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Give the Gift of Travel

Don’t worry if you missed Small Business Saturday. Buy a yearly membership to ActiveTravels today and we’ll still extend our half price offer to Cyber Monday! For a mere $30 a year, you’ll receive guidance from travel advisors who’ve spent more than 25 years in the business and have traveled to over 90 countries. Fill out our questionnaire and we’ll custom-design a Dream Day Itinerary suited to your passions. You’ll also receive VIP service and complimentary upgrades from hotel General Managers we know first-hand around the globe. Want more? How about receiving our monthly newsletters which will keep you updated on the world of travel, and you’ll automatically be included in our raffles for free 2-night hotel giveaways. Last but certainly not least, there are no hidden costs or service fees. Don’t be left at the airport service counter this winter trying to reschedule your flight or at the hotel front desk fighting for a better room when you have someone at ActiveTravels always here to help. It will be the best 30 bucks you’ve ever spent. 
 

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Hotel Explora, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chile is a twisted mass of monoliths and hoodoos that rise sharply from the dry Patagonian steppe, a stunning glacial landscape where guanacos (orange and white-colored members of the llama family), rheas (ostriches), and flamingos congregate near watering holes. This is where Town & Country Magazine sent me to check out the luxurious, yet intimate Hotel Explora. Its superior location is apparent upon entering the lobby. The resort has vistas of the park’s most dramatic formation, The Horns, a block of sweeping granite that pierces the clouds.  Almost all of the hotel’s thirty rooms, even the whirlpool-adorned bathrooms, afford the same mind-blowing view.
 

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Nomads Tours Designs New Itinerary to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert

Our go-to tour operator in Mongolia, Nomads Tours, has just designed a fascinating weeklong trip to Mongolia that includes stays at the Shangri-La in Ulaanbaatar and the intriguing Three Camel Lodge in the Gobi Desert. The owner of Three Camel, Jalsa Urubshurow, grew up in a Mongolian community in New Jersey, before becoming very wealthy in the construction industry. Urubshurow returned in 2002 to create his dream property, backed by the 14,000-foot Altai Mountains and near the fossil-rich Flaming Cliffs. Guests sleep in "gers," Mongolian round felt tents, adorned with hand-painted interiors and locally crafted furniture. Spend the day riding on camels to the sand dunes and then meet local nomadic herders at dinner that evening. In Ulaanbaatar, you’ll visit the city’s largest market, Naran Tuul (also known as Black Market), and visit monks at the Gandan Khiid Buddhist Monastery, one of the few monasteries to survive the communist regime that lasted until 1990. Pricing starts at $4199 per person, including lodging, all meals, guides, and round-trip domestic air. Please contact ActiveTravels if interested. 

 
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Cruise With Climate Change Experts to Antarctica with Abercrombie & Kent

For the past 13 years, Dr. James McClintock has spent at least two months a year at Palmer Station in Antarctica. He has seen the firsthand results of global warming, including seeing ice shelves the size of Connecticut break off from the land, watched as the indigenous adelie penguin population has dwindled from 15,000 to 2,000 breeding penguins, tested for increasingly alarming rates of ocean acidification, and much to his dismay, watched as predators like king crabs, who had never made their way this far south, started appearing in droves. Once a year, McClintock gets some much needed R&R aboard the Le Boreal cruise ship as resident naturalist for Abercrombie & Kent’s two-week voyage to Antarctica. Built specifically for Antarctica, the sleek ship is incredibly stable and about thirty percent faster than most ships that cruise through the Drake Passage. Getting on and off the Zodiacs twice a day is also not nearly as challenging. Yet the best part about Le Boreal is the comfort, with each stateroom featuring spacious double beds, large balcony space, flat screen television and L’Occitane products in the bathroom. Then there’s the spa, intimate theater to hear McClintock speak about the upcoming day, and exceptional French food served daily. If you’ve ever wanted to see Antarctica in style while being educated by one of the experts on the region, this is the way to go.

 

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Vermont Bike and Brew Tour with Sojourn Bicycling Vacations

Biking outfitters have pounced on Vermont like miners on a vein of gold. And why not?  The state’s terrain is ideally suited to the sport. Lightly traveled backcountry roads are rarely used outside of a handful of dairy farmers who live and work there. Around every bend, there’s another meadow greener than the last, another anonymous mountain standing tall in the distance, another quintessential New England village where a freshly painted white steeple pierces the clouds overhead. This idyllic scenery is meant to be seen at a slow pace.

Now Sojourn Bicycling, already known for their intriguing bike trips like the one through the Texas Hill Country, is taking Vermont biking to a higher level, so to speak, with the introduction of their Vermont Bike & Brew Tour. Based in Vermont, owner Susan Rand knows this landscape intimately, including the close to two dozen microbrewers in the state. You’ll earn that pint after biking, on average, some 55 miles a day on this six-day jaunt that ventures to some of my favorite places to stay in Vermont, including Trapp Family Lodge and the Inn at Mountain View Farm. An added bonus is the chance to try some of the mountain biking trails Sam von Trapp has been designing in his backyard that are supposed to be stellar. Sojourn has two trips going out next July and August. 

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“Love, Life, and Elephants,” A New Book by Dame Daphne Sheldrick

On my last trip to Nairobi, I had the pleasure of meeting Dame Daphne Sheldrick at the elephant orphanage she founded in 1977. I remember the mix of joy and sadness I felt upon entering the orphanage. Joy at seeing those miniature-sized elephants frolicking in the mud. Sadness at learning that their parents were brutally murdered by poachers who left these babies to wander in the bush.
         “We came to learn how intelligent these elephants are, with a familial instinct and an astounding memory,” Sheldrick told me as we sat at an outdoor table in the back patio of her house. Then her expression suddenly turned grave as she noted, “the elephant community is in a lot of trouble. Not only is poaching on the rise, but the intrusion of livestock into protected areas has led to a scarcity of water.” 
If last week’s New York Times article on the surge of African ivory being transported to Asia is any indication, the only elephants we might be seeing in the future will be orphans. You can read about Dame Daphne Sheldrick’s fascinating life in her just released memoir, “Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story.” 
 
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A Memorable Summer Day in Toronto

Guest Post and Photo by Amy Perry Basseches

When my husband Josh left for two weeks in the Middle East (Israel, Jordan, Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi), my Massachusetts-based friend Tamara came to visit. What fun we had! On a sunny Monday in late July, I enjoyed three new Toronto experiences. I walk frequently on the trails in the ravine by the Evergreen Brickworks and am always impressed by Toronto’s re-use of historical industrial buildings for public purpose. In the 1880s, at this site, a brick factory was built which didn’t close until 1984. Now the Brickworks consists of 16 heritage buildings and an adjacent public park that includes wetlands, hiking trails, and wildflower meadows. It’s one of my favorite places to take visitors, an oasis in the middle of the city – complete with a view of the CN Tower from atop a trail – and is also home to food truck festivals, children’s camps, artisan fairs, Farmers Markets, a bike rental shop, a cafe, and Canada’s first large-scale community environmental centre. What was new to me on Monday was entering the Young Welcome Centre and understanding that everything about the Brickworks is designed to be a global showcase for green urban design. Two large heritage artifacts flank the sides of the Welcome Centre: a brick press and the Foreman’s shed. It was very interesting to learn more, after working up a sweat at the former site of clay extraction for bricks. 
 
Later that day, Tamara and I took a ferry out to the Toronto Islands in Lake Ontario. There are 3 boat routes–one to Ward’s Island (which we did), one to Centre Island (where families go, with a small amusement park, plus bike/canoe/kayak rentals), and one to Hanlan’s Point (gasp–a clothing optional beach). Boats leave from the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal at the foot of Bay Street and Queen’s Quay, and there are actually 15 islands inter-connected by pathways and bridges. You can walk or bike from one end to the other (approximately 5 km from Ward’s Island to Hanlan’s Point). We enjoyed exploring, eating lunch at the Island Cafe, hitting the beach, and swimming. Two-plus years in Toronto, and I hadn’t lazily floated in my bathing suit in Lake Ontario! Check that off. I later fantasized about living on one of the islands, but there is a 20-25 year waiting list for a cottage. 
 
Lastly, at night, Tamara and I headed to Casa Loma, another first for me. Sir Henry Pellat commissioned his tremendous castle or "House on the Hill" in 1911. Sitting 460 feet above sea level, it’s quite a place: 98 rooms, 30 bathrooms, 25 fireplaces, 3 bowling alleys, a 50-metre (160-foot) shooting gallery, a temperature-controlled wine cellar capable of holding 1,700 bottles, an unfinished 18-metre (60-foot) long indoor swimming pool, and a 243-metre (800-foot) tunnel constructed 6 metres (20 feet) underground to the stables across the street. Sadly, financial troubles meant the Pellatts moved to their farm in 1924, and the City of Toronto is currently the sole owner of the site. On Monday evenings during the summer, Casa Loma hosts an award-winning singer and his seven-piece band for "Soul in the City." You get amazing views of the city, and access to the castle and beautiful gardens, while eating, drinking, and enjoying the music. By the second set, Tamara and I were able to get up close to the stage and dance until our feet hurt. "We’re gonna have a good time tonight; Let’s celebrate, it’s all right."
 
If a trip to Toronto interests you, let ActiveTravels help!
 

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