I had the privilege of traveling with Austin-Lehman Adventures last summer on a family trip to the Canadian Rockies and loved every minute of it. For 2012, founder Dan Austin is rolling out some exciting new adventures including a six-day biking trip through Burgundy and three trips in February heading to Yellowstone National Park in the quiet winter months. Yet, the trip that I’m most enthusiastic about is ALA’s first foray into yoga. From March 19-24, 2012, ALA will be heading to a private coffee plantation in Chiapas, Mexico. Wake up to sunrise yoga accompanied by the sounds of the tropical forest and a steaming mug of the plantation’s own coffee. Then head out to explore the Mayan ruins of Izapa, kayak through mangrove swamps on the Pacific Coast, hike to hidden waterfalls, and rest your weary body in a temazcal, an indigenous sauna bath, before digging into a dinner of local Mexican favorites. To a Boston boy who hates the month of March more than any other time in New England, this is the ideal warm-weather retreat.

Named the World’s Best Safari Outfitter by readers of Travel & Leisure, Micato always seems to come up with something original each year. In 2012, the Kenyan-based owners are teaming with some of the country’s best-known athletes to create an elite running vacation. Your host is Kip Keino, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, who will introduce you to his Olympic training center and hometown of Kapsabet. Expect to run with some of the finest runners in the country today, including the former world record holder for the New York Marathon, Paul Tergat. This being Micato, you can be assured that you’ll be resting your weary body at some of the finest resorts in Africa, no doubt surrounded by the wildlife of the Great Rift Valley. 

This is the time of year when I receive a flurry of catalogs and press releases from outfitters updating me on their favorite trips for 2012. So this week, I want to describe a handful of those trips that excite me. Ciclismo Classico has branched off to destinations like Norway and New England, but their specialty is still the Italian countryside. Next summer, CC owner Lauren Hefferon is featuring a multisport jaunt to one of her favorite locales, Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean. Far away from the congestion on the European continent, you’ll bike along the pristine coastline, stopping at underused beaches for a dip. Other highlights include a hike up Capo Spartivento, rewarding young climbers with vistas of the shoreline, a day long boat ride in and out of coves, soccer on the beach, strolling to the markets in small villages, and a grand finale feast at the home of your Sardinian guide, with his mother and brothers grilling sausage. After all, what child doesn’t like Italian food? 

Home to 14 downhill ski areas, including the renowned Tremblant, the Laurentian Mountains is Quebec’s foremost winter playground. Once the white stuff starts to fall (an almost daily occurrence in these parts), a lineup of SUVs and minivans make the hour drive north of Montreal. Yet, from 1920 to 1940, the favorite mode of travel in the Laurentians was aboard “Le P’tit Train du Nord,” the snow train. Connecting Saint-Jérôme in the south to Mont-Laurier in the north, the 218 kilometer railway helped spur on tourism at villages along the route. 

The last train stormed through the region in 1989.  Nine years later, Le P’tit Train du Nord reemerged as a rail trail. The so-called Linear Park is now a beloved biking locale in summer and an excellent cross-country skiing destination in the cold weather months.  From Saint- Jérôme to Val-David, a 42 kilometer section of the trail is groomed daily in winter, creating the perfect three-day, two-night inn-to-inn skiing adventure. No snowmobiling is allowed, so you’re guaranteed a peaceful glide through towering forests of pine, snowcapped peaks looming overhead, stepping off for a meal or bed in one of the French-Canadian towns.

The first day, a 14 kilometer run from Saint- Jérôme to Prévost, is relatively flat, requiring little snow to get cruising. Most of the time will be spent in the National Park, Parc Régional de la Rivière-du-Nord. Day Two is an 11 kilometer ski from Prévost to Sainte-Adèle, home to the Mont Rolland Train Station, one of the many restored stations along the route that now serves as tourism office and café. The final day is a slight uphill climb to either Val-Morin (12 km) or Val-David (17 km), depending on how limber those legs are. If you’re still aching for more, simply head to any of the hills you see from Val-David. The Laurentians features 1000-plus kilometers of Nordic skiing. 

From Montreal, take Route 15 to Exit 43 and follow Rue de Martigny to the east. Turn south on Labelle Boulevard to Rue Parent, where you’ll find the old train station and parking lot in Saint- Jérôme. Motel de la Rivière in Prévost, Auberge de la Gare B&B in Sainte- Adèle, and Le Chalet Beaumont in Val-David are all good lodging choices. Visit Tourism Laurentides for a map and listing of lodgings, restaurants, ski shuttles, and rentals. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! I’ll be back next Monday.

Just up the road from Montreal, 30 minutes outside of Quebec City, is North America’s first ice hotel, Hotel de Glace. 32 new rooms are created each year out of 12,000 tons of snow and 400 tons of ice, along with an Absolut ice bar, Jacuzzis, and a dance club. Bring those long johns. Temperature inside is a mere 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Quebec City is also home to one of the finest winter carnivals. For 16 days, January 27-February 12, the party never stops. More than one million people descend upon the fortified city to cheer on the competition in Le Grande Virée, a dogsled race that cruises through the heart of the historic Old City, or watch paddlers sprint across the turgid waters of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The French-flavored festivities continue with tours of the Ice Palace, a giant medieval castle constructed of pure crystalline water, parades, snow sculpture contests, inner tube sled rides, dancing to live music, and late night jaunts to heated tents to sample the potent drink called Caribou, made of whiskey, red wine, and maple syrup. One swig of this and you might be running naked through the snowfields.

It’s hard to think about snow right now, especially when I was walking barefoot through a bog yesterday in mid-60s Boston temperature. Yet, when I picture Quebec in January, how can I not think of snow? Once the temperature turns a wee bit frosty, Montreal will be home to a very special event this winter. On January 6, 2012, the city plans to unveil the continent’s first Snow Village at Parc Jean-Drapeau. This is no miniature dollhouse or a series of ice sculptures. No. Montreal’s Snow Village will include a 30-room ice hotel, an outdoor spa, ice bar, ice restaurant, ice chapel for marriages, a maze, slides, and much more. Indeed, you’ll find a replica of Montreal made entirely out of ice. The show’s promoters first encountered the Snow Village concept in Finland and wanted to recreate the idea in North America. The village will be open through March and rates at the hotel start at $175 per person for a limited time. While in the city, check out Le Bremner, the hot new restaurant from Iron Chef winner Chuck Hughes, owner of one of my favorite restaurants in town, Garde-Manger.

Anyone who’s walked the steep sands of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the largest sand dunes west of the Sahara Desert, sea kayaked and camped on the secluded white sand beaches of the Apostle Islands, and hiked the trails of one of the least visited national parks in America, Isle Royale, can tell you firsthand the beauty of the Great Lakes. The problem has always been inaccessibility, especially to the northern fringes of these vast waters. Not anymore. Great Lakes Cruising has just announced that their spanking new 138-passenger vessel, the MV Yorktown, will sail Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan, along with sister ships Grande Mariner and Niagara Prince the summer of 2012. The eight to eleven-day itineraries include stops at Mackinac Island, Charlevoix, Sturgeon Bay, and Apostle Island. This comes on the heels of the opening of the new $21.5 million cruise pier in Detroit that opened last June, already expanding from 2 to 13 cruise ships in 2012.

While we’re on the subject of Abercrombie & Kent, former A&K global managing director, George Morgan-Grenville, has just launched his own luxury travel company, Red Savannah. You can already download a brochure from their website which will be fully functional by the first of the year. Morgan-Grenville is focusing on his three areas of expertise—safaris in Botswana and Tanzania, villa rentals in Italy, France, and Spain, and ski chalet rentals in Switzerland. There will be also guided trips to other exotic regions of the world like Burma and Sri Lanka. They aim to provide an upscale, comfortable experience no matter what the region of the world, like Sindabezi Island (pictured), a camp situated on a private isle near the Victoria Falls. There are only five open-thatched cottages, all with views across the Zambezi river.

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.

After a worldwide vote and expert judging, the New Seven Wonders of Nature were announced on 11/11/11. The vote was hosted by the New 7 Wonders Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland. I was pulling for the Bay of Fundy, but it was beat out by some other excellent choices like the Amazon Rainforest, Halong Bay in Vietnam, and Table Mountain in Capetown. Then there were some questionable choices like Komodo Island in Indonesia. It’s a cool island, home to the komodo dragon, but one of the 7 natural wonders of the world? Why? It’s not nearly as majestic as other islands in the Pacific like Taveuni, Fatu Hiva, or Kauai. Anyway, it’s a popular vote, so the Indonesia lovers were heard in the end. Here are the seven picks: Amazon Rainforest, Iguazu Falls, Halong Bay, Table Mountain, Komodo Island, South Korea’s Jeju Island, and Puerto Princesa River in the Philippines.