The Canada/New England fall cruises offer a variety of lengths and ports of call. Prime cabin location is selling out fast. Since all these cruises stop in several Canadian ports, like Halifax and Quebec City, passports are required.
However, a more economical and in-depth tour of New England, without Canada, can be booked for as low as $1095 per person, or approximately $1575 including airfare to and from Boston. These fully escorted, leisurely paced tours of 44 people maximum travel by deluxe motor coach and stay in quality hotels like Hilton and Radisson. Every breakfast and several dinners are included in the price.
You will see the standard Boston attractions, stopping at the Old North Church and Fanueil Hall Marketplace, a true Boston experience for over 250 years, and driving past the state capitol and Boston Commons before proceeding to Lexington. Here the “shot heard around the world” was fired on the Battle Green where the Minutemen had their first skirmish with the British, the start of the American Revolution. Along Paul Revere’s route from Lexington to Concord, you will stop at the North Bridge. Next is a stop at Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims from the Mayflower landed in 1620. Drive to Hyannis where you will stay 2 nights on Cape Cod.
A morning ferry takes you across to Marthas Vineyard, a haven for poets, artists, and celebrities. An island tour visits Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven.
The historic whaling town of Edgartown affords you an opportunity to wander its narrow streets, visiting art galleries and quaint shops.
Leave Hyannis for the sailing capital of the world, Newport Rhode Island. You will visit the Breakers, a 70 room Italian Renaissance palace which was the “summer cottage” of the Vanderbilts. Drive to Mystic, CT and visit Mystic Seaport, home of the nation’s leading maritime museum and tall ships.
The following day you will drive through the beautiful Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts and stop in Stockbridge at the Norman Rockwell Museum and studio, which is preserved as it was when Rockwell painted there the last 25 years of his life. Overnight will be in the scenic Green Mountains of Vermont.
Fall colors reign on a scenic drive to Plymouth Notch, birthplace of President Calvin Coolidge. Next you stop in Woodstock, VT, known as the prettiest small town in America. There will be a photo stop at a covered bridge. Drive over Quechee Gorge, the Grand Canyon of New England, then through the White Mountains of New Hampshire to Franconia Notch. A notch is a narrow pass through steep mountain cliff walls. Follow the Kancamagus Highway, known as the best fall foliage trip in the US, through the White Mountains National Forest to Conway, NH.
The following morning your coach passes Maine’s lakes on the way to Portland on the rocky Atlantic sea coast. After viewing the waterfront, you continue to Kennebunkport. You will have time to explore this quaint resort before your farewell Maine lobster dinner. The next morning your coach transfers you to Boston’s Logan Airport.
Having grown up in Albany, NY, my family always traveled to Vermont to view the fall foliage. The time for peak fall color may vary from year to year because of temperature and moisture. The above circular route through 6 New England states ensures that you have many fall foliage viewing opportunities. Now is the time to start thinking about a New England land tour, or Canada/New England cruise.
Found Money
If you are like me, you have a bunch of reward points sitting around on various credit cards. Unless you have been using one card exclusively for a long time, the rewards usually don’t amount to much. But for those of you that use an American Express card, those points can be found money. Maybe even enough to pay for a cruise.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
All About Alaska Part 4 by Carol Watts Alaska Expert
A few months ago I wrote about the various itineraries for seeing Alaska with an escorted land tour. But maybe you are one of those people who would rather not see the same 40 or so faces on a bus every day. As I explained, an escorted tour is a good value because you have the advantage of group pricing for hotels and attractions, plus the convenience of a guide and driver. But if you want to see Alaska on your own schedule, we can help you plan a vacation that puts you in the driver’s seat. From a completely customized vacation to a yachting tour, to an RV tour, to bear camps, to fishing lodges, we are your Alaska experts.
One thing that is hard for us who live in the lower 48 to understand is the sheer size of Alaska, and what that means for the time needed to travel from one place to another. Most flights come into Anchorage, and that is a good hub to use for exploring the rest of the state. Heading north from anchorage, the first place of interest is Talkeetna, 113 miles away. Next is Denali National Park, 154 miles north of Talkeetna, and finally Fairbanks, which is 125 miles north of Denali, or roughly 358 miles from Anchorage. It is possible to drive from Fairbanks through Coldfoot and on to Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope, but the road is not completely paved (some rental car firms make you sign a contract that you will not drive to Prudhoe Bay with their vehicle) and you don’t even want to know how far it is. Going south from Anchorage, you can drive to Seward, 125 miles, and on to Homer, 167 miles from Seward, at the end of the Kenai Peninsula. Skagway and Haines can also be reached by car, but the route is round about. First you need to get to Whitehorse in Canada, 724 miles from Anchorage, then turn south.
So you can see that a lot of time is spent just getting from one attraction to another. The Alaska Railroad is an option, but their route generally follows the highways, with the exception of a wilderness route from Talkeetna to Hurricane Gultch. The Alaska Marine Highway, the state ferry system, is another option for getting to ports that have no road access, but their timetables may not always fit your schedule; in other words if you take the ferry to Kodiak or Sitka, you may need to spend a few nights there before going on to your next planned stop.
Self drive tours allow you the flexibility of spending more time at an attraction that is of interest to you, and possibly skipping another that does not interest you. The providers we work with offer several different self drive itineraries, which include the car rental and hotels. For example one itinerary features a round trip Anchorage, 7 days and 6 nights, with hotels in Anchorage, Denali, Talkeetna, Fairbanks, and Anchorage again. Cost for peak season (June - August) is $1399 per person plus taxes and fees, based on double occupancy. Included in the above price is a jet boat ride, a salmon dinner, and a sternwheeler river ride. Other self drive itineraries are 8 days from Anchorage to Homer, including a half day halibut fishing excursion or a whale watching cruise across Kachemak Bay, the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, a cruise in Kenai Fjords National Park, and a float trip on the Spencer River. Or a 10 day self drive tour from Anchorage that goes to both Denali and Wrangell-St. Elias National Parks, Valdez, and includes a ferry ride to Whittier, and a cruise of Kenai Fjords National Park. These self drive vacations are great for families with young children, who would not do well on an escorted bus trip. Again, any tour can be customized to suit your desires. As I tell customers, anything is possible in the travel business; it just comes down to how much you are willing to spend.
There are winter tours that include the Northern Lights and Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race start and restart. There are several fishing excursions for halibut, salmon, that include a guide, equipment, cleaning and freezing of your catch. There’s a van trip from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay with a flight to Barrow, the northern most city in the US, and also a flight trip just to Barrow. On this “top pf the world” tour you will join a traditional Eskimo blanket toss and witness their heritage ceremonial dances. Or you can enjoy a flight trip to Nome, the end point of the Iditarod race and home of one of Alaska’s gold rushes. Even Wyatt Earp came to Nome in 1897 and found his “gold mine” operating a saloon during the height of the Nome gold rush where you could pick up gold off the beach. If you are really adventurous, take a flight to a bear camp for a full day of guided bear viewing. If you want to be a little safer, take a 200 mile all day flight in Katmai National Preserve or Lake Clark Wilderness Preserve to view bear from the air as they fish for salmon or roam the coast.
Of course, tours to Dawson City, the Yukon Territory, Victoria and Vancouver, and the Canadian Rockies are also available. There’s a self drive tour from Calgary to Banff, where you board the Rocky Mountaineer train to Vancouver, or escorted tours from Vancouver to Jasper that include a Rocky Mountaineer train ride and a Snocoach icefield excursion.
One thing that is hard for us who live in the lower 48 to understand is the sheer size of Alaska, and what that means for the time needed to travel from one place to another. Most flights come into Anchorage, and that is a good hub to use for exploring the rest of the state. Heading north from anchorage, the first place of interest is Talkeetna, 113 miles away. Next is Denali National Park, 154 miles north of Talkeetna, and finally Fairbanks, which is 125 miles north of Denali, or roughly 358 miles from Anchorage. It is possible to drive from Fairbanks through Coldfoot and on to Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope, but the road is not completely paved (some rental car firms make you sign a contract that you will not drive to Prudhoe Bay with their vehicle) and you don’t even want to know how far it is. Going south from Anchorage, you can drive to Seward, 125 miles, and on to Homer, 167 miles from Seward, at the end of the Kenai Peninsula. Skagway and Haines can also be reached by car, but the route is round about. First you need to get to Whitehorse in Canada, 724 miles from Anchorage, then turn south.
So you can see that a lot of time is spent just getting from one attraction to another. The Alaska Railroad is an option, but their route generally follows the highways, with the exception of a wilderness route from Talkeetna to Hurricane Gultch. The Alaska Marine Highway, the state ferry system, is another option for getting to ports that have no road access, but their timetables may not always fit your schedule; in other words if you take the ferry to Kodiak or Sitka, you may need to spend a few nights there before going on to your next planned stop.
Self drive tours allow you the flexibility of spending more time at an attraction that is of interest to you, and possibly skipping another that does not interest you. The providers we work with offer several different self drive itineraries, which include the car rental and hotels. For example one itinerary features a round trip Anchorage, 7 days and 6 nights, with hotels in Anchorage, Denali, Talkeetna, Fairbanks, and Anchorage again. Cost for peak season (June - August) is $1399 per person plus taxes and fees, based on double occupancy. Included in the above price is a jet boat ride, a salmon dinner, and a sternwheeler river ride. Other self drive itineraries are 8 days from Anchorage to Homer, including a half day halibut fishing excursion or a whale watching cruise across Kachemak Bay, the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, a cruise in Kenai Fjords National Park, and a float trip on the Spencer River. Or a 10 day self drive tour from Anchorage that goes to both Denali and Wrangell-St. Elias National Parks, Valdez, and includes a ferry ride to Whittier, and a cruise of Kenai Fjords National Park. These self drive vacations are great for families with young children, who would not do well on an escorted bus trip. Again, any tour can be customized to suit your desires. As I tell customers, anything is possible in the travel business; it just comes down to how much you are willing to spend.
There are winter tours that include the Northern Lights and Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race start and restart. There are several fishing excursions for halibut, salmon, that include a guide, equipment, cleaning and freezing of your catch. There’s a van trip from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay with a flight to Barrow, the northern most city in the US, and also a flight trip just to Barrow. On this “top pf the world” tour you will join a traditional Eskimo blanket toss and witness their heritage ceremonial dances. Or you can enjoy a flight trip to Nome, the end point of the Iditarod race and home of one of Alaska’s gold rushes. Even Wyatt Earp came to Nome in 1897 and found his “gold mine” operating a saloon during the height of the Nome gold rush where you could pick up gold off the beach. If you are really adventurous, take a flight to a bear camp for a full day of guided bear viewing. If you want to be a little safer, take a 200 mile all day flight in Katmai National Preserve or Lake Clark Wilderness Preserve to view bear from the air as they fish for salmon or roam the coast.
Of course, tours to Dawson City, the Yukon Territory, Victoria and Vancouver, and the Canadian Rockies are also available. There’s a self drive tour from Calgary to Banff, where you board the Rocky Mountaineer train to Vancouver, or escorted tours from Vancouver to Jasper that include a Rocky Mountaineer train ride and a Snocoach icefield excursion.
The Pacific Northwest by Carol Watts
The Pacific Northwest
Would you like a 7 day vacation that combines travel by rail and water, and starts with a fairly inexpensive direct air flight? If so, then you might like an escorted tour to the Pacific Northwest, specifically Seattle, Vancouver, Whistler, and Victoria.
The tour begins and ends in Seattle, so a direct flight on Southwest airlines won’t break the bank. And as yet, Southwest does not charge for checked luggage, and even provides a complimentary snack. All transfers to and from the airport are included in this tour. So you can take a late morning or early afternoon flight from Phoenix for the 3 hour trip to Seattle, arriving in time to check into your hotel, meet your tour director, and choose a place for dinner. Five breakfasts and three dinners are included in the tour, which is available June - September.
After breakfast at the hotel, day two starts with a sightseeing tour of Seattle with a local guide, including Pike Place Market, the Pioneer Square-Skid Row Historic District, Chinatown and the Seattle Space Needle. Pioneer Square is where Seattle founders first settled in 1852, and later became famous for its collection of “box houses”, part theater, part brothel, part bar, and part gaming house, as well as hash or dope houses and pawn shops. Today it is considered the center of Seattle’s night life, with art galleries, cafes, sports bars, bookstores, and one part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park - the other part being in Skagway, Alaska. Pike Place Fish Market is home to the famous flying fish. Up to 3 feet long salmon are thrown by employees across the counter, much to the delight of spectators. You can also see the market’s unofficial mascot, Rachel the brass pig. She weighs 550 pounds and brings in between 6 and 9 thousand dollars in donations every year to the 100 plus year old market. Take time to enjoy street musicians, including a virtuoso spoon player, jazz, folk, blues music and comedians at the market.
Next on the itinerary is a visit to Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, which was built for the 1962 World’s Fair. At that time it was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi at 605 feet. It was built to withstand earthquakes up to 9.1 magnitude, 220 mph winds, and has 25 lightning rods. It houses a revolving restaurant and an observation deck from which you can see the Olympic and Cascade mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, and Elliott Bay. The afternoon is taken up with a 3 hour bus trip along Washington’s rugged coastline to Vancouver, British Columbia. Yes, passports are needed for this trip. Dinner is included on the first of your three nights in Vancouver. In the morning a local guide takes you through the 1,000 acres of Stanley Park, Chinatown, and the historic streets of Gastown. Stanley Park has forests of cedar, hemlock, and Sitka spruce, as well as a collection of statues, memorial plaques and totem poles. The historic Gastown now is home to fashion boutiques, coffee shops, art galleries, and native art stores. But it is most famous for it’s steam powered clock. The afternoon is free to explore Canada‘s most cosmopolitan city independently. Perhaps you would wish to take in the Capilano Suspension Bridge, Grouse Mountain, the VanDusen Botanical Garden or Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden.
After breakfast the next morning, board the Whistler Mountaineer for a scenic three hour train trip to Whistler, site of several 2010 Olympic Games events. Travel along Howe Sound, pass the Stawamus Chief, the second largest granite monolith in the world, then wind through canyon habitat of bald eagles, climbing 2000 feet for breathtaking 195 feet tall Brandywine Falls, Alpha Lake, and Whistler Village. Return by coach for an included dinner in Vancouver.
The next morning, you will take a ferry ride from Vancouver to Victoria, the historical capital of British Columbia. Included is a city tour of the beautiful harbor district, the incredible parliament building, and a visit to 100 year old Butchart Gardens. You will be captivated by views of its Sunken Gardens, Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, and fountains. During your free time in Victoria, stop at the Empress Hotel. You will spend the night in Victoria, and the Parliament building lit at night is a sight worth seeing.
Day six starts with a ferry trip from Victoria across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Angeles, Washington. Be on the lookout for eagles, gray whales, and otters. You will drive through the glacier carved valleys and temperate rainforest of Olympic National Park before returning to Seattle for your farewell dinner. Schedule your return flight to Phoenix after noon the next day.
Would you like a 7 day vacation that combines travel by rail and water, and starts with a fairly inexpensive direct air flight? If so, then you might like an escorted tour to the Pacific Northwest, specifically Seattle, Vancouver, Whistler, and Victoria.
The tour begins and ends in Seattle, so a direct flight on Southwest airlines won’t break the bank. And as yet, Southwest does not charge for checked luggage, and even provides a complimentary snack. All transfers to and from the airport are included in this tour. So you can take a late morning or early afternoon flight from Phoenix for the 3 hour trip to Seattle, arriving in time to check into your hotel, meet your tour director, and choose a place for dinner. Five breakfasts and three dinners are included in the tour, which is available June - September.
After breakfast at the hotel, day two starts with a sightseeing tour of Seattle with a local guide, including Pike Place Market, the Pioneer Square-Skid Row Historic District, Chinatown and the Seattle Space Needle. Pioneer Square is where Seattle founders first settled in 1852, and later became famous for its collection of “box houses”, part theater, part brothel, part bar, and part gaming house, as well as hash or dope houses and pawn shops. Today it is considered the center of Seattle’s night life, with art galleries, cafes, sports bars, bookstores, and one part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park - the other part being in Skagway, Alaska. Pike Place Fish Market is home to the famous flying fish. Up to 3 feet long salmon are thrown by employees across the counter, much to the delight of spectators. You can also see the market’s unofficial mascot, Rachel the brass pig. She weighs 550 pounds and brings in between 6 and 9 thousand dollars in donations every year to the 100 plus year old market. Take time to enjoy street musicians, including a virtuoso spoon player, jazz, folk, blues music and comedians at the market.
Next on the itinerary is a visit to Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, which was built for the 1962 World’s Fair. At that time it was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi at 605 feet. It was built to withstand earthquakes up to 9.1 magnitude, 220 mph winds, and has 25 lightning rods. It houses a revolving restaurant and an observation deck from which you can see the Olympic and Cascade mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, and Elliott Bay. The afternoon is taken up with a 3 hour bus trip along Washington’s rugged coastline to Vancouver, British Columbia. Yes, passports are needed for this trip. Dinner is included on the first of your three nights in Vancouver. In the morning a local guide takes you through the 1,000 acres of Stanley Park, Chinatown, and the historic streets of Gastown. Stanley Park has forests of cedar, hemlock, and Sitka spruce, as well as a collection of statues, memorial plaques and totem poles. The historic Gastown now is home to fashion boutiques, coffee shops, art galleries, and native art stores. But it is most famous for it’s steam powered clock. The afternoon is free to explore Canada‘s most cosmopolitan city independently. Perhaps you would wish to take in the Capilano Suspension Bridge, Grouse Mountain, the VanDusen Botanical Garden or Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden.
After breakfast the next morning, board the Whistler Mountaineer for a scenic three hour train trip to Whistler, site of several 2010 Olympic Games events. Travel along Howe Sound, pass the Stawamus Chief, the second largest granite monolith in the world, then wind through canyon habitat of bald eagles, climbing 2000 feet for breathtaking 195 feet tall Brandywine Falls, Alpha Lake, and Whistler Village. Return by coach for an included dinner in Vancouver.
The next morning, you will take a ferry ride from Vancouver to Victoria, the historical capital of British Columbia. Included is a city tour of the beautiful harbor district, the incredible parliament building, and a visit to 100 year old Butchart Gardens. You will be captivated by views of its Sunken Gardens, Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, and fountains. During your free time in Victoria, stop at the Empress Hotel. You will spend the night in Victoria, and the Parliament building lit at night is a sight worth seeing.
Day six starts with a ferry trip from Victoria across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Angeles, Washington. Be on the lookout for eagles, gray whales, and otters. You will drive through the glacier carved valleys and temperate rainforest of Olympic National Park before returning to Seattle for your farewell dinner. Schedule your return flight to Phoenix after noon the next day.
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