March 2011

All That Jazz: A San Francisco Weekend
By David McKay Wilson A day after San Francisco celebrated the Giants’ World Series victory with a ticker tape parade, reminders of their triumph remained. A huge orange-and-black banner declaring “Go Giants!” hung from Macy’s façade while sidewalk vendors by the Hotel Monaco near Union Square hawked t-shirts heralding the

Active Travels: Hiking on the Island of Dominica
By Steve Jermanok “Follow me closely,” says our guide Kent Augiste as we make our final steps down the steep flanks of Morne Watt into the so-called Valley of Desolation. The landscape is a study of contrasts, from the rock slides that create the barren brown slopes to our
The Interview: Peter Grubb, ROW Adventures
Thirty years is a long time in any business, but an eternity in the world of adventure travel. Back in 1979, Peter Grubb founded ROW Adventures as a whitewater rafting company. But it soon expanded, with the addition of Peter’s wife and partner, Betsy Bowen, to Turkey and Greece and
Whitewater Rafting with ROW Adventures
We’re thrilled to be giving away an “Idaho Whitewater Rafting Adventure with ROW Adventures,” one of the best adventure travel companies in the world. The winner gets to choose one (1) multi-day trip for two (2) people on either the Salmon River Canyons in Idaho or on the Snake River

WIN AN IDAHO WHITEWATER RAFTING ADVENTURE WITH ROW ADVENTURES
Our latest giveaway, an “Idaho Whitewater Rafting Adventure with ROW Adventures,” one of the best adventure travel companies in the world, has just ended. One lucky winner received one (1) multi-day trip for two (2) people on either the Salmon River Canyons in Idaho or on the Snake River

Active Travels: Monkeys, Caves and Barbados
By Steve Jermanok The allure of Barbados has always been the stretch of soft white sand on the west coast that serves as a welcome mat for the warm aquamarine waters of the Caribbean Sea. Yet, it’s the ecological wonders in the northern and eastern section of the island that

West on Books: Crossing the Heart of Africa
Reviewed by Richard West Are you about to get married? Be careful what you read. In a book on language evolution, Julian Smith, soon to wed Laura, his girlfriend of seven years, ran across a paragraph about Ewart Grogan’s 4,500-mile walk in the late 19th-century from Cape Town to Cairo,

Letter from Paris: Best New Bistro in Paris
I can’t think of a better response to the naysayers who insist the food in Paris isn’t very good anymore – and there are lots of these people, since this particular skepticism is currently fashionable — than a meal at Les Bistronomes, a superb and stunningly professional new bistro on
Letter from Hawaii: Whale Tales
By Tom Passavant “It’s whale soup out there,” says the captain. It isn’t exactly “thar she blows!”, but it still neatly sums up what we’re about to encounter on a blazing blue-sky morning last week. It’s 8 a.m. and Trilogy Elua, a 50-foot catamaran, is about to head out of