Family Adventure

Most Wednesdays, I’ll tackle a country, state, or province, and design a route that hopefully will whet your appetite and get you primed to book that trip!  This week, I’m tackling Costa Rica for Families and we’re going to do it in a week. 

Rent a car at San Jose’s International Airport and weave your way through the city north to the rim of Poas Volcano, where you can spend your first night at the Peace Lodge (www.waterfallgardens.com/lapaz-peacelodge.html).  The next morning, walk the grounds of the La Paz Waterfall Gardens and you’ll find five waterfalls, the largest butterfly observatory in the country, gardens filled with orchids, and a reptile area holding snakes and frogs. 

Then drive onward to the Arenal Observatory Lodge (www.arenalobservatorylodge.com/EN), perfectly perched at the base of the cone-shaped volcano.  Keep the kids up late to see the nightly light show of lava running down from the crater.  In the daytime, you can check out the hot springs in nearby Tabacon.  Then you have the long drive around the entirety of 25-mile long Lake Arenal to Monteverde.  The last hour or so is on a nightmare of a dirt road.  Simply slow down and enjoy the views of sloping pasture dotted with sheeps, cows, and horses.

Up in the Cloud Forest, book a villa at El Sapo Dorado (www.sapodorado.com) and reserve trips to go horseback riding in nearby farmland, an exhilarating zipline trip above the cloud forest canopy with the outfitter Selvatura, and a guided walk at the hotel’s private preserve, Sempero Tranquillo, with an expert naturalist.  If you’re lucky, you’ll spot the iridescent green resplendent quetzal color with its red belly and billowing two-foot long tail feather

The final three days I would spend at Manuel Antonio, a mix of rainforest and beach on the central Pacific coast that's home to monkeys and those slow-moving sloths.  I would also consider ditching the car in nearby Quepos and flying back to San Jose, connecting to your international flight.  The drive back to San Jose goes through a mountainous pass on twisting roads behind rows of trucks spewing their diesel into the air.  Not a pleasant way to finish up that dream trip.

For an in-depth look at Manuel Antonio with the kids, check out my article for Away.com at http://away.com/features/family-travel-costa-rica-manuel-antonio-national-park-1.html.

I love this ride so much that I often drive from my home in Boston and do it as a day trip with the kids. In fact, I did just that last Thursday.  It's an hour and 45 minutes from the Boston area to Orleans Cycle where you can park your can and rent bikes if you need them. Download a Cape Cod Rail Trail map before you go. Head north or right on the rail trail towards Eastham and you'll cross over Route 6 and soon be seeing egrets in the salt marsh.  You'll pass several ponds that will have you dreaming about owning a cottage here. Take a right on Locust Avenue and cross Route 6 to reach the Salt Pond Visitors Center. This is the start of the Nauset Bike Trail, that sweeps up and down through the trees and marsh. The trail leaves you at Coast Guard Beach on the Cape Cod National Seashore.  But I often head uphill on Ocean View Drive and lock up the bikes at Nauset Light Beach. This is an exquisite spit of sand backed by large dunes, and the surf is popular with surfers and boogie boarders. When you're ready, bike on Cable Road past Three Sisters Lighhouses, taking a left on Nauset Road and a quick right onto Brackett Road. This will bring you back to the Cape Cod Rail Trail, where you turn left to reach the best lobster-in-the-rough joint on the Cape, Arnold’s. After devouring a lobster roll, clams, and a heaping mound of the tastiest onion rings you've ever tried, walk off lunch with a round of miniature golf next door. Then head south on the rail trail through a tunnel to find your car again. The whole ride is only about 12 miles, perfect for a day outing.  

To delve into the history of the Cape Cod Rail Trail, see my Boston Globe article. 

Poor Michigan had one of the worst years on record.  The Detroit Lions fail to win one game, GM and Chrysler file for bankruptcy, and then the Red Wings lose Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals…at home!  If you have any degree of empathy, you’ll want to put your traveling dollars into the state’s struggling economy.  And the state has some exquisite scenery to tempt you, especially around Traverse City and Mackinac Island.  Venture to the northern Lake Michigan area in the warm-weather months for a week and you’ll be treated to far more than a fun frolic in a Great Lake.  Slow down and explore the region on bike or on two feet and you’ll find diverse terrain, from the rolling countryside of the Leelanau Peninsula to the steep dunes of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  Then there are all those cherries to make cherry pie, cherry wine, even cherry burgers.  July 4 through July 11, 2009, marks the return of the National Cherry Festival to Traverse City.  Michigan might seem in the pits, but life is still a bowl of cherries. For more information on a road trip I took through this region, see my story at Away.com. 

My usual summer vacation with the wife and kids is a long driving trip, say along the California coast, inland to Utah’s five national parks, or from my house in Boston to the Amish Country of Pennsylvania. The kids are no doubt fighting over something in the back, my wife is getting nauseous from the drive, and I’m white-knuckling on I-95, weaving between far too many trucks. The vacation part kicks in only after we arrive at our destination. 

But in the western province of British Columbia, the various modes of travel are not relegated to the “How to Get There” section of the story. On the contrary, it’s often the highlight of the trip.  Last summer, I was downright giddy to learn from my wife that we didn’t need to rent a car at all in British Columbia. One could take a 3-hour train ride on the classic Whistler Mountaineer from Vancouver to Whistler, hop aboard a float plane for an hour-long jaunt to the port of Victoria, and ferry onward to Seattle. It turned into one of our favorite trips.

See the story I wrote on the trip for The Boston Globe.
 

Atop the short summit of Acadia Mountain, peering down at the lobster boats anchored in Southwest Harbor, it’s easy to understand why so many families are drawn to Maine’s Acadia National Park. Everything is on a human scale, like the hour-long climb up Acadia Mountain. The only mountains on the East Coast, vast pockets of forest, the Atlantic Ocean, even a landlocked fjord are all within grasp in this compact National Park.

Asked by Mel Allen, Editor-in-Chief of Yankee Magazine to pick my favorite family adventures in New England, Acadia topped the list. We hike the short summits and bike the carriage path trails, narrow hard-packed gravel pathways that line the entire eastern half of Mount Desert Island. Rent bikes from Acadia Bike, who also run a guided sea kayaking service called Coastal Kayaking Tours. Paddle for a half-day jaunt in the Atlantic, going eyeball-to-eyeball with harbor seals and searching for sea glass on deserted Frenchman Bay islands. The kids earned their requisite lobster roll at Beal’s in Southwest Harbor.
 

August is a great time to go on an Alaskan cruise through the storied Inside Passage. And don’t think that you’ll be sedentary, even on a cruise. Along with seeing huge chunks of ice fall off glaciers that are miles wide, spotting whales’ tails, colonies of sea otters, numerous bald eagles, and grizzlies and brown bears chomping on a salmon, Active Travelers can go dogsledding with a genuine Iditarod rider in summer in Juneau, sea kayak past the harbor seals in Ketchikan harbor, even go biking down a mountainous road past snowcapped peaks in Skagway. 

However, our favorite port is Sitka. Unlike Juneau and Ketchikan, where cruise ship passengers are quickly immersed in streets filled with jewelry, T-shirt, and other souvenir shops, Sitka has more of an authentic feel. Walk along the harbor to the Sheldon Jackson College Aquarium, where three large tanks hold indigenous sea cucumbers and starfish for kids and their curious parents to touch. Then proceed through the totem poles found at Sitka National Historic Park to the Alaska Raptor Center. Every year, 100 to 200 birds of prey, including bald eagles, peregrine falcons, red-tail hawks and owls are brought to this large aviary hospital to rehabilitate. While there, we saw a 10-week old bald eagle, fully grown, who fell out of her nest, and an adult eagle who flew into a high-voltage line.

For more information, see the story I wrote on our Alaskan Cruise for The Boston Globe.
 

As an adventure travel writer, I’ve been paid to bike around the Big Island of Hawaii, sea kayak the Fijian islands, dive the Great Barrier Reef, and paddle the Allagash River during a memorable foliage. Then I had my first child and the canoes, skies, and other outdoor paraphernalia started to collect dust in the basement of my suburban Boston home. Going stir crazy one summer day, I called my dad who gave me the sage advice to integrate family into my work. The next thing I know I’m going up and down the hills of Vermont with my toddler on the back of my bike. Like many parents, I began to realize that I don’t have to give up my passion simply because I have little ones. It was time to introduce my kids to the real me. Now I travel with Jake, 13, and Melanie, 11, as much as possible without getting scolded by their teachers. And they’re the ones teaching me a thing or two about every sport they try.  See my Top 10 Adventures for Families in North America, just up at Away.com. Then Go Play!
 

With six pools, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, tennis courts, and bike paths that connect easily to the 22-mile long Cape Cod Rail Trail, the Ocean Edge Resort offers its guests more than enough outdoor activity. Yet, I’m most excited about the resort’s latest partnership with Cape Cod Museum of Natural History to go on naturalist-led walks on the mud flats of Bay Pines Beach. Throughout the summer, you’ll explore Cape Cod Bay at low tide, searching for clams, crabs, sea cucumbers, and other marine life. The beachcombing is appropriate for ages 5 and up and they don’t need to dress up like SpongeBob. Though it might help find other critters.
 

The southernmost town on the 80-mile strip of sand referred to as the Riviera Maya, Tulum has always been a perfect getaway from Cancun to see the Mayan ruins. Only well-traveled European backpackers would consider spending the night in one of the bungalows on the beach. Lately, however, a small sampling of all-inclusive resorts have opened in this sleepy seaside town. It's ideally suited for young American families on their first international trip. Children learn about the historical significance of the Mayans by touring the impressive ruins. Then they can snorkel at Xel-Ha and go for a dip in one of the natural swimming holes called cenotes. Plus, those same white pearly sands that cater to the Spring Break crowd in Cancun can be found on Riviera Maya in a more serene setting that families find attractive.

I’ll be headed to the Yucatan all next week and most likely won’t have the time to blog. I know I’ve been traveling quite a bit this past month and missed many a blog, but stay with me. I have great travel advice, film footage, and photos from Kenya that I’ll be sharing upon my return on December 6th.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Make sure to work off that turkey by doing something active.  And, as always, thanks for checking in!

 

I just finished a story on winter carnivals in North America. One of the finest is in Quebec City, where for 17 days, 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.

While in Quebec City, spend a memorable night 30 minutes outside of town at North America’s only 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.  
 

Instead of rushing straight from London to Heathrow Airport this summer, my family and I wisely chose to spend one day in the countryside at a hotel in Hertfordshire, less than an hour’s drive from the city. Called The Grove, the resort was once the country estate of the Earls of Clarendon. Today, it’s best known for its golf course, which Tiger Woods called one of the finest in the country. It’s also a family favorite. Walk inside a walled-in garden and you’ll find a heated outdoor pool, beach volleyball, and the oh-so civilized sports of croquet and lawn tennis. Yet, nothing quite compared to renting bikes and finding a path along a serpentine canal that formed the perimeter of the property. Shaded by thick trees and rolling under centuries-old bridges, you were immediately transported to another time. Narrowboats were slowly navigating through the locks past the local anglers and lounging swans, adding to the allure. Afterwards, we headed back to Grove for our last fish and chips before the trans-Atlantic flight home.
 

As an adventure travel writer, I’ve been paid to bike around the Big Island of Hawaii, sea kayak the Fijian islands, dive the Great Barrier Reef, and paddle the Allagash River during a memorable foliage. Then I had my first child and the canoes, skies, and other outdoor paraphernalia started to collect dust in the basement of my suburban Boston home. Going stir crazy one summer day, I called my dad who gave me the sage advice to integrate family into my work. The next thing I know I’m going up and down the hills of Vermont with my toddler on the back of my bike. Like many parents, I began to realize that I don’t have to give up my passion simply because I have little ones. It was time to introduce my kids to the real me. Now I travel with Jake, 14, and Melanie, 12, as much as possible without getting scolded by their teachers. And they’re the ones teaching me a thing or two about every sport they try. 

This coming summer, we’re already booked on a six-day multisport trip with Austin-Lehman Adventures in the Canadian Rockies. ALA is known for their guided family trips to the most stunning locales across the globe, from Costa Rica to Alaska, Africa, and yes, the Canadian Rockies. In the Banff, Jasper, and Lake Louise region, we’ll trek with crampons across the Athabasca Glacier, whitewater raft down the Kananaskis River, and bike through the tall cedars and pines on the Evans Thomas path. Another highlight is the 64-mile drive through the peaks and deep swaths of forest on Icefields Parkway. Elk, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, maybe even a bear or cougar can be seen as you make your way to the largest ice cap in the Canadian Rockies, the Columbia Icefield, on the boundary of Banff and Jasper National Parks. At night, we’ll be staying at Baker Creek Chalets, along a quiet stream smack dab in the center of the snowcapped summits.

As we begin to plan our summer vacations, I want to take the time this week to describe some of my favorite trips offered by outfitters.