YOU MUST BE DREAMING
When the leaves in Colorado turn gold, their stunning show makes it easy to forget that back East, the trees are breaking out into a multitude of colors that inspire photographers to plan pilgrimages to capture the displays. Learn how best to showcase the magnificence on film with Maine photographer Kip Brundage Oct. 1-6 by traveling the backroads of the Phippsburg peninsula and around the waters of the Casco Bay, staying at the 575-acre Sebasco Harbor Resort, one hour north of Portland, Maine. Part of a series of Santa Fe Workshops, this weeklong seminar takes participants on field trips to nearby Popham and Seawall beaches, Quahog Bay, Eagle Island, for walks along the Kennebec River and to Totman Cove. The workshops are especially tailored for amateur photographers looking to work with digital capture and workflow, and an on-site digital lab provides each participant with a personal laptop workstation. Commercial photographer Brundage has been published in national magazines and produces documentaries. Cost is $2,595 per person and includes tuition, use of the lab and location fees, six nights’ accommodations, a Sunday welcome dinner and Friday lobster diner. Call 505-983-1400 or visit santafeworkshops.com.
GEARING UP
Unless you have the steadiest of hands, tripods are the key to avoiding camera shake when shooting at night and in no-flash-allowed museums. But what traveler wants to add that weight and bulk to their luggage? The bottle-cap tripod by Yodobashi, available in six colors, is a rubber bottle cap topped by a ball-and-socket platform that screws into the bottom of your camera. Take a plastic bottle filled with water (or sand or pebbles), cover its top with this cap and attach it to your camera. Ingenious! Well – the doohickey comes with Japanese-only instructions; the website says it’s for “bottles 28.5 to 30.5mm diameter.” Huh? It fit snugly on top of a 20-ounce Pepsi bottle. While it’s billed as a device for digital cameras, it worked with our ages-old Minolta film point-
and-shoot and offers a nice 30-degree tilt for different angles. Heavy SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras don’t fare well, however. The body of our Canon 20D stayed on just fine, but once we added the lens, the camera toppled over. Still, we’d happily stick this in our camera bag and break it out for those point-and-shoot MacGyver moments. |$19.99, semsons.com
– The Washington Post
foreverhouseboats.com
The water lapping against the side as you sleep, the ability to move around during the day, the luxury of catching a fresh dinner – those are but a few of the reasons renting a houseboat is one of the strongest vacation trends going. This site is designed for folks ready to take on anything from a small boat that sleeps four to a deluxe model for 12, with 11 marinas at such diverse locales as Lake Powell, Lake Oroville in California and Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, and the site is searchable by type of craft or location. Some have hot tubs and wet bars, grills and TVs with VCRs, some are more bare-bones, and the eight styles range in size from 44 feet to 70 feet. The site offers a photo gallery of each boat. Rates start at $895 for a 44-footer on Trinity Lake in California for a three-day weekend during low season and run all the way up to $8,495 for a 70-footer on Lake Powell for three days in regular season.
REAL DEALS
The week’s best travel bargains.
Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, home to Ohio’s largest indoor water park and a newly expanded outdoor water park, has $40-per-night discounts plus a $40 gas card for Sunday-Tuesday arrivals through Sept. 4 (except Sept. 3). Rooms before discount start at $199 per night, including park admission. Taxes are 11.5 percent extra. Info: 877-KALAHARI, kalahariresort.com.
Cliffs Resort in Pismo Beach, Calif., for three nights and receive a fourth night free. The package, good for Sunday-Wednesday arrivals, is available through October (Sept. 3 blackout date) and includes daily breakfast for two and an upgrade to a partial ocean-view room. Package is $599 (usual daily rate $229). Tax is 7.25 percent. Info: 800-826-5838, cliffsresort.com.
Denali Park Resorts in Alaska has a deal for the first two weekends in August. The $149 per person double package is good Aug. 5 at Grande Denali Lodge and Aug. 12 at McKinley Chalet Resort. Deal includes room, dinner on Saturday and Sunday breakfast. Add Friday night lodging, including breakfast on Saturday, for $99 extra per person. Room-only rates usually start at $229 a night. Taxes are 7 percent extra. Book at 800-276-7234. Resort info: denali parkresorts.com.
Clipper Cruise Line has $1,500-per-person discounts on a 13-night South Pacific voyage. The cruise – departing Noumea, New Caledonia, on Nov. 12 and sailing to Vanuatu and Australia before disembarking in Auckland, New Zealand – starts at $5,770 per person double, plus $143 fuel surcharges. A pre-cruise hotel night in Noumea and shore excursions are included. Info: 800-325-0010, clippercruise.com.
Save $450 per person on any 2007 Viking River cruise prepaid by July 31. For example, a 10-night “Waterways of the Czars” cruise on the Viking Kirov departing St. Petersburg, Russia, on Oct. 3, 2007, starts at $1,749 per person double (plus fuel surcharge of $100 per cabin). Request code EBD. Info: 877-66-VIKING, vikingrivercruises.com.
– The Washington Post
BOOK YOUR VACATION
Insight into the American Indian culture is invaluable when traveling in tribal communities, and that’s what author Anne O’Brien offers in “Traveling Indian Arizona” ($24.95, Westcliffe Publishers), a guidebook that features not only practical information but etiquette tips and cultural context. Sections highlight tribes living in each area, such as the O’odham and Yo’emem near Phoenix and Tucson and the Hopi and Navajo north and east of Flagstaff, with a brief but authoritative history of the people’s occupation of the lands and their arts, followed by rules for visitation, places to stay and eat, and shopping and festivals. Historic sites and museums are listed, as well, and scenic drives and tours are thoroughly explored, with explicit directions. Color photographs beautifully capture the landscapes and the artisans’ works. O’Brien readily admits that she is a cultural outsider, but she has made good use of her decades of volunteering at area museums and does an excellent job of showcasing Indian art and community projects without exploiting them. The interspersed segments titled “Native Voices, Native Lives” that allow tribal members to talk about their worlds are fascinating.
TRAVEL BY NUMBERS | Top Golf Resorts
The world’s top golf resorts, from the readers of Condé Nast Traveler.
1. Four Seasons Resort, Punta Mita, Mexico
2. American Club, Kohler, Wis.
3. Westin Turnberry Resort, Ayrshire, Scotland
4. Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, Big Island, Hawaii
5. The Homestead, Hot Springs, Va.
6. Four Seasons Resort, Nevis
7. The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
8. Inn at Bay Harbor, Bay Harbor, Mich.
9. Gleneagles, Auchterarder, Scotland
10. Four Seasons Resort at Troon North, Scottsdale, Ariz.
GEO QUIZ
1. France’s Loire River flows into what large bay?
2. What South American country on the Pacific Ocean borders Colombia and Peru?
3. What large island is located about 200 miles northwest of Iceland?
4. The African city of Kampala lies near the northern shore of Lake Victoria in which country?
5. The Java Sea is surrounded by numerous islands that are part of what country?
6. The Kara Sea and the East Siberian Sea are part of which ocean?
7. What country on the Gulf of Honduras was formerly known as British Honduras?
8. Most of India’s rivers flow eastward into what bay?
9. The Murray River flows into the Indian Ocean on the southern coast of which country?
10. The Gulf of Riga is part of which European sea?
ANSWERS: 1. Bay of Biscay 2. Ecuador 3. Greenland 4. Uganda 5. Indonesia 6. Arctic Ocean 7. Belize 8. Bay of Bengal 9. Australia 10. Baltic Sea
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
