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Top 5 Adventures in the Caribbean, Hiking Dominica

As the leaves fall from the oak trees in my backyard just outside Boston, my thoughts turn to warmer weather. Specifically to my favorite adventures in the Caribbean. For those of you who’ve been reading this blog since its inception, forgive me for continually praising Dominica, but it offers the finest hiking in the region. This island near Martinique has become an affordable haven for the active traveler who yearns to hike through a lush mountainous interior inundated with so much water that around every bend is another raging waterfall, a serene swimming hole nestled in the thick bush, or a hidden hot spring to rest your weary body after a day in the outdoors. Ken’s Hinterland Adventure Tours will take guide you on a 7-hour round-trip hike inside Morne Trois Pitons National Park to the crater known as Boiling Lake. You’ll hike through a dense forest of tall gommier trees, staring at the iridescent purple-throated hummingbirds as they keep you company. Relax your muscles afterwards in the natural hot spring at Papillote Wilderness Retreat. Owner Anne Jno Baptiste first came to the island from the States in 1961. Eight years later, she bought a 7-acre chunk of land enveloped by the rainforest that she would cultivate into a flower-rich botanical garden and one of the Caribbean’s first eco-resorts, using Dominica’s wealth of fruits and vegetables for her meals. Suites start at $115 a night and swimming in the hot springs is clothing optional.  

 
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Tanzania’s Best Kept Secret

I was hoping to return to Africa later this month, but I just couldn’t squeeze the trip in. The one locale I was excited to check out was Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park. Home to one of the largest prides of lions in Africa, it’s shocking that Ruaha is still an undiscovered gem in Tanzania. Even more surprising when you learn that Ruaha is the second largest park in the country. Yet, simply because of its locale, in the far less frequented southern tourist circuit, far away from the camera clicking crowds of Serengeti and Ngorongoro, this rough tract of wilderness pulsates with the feel of a long-forgotten Africa. Only a little over 7,000 visitors annually come to this region of broken hills, sandy rivers, and an altogether harsher kind of landscape. The parched plains are littered with granite boulders and bizarre-looking baobab trees. Currently only one third of Ruaha’s 20,226 square kilometers is used for tourism, leaving a great majority of wilderness untouched and undiscovered. One of the highly touted places to stay in Ruaha is Mwagusi Safari Camp, owned by native Tanzanian Chris Fox. Download it to your Africa wish-list file, along with me.
 
I’m off to bike and hike in Zion National Park next week. I’ll be back with some of my favorite Caribbean getaways the week of October 22nd. In the meantime, keep active! 
 
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New in New England Skiing

We might be at the height of fall foliage in northern New England, but snow has already fallen on the summit of Killington and Stratton Mountains in Vermont. Here, in Boston, we’re expected to receive our first frost this Saturday. So it’s not premature to talk about the upcoming ski season. Big news out of Vermont is that Burke Mountain in the Northeast Kingdom has been purchased by Jay Peak. Expect the same growth that Jay has experienced over the past five years, like a new hotel and water park. In Mad River Valley, Sugarbush and Mad River Glen have teamed up for the first time to offer a “Ski the Valley” package. It includes access to both peaks, plus extras like free appetizers, free snowshoe treks, movie tickets, and yoga classes throughout the Valley. At Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, the ski resort has started its expansion over to Mount Stickney. A new T-bar will drop skiers off at a gladed area offering steep drop-offs for hot-doggers, groomed terrain for intermediates who want to play in the trees. There’s also a new log cabin being built on the summit of Stickney, where a wood stove will keep skiers warm between runs. This is the first phase of a $70 million expansion that will link Stickney with Bretton Woods’ excellent 100 km Nordic trail system.  

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World’s First Underwater Music Club Opens in the Maldives

I receive on average 300 press releases pertaining to travel each day. Most are deleted instantaneously. Others, I read and file away in my brain. And then there are the press releases that make me want to get on the next plane and check it out immediately. This is one of those. A new resort in the Maldives called NIYAMA has just opened an offshore restaurant and music club. Not just any ole music club, but one below the surface where you’re looking through the circular glass windows to view the manta rays and neon-colored fish. If that doesn’t grab you, then how about a state-of-the-art Bose surround sound system luring the hottest electronica DJs in the world. This month, the Grammy-nominated Poet Name Life will perform at the club, called Subsix, along with Tinie Tempah, fresh off his gig at the closing night ceremonies at the London Summer Olympic Games. In fact, many of the resident DJs are recognized for their work internationally, hosting their own radio shows in the States or spinning at red carpet events such as London Fashion Week. The restaurant upstairs called Edge doesn’t sound so bad either, serving thinly sliced Maldivian reef fish gravlax or grilled Indian Ocean Cuttlefish with avocado. I am so there. 

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October Newsletter from ActiveTravels is Now Available

If you’re interested in a quick fall jaunt to Mystic, Connecticut, skiing at Park City, or feeling that Jamaican warmth some time this winter, check out our latest newsletter. We also talk about one of our favorite outfitters, Wilderness Travel, and delve into the reasons for buying travel insurance. Up top, you can join our email list to ensure that you’re receiving our newsletter each month. Also, feel free to share on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to help get the word out on ActiveTravels. Thanks! 

 
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Nova Scotia Week, Visiting Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Park

One of my favorite reads this past summer, Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard, detailed the assassination of President James Garfield. As with Millard’s first book, River of Doubt, a spellbinding account of Theodore Roosevelt’s deadly descent down a river in the Amazon, the finest characters in the books are not the presidents. Garfield has a buffoon of a doctor who does everything wrong according to modern day standards, like plunging his none-too-sterile hands into Garfield’s wound. Most striking however, was the work of Alexander Graham Bell in trying to save the president’s life. Already famous for his invention of the telephone, Graham Bell worked feverishly night and day to invent a device that could magnetically detect where the bullet was lodged in Garfield’s body. Millard’s conclusion was that the device did indeed work in the end, but Graham Bell was looking at the wrong side of Garfield’s body, thanks once again to that buffoon doctor. 

 
So when I heard that the small town of Baddeck on the shores of Bras d’Or Lakes in Cape Breton was home to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Park, I was there when the doors opened in the morning. Graham Bell and his wife Mabel, a former student of his at Boston School for the Deaf, first built their summer home in Baddeck in 1886, a decade after he stated those first fateful words on the telephone to his assistant, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” I really wasn’t expecting much, since this was Graham Bell’s summer home, the one that reminded him of his Scottish youth. Wrong! In 1955, Graham Bell’s two daughters donated thousands of original artifacts to the museum, including all of the models that consumed him during his lifetime. There’s a metal box he created to distill salt water into drinkable water, a bicycle that he hoped one could pedal on water, the first air conditioning blowers. He created only to satiate his curiosity, which only ceased when he died. And his experimentation was successful countless times. His invention of the gramophone improved Edison’s phonograph, the metal detector he used on Garfield was the precursor to X-rays. A hydrofoil he helped build later in life, called HD-4, reached a speed of 70 miles per hour on water, a record that wouldn’t be broken for another decade. 
 
Also on display is a portrait his wife made of Graham Bell when they were first dating. At least that’s what she told him. It’s actually a painting of an owl. She painted the bird not because it symbolized wisdom, but because Graham Bell stayed up all night obsessed with finding answers. Throw in his work with the deaf, especially giving voice to Helen Keller, and you realize why his compassion and intellect are still an inspiration. 
 
This has been a terrific week for me in Nova Scotia! I hope to return with the family some time soon. It’s an auspicious start to a big month of travel that will send me on a bike trip to Zion National Park next Sunday . I’ll try to keep you posted as much as possible, but please be patient. In the meantime, stay active!
 
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Nova Scotia Week, An Exceptional Day on the Eastern Shores of Cape Breton

My perfect day starts with hiking shoes and ends with a pair of water shoes. Yesterday morning began with a hike on Middle Head, a sliver of a peninsula jutting out into the sea. Even if you’re not staying at the Keltic Lodge, where the trailhead is located, take this hour-long round-trip hike, part of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Across the waters to your right are the towering bluffs of Cape Stormy, an apt name for this ominous spit of land. Perched atop your own headland, the cliffs of Middle Head plunge straight down to a boulder-strewn coastline. Waves crash against the rocks, spewing foam into the air. As I reached the tip of the peninsula, where numerous signs were posted warning folks to avoid getting too close to the edge, a bald eagle flew overhead. 

 
In the afternoon, I sea kayaked with Mary-Claire, a guide from North River Kayak Tours. We paddled on the North River past cormorants standing atop the wooden posts of a long retired wharf. The river leads to the wide-open waters of St. Ann’s Bay, surrounded by short summits on all sides. We stopped at a rocky beach for a snack of banana bread and chocolate chai, and then wandered over to see a waterfall. On the return paddle, we spotted a kingfisher and what I thought was a blue heron in flight. As it flew over our heads, we realized that this massive bird was no heron, but a peregrine falcon. Let me revise that lead sentence. My perfect day starts with a bald eagle and ends with a peregrine falcon. 
 
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Nova Scotia Week, The Perfect Loop in Cape Breton Highlands National Park

There’s a reason Travel & Leisure magazine named Cape Breton the number one island destination in North America and third in the world. The landscape is a mesmerizing mix of rolling summits, precipitous cliffs, high headlands, sweeping white sand beaches, and glacially carved lakes, all bordered by the ocean. The Cabot Trail hugs the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the rugged northwestern edge of the island, where around every bend you want to pull over, spew expletives of joy at the stupendous vista, and take another snapshot. Indeed, it’s as close to Big Sur as the East Coast gets. Add bald eagles, moose, coyotes, and pilot whales fluking in the nearby waters and you want to leave the car behind and soak it all up. 

 
One of the most popular trails, Skyline, is a 9.2 km (5.7-mile) loop atop the ridge of a coastal headland. I took the 3-hour loop yesterday morning, when the rain that’s been following me the past two days subsided, replaced by blue skies and a trace of thin clouds. I veered right at the start to walk through a bog topped with pines and carpeted with moss. I took deep breaths of the sweet pines as I meandered over the roots and rocks on the grassy path. Eventually, the trail snakes to the left offering expansive views of the sea. At the halfway point, a boardwalk leads down the headland and wow, what a majestic stroll it is. To the left is a backbone of peaks, to the right is all ocean as far as your eye can see. I sat down on a bench and bit into my honeycrisp apple, watching a whale spout. It was hard to leave, but after having my fill, I made my way back on the loop. Within minutes, I was staring at a mother moose and her calf. Talk about icing on the cake. 
 
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Nova Scotia Week, Finding the Heart of Cape Breton

Once on Cape Breton, most travelers make a beeline for the headlands of the National Park or the rugged coastline that drops precipitously into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But don’t make the mistake of missing the interior or what locals call the Highlands. Head to a sweet spot like Margaree River Valley and you’ll find a ring of rounded summits peering down on verdant pastures dotted with sheep, cattle, and sleek, dark French Canadian horses. You’ll also find the rolling waters of that legendary salmon fishing river, the Margaree, snaking though the spectacular scenery. This is the authentic Cape Breton, where you can spend a night at the classic Normaway Inn, have dinner from a chef who taught alongside Jacques Pepin at Manhattan’s French Culinary Institute, and then be treated to a foot-stomping fiddler concert every night from June through October. Last night in the Normaway’s library, I was fortunate enough to listen to a father and daughter play fiddle and guitar, while on piano, was the hotel’s housekeeper, who’s toured with Natalie MacMaster and Waylon Jennings. Here, in the heart of Ceilidh “kay-lee” country, it’s a good bet that your waiter or bellhop has played to a packed crowd and can dance the two-step, either in a nearby barn or in a packed concert hall. Seeing this threesome play last night in an intimate setting, stomping my foot and clapping my hands to the fast-moving fiddle, is one of those authentic travel experiences that I’ll remember years from now, when those rugged cliffs of Cape Breton have faded into the sea. 

 
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Nova Scotia Week, Sampling the Surprisingly Good Wines of Annapolis Valley

An easy one-hour drive west of Halifax and I arrived in the growing wine region of Annapolis Valley. Once a footnote among grape-growing regions, the rolling green countryside now boasts 14 wineries that produce crisp cool-climate whites, decadent icewines, and Champagne-style sparkling wines that are attracting international attention. My first stop was Luckett Vineyards, where I enjoyed the dry Tidal Bay and spicier Muscat, with hints of tropical fruit. A short drive through the rolling countryside dotted with rows of vines, dairy farms, and green fields and I arrived at L’Acadie Vineyards. Their 2007 Prestige Brut was the only North American entry to be honored last fall in a competition held in France, bringing home a silver medal for its sparkling wine. I tried the 2008 variety, which also deserves kudos for its earthy, mineral taste. My favorite wine of the day was an Ortega, a Riesling like wine made by Domaine de Grand Pré. Not nearly as cloying as most Rieslings, this one went down smoothly with my seafood chowder of lobster and scallops, served at the Grand Pré’s excellent restaurant, Le Caveau. The college town of Wolfville is the gateway to the Annapolis Valley. Victorian mansions have been transformed into bed and breakfasts like the one I’m writing this from, the Blomidon Inn. Their top-notch restaurant not only serves local wines, but other indigenous goodies like a freshly caught halibut in the nearby Bay of Fundy that I happily devoured last night.