bolton Valley start at $20, Okemo at $65. New Hampshire’s Ragged Mountain will be offering lift tickets for $48. In Utah, Solitude is offering tickets for $55. In Colorado, ski Copper for $72. The list goes on and on! While you’re on the Liftopia website, check out my blog. 

 
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Ciclismo Classico Bike Tour to Sardinia Led by Chef Jody Adams

Ciclismo Classico, the Italian biking specialist, has just announced that James Beard Award-winning chef, Jody Adams, will host a tour to Sardinia this fall. Adams, owner of the popular Rialto and Trade restaurants in Boston, will be heading to an Italian island known for its innovative cuisine. “Chef Adams will delight guests palates with handmade pastas, Seada cake, Montiferru, local cheeses, cured meats and regional wines,” says Ciclismo Classico founder Lauren Hefferon.
 
The tour begins in Tresnuraghes and then cross the very center of the island through areas still untouched by tourism. From here, riders will discover the stunning coast in Cabras with its lagoons and flamingos, and explore the long sandy beaches of the Sinis peninsula. Visits to old mining towns, the ancient Phoenician and Roman cities of Tharros and Nora, and the winding coastal road to Pula highlight the weeklong trip. The itinerary includes several informal cooking demonstrations with Chef Adams where guests can participate in the action and learn a few tips from the master chef. A cheese-making demonstration with local shepherds, and a special dinner prepared by Adams at Villa Asfodeli are also included in this culinary adventure. Dates are September 30-October 6, 2014, and cost is $5395 per person, all-inclusive. 
 
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Celebrate the Year of the Horse in England

With the Chinese New Year quickly approaching, England is promoting the Year of the Horse by focusing on locales where horseback riding is available. Bath’s Relais & Chateaux property, Lucknam Park, is one of the many excellent riding hotels in England. With trained horses and staff on hand to help beginners and assist experienced riders, Lucknam Park’s Equestrian Centre offers classes that cater to every level. Out of the saddle, the property also has a highly prestigious cookery school and a first class spa. Horses are also allowed on a number of beaches in the country. With permits available from The National Trust, you can gallop, trot or canter to your heart’s content across the four-mile stretch of golden sand at Dorset’s Studland Beach. Studland Stables will even bring the bubbly, so you can pop the cork over views of Old Harry Rocks and make this trip even more special. 

 
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Stay at the Old Tavern in Grafton, Vermont for $222 for Two Nights, Including Breakfast

If you want to stay in a quintessential Vermont town, close to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and downhill skiing, you might want to take advantage of the Old Tavern in Grafton’s latest deal. Pay just $222 for two nights at the inn (through March), including a full country breakfast and an afternoon cider and Grafton Cheese social. Down the road, The Grafton Ponds Outdoor Center features 15 km of groomed Nordic skiing, wine and cheese snowshoe tours, tubing down a 600-foot high hill, and, new this year, horse-drawn sleigh rides. 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, 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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Bermuda’s Pink Sale Offer’s 50% Off Room Rates

Need to get away? If you live on the East Coast corridor and just endured another snowstorm accompanied by temps in the single digits, I would say you’re due. You might want to know about Bermuda’s Pink Sale, where 9 hotels on island are offering a 50% discount. Book from today through February 3rd for hotels stays until April 30th. I just checked the 10-day forecast and highs reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit, a helluva lot better than the 9 degrees outside my office window in Boston. Also check Fairmount Southampton for discounts. Flights are direct and only 2 hours from New York, Boston, and DC. If you need suggestions on what to do while you’re there, check out my Boston Globe story.