"Read It And Leap"

The New York Times travel section just published its annual Where To Go issue including 46 wanderlust-inducing destinations. I wrote #s 29 (Puerto Rico) and 37 (Charlevoix) and hope to get to #12 (Montenegro) and #19 (Kimberley) this year.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/10/travel/2013-places-to-go.html

Hark, adrenaline junkies! Mountain Travel Sobek has trip of a lifetime: 25 days, six continents, nine rivers. Read my New York Times piece here:
http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/rapid-transit-indeed-rafting-six-continents/

Possibly the healthiest hotel rooms in the country, ironically, are about to open in Las Vegas, including a Vitamin C infused shower. Read my story in the NY Times:

http://intransit.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/wellness-rooms-with-hot-and-cold-vitamin-c/

The Kodiak brown bear, cousins of the better known grizzlies, live only on Kodiak Island, Alaska in a vast wilderness preserve where the native Alutiiq nation just opened a new lodge offer unparalleled wildlife viewing from a comfortably base. The perspective of native islanders adds a cultural dimension to the safari, which I wrote about it for Smithsonian. Read it and leap:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Bears-Up-Close-and-Personal-in-the-Alaskan-wilderness-169634006.html

Save your pounds for the pub. Pitch a tent in London. http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/travel/for-london-travel-rent-a-lawn-or-a-room.html

London is never cheap and is bound to be more expensive in this Olympic-and-Jubilee year, but London Greeters offers free tours of the East End — aka Olympics central. Read my story on it in the New York Times:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/travel/touring-londons-east-end.html

Go green on the cheap: The National Park Service will waive entry fees September 24 in honor of National Public Lands Day. Volunteer to make ‘em greener at publiclandsday.org

For an escape that’s beautiful, remote and occasionally terrifying, check out Isla Coiba on Panama in my lastest for the NYTimes: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/travel/isla-coiba-panama-a-marine-preserve.html?ref=travel

Life in balance: hiking and hot tubbing. Zen-out vicariously with my new story in the New York Times travel section: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/travel/canadas-natural-spas-journeys.html?ref=travel

All-inclusives dangle this bait: pay one price up front and stash your wallet for the vacation’s duration. My experience with the Sandals and Barcelos of the world has been, sure, you can get buckets of buffet food. But just try finding a server.

And I like service. If home is a DIY cafeteria, I want a sit-down vacation. I’m willing to and, if warranted, will generously tip for it. Because, argue it if you will, great service can overcome mediocre food.

This knock on all-inclusives explains why luxury resorts with food and drink included in their rates – ie, Triple Creek Ranch in Montana, for example, and all those African safari lodges – ban “all-inclusive” from their lexicon. But for those who don’t have $1,000-plus/night to spend, a new entry occupies the tolerable $300/night ground: Hacienda Tres Rios south of Cancun.

If you knew Tres Rios as the relatively undeveloped eco-park it was pre-Hurricane Wilma of 2005, you might be sad to know its 326 acres of rivers and forest is now bordered by a 273-room resort. Fortunately, the developers built the hotel on piers to keep it from disrupting the flow of water so important to the underground waterways of the Yucatan. They are also reforesting the mangroves decimated by the hurricane, taking guests through their nursery and even inviting them to muck around with the planting. Guests only have access to the park where you can cannonball in multiple “cenotes,” freshwater-filled swimming holes that expose that underground water system. The ultimate plan — to have five resorts ringing the park – surely paves paradise. Carpe dia.

But do us all a favor, keep some small bills handy. The food is unexpectedly good. Moreover, the service is outstanding. We took to carrying the peso equivalents of $1, $5 and once even $20 for the overjoyed Ismael who touted tamarind margaritas and blue corn and huitlacoche soup. Excellence should be rewarded, even when it’s “all included,” lest it die of minimum wage.

-eglu