Rest and relaxation? Not on these vacations
Transcription
Rest and relaxation? Not on these vacations
24 SHARE YOUR SNAPS See some amazing sight on your last vacation? Eat an unforgettable dish? Still laughing at that oddly translated road sign? Share your vacation photos with Boston Herald readers — just e-mail your photos and/or short videos to [email protected]. Action plAn Rest and relaxation? Not on these vacations BILL BURKE l Travel Guy www.bostonherald.com ounge chairs, drinks with umbrellas and poolside afternoons may be the perfect getaway for some — just don’t ask a bucket-list traveler to join you. The bucket list — an inventory of must-do activities pegged for completion before each of us “kicks the bucket” — has become a vacation model for active travelers. Their rallying cry: Don’t just sit there, do something. Experiential travel — yes, it’s a real word — puts vacationers in the thick of things, letting them taste the essence of a particu- THuRSDAy, AuguST 4, 2011 BOSTON HERALD THE INN CROWD: Chef Michael Salmon, above right, gives gourmet cooking lessons at the Hartstone Inn in scenic Camden, Maine. Culinary adventures with Red Lion Inn executive chef Brian J. Alberg, right, include optional motorcycle tours. lar destination. It’s a far different thing to look at a mountain stream than it is to wade into it, throw a fly downstream and wrestle with a trout at the end of your line. Pick a pastime, sport or activity and there’s likely an itinerary involving it. And many of these experiences, in every corner of New England, are little more than a road trip away. Chef for a Day: The Hartstone Inn and Hideaway, a Mansard-style Victorian B&B built in 1835 in Camden, Maine, gives guests a chance to live and work alongside award-winning chef Michael Salmon. Spend a day in the kitchen and learn how Salmon gets it done. The package starts at $375 per couple, and gets you a five-course gourmet dinner for two, four hours in the kitchen helping to prepare dinner with the chef, a personalized copy of his cookbook and two Hartstone Inn aprons. Accommodations at an additional cost. (To book, call 1-800-788-4823 or go to hartstoneinn.com.) Roaring Ramble Package: Red Lion Inn executive chef Brian J. Alberg likes to spend his off-hours roaring through Stockbridge on his custom Harley motorcycle. So if your bucket list calls for more bugs in your teeth, consider this culinary/ touring package. Alberg provides the opportunity for guests to roll through Western Mass. on a guided Rock Climbing Package: Hale’s Location estate. The Victorian-style hotel sits in the shadow of Cathedral Ledge, two-and-one-halfhours north of Boston and just minutes from Conway Village. (To book, call 800533-6301 or go to white mountainhotel.com.) —[email protected] BOsTON hEraLd Choose between a halfday or full-day experience of rock-climbing instruction at the International Mountain Climbing School in North Conway, N.H. All the necessary equipment is included in the cost ($185 for a half-day, $235 for a full day), as are accommodations at the White Mountain Hotel and Resort, located on the 254-acre Thursday, augusT 4, 2011 Day labor or vacation getaway? It depends on your point of view, but if living like Tom Sawyer has been a longtime dream, Liberty Hill Farm Inn in Rochester, Vt., can knock that one off the bucket list. Boys can milk cows, stack bales of hay, ride on a tractor, float down a river, hike up a mountain and build a bonfire on the riverbank. Girls can do all that, and bottle-feed calves, collect eggs, pick wildflowers in the meadow, paint and explore life on a dairy farm. Everyone sleeps in a farmhouse once owned by the founder of Emerson College at this 511 Liberty Hill dairy farm. Packages start at $98 a night and include breakfast and dinner. (To book, call 802-767-3926 or go to libertyhillfarm.com.) FIELDS AND MOUNTAINS: Visitors to Vermont’s Liberty Hill Farm get a hands-on agricultural adventure, above, while rock climbers will find steep thrills at the White Mountains in North Conway, N.H. www.bostonherald.com Farm Boy/Farm Girl: 25 tour atop their own bikes, and then unwind with an inn menu featuring sustainable foods. “We’ve had people come up from Florida where they took the train to Virginia and did a really cool ride through the Northeast — including our tour,” Carol Bosco Baumann of the Red Lion Inn said. Chef Alberg “enjoys the sense of freedom, being closer to the land on a bike. You can smell it, see it, breathe it.” The motorcycle portion of the tour typically takes place on Mondays — because that’s the chef’s day off — and lasts about four hours. As for the sustainable menu, expect local granola called Bola Granola, Bantam hen eggs from Alberg’s Graceful Acre farm, bread from Berkshire Mountain Bakery and maple sausage from Ioka Valley Farm. The $525 package (including tip and taxes) also includes your room — deluxe rooms are available for an upcharge — and breakfast the next day. This Berkshires getaway is two hours west of Boston at 30 Main St., Stockbridge. (To book, call 413-298-5130 or go to redlioninn.com.)