6 Vacation Ideas With Easy Access To Some Of America's Greatest National Parks

National parks across the country are in the process of reopening, with iconic destinations like the Grand Canyon and Old Faithful already accessible to visitors. In 2019, the National Park Service system received more than 327.5 million visits, and based on recent travel data, the parks could be even more desirable this summer as people look to get away after spending weeks under stay-at-home orders. Travelers are pivoting away from urban destinations to outdoor locations that they can road trip to and camp in. Below are 6 vacation ideas that include easy access to some of America's greatest national parks.

 

 

Hike & Bike North Rim of the Grand Canyon: Providing gently rolling terrain of lung-expanding dimensions, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon has been long-held as sacred ground to hikers and cyclists. Escape Adventures offers an amazing 5-day tour of the North Rim that includes mountain biking, trekking and camping. Trails brimming with wildflowers lead guests to exhilarating hikes along the rim. Crossing over to the west side of the plateau, guests camp alongside one of the most scenic mountain bike paths in the world, the Rainbow Rim Trail. https://escapeadventures.com/tour/grand-canyon-north-rim-mountain-bike-tour/

Play Cowboy at Luxury Ranch: Red Reflet Ranch is a 28,000-acre luxury resort and working ranch on the west slope of the Bighorn Mountains, just minutes from the Bighorn National Forest. It is a scenic three hour drive from Yellowstone National Park. The closest sign of civilization is Ten Sleep, Wyoming, with a population of about 260. Guests stay in their own private chalets, and family-friendly activities include horseback riding, ATVing, ziplining, swimming, fishing, shooting, and indulging in gourmet farm-to-table cuisine. The ranch is open for business now. http://redrefletranch. com/  

Grand Teton Tiny House Retreat:  Just minutes from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Fireside Resort capitalizes on the tiny house craze and the classic appeal of rustic cottages by offering 25 pint-size, luxuriously outfitted tiny house rental units designed by Wheelhaus. The resort is located a stone's throw from Grand Teton National Park and the Jackson Hole ski slopes. It is a great place to post up for a ski trip or a summer getaway.  https://www. firesidejacksonhole.com
Big Sky Base Camp: If outdoor adventures like hiking, mountain biking, and fly fishing are your style, look to visit Big Sky, Montana and stay at The Wilson Hotel. Located on the edge of Yellowstone National Park, the town is home to Big Sky Resort and its 5,850 acres of ski terrain, as well as shaded forests, wildflower-filled meadows, rocky mountaintops and clear, cool rivers and streams. https:// thewilsonhotel.com/

Bryce & Zion by MTB: Soaring red stone spires and ancient citadels of rich Navajo sandstone give way to haunting hoodoos and curving arches of rock — a geologist’s dream and a mountain biker’s paradise. The rides on this 6-day Escape Adventures tour offer swift lines that wind and wend through deep Alpine meadows and Aspen forests only to spill out onto yawning mesas and buttes. The world-famous trails of Red Canyon’s Thunder Mountain, Cassidy, and Casto Canyon, symbolize but a few of this tour’s many highlights. https://escapeadventures.com/tour/bryce-and-zion-mountain-bike-tour/


Great Parks North: Join the Adventure Cycling Association on its Great Parks North Route. This tour follows the Rocky Mountains from Missoula, Montana, to Jasper, Alberta, exploring some the most spectacular national parks the U.S. and Canada has to offer. Great Parks North will highlight Glacier NP, Waterton NP, Banff NP, and Jasper NP, and jaw-dropping scenery will not be lacking on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure. https://www.adventurecycling.org/guided-tours/self-contained-tours/2020-great-parks-north/

Margaret Atwood To Join Adventure Canada’s Atlantic Canada Explorer Expedition In June 2020

This will be the Man Booker Prize-winning novelists' 18th year travelling with the leading Canadian expedition company

Photo by Christopher Burns

Port Credit, ON. : Adventure Canada, the leading provider of small-ship and land-based expeditions to the world’s wildest destinations, is pleased to announce Margaret Atwood, acclaimed Canadian author of The Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace and this week’s newly released The Testament, will be joining the iconic Atlantic Canada Explorer expedition in June 2020. This will be her 18th year travelling with Adventure Canada. Earlier this week, Atwood released her highly anticipated novel, The Testament, a follow-up to The Handmaid's Tale, a classic work and Emmy Award-winning TV adaptation. Altogether, Atwood has penned more than 40 books of fiction, poetry and critical essays, including Stone Mattress: Nine Tales, a collection of short stories inspired by Atwood’s experience aboard another Adventure Canada expedition.

Photo by Danny Catt

“There’s nothing quite like Adventure Canada. Really nothing. That must be why their expeditions attract so many multi-trippers: the experience they offer is profound, but also entertaining,” says Atwood. “Adventure Canada takes its subject matter seriously, but not themselves. That, to me, is deeply Canadian: we don’t suffer stuffed shirts gladly.” After sampling some fresh baguettes, brie and merlot in the French territory of Saint-Pierre, Atwood and fellow guests will experience true east coast hospitality in the fishing village of Chéticamp on Cape Breton Island, learn about French and English colonial power struggles at the historic fortress of Louisbourg, visit Roosevelt Campobello International Park and discover the world-record high tides of the Bay of Fundy. Guests will also make a rare landing on Sable Island, home to the world-famous Sable Island horses and the endemic Ispwich sparrow, particularly notable for Atwood, an avid birder. As a special onboard guest, Atwood will deliver a presentation—and perhaps a reading—while enjoying the wonders of Atlantic Canada with her family. Join Atwood on Atlantic Canada Explorer from June 15-26, 2020. Book before Oct. 31, 2019 to receive a 15% early bird discount. For more information about sailing with Atwood and Adventure Canada’s Atlantic Canada Explorer, visit www.adventurecanada.com.

About Adventure Canada Adventure Canada is a family-owned award-winning adventure travel company specializing in expedition-style cruising into the world’s most remote destinations—the Canadian Arctic, the fjords of Greenland, the isles of the north Atlantic, and beyond. Setting sail aboard an ice-strengthened vessel with a team of expert naturalists, historians, artists, and musicians, Adventure Canada engages and entertains, providing an on-the-ground experience that places travellers up close with local communities and culture. Learn more at adventurecanada.com.

It’s A Jungle Out There: Costa Rica With Kids

 Crater expectations … Poás, one of six active volcanoes in Costa Rica. Photograph: Matteo Colombo/Getty Images

Contributed by Jane Dunford

Full of exotic animals and rainforests but also child-friendly, Costa Rica is the perfect natural playground for a family adventure

It’s dark in the rainforest, the air thick with strange croaks and chirps, and our group moves slowly, following José’s torchlight. As he gestures for us to stop, we gather around in silence, the adults as keen as the children to see what he’s spotted. There on a leaf, with its bulging orange eyes, neat green body and comically big tangerine feet, sits a Costa Rican tree frog. Cue delighted squeals all round.

“It’s so cute!” whispers my niece, Georgia, and I nod, partly relieved it’s not a boa constrictor or tarantula.

We’re halfway through a night safari at Maquenque Ecolodge in the far north of the country and the jungle feels tangibly alive. Caiman eyes shine at the edge of the lagoon and frogs and toads of all colours and sizes add to the howler monkeys, turtles and toucans we’d seen earlier in the day.

For somewhere the size of Denmark, Costa Rica packs a powerful punch when it comes to wildlife. A quarter of its land is protected and, with half a million species, it’s one of the world’s most biodiverse countries.

A wild natural playground with decent tourist infrastructure, it seemed the perfect choice for an adventure to remember with a 12-year-old. It is our first trip together, my first time alone in charge of a child (I don’t have kids) and the longest Georgia has been away from her parents. My plan is to show her a world away from life at home – and get her back in one piece.

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 Flight of fancy … great green macaw. Photograph: Getty Images

After a night in the capital, San José, we hit the road. The landscape quickly changes as we snake up into the hills, swathes of mist hanging in the cloud forest. Road signs warn of fauna crossing: monkeys, anteaters and a badger-shaped creature with a long, raised tail that we don’t recognise, though one soon scurries across our path (we later find out it’s a raccoon-like coati).

It’s an easy three-hour drive to La Fortuna, our base for the next couple of nights. The small mountain town is the gateway to Arenal Volcano national park and a hub for activities from zip-wire tours to white-water rafting.

Our first foray is a safari on Rio Blanco (its waters more of a muddy brown than white), floating on rafts through a landscape Georgia deems “just like The Jungle Book”.

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 Jane and Georgia walking in the foothills of Arenal Volcano

We pass monkeys swinging through the canopy, a sloth hanging motionless in a tree and an iguana high up on branches, silhouetted against the sky. Bright blue morpho butterflies flit alongside us and there’s nervous excitement as we come surprisingly close to a caiman and spot crocodiles on the riverbank. A torrential downpour – our school summer holidays fall during Costa Rica’s rainy season – just adds to the fun.

The rain stops in time for an afternoon trek in the national park, dense mist clearing to reveal the looming volcano. Arenal last erupted in 1968, and we hike over a black lava landscape, already thick with rainforest, climbing higher for phenomenal views across lakes and mountains.

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 Green giant … La Fortuna waterfall. Photograph: Getty Images

Hot springs go hand in hand with volcanoes and there are several to visit in the area. It’s almost dark when we arrive at Ecotermales, a magical place with naturally warm waterfalls and various-sized thermal pools – perfect for an after-hike soak.

La Fortuna is fully geared up for tourists (restaurant tips include Snapper House for delicious ceviche) but our next stop, a homestay in Juanilama, a rural community three hours north, takes us well off the beaten tourist track. The women who founded it aim to give visitors an authentic taste of village life and bring in a bit of extra cash.

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 Now you see me … red-eyed tree frog. Photograph: David Tipling/Getty Images

Our host is Eli, who lives with her three children and three-year-old granddaughter Victoria, and we stay in a simple wooden cabin in her garden. Georgia practises her Year 7 Spanish, bonding with Victoria as they play with kitten Blancanieves (Snow White). We eat fried plantain and gallo pinto(Costa Rican rice and beans) and on a tour of a smallholding learn about everything from pineapples – which each take a year and half to grow – to cassava, and press our own fresh sugarcane juice.

The next day, our drive to Maquenque takes us farther north again, over bright green hills and along bumpy unpaved roads lined with pineapple plantations. The lodge is part of the Maquenque Wildlife Refuge – a remote area of lowland tropical rainforest and wetlands to the south of the Nicaragua border. It’s exciting just getting there: cars are abandoned for a boat to take us across the river.

Accommodation is in 15 wooden bungalows with terraces overlooking a lagoon, or high up in treehouses. You don’t need to leave the 68-acre grounds to see incredible wildlife. There are 8km of marked trails through the forest. With more than 400 species of birdlife (including the rare great green macaw), there’s constantly something to gawp at: we see huge scarlet parrots, iridescent green ibises and a chestnut-bellied heron, wings outstretched in the sun.

On our last morning I sign us up for a kayaking trip on the San Juan river. Monkeys, iguanas and crocodiles are among wildlife we’re likely to spot, says Cristian, our guide.

Not the best place then to capsize – and we’re reassured that no one ever has. So it’s a bit of a shock when somehow we do just that and end up in the water, clinging to our kayak, drifting downstream. We’re soon safely back on and Georgia’s laughing – but it’s a while before I can fully focus again on the lush jungle scenery and the kingfishers and giant lizards Cristian points out.

It’s another memory-bank moment from an action-packed week – a proper adventure and one I doubt either of us will ever forget.

Way to go

Rickshaw Travel offers tailor-made itineraries to Costa Rica. The three-day Lava Flows of Arenal Volcano costs £235pp; the two-day At Home with the Tico costs £98pp and the three-day Nature Calls costs £245pp. Transport (either transfers or car hire) and flights extra. British Airways flies direct to Costa Rica from London Gatwick

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 ‘A little slice of Eden’ … Maquenque Eco-Lodge

It’s a little slice of Eden, untamed but very comfortable, and great for children, with a pool hidden in the jungle and a restaurant right on the water. Most produce served comes from the gardens and we drink straight from coconuts and dine on plantain and baked fish.

On our last morning I sign us up for a kayaking trip on the San Juan river. Monkeys, iguanas and crocodiles are among wildlife we’re likely to spot, says Cristian, our guide.

Not the best place then to capsize – and we’re reassured that no one ever has. So it’s a bit of a shock when somehow we do just that and end up in the water, clinging to our kayak, drifting downstream. We’re soon safely back on and Georgia’s laughing – but it’s a while before I can fully focus again on the lush jungle scenery and the kingfishers and giant lizards Cristian points out.

It’s another memory-bank moment from an action-packed week – a proper adventure and one I doubt either of us will ever forget.

Way to go

Rickshaw Travel offers tailor-made itineraries to Costa Rica. The three-day Lava Flows of Arenal Volcano costs £235pp; the two-day At Home with the Tico costs £98pp and the three-day Nature Calls costs £245pp. Transport (either transfers or car hire) and flights extra. British Airways flies direct to Costa Rica from London Gatwick

Overseas Adventure Travel Announces Top 10 2018 Destinations For Americans 55+

Botswana, Morocco, and Iceland head the list

 Alan E. Lewis, Chairman of Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.), the leader in small groups on the road less traveled, today announced O.A.T's "Top 10 Destinations for 2018" based on year-to-date bookings by O.A.T.'s travelers, who are Americans aged 55 and older.  More than 15,000 (15,064) travelers have booked an adventure to one (or more) of these destinations in 2018 to-date.  O.A.T. anticipates 57,012 travelers overall in 2018—up from 46,247 in 2016 and 40,266 in 2013.

"Whether 55 or 75, older American travelers are heading to far-flung locations in record numbers—and their varying choice of destinations mirrors the myriad interests of these generations," said Lewis.  "What these travelers share in common, though, is the desire to be fully immersed in local life when traveling—by engaging with students and teachers in rural schools, sharing a meal with a family in their home, or spending the day with locals in their village—so that they can gain a first-hand understanding of a destination and, ultimately, a better sense of the world we share."

2018 TOP DESTINATIONS FOR AMERICANS 55+
Destination		Bookings
1.	Botswana	2,526
2.	Morocco	2,241
3.	Iceland	2,081
4.	Machu Picchu & the Galapagos	1,531
5.	Sicily	1,494
6.	Japan	1,435
7.	Tanzania	1,374
8.	Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina	1,337
9.	Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam)	1,295
10.	India	1,244

In the past five years, 229,528 Americans 55+ have traveled with O.A.T.—all in small groups of 10-16 on land adventures or 14-25 by Small Ship.  For more information about O.A.T., please visit http://www.oattravel.com or call 1-800-955-1925.

ABOUT OVERSEAS ADVENTURE TRAVELEstablished in 1978, Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) is part of Boston-based Grand Circle Corporation's family of travel companies, which also include Grand Circle Cruise Line and Grand Circle Travel.  In 1992, owners Alan and Harriet Lewis established the nonprofit Grand Circle Foundation to support communities in which Grand Circle works and travels, including some 300 humanitarian, cultural, and educational endeavors worldwide—among them, 100 schools, in 50 countries.  The Foundation is an entity of the Lewis Family Foundation, which has pledged or donated more than $169 million since 1981.