Rafting Super Value with OARS

Last year I took one of the most exhilarating and fulfilling adventures of my life rafting with OARS on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. I’ve just learned that OARS is offering s special $500 per person discount on this amazing trip, and I wanted to pass this news along immediately. This is a great deal!

For the July 31 and Aug. 8 departures of this 6-day trip, you’ll get a discount of $500 per person. As the company says in its announcement: “With more than a 30% savings, this discount is essentially enough to cover your airfare and any pre- or post-trip lodging for your trip.  Explore the rugged alpine scenery and lounge on football field-sized sandy beaches between stretches of fun Class III whitewater in the largest wilderness area in the Lower 48.”

To get this offer, call 1-800-346-6277 or reserve online using discount code: WSMAS0500!

Try this trip — you’ll bring back a precious piece of wilderness, guaranteed.

Geo Ex Announces Special Savings

Geographic Expeditions almost never offers special fares of any kind, so it’s big news that the company has just announced an unprecedented series of special savings on selected fall and winter trips to Bhutan, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Galapagos, India, Laos, Vietnam, and China. There are some truly extraordinary opportunities here, with savings of more than $1,000 per person in most cases (and $2,000 for Kilimanjaro!).

To spotlight a few favorites:

Galapagos Islands aboard the La Pinta – The adult fare has been reduced by $1,340 per person to $5,660 on all weekly departures from Aug. 8-Sept. 3.

The Real Kilimanjaro — Travelers can save $2,000 on the Oct. 25-Nov. 8 trip. (Land cost varies by group size, but normally starts at $7,400, so $2,000 would be a more than 25% savings!)

Bhutan: A Hiker’s Paradise — The standard price for this spectacular trip normally starts at $5,250. The GeoEx savings for all fall departures is $1,400.

The deals also include $1,700 off the Festivals of Rajasthan trip and $1,000 off the Essence of China tour.

The special savings are all described here.

Check them out. If you’ve been dreaming of a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, this may be the year to make that dream come true!

King Tut Returns to San Francisco!

More than 3,000 years after his reign, and 30 years after the original exhibition opened in San Francisco, Tutankhamun, ancient Egypt’s celebrated “boy king,” returns to the de Young Museum. Beginning today, the de Young presents Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, a glorious exhibition of over 130 outstanding works from the tomb of Tutankhamun, as well as those of his royal predecessors, his family, and court officials.

On view through March 28, 2010 at the de Young, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs provides insight into the life of Tutankhamun and other royals of the 18th Dynasty (1555–1305 BC). All of the treasures in the exhibition are more than 3,000 years old.

Tutankhamun was one of the last kings of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty and ruled during a crucial, turmoil-filled period of Egyptian history. The boy king died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 18 or 19, in the ninth year of his reign (1322 BC). Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings was filled with magnificent treasures meant to ensure his divine immortality. Many objects belonging to the young king—exquisite personal items used in his daily life—were placed in it.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs offers glimpses of that critical period in Egyptian history. On display are 50 of Tutankhamun’s burial objects, including one of the gold and precious stone inlaid canopic coffinettes that contained his mummified internal organs. Also included are many of the day-to-day objects enjoyed by the young king, including a finely crafted child’s chair and an inlaid game board, one of four in the tomb, clearly representing an activity enjoyed by the king.

New to the encore tour of the exhibition are two nested coffinettes that contained the remains of two fetuses that are now undergoing DNA testing to reveal their relationship to King Tut. Also new to the exhibition from Tutankhamun’s tomb is a beautiful scarab bracelet featuring a central image of a beetle representing the sun god. An elaborate pectoral, a masterpiece of jewelry making, contains a rare, yellow-green glass stone carved in the shape of a scarab beetle that some scientists believe to be a fragment of an ancient meteorite.

More than 80 additional objects from tombs of 18th Dynasty royals, as well the possessions of elite individuals with close connections to the royal family are also exhibited. These stone, faience and wooden pieces from burial sites before Tut’s reign give visitors a sense of what the burials of both royalty and the elite may have been like and what the Egyptians of that time considered essential for the afterlife.

The exhibit is an absolutely fascinating portal into the past. For more information on the exhibit and on tickets, click here. 

And if after viewing this amazing exhibition, you’re inspired to explore ancient — and modern — Egypt in Egypt itself, consider signing up for Lindblad Expeditions’ Exploring Egypt, a 10-day cruise from Cairo along the Nile with distinguished Egyptologists who will illuminate ancient and contemporary Egyptian beliefs and rites. Even better, select departures are available at a 25 percent savings now! Bon voyage!

Fall Explorations in Utah with Off the Beaten Path

As the good folks at Off the Beaten Path write in a compelling new release:

“Fall is a wonderful ’soft shoulder’ season to extend that delicious summer footloose feeling. It also has the added benefit of fewer fellow travelers on the roads and trails. Kids have gone back to school, their parents have spent up vacation days, and there’s a sense of ease in even some of the most popular travel destinations. The weather is usually terrific, bugs are by-and-large gone, and in the right places, you’ll get some great wildlife shows like bugling elk, flocks of migrating birds, and single-minded bears foraging before hibernation.”

Yes, I love traveling in the fall — it’s a wonderful time to explore almost anywhere. And Off the Beaten Path is presenting a special reason to explore Utah this fall: a $125 discount per person on its hiking trip through the extraordinary canyon parks of Zion, Bryce, and Escalante. On this hand-crafted journey you’ll hike lesser-traveled trails and ancient cultural sites, with each stop offering a different, unique landscape. The trip runs from Sept. 13-18 and departs from St. George, UT. For more information, click here..

Backroads Announces Holiday Savings

The prescient folks at Backroads are thinking ahead. They know that holiday trips tend to sell out early, and they know that now is an excellent time to book to make sure you get exactly the holiday vacation you want. To inspire you even further, they’ve just announced some newsworthy savings on a number of their late-December departures.

Here are the savings spotlighted in their new e-newsletter:

Trip Name	Departure Date	Original Price	New Price	Savings
Australia Family Multisport Premiere Inns	12/23	$5,398	$4,798	$600
Bali Biking Premiere Inns	12/31	$3,998	$3,698	$300
Chile & Argentina Walking Casual Inns	12/20	$5,398	$4,898	$500
Costa Rica Multisport Premiere Inns	12/29	$3,998	$3,798	$200
Costa Rica Family Multisport Premiere Inns (Pacific Coast/Nicoya Peninsula)	12/22, 25 & 27	$4,198	$3,798	$400
Costa Rica Family Multisport Premiere Inns (Pacific Coast)	12/23, 26 & 28	$4,198	$3,798	$400
Costa Rica Family Multisport Casual Inns	12/25	$3,098	$2,798	$300
Costa Rica Family Multisport Casual Inns	12/27	$3,098	$2,598	$500
Costa Rica Walking Premiere Inns	12/21	$3,398	$2,998	$400
Ecuador & Galápagos Multisport Premiere Inns	12/30	$6,398	$5,998	$400
New Zealand Biking Premiere Inns	12/20	$5,198	$4,798	$400
New Zealand Biking Premiere Inns	12/31	$4,798	$4,398	$400
Thailand Biking Premiere Inns	12/24	$4,398	$3,598	$800
Vietnam Biking Premiere Inns	12/31	$6,198	$5,298	$900

I don’t know about you, but Costa Rica for $2,598 sounds extremely tempting to me. And $900 off the Vietnam journey. Sweet! To check out all the company’s trips and deals, visit Backroads.com.

Old Japan in Modern San Francisco

Here’s one exhibition you must see: Lords of the Samurai, at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, opening today and running through Sept. 20.

As the curator writes on the exhibition’s excellent web site: “The samurai culture and code of conduct, bushido, have long captivated the imaginations and aspirations of young and old in the Western world. More than just professional warriors, Japanese samurai of the highest rank were also visionaries who strove to master artistic, cultural, and spiritual pursuits. Lords of the Samurai takes an intimate look at the daimyo, or provincial lords of the warrior class in feudal Japan. The Hosokawa clan, powerful military nobles with a 600-year-old lineage, embodied this duality of fierce warrior and refined gentleman.”

The exhibition features more than 160 works from the Hosokawa family collection housed in the Eisei-Bunko Museum in Tokyo, and from Kumamoto Castle and the Kumamoto Municipal Museum in Kyushu. Objects on view include suits of armor, armaments (including swords and guns), formal attire, calligraphy, paintings, tea wares, lacquerware, masks, and musical instruments.

It’s an absolutely extraordinary exhibit, and the Asian Art Museum is the only U.S. venue for it. So — see you in our beautiful San Francisco soon! It’s the best way I know to visit Japan without flying for half a day. (And while you’re here, visit the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park too!)

A Vicarious Journey to Tibet

Every once in a while I come across a particularly noteworthy coffeetable book. Today I want to spotlight one such wonderful book, Matthieu Ricard’s stunning Tibet: An Inner Journey.

Tibet exerts a pull that few other countries can match. Partly it’s the country’s high solitude and mountain-ringed inaccessibility. Partly it’s the culture’s association with a rich, esoteric and austere spirituality.  Today, its precarious position, uneasily negotiating co-existence with China, makes its allure even more poignant.

Matthieu Ricard’s  book, Tibet: An Inner Journey, is a fitting testament to Tibet’s enduring traditions and attractions. In his introduction, Ricard writes, “In this book I have sought to illustrate the surviving elements of traditional Tibet: its spirituality, the purity and grandeur of its landscape, its festivals and its nomadic and peasant populations.”

In page after page of evocative photos and eloquent accounts, informed with an urgent energy, Ricard grandly realizes this quest. His writing is informed and compelling; his photographs are amazing for their technical brilliance and even more for their profound humanity.

Tibet: An Inner Journey is a rare eye-, mind- and heart-opening triumph, a book that is as beautiful, haunting, and inspiring as the land and the people it so expansively celebrates.  

[Tibet: An Inner Journey; text and photography by Matthieu Ricard; published by Thames & Hudson; hardcover; 232 pages;$45.]

For information on Adventure Collection members’ trips to Tibet, visit AdventureCollection.com.

Treasure in Our Backyard

Recently I joined a wonderful barbecue put on by the good folks who produce Weekend Sherpa, a weekly newsletter and website which is all about great outdoors things to do in Northern California. Walking the talk, they set their celebration in a little-known Northern California treasure: Treasure Island, in san Francisco Bay. The barbecue site boasted million-dollar views of the San Francisco skyline, Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge — and even more extraordinary for a sunny weekend afternoon, we had the entire site (barbecue grill, picnic table, wide grassy field) all to ourselves. The one-day mini-getaway reminded me once again that adventures are all around us: We just need to know where — and how — to look.

NGT Honors AC Members

It’s taking me a while to catch up on my magazine reading, but I was very gratified to open up the May/June issue of National Geographic Traveler. This is a special issue of the magazine devoted to the theme Tours of a Lifetime. The editors selected 50 tours that they think deserve special acknowledgement and accolades, and happily, five Adventure Collection member trips are among them.

The editors preface their selection with these words: “Our coverage, organized into three categories—active, classic, and cultural—includes 50 tour listings. You won’t find any $50,000 round-the-world-by-private-jet tours on this year’s list. On the other hand, many of the tours don’t necessarily qualify as “cheap.” Sustainable, nonexploitive travel attempts to give back to the community, and comfort costs money. But every tour, whatever its price tag, offers small-group, thoughtfully crafted experiences that are eco- and culturally sensitive, provide uncommon access, and foster interaction with locals. It’s the perfect antidote for these tumultuous times, as we reexamine what is important and look for trips that are meaningful and restorative.”

The selected Adventure Collection trips are:

Fiji Surf and Turf
Fiji may be known for its pristine white sand beaches, but thrill seekers are lured by its rugged interior. This itinerary combines the best of both worlds, with a zipline canopy tour in the Namosi Mountains, white-water rafting on the Upper Navua River (a narrow gorge known as Fiji’s Grand Canyon), and a couple of leisurely days spent snorkeling or diving at the Nanuya Island Resort in the Yasawa Islands. O.A.R.S.: “Highlands to Islands: Ultimate Fiji Explorer,” 10 days; $3,795.

Rocky Mountain High
This hiking adventure packs a ton of thrills—via ferrata (mountain route with fixed cables), zip line, high mountain bridges, a glacier walk with crampons and harness—all in the magnificence of the Canadian Rockies. While the tour uses gas-guzzling helicopters to get to remote alpine locations, the operator has actively tried to minimize flight time, install micro-hydropower systems in some of its lodges, and taken on stewardship of the wilderness, including assisting in the recovery of the woodland caribou. Canadian Mountain Holidays: “High-Flying Heli-Adventures, Bobbie Burns Lodge, Canada,” 3 days; $1,931.

Savoring Tuscany
With more than 20 years of experience guiding cycling trips through Tuscany, the outfitter has tapped its local connections to craft a new style of bicycle touring that goes easy on the quadriceps and heavier on the region’s Etruscan and medieval history, bella cucina, and of course, Sangiovese and Vernaccia wines. Backroads: “Tuscany & Umbria Insider, Italy,” 6 days; from $3,498.

Alaska’s Grizzly Country
Board a refurbished tugboat headed for Katmai, one of the world’s most prolific grizzly bear habitats. Cruise along the shore, where brown bears, as they’re known here, dot the beach, digging for clams and snagging salmon while keeping a sharp eye on their frolicking young. Previous expeditions here have seen up to 40 bears cluster together. The tour includes a jaunt to rarely visited Kodiak Island, where the coast is teeming with sea lions, otters, puffins, bald eagles, and whales. Natural Habitat Adventures: “Grizzlies: Kodiak to Katmai,” 7 days; $6,595 (special photo tour option is 8 days, $6,995).

Central America Expedition
Cruise the wild coasts of Panama and Costa Rica on the 60-passenger Sea Voyager, starting with a transit through the legendary canal. From the World Heritage site Isla Coiba to Manuel Antonio National Park, you’ll kayak, swim in waterfalls, horseback ride, and view the diverse wildlife, including three-toed sloths, howler monkeys, and more than 300 species of birds. At press time, the operator was offering a 25 percent discount and a $500 air credit on select departures. Lindblad: “The Panama Canal and the Wonders of Costa Rica,” 8 days; $4,660.

Friday Forum Talks Travel

Last Friday I appeared on the terrific KQED radio show Forum, one of the liveliest and most reliably intelligent talk shows in the country. Forum usually focuses on the burning social and political issues of the day, but on Friday they decided to take a break for an hour and focus on summer travel instead. The way the phone lines were jammed and the emails flooded in, they might want to take this kind of break more often!

The other two guests were guidebook authors, and we were asked to talk about travel opportunities and options for listeners who may be more cash-conscious  than usual this year. As a result, our conversation focused on Northern California, and I was reminded again how blessed those of us who live in this area are, with a plethora of great hiking, biking and camping options – not to mention restaurants and theater and art — within easy access.

One of the points I was able to make near the end of the hour-long segment was that since fewer people are taking more ambitious trips this year, it is also a very good time for people who have the money to take the kind of once-in-a-lifetime trip they have been thinking about for years. Many of the best adventure travel companies — on air I mentioned Backroads, OARS, Bushtracks, and Geographic Expeditions as examples — are offering discounts or other special incentives to attract travelers. It’s a great time to make that rafting trip in Idaho, biking tour in Tuscany, Galapagos voyage  or South African safari you’ve been dreaming of for years. While all the guests on the show recognize that these are difficult times when cutting back on travel costs may be a good idea, if not downright essential, we all also felt that there are rare offers and opportunties available this summer, and travelers should be aware of them. Travel is good for the soul and the planet, and I hope KQED listeners were inspired to make some travel plans, near or far, for this summer.

To listen to the show, click here: Download 2009-05-22b-forum.