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Spend a Night at the New Yorker Hotel for $129

If you take a look at our December newsletter, you’ll quickly realize that we love Manhattan this time of year. Well, now we have an even better reason. Through Thursday on Groupon, the art deco New Yorker Hotel is offering a chance to spend the night in Manhattan at $129 a night. Travel dates are good through March. Across from Madison Square Garden, this is a good place to spend the night if you want to head to town to see the red hot New York Knicks. It’s also within easy walking distance to the Broadway theaters. 
 

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VBT Offering New Walking Vacations in America’s National Parks

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how Xanterra Parks & Resorts, the people who run all of America’s national park lodges acquired Austin-Lehman Adventures, now called Austin Adventures. A year prior, Xanterra purchased VBT Walking and Bicycling Vacations. Now we’re beginning to see the results of that acquisition. VBT has just announced that they will be offering walking tours at 5 American national parks in 2014, the first time they have offered walking vacations in the States. Travelers can explore the Grand Canyon, Zion, Grand Teton and Yellowstone while staying in lodges right in the heart of the parks. Vermont-based VBT is also launching a walking vacation closer to their headquarters in Acadia National Park. Walks include one of my personal favorites, Zion’s Narrows, where you walk in the Virgin River through a 1,000-foot-high slot canyon that’s a mere 20 feet wide at times. If you can’t wait until next summer, VBT will offer a 6-day cross-country skiing jaunt in Yellowstone this coming January and February, the most serene time of year to visit the park. Add several nights after the trip to ski downhill at nearby Big Sky. 

 
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October 2015 Newsletter: Canadian Ski Resorts, New Hotels, Just Ahead

The favorable exchange rate for the American dollar continues to ensure that Canada is the place to be this winter. If you haven’t looked lately, $1 US will now fetch $1.31 in Canada, an 11-year low for the Canadian loonie. So if you’ve ever wanted to ski Whistler, Tremblant, or the Canadian Rockies, now would be the time. In this month’s ActiveTravels newsletter, we talk about our favorite places to ski in Canada, including off-the-beaten track Red Mountain. We also want to introduce you to Just Ahead, a guided audio tour through many national parks that is easily accessible from your smart phone. Amanera, the ultra-posh resort opening in the Dominican Republic on November 23rd, is one of the new Caribbean, Florida, and Mexican properties we discuss. Another new hotel, The Taconic, will be the first Kimpton property in Vermont when it opens in Manchester, Vermont, this winter. Lastly, I preview the recent trip I took with Dan Austin, owner of Austin Adventures, to Colorado, where the legendary Broadmoor resort has expanded their holdings, opening three boutique properties in the mountains and rivers outside of Colorado Springs. Check it out, and, if you ever have any travel-related questions, please ask. 

 
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Hotel Vermont’s New Summer Beer Exploration Package

If you like Heady Topper as much as I do, then you’re going to enjoy Hotel Vermont’s Summer Beer Exploration Package. Offered once a month from June through October, the two-day event starts with a five-course beer pairing dinner featuring Vermont’s most highly rated breweries (Hill Farmstead, The Alchemist, Foam Brewers, Lawson’s Finest Liquids) curated by Beer Concierge, Matt Canning. The next morning, you’ll have breakfast with the team at Foam Brewers while firing up the brew kettle and mashing in the grain to start the day’s brew. Then you’ll head 10 miles south to the new state-of-the-art Peterson Quality Malt facility at Nordic Farm. The defunct dairy barn now serves as Vermont’s only craft malt house producing the base ingredient for Vermont’s world-renowned breweries. Afterwards, enjoy lunch and a beer tasting in the fields of barley, with stunning views of both the Green and Adirondack Mountains. Cost of the Beer Exploration Package, including 2 nights at the Hotel Vermont, starts at $1130 for two guests. Interested? Let ActiveTravels know and we’ll check availability. 

 
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Have Packing List, Will Travel

I’m off to Kenya in a week to research and write four stories. Most people stress about packing for a trip, including my wife, who hates the thought of reducing all her possessions into one measly suitcase. I can often pack in less than 15 minutes, thanks to my trusty packing list that’s stored in my computer. Depending on the locale and weather, I adjust the list, but for Kenya it will include passport, printed copy of passport page in case passport is stolen, airplane information, prescription drugs like Malaria pills, Imodium (no travel writer leaves home without it), other bathroom accessories, notebooks, pens, laptop, laptop plug and surge protector, headset for Skype, plug converter (incredibly important. Kenya is on the British plug), iPod and headphones, iPod charger, Flip video camera, Canon camera and additional long lens, camera charger, suntan lotion, Carmex, mosquito repellent, file on Kenya, two good books to read, most likely downloaded on my Nook, the latest Economist (which takes about five hours to read, perfect for trans-Atlantic flights), baseball cap, two nice pair of pants for dinners, shoes, nice long-sleeve and short-sleeve collared shirts for dinner, cargo shorts with four pockets to hold my notebook and pens during the day, lightweight long sleeve safari shirts, more casual T-shirts, polar fleece jacket because it does get cold at night in the bush, socks, underwear, flip-flops, sneakers, swimsuit, money belt, $300 US cash, one credit card, business cards, and finally a gift of pencils, crayons, and stickers for school kids. They went gaga over the Obama stickers I brought on my last trip to Africa in 2008. And that’s it. I’m finished, ready to roll. Write it down once on your computer and you’ll have it for every trip in the future.
 

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ActiveTravels Update

In September 1990, I quit my job as a broker in Manhattan and booked a flight with Air New Zealand, stopping at 12 different locales in the South Pacific on the way to my final destination, Sydney. When I returned from that 4-month jaunt, I would write my first article, “Learning to Scuba Dive in the Cook Islands.” Since that time, I have been fortunate to make my living primarily as a travel writer, penning more than 1000 articles for over 50 publications. To celebrate my 20th anniversary in this business, I’ll be updating the Go Play! Section of ActiveTravels by adding many of these articles to the website. Simply click on a geographical region, say California, and you’ll find a slew of updated content from backpacking to surfing to snacking, listed under each category. I’ll also include the name of the magazine, newspaper, or website where the story was originally printed. Think of this as a resource guide to your world of adventure.

As always, thanks for checking in! If there’s any travel subject you’d like me to discuss, simply ask. If you’re planning a trip to some glorious part of the world and need recommendations on activities or lodging, simply ask. Since I’ve started this blog over a year ago, I haven’t made a dime from advertising or commissions from the places I recommend. This way, I remain unbiased and can give you the wholehearted truth about each destination. So don’t only use Go Play! as a resource. Go straight to the source and ask me any question you might have.
 

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Stocking Stuffer No. 2—The Red Bandanna Travel Book, The Medicine of Traveling

I read this slender memoir/self-help travel book on my train ride back from New York to Boston. When I finished, I wish I had taken the book in sections, working on the assignments the author Joanne Socha had created at the end of most chapters. This is a unique book that’s meant to be savored at a slow pace. Socha is a travel advisor that I know through my affiliation with Virtuoso and Largay Travel. She knows firsthand the anxiety most people have before and during a trip. In fact, no one I know is stress-free when it comes to travel. I have bridge phobia and I’m neurotic about getting to the airport early to catch my flight. But that never stopped me nor does it stop Joanne, who follows her dream as she travels the globe, visiting the destinations on her wish list. What I loved about this book is that Socha shares her vulnerability, overcoming adversity, so when she’s finally snorkeling in the Maldives in a sublime blissful state, you realize she earned it. She deserved to be there and so do you. Just remember to do your homework! 

 

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