Announcements

This blog post is to claim Active Travels for our Technorati Profile.

More writing to come.

When it comes to picking up the pieces of a fragmented city or country after a terrorist attack, act of nature, or war, your travel dollars can help significantly. Travelers came back to Manhattan in droves after 9/11 to offer their support to the city. Months after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, folks were drinking Hurricanes and eating beignets in the French Quarter, giving the city a much needed boost of business. At the beginning of 2008, battles broke about between rival parties in Kenya after a presidential election. The peace was soon restored to a country that many people believe is one of the most stable in Africa. But tourism numbers were down significantly this past summer. This not only hurts outfitters, hotel owners, and restaurants, but it also might endanger the wildlife.

Ecotourism and wildlife conservation have taken root all across Kenya, but nowhere is this more evident than in Lewa, a private wildlife sanctuary at the base of 17,058-foot Mount Kenya. Ian Craig has converted his former cattle ranch into a 62,000-acre game reserve with small lodges and more than enough room for exclusive safari outfitters like Abercrombie and Kent to house their mobile tented safaris. The black rhino, poached heavily in these parts for most of the 20th century, has been reintroduced and now numbers more than 50. More importantly, Craig shares his tourism money with seven communities that border his grounds, supporting two health clinics, eight primary schools, a bank, and an irrigation system that supplies much needed water to this arid savannah. These villagers used to kill elephants that wandered onto their farmland, skin zebras to make souvenir carpets, and, yes, decimate the rhino population for its horn. Not any more. They’re now part of the equation that Craig hopes one day will create a wildlife corridor from the slopes of Mt. Kenya 300 to 400 kilometers north to the Ethiopian border, surrounded by 2,000,000 acres of preserved land. But none of this will come to fruition if you don’t use your travel dollars wisely. For more information, visit www.lewa.org.

Hey all you wannabe bloggers.  Here’s your chance to blog to your heart’s content and win a free trip for you and a loved one on an Antarctic Cruise.  Quark Expeditions is offering free flight to Ushuaia, Argentina, from wherever you happen to live, and 11 nights aboard the Lyubov Orlova as you cruise toward the Antarctic Peninsula, a $20,000 value.  All you have to do is convince the world at 300 words or less why you’re the person best qualified to be their resident blogger.  So weave a rhapsodic tale.  A photograph of you surrounded by penguins at the local aquarium can only help.  The world is already voting and the competition ends September 30, 2009.

To this day, travel guru Arthur Frommer is still best known for his first book, “Europe on $5 a Day.”  But I learned his travel brilliance firsthand while working as contributing editor to his magazine, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel.  I’d walk into his New York office with a list of story ideas and he’d shoot me down, giving me far superior angles.  “Enough of the big-name outfitters,” he once stated, “I want you to tell me of the local guy in Machu Picchu, who knows his backyard better than anyone.” 

Affordability was his signature, but I also loved how Arthur sent people to areas of the world we wouldn’t normally visit that time of the year.  One of my favorites was a story on islands you can venture to in the Caribbean during the summer that are rarely affected by hurricanes.  For budget-conscious travelers, this is the best time of year to hit the southern Caribbean, especially the ABC islands, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.  The last major hurricane to slap this region was in 1877.  Visit the ABCs or Trinidad, Tobago, and Margarita Island, just off the Venezuelan coast and you have less than a 2 percent chance of encountering a major storm states the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  Another southern island, Barbados, has no time to fret about bad weather.  They celebrate their annual Crop Over festival throughout the month of August, with live calypso music every night. 

 If you’re looking for mid-summer adventures in the Caribbean, see the story I ended up writing for Arthur just before he sold the magazine to Newsweek. 
 

Dear President Obama,

I just read yesterday that there’s a 99 percent chance you’ll be headed to Martha’s Vineyard the last two weeks of August.  Well, lucky for you, I’ve been writing about the island the past two decades.  Read the family travel story I wrote for Away.com last summer or the active travel story I wrote for The Boston Globe and you’ll have all the insider tips on biking, sea kayaking, fishing and dining with the children.  Looking for something a bit more serious, I talk about the greening of the Vineyard in a recent issue of Arrive. Finally, Michelle deserves a little time to herself, so check out the story I wrote on the island’s best spas.  Oh, one more thing.  Senator Kerry likes his space when kiteboarding along the coast, so don’t catch his wave.

Best,

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

We interrupt this week of blogging about Maine for this special announcement from my friends at Acacia African Adventures, the low-cost way to go on safari. They’ve seen a large increase in voluntourism trips this past year and have decided to devote the next five days, July 23-28, to a voluntour tweet. Heath Ashcroft, Marketing Director at Acacia Adventure Holidays, comments: “Anyone looking to get an insight into the Victoria Falls Anti-poaching Unit (VFAPU) should come look us up on Twitter this Thursday. On Friday July 25, we’ll be broadcasting a recorded “tweet interview” with one of the VFAPU team.” I’m sure you’ll get great insight into what’s happening in Zimbabwe these days.

Today is Labor Day, a national holiday in the States and the last day of summer break in New England before the kids head back to school tomorrow. I’m now closing in on my 20th year as a travel writer. So this Labor Day, I’d like to thank you for supporting my labor of love, giving me the opportunity to travel the globe and divulge all my discoveries. It’s been an incredible ride, one that continues with this blog. This is only my 64th entry and we’ve already had over 10,000 page visits from readers that span the globe, from Sri Lanka to South Africa to Thailand. Thanks for tuning in and please return often!
 

Best,

Steve Jermanok

If you need a place to stay in the upcoming months, I have a beat-up futon in my office that you’re more than welcome to sleep on. Just kidding. After more than a year in the making, Away.com, the online travel content site owned by Orbitz, has just launched their Best Resorts & Lodges Guide. It’s an in-depth look at 200 of the world’s best lodgings across ten travel categories, including adventure, wilderness, skiing, family, and beach resorts. I worked on the family resorts section, so I can personally guarantee that these are the best.
 

I’m happy to report that I just passed the 100-blog mark and readership continues to increase. Yet, in my zest to tell you about all the great places in the world to visit, I haven’t really offered much more than my usual magazine work for Outside or National Geographic Adventure--simply pointing you to great locales around the globe. But unlike magazines, I’m not making a dime from advertising nor am I making any money from commissions on any of the properties or outfitters I mention. As a matter of fact, I haven’t made a penny yet from this website.

My original goal was to simply get the word out on great destinations, but to be far more helpful and to enter into ground not covered by all the other travel bloggers out there, I need to tell you also about the places that are miserable, so you can avoid them like the plague. It’s time to make ActiveTravels.com a far more useful guide to travel. In the upcoming months, I’ll be offering insider information on booking flights and rental car, comparing customized trips to a destination to see which one is the best, reviewing guidebooks on locales to come up with a winner, and giving commentary on places you should and should not go to.  If there’s any country, city, or trip you want me to comment on, please send it along to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Last week, I focused on my five favorite Caribbean Adventures. This week, we’re going to delve into the locales that I loathe in the Caribbean. I can’t think of a better choice to start this off with than Cancun. Tune in tomorrow.
 

In 1974, a team of Mexican government computer analysts picked a long sliver of land on the Atlantic shoreline as the country’s next Acapulco. The powdery white sands and turquoise waters, separated from the mainland by a lagoon was ripe for development.  Sheraton, Hilton, and Marriott swiftly built their hotels, soon joined by upscale Ritz-Carlton and the flashy Le Meridien, and Americans took the bait wholeheartedly. Today, Cancun is the number one tourist destination in Mexico. Sadly, however, the Mexicans catered far too much to their northern neighbors. With a Hard Rock Café, Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Café, Outback Steak House, and a McDonald’s or shopping mall on every other block, the 14-mile-long Zona Hotelera (Hotel Zone) looks much more like Miami Beach than any Mexican village. In fact, the Cancun version of the Miami Herald arrives at your hotel doorstep each morning. Roads are often flooded and prices for dinner are exorbitant in a country known for its affordability.

But what really pisses me off about Cancun is that a mere hour drive away is the authentic Yucatan. The mega-resort sprawl on the coast leads to Playa del Carmen, once a sleepy outpost favored by European backpackers and scuba divers. You’ll have to hit the ruins and village of Tulum before you can snag a bungalow on the beach that feels genuine. If you really want to savor a slice of the Yucatan rich with history and culture, head inland to Merida. Here, you’ll find the oldest cathedrals on the North American continent, even a mangrove swamp that is home to a colony of pink flamingoes. A mere hour’s drive south of Merida is some of Mexico’s finest Mayan ruins on the Puuc Route. The rounded pyramid at your first stop, Uxmal, stands majestically on high ground. Kabah is known for its almost maniacal façade of 250 Chaac sculptures that line one wall. Walk past the wild turkeys and brilliant red birds in the forest of Sayil to reach its grand palace. Whatever you do, don’t waste your time in that Disneyesque version of Mexico, Cancun.
 

I just spent this morning writing about some of my favorite eco-resorts around the globe for an upcoming column in Away.com. They include Cotton Tree Lodge deep in the heart of the jungle in southern Belize and Daintree Eco Lodge in the Daintree Rainforest outside of Port Douglas, Australia. Yes, they’re lush locales favored by monkeys and crocs. But what really separates these places from the more generic travel fodder is their partnership with locals who have lived there for centuries. At Daintree, you’re taking tours with Aborigine guides as you learn about Dreamtime while meditating next to a waterfall. Cotton Tree has a symbiotic relationship with local Mayan villages, so you can follow a guide into her thatched hut and learn how to create chocolate, tortillas, or try your hand at pottery.

Cut to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, which I’ve written about ad nauseum because it’s one of the Caribbean’s fastest growing destinations. On the east coast of the country, it was uninhabited forest, several sugar cane farms, and a strip of beach. Then helicopter pilot Frank Rainieri flew over it and realized this could be the next Cancun. That it is, my friends. A strip of beach devoid of history, with the only culture being artists on the beach selling Botero look-alikes to the hordes of charter tourists that fly in from New York, Boston, and Toronto. Sure, Oscar de la Renta might have a house overlooking the golf course at Punta Cana Resort, but the courses of La Romana are far more intriguing because the restaurants there actually serve authentic Dominican cooking. New York’s Washington Heights has far more Dominican flavor than Punta Cana.

If you want a beach that has a rich history in DR, head to the small village of Cabarate, about 15 miles east of Puerto Plata. Windsurfers and sailors know the town for its steady trade winds and a sheltered cove. For those who prefer land to sea, outfitters like Iguana Mama take mountain bikers and horseback riders on half-day guided rides through the interior past coffee plantations and cabbage fields, crossing rivers where villagers wash their laundry. The only people washing the laundry in Punta Cana are the imported workers slaving away at the all-inclusive resorts.
 

I love the French side of St. Martin. Every morning, I make my way to the main town of Marigot. Overlooking a small harbor called Marina Royale, I sit at a table at La Croissanterie and order a buttery and hot croissant, served with a café au lait so strong it makes Starbucks taste like water. Then I stroll along the winding alleys behind the harbor, as the hot sun begins its ascent, and soon Marigot starts to feel like a town on the French Riviera. Boutiques, restaurants, and small markets line the streets. On Rue de la Liberte, the latest French fashions can be found. A must stop for all foodies is the Gourmet Boutique on Rue de l’Anguille, to snack on Brie and Camembert cheeses, Godiva chocolates, fresh baguettes, and the tastiest jambon (ham).

I dread the Dutch half of St. Martin. The beaches are just as fine as those on the French side, but the traffic is unbearable, and unlike the French influence in St. Martin, Sint Maarten has very little Dutch flavor. There are no gabled houses, winding cobblestone streets or canals. No pastel-colored walls or orange-colored roofs that resemble the storybook village of Willemstad, capital of the Dutch island of Curacao. I couldn’t even find a store that would serve me a chunk of Gouda cheese. Instead, Sint Maarten’s capital, Phillipsburg, offers us the mile-long Front Street. Designed with the duty-free cruise ship passenger in mind, the stretch of stores on this street offers such indigenous wares as Cartier watches and Sony electronics. Uggh!
 

Just south of the Bahamas, 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. Separating the Turks from the Caicos Islands is what the locals here simply call The Wall, where without warning the reef plummets to a mind-boggling 7,000 feet to mark the edge of the Turks Island Passage. Dive on the rim of this great blue abyss and it’s not uncommon to see humpback whales migrating in winter, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles swimming gracefully and unafraid, and herds of spotted eagle rays, with wing spans upward of eight feet.  Watch those eagle rays swim above you as I did in the Turks and Caicos and suddenly the water gets pitch dark as their wings block out the sunlight.

I’m smart enough not to do my diving out of Providenciales or Provo as it’s called by the hundreds of PR people who send me press releases on the latest condo or hotel to be built on T&C’s main island. The waterfront condominiums are squeezed between large resorts, like Club Med, and Beaches. Inland, small strip malls offer everything a bored American could crave, including the requisite sports bar and Mexican restaurant. Within moments of arriving in Provo, I find myself yearning for the authenticity of Jamaica, where I can taste my tangy jerk, downed with a cool Red Stripe, and listen to the latest Reggae rhythms live. Instead, I’m forced to watch Monday Night Football while grabbing a burger and Bud. Why travel?

Thankfully, the other islands in the Turks & Caicos are the real deal. My favorite is Grand Turk, where American consumerism has been replaced by British colonialism. Walk down Front Street, where three-story Victorian homes overlooking the expanse of ocean, and stop at any seafood shack to try the native conch every which way—fritters,  conch curry, cracked conch, conch chowder, even carpaccio of conch served with a dash of wasabi. The best dive sites on Grand Turk are all less than a five-minute boat ride away on the leeward side of the island.  Here, the reef is protected by strong winds and current, allowing divers of all abilities to access one of the most pristine locales in the Atlantic.
 

A friend recently sent me a story where students in a study found travel writing to be the most glamorous job on the planet. More than directing films or being a rock star. Say what? Yes, it can be fun to be on the road laughing at mishaps and downing food not usually found at my local market, but most of my life I’m working from the third floor of my suburban house, wondering when the next yellow warbler or red-tailed hawk is going to fly by. Writing is a solitary business, staring at a computer screen waiting patiently for the words to arrive. To overcome that dire sense of loneliness, I’ve always listened to music. New age and jazz bodes well for writers, especially me who doesn’t want to hear singers spouting their lines while I’m writing lines. Paul Winter and Paul Hardcastle are two of my favorites, but lately I’ve been plugged into Pandora, the music genome that streams tunes based on your favorite artists. Frankly, I’m such a Pandora addict at this point that I don’t know what I’d do without it. Try the Paul Hardcastle station with added variety by Chris Botti and Grover Washington. Oh yeah. Now I’m ready to attack that blank screen!
 

I returned my rental car to the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport yesterday, only to be charged $250 more than I originally thought I was paying. Evidently, I was billed daily for all insurance charges even though I declined everything. Looking over my original contract, I noticed that the additional charges were there as well but I was in a rush to leave the airport and didn’t make sure the price was correct. Luckily, I initialed all the insurance charges I declined and was refunded the extra expense. But always double check all papers at the airport. This includes baggage, especially with these new self check-in computers. The woman at the counter once put a tag on my luggage to go to Berlin instead of Boston. The guy behind me was going to Berlin and that was his luggage tag. So look down at your bag and make sure it has the correct three letter airport symbol before rushing off to your gate.

By the way, I found the cheapest rental car rates at the DFW Airport through Priceline.com. I ended up going with National at $21 a day for a PT Cruiser.
 

I didn’t think much of TripAdvisor when I first met the website’s founder, Steve Kaufer, in a coffee shop in Newton, Massachusetts, in 2003. A highly successful dot.com entrepreneur, Kaufer had already sold his first company for many millions and could have retired. Instead, he devoted himself to the world of travel, a world he seemed to know very little about. I met with Kaufer twice to try to sell him on the idea to use local travel experts for the most popular destinations on TripAdvisor—Las Vegas, Orlando, New York. He didn’t listen me, opened up the website to the public, and became far richer while I’m still plugging away for free on this blog. He knew something inherent in the human race. People love to bitch or rave about their vacation. But are these rantings a useful source to book your next vacation? Not really.

There’s always been an underlying problem with the public critiquing a destination or hotel, which is primarily what TripAdvisor focuses on. Very few people have any basis of comparison. Unlike one of my favorite food websites, Chowhound, where locals chime in on their favorite restaurants in say, Boston or Queens, locals don’t know the hotels in their own city. That mattress at the Fairmont Copley in Boston could be old as Paul Revere and I wouldn’t have the slightest idea. But ask me about the top restaurants in the city and I’ll happily delve into a long diatribe.

So what we’re left with are the reviews of people who have visited a hotel for the first time in Montego Bay, Jamaica. They give us their five cents worth, but have no way to compare that hotel with the one next door and the one next door to that. This is the sole reason I still rely on guidebooks and travel writers who specialize in Jamaica. They’ve seen every hotel in the country and can easily tell me which ones are the best and which ones are the worst. Most importantly, good travel writers would tell me to steer clear of Montego Bay, where you’re constantly harassed by Jamaicans who want to sell you pot, coffee, carvings, whatever.  A good travel writer would tell you to head to the far more peaceful hamlet of Port Antonio or the long stretch of beach in Negril.

Therein lies the underlying problem with the majority of travel websites like TripAdvisor. They assume you already know where to go and can then look through their list of hotels for the right one. But unless you’re a travel writer, travel consultant, or avid traveler, you wouldn’t know that the main isle of Tahiti in French Polynesia is congested and citified, a far cry from the exquisite beauty of Bora Bora and Raitea. That you can drive off-road on safari in Masai Mara and get close-up shots of those sleeping lions, unlike Serengeti where you have to stay on the main road. That many of the Caribbean isles have been reduced to generic cruise ship hubs, devoid of any local culture. That the island of Folegrandros is the real Greece few will write about, sending you to Santorini instead. You have to do your research, which I’ll talk about tomorrow.

 

One of my favorite inns in New England, the Wildflower Inn, is perched atop glorious Darling Hill Road in Lyndonville, Vermont, with expansive views of meadows, mountains, and rivers. I’ve brought the children here a handful of times and we’ve always had an unforgettable stay as we sled, downhill and cross-country skied, took horse-drawn sleigh rides, and pet the sheep, cows, and resident donkeys in the big barn. Now the inn is doing their best to get families outdoors by hosting a season long contest called Project Snowman 2010. Simply build a snowman and send the photo to the inn and you could win a 7-night stay, dining, skiing at nearby Burke Mountain, and more prizes. Owners Jim and Mary O’Reilly hope to get shots of 10,000 snow or sandmen sent from across America.

I’m taking a 2-week hiatus to enjoy time with my family and ski Stowe this upcoming week. Wishing you a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2010!
 

I just received this promo from the Netherlands Board of Tourism. Starting a week from today, February 4th, you can click on www.holland.com and enter to win such prizes as a monthly delivery of fresh tulips for a year, a Dutch bicycle, an iconic piece of Dutch furniture, even a diamond made in Amsterdam. The biggest prize is two round trip, KLM business class tickets to Amsterdam, given to the person who sends in the most creative photograph under the heading “Just be. In Holland.” While there, take that Dutch bicycle on the country’s increasingly popular biking and barge trips. The beauty of these bike trips is that unlike a typical inn-to-inn biking trip, you don’t have to pack your bags every morning to check in at the new night’s lodging. The barge follows you along the route, so you’ll be staying in the same berth the entire trip.
 

If you still haven’t signed up for a Twitter account, we have a great reason to join.  Acacia Africa is featuring a “Wild Tweep” competition, where one lucky winner will walk away with a 6-day African Insight overland safari. Simply fill out the Q&A and confirm that you can give them 20 minutes of your time for a live “tweet up” on Acacia Africa’s twitter page (Friday, February 26th, from 1 to 1:20pm London time). Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to answer questions on South Africa and tell us why you can’t get enough of the Rainbow Nation. Completed Q&As should be emailed to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Entries are being accepted until February 12th.