Vermont Foliage Season; Avoid the Crowds - Go Northwest!

September 23, 2024

A Vermont tourism board social page posted a question recently…”Where is the one place in Vermont that everyone should check out?” I responded “Everyone should NOT check out “one place” that’s the problem that’s creating over tourism!

I have a theory that some destinations are places where “Everyone goes because everyone goes” Meaning most people visit the same places, simply because everyone else goes there. Not only is that not sustainable for the region, causing places like Venice to enact laws restricting tourists and residents of Barcelona in the streets protesting tourists. It’s not even great for visitors, who face huge crowds and traffic, pay inflated prices and rarely encounter anyone local because locals either avoid the area, or can’t afford to live there anymore and workers get imported from somewhere else to serve the crowds! A recent visit to Bar Harbor Maine, our server was from Bulgaria and there just for the summer. She was lovely, but didn’t give me any extra insight into the community or local culture.

From Elmore State Park Fire Tower, on a clear day, see NH, NY and Vermont peaks!

So as we come to the “peak’ foliage season in New England, I’ll advocate that you can have an incredible experience in more than “one” popular spot and there is no need to fight the crowds to see beautiful foliage and views. If you want to visit an area in Vermont a bit off the beaten path…get out of the Notch and go Northwest!

Itinerary to Visit Northwest Vermont

Get up early and hike in Elmore State Park, climb the fire tower and see foliage for miles.

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Explore acres of art by sculptor David Stromeyer at the Cold Hollow Sculpture park.

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Cruise into St Albans and take a stroll along the lake or spend the afternoon shopping at an independent bookstore store or second hand clothing shop and enjoy dinner at a local brewery.

Independent book store, The Eloquent Page often has a “free book” cart out front, and all the latest releases inside.

Check out one of many Vermont micro breweries.

Bring your patience and good will when visiting Vermont this foliage season; many communities are still building back after two historic floods, exactly a year apart- one in 2023 and again this summer. Some roads are still under construction for repair and not all businesses are fully open or have enough help to handle the crowds. Most owner operators of small businesses are doing their best to serve you, so spread your tourist dollars around to quieter, less visited parts of the state and help the community rebuild.

I can’t promise you’ll be all alone touring in Northwest Vermont, but you’ll probably have a calmer, quieter Vermont experience!

Street Art is popular in Santiago, this colorful, heavy black line style is characteristic of Chilean artists

48 Hours in Santiago Chile

May 13, 2024

Santiago was a surprise for us…a gateway to our recent Antarctica cruise and a stopover before 10 days in Patagonia, we had the opportunity to get to know the city. Because Santiago is gateway to Patagonia in the south or and the Atacama Desert to the north, and lots of cruises use Valparaiso Chile (to the west) as a cruise embarkation port, many travelers might find themselves in this modern, relatively safe, well organized city for a few days. If you have 48 hours (or MORE!) to explore Santiago, we highly recommend spending some time exploring! Here are our top picks for things to do based on our recent visit.

Getting Around the Neighborhoods

We were based in a high end international hotel in the Las Condes neighborhood and a comfortable apartment in Providenica neighborhood. We could easily walk around these neighborhoods and use the metro system, to pass through areas where we might not have felt comfortable walking, we found the Metro to be clean, safe (with ordinary precautions) and easy to navigate. We had more difficulty using ride share apps. It appeared when we used our app with the United States phone numbers, we did not get available drivers accepting out ride, but having the concierge use their app with their Chilean number, cabs or ride share cars would arrive, and we could pay the driver in cash and tip the concierge. We also heard from people who had trouble with cabs leaving the airport, so if you can, arrange for a car service from the airport ahead of time. We had a recommendation from our AirBNB owner for a wonderful local “fixer” , Pablo, who arranged our airport transfers ahead of time and was available all week to take us on several tours outside of Santiago. (Private Message me if you find yourself in Santiago and need a local to help organize your transportation around the city, I’ll connect you.)

Here are few photos and ideas for touring some of the neighborhoods in Santiago!

Los Condes and El Golf

Home to most of the international hotels and major businesses, Los Codes and El Golf are fashionable, upscale neighborhoods with fine cafes and shops catering to Santiago’s professional class.

We enjoyed staying in this upscale and international area of the city, found a favorite gelato shop and a dog park where would sit among the locals each evening and people (and dog!) watch. There were some nice cafes and restaurants in this area, but it’s a more modern area with few historic attractions.

A popular dog park in Los Condes was the perfect place to sit and enjoy a gelato and meet the “locals”!

Providencia

Our Airbnb was perfectly located at the edge of Providencia, within walking distance of all of the fashionable cafes in Providencia and Los Condes, the Costanera Mall with a huge supermarket and a metro station. We found neighborhood was safe to walk in the evenings and quiet for being in the heart of the city.

Bella Vista

Virgin Mary atop the Cerro Cristobal in the Metropolitan Park of Santiago

We found it safest to visit the Bella Vista neighborhood during the day, and that worked well because its home to the Parque Metroplitano de Santiago on the Cerro San Cristobal and it’s statue of the virgin and expansive views over the city. We were able to take the funicular, and visit Casa Museo La Chascona (the preserved home of Nobel Peace Prize winning peot, Pablo Neruda). There are also multiple park areas, pools and a zoo!

Plaza Des Armas and Central Santiago

Palacio de la Real Audiencia in Central Santiago houses a National History Museum

Plaza De Armas and Santiago Centro is where we found the greatest concentration of historic sites and museums. We comfortably toured this area during daylight hours, and took a tour focusing on street art through a local guide service called Santiago Street Art Tours.

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Indigenous art throughout all of Latin America is the focus of the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino and we all had our favorites; a woven example of the earliest record keeping, small clay bowls with “cat ears” and more modern pieces that interpret the pain of the people lost during the 1973 military dictatorship.

Pre Columbian art

Cerro Santa Lucia is a small vertical hillside park in the center of Santiago with an interesting history. The hill was important to the Mapuche people, and was one of the places that Spanish colonists took for strategic defense. Later a mayor developed it as a lush park and the old fort stands at the top with incredible views of the city. The park is accessible by cobblestone pedestrian ways and staircases.

West of the Center

Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos

There are several museums in the Parque Quinta Normal west of the city. We visited the human rights museum, Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, which walks visitors through the military coup of 1973, atrocities during the dictatorship and eventual return to democracy after an historic vote held under intense international scrutiny in 1990.

In the Eastern foothills of the Andes, we visited the art and craft market at Pueblo Los Dominicos

East of the Center

Pueblo Los Dominicos, originally a Mapuche settlement, eventually became a colonial church community and in the 80’s was redeveloped as an artisan market. In addition to traditional Chilean woven goods, clay and wood crafts, there area variety of unique artisans creating jewelry, leather goods and a even fellow carving matchsticks into tiny sculptures.

Day Trips from Santiago

Our local fixer, Pablo, arranged several day trips around Santiago for us with driver, Rafael

Day Trip Valparaiso and the Pacific Coast

Our visit in Feb coincided with a heat wave in Santiago, and uncontrolled wildfires to the west. Our planned visit to Valparaiso and stay in an Air Bnb there had to be scuttled for safety sake. Our driver was willing to take us out to the coast, but the Chilean and US governments were warning us not to visit and we did not feel comfortable taking the chance of getting stranded, adding to evacuation traffic, using resources needed for evacuees or exposing ourselves to breathing dangerous smoke.

Luckily, our fixer, Pablo, was able to suggest several alternatives and we were able to explore the coast further north where our daughter was able to see her first penguins in the wild!

Cachagua

Our daughter joined us in Santiago, and had two big requests…one was to see penguins in the wild, which was possible at the Playa Grande in Chacagua. The Monumento Natural Isla Cachagua refuge is visible from the beach and there are some boat tours that will take visitors out on the water nearer to the penguins (Visitors are not allowed to go on the island) but with a good pair of binoculars you can watch the antics of the penguins and see many other animals and birds who use the island for breeding and resting.

Day Trip Wine Tasting in the Casablanca Valley

Our Valparaiso plans canceled, we decided to explore the wine region of Chile, with a visit and lunch at Casa Del Bosque. We enjoyed a tasting room, walks around the vineyard and organic gardens as well as a lunch of local wines.

Day Trip Hiking in the Andes

There are several day hikes around Santiago in the foot hills of the Andes; we chose to hire a local guide with expertise in the area to lead our hike.

The second request on our daughter’s “must do” list? A hike into the foot hills of the Andes. We arranged a hike with a local guide through Trip Advisor, but our daughter made a rookie mistake…it’s always important to confirm any tours booked through third party sites and receive a local contact number in case there is a missed connection. Our first attempt, we were up early and our guide never arrived. Without the a local phone number we couldn’t call to see if the guide was lost or had another issue. When the office to the tour company opened, the owner quickly rescheduled the hike for another day and we received that important contact number!

Our second attempt, was a bit cooler, mid 70s instead of mid 90s at 7 AM, and the guide was right on time. After driving a half an hour out of town, our guide took us to a trail head in Parque Cordillera (which literally means foot hills!) We headed out early while it was still cool, but we were challenged by elevation, and vertical and only hiked as far as we felt we could safely, because a successful hike is the one you survive!

With over a week to enjoy Santiago, we were able to cover a lot ground and explore several interesting spots in and around the city. If your travels take you to Santiago, be sure to leave some time to explore!

*Downtown Las Vegas at the Fremont St Experience*

Las Vegas A Sleepy Little Town?!

January 2, 2024

We recently went to Las Vegas to celebrate the birthday of a friend who is a huge U2 fan and wanted to see them perform live in Las Vegas’s newest attraction; the MSG Sphere.

We attended the concert on Saturday night (more on that later) and at the stroke of midnight, on his birthday, our group of 6 headed into an already bustling bar in the popular Venetian Resort, only to be chased out by a cocktail waitress who said the bar was closing at midnight. She shoed us over to the bar at a restaurant across the casino, where the bartender said they could accommodate us and make us $8 drinks, but we’d have to guzzle them because THAT bar was closing at 1 AM! Did I mention it was SATURDAY NIGHT?! Ok, Sunday morning, but this is supposed to be Las Vegas! I’d expect this in my hometown of puritanical Boston where the sidewalks roll up at midnight, and you can’t get dinner AFTER a show, but I had not expected this in Las Vegas, where I was quite proud of myself for not shuffling off to bed at 10:30pm!

In general I found a lot about my experience in Vegas had changed in the 15 years since I had last been. I haven’t been to Las Vegas since 2006, tagging along with Jeff for a convention he needed to attend on my birthday weekend. That trip, we tired to entertain ourselves in the casino, and after losing 20 dollars in less 2 minutes, we decided to spend our time in the desert instead; arranging a tour to bike 13 miles around the Red Rocks Canyon and renting a car to go explore the Hoover Dam. Here Are some of the changes we noticed. (views from Red Rocks Canyon in 2006)

Las Vegas was less smoky than old Vegas

But it’s still more smoky than most other places now. First, fewer people overall are smoking, so that’s good for everyone. Most of Vegas’s attractions are indoors and despite superior air filtration systems, we noticed the smoke in the casinos and it wafts up from the casinos into upper level attractions and shops. Because there is so little indoor smoke anywhere these days, I really noticed it during our stay.

Vegas used to be considered a budget vacation

Many people I talked to who love Las Vegas today have a lot of nostalgia for it. They spoke about going to Vegas with their families for vacations and celebrations and making wonderful memories; seeing shows, eating meals together and enjoying the spectacles of architecture, neon and fountains. Many people have a similar nostalgia for places like Walt Disney World even though that’s also become a sometimes challenging and expensive destination now.

*During our visit; Las Vegas was hosting the National Finals Rodeo and Cowboy Christmas, as well as a variety of medical conventions.*

I feel like gambling used to subsidize the other attractions; lodging and dining in town, and now it appears to be the other way around. I have a few friends who are comped gorgeous suites in the top resorts based on their gambling points and that might be being subsidized by the dynamic pricing of rack rates for hotel rooms by people like me, who don’t gamble. During the busy weekend we visited, along with the National Finals Rodeo and several big name concerts, rack rates for rooms were $1000- 5000 a night for the top resorts and $350-500. We paid $210 for shared pizzas at pizza lunch with soft drinks for 6 and over $300 for lunch in a top strip restaurant for 4 for lunch with no cocktails. Tickets for sphere movies run (again dynamic pricing based on demand) from $150-250, we paid almost $1000 to see U2 and a popular Cirque de Soleil show for 2 and live shows can run into the thousands if they start selling out. Ride shares even just a few blocks could start at $15 and go up to $30 during surge times. (Views around Las Vegas)

Vegas was mellower than I remembered

Legal weed is available from a dispensary on nearly every block. It feels like maybe with less drinking, people are calmer, I witnessed less “excess” drinking, fewer people throwing up on their shoes and less stumbling patrons, so maybe more Vegas guests are imbibing in pot and mellowing rather than getting falling down drunk and angry or aggressive? (Freemont Street Experience and downtown)

Vegas is an inside place

This hasn’t really changed, but on our last trip we made an effort to explore the desert, and we didn’t do that this time so by day two, I was jonesing to be outside! You can walk between casinos on the sidewalk (and up and over the pedestrian bridges) but when I find myself in a city I almost always seek out a park or garden, and I couldn’t find anything like this in the city on foot!

Photos from the U2 Concert at Sphere (click to enlarge any photo)

*video representation of Las Vegas during the U2 concert at the MSG Sphere*

At the U2 concert the performance included a video representation of Las Vegas that looked so real you thought you were in the city, then it was deconstructed with cranes through the wizardry of AI, building by building, until only the desert remained, then the sphere filled with thousand of endangered desert animals in black and white above us to the back drop of “With or Without You” (changing the characters of that love song to endangered animals of the greater Las Vegas area) Then the band left us with a note of hope for our environment, while they played “Beautiful Day” and the lizards and snakes and small mammals all around us were filled with color. (deconstructed Vegas, and the endangered animals that inhabit it. Click to expand)

*As Las Vegas was deconstructed, Sphere graphics filled with endangered animals filled the space.*

I could ask myself if going to Las Vegas was worth the time and expense.

We went to Las Vegas to celebrate with a friend and we were able to meet up with several other friends, an old college acquaintance, a friend I met on a Zumba cruise and my favorite travel agent (Jay Paul, Cruise Planners) who were all living or coincidentally visiting Las Vegas at the time. I learned talking to friends who love Vegas that it’s about the memories they have being connected with people they love in the place that mean the most to them. And I’ve found in the end, every place is about the connections you make with the people you meet there and the experiences you have with the loved ones you travel with. And in that sense, my trip to Vegas was worth the time and money we spent!

Meow Wolf Mega Mart; part art installation, part mystery puzzle rooms.

My Tips for Las Vegas

• Book your trip during a quiet time if you can; rooms, flights and shows are all dynamically priced based on demand. Quiet times might surprise you. A friend just noticed Easter weekend is reasonably priced, likely because there won’t be any conventions held and kids are out of school.
• Book components as early as you can; our Cirque de Soleil tickets were twice the cost of our friends’ because we decided to join them at the show a few days before we left. Alternatively, search for last minute deals at hotels or shows that aren’t as popular if you aren’t particular about where you stay or what you see.
• Sometimes a package can be cheaper; we bundled airfare and hotel for four nights for just a tick over $1000 for a regular non strip view. Rack rate for the suite we were upgraded (because of status on our airline) was 2k a night!
• Look into your travel loyalty programs for discounts and specials, Las Vegas resorts partner with cruise lines, airlines, credit cards and even your casino at home with offers that will be better than rack rates and you may be able to use your rewards.
• Take note of “resort fees” when booking hotels. Every place charges them now and they can add $50-100 per night and they aren’t payable with rewards points and they aren’t usually comped for gamblers. That’s cash (or credit card) you’ll need to pay.
• The sphere is a fascinating new attraction that creates a “view” where there might not have been one before. Some resorts are on it, and Sphere view rooms are selling at a premium. But it can’t hurt to ask, if it’s not busy, you might get a complimentary upgrade.
• - if you don’t have a sphere view the best places to see it are to walk into the parking garage at the Wynn and go to the roof; the pedestrian bridge near the Venetian; ride on the High Roller, a slow moving Ferris wheel attraction.
• Ride share is popular in LV, and riding can be less expensive than cabs, although during “surge” times cabs may be cheaper. All rides can drop off at the “circle” but cabs can come right up to the curb of your hotel for pick ups too. If using a ride share app, pay attention to the ride share pick up location at your resort, it’s usually off a side entrance or along a side road, not in the drop off circle of the hotel.
• Casino food courts offer the most inexpensive food on the strip. But expect to pay “airport” prices, not food court at home prices.
• Getting off the strip will find restaurants with better specials. Downtown (Fremont St area) has older resorts and restaurants with advertisements for $18.95 prime rib and anyone over 350 pounds “eats free” at one restaurant I can’t vouch for the quality of either place because as pescatarian more than 200 pounds under the limit, I didn’t try either!
• There are loads of entertaining things to do in Vegas for free or cheap; the fountains at the Bellagio, walk and gawk the lobbies of all the big resorts (especially at Christmas time), visit the Fremont St “experience” with free buskers, and live bands, shops and free dinner (for anyone over 350 pounds)!
• There are other paid attractions worth visiting; Area 15 Meow Wolf Vegas art installation and puzzle rooms, Neon Graveyard, and Museum of llusions. Walking away from the more corporate “Fremont St Experience” (think Times Square without the open container law) You’ll see some of the older hotels and a fun attraction call the The Downtown Container Park. This fun shopping and entertainment arcade features an audio animatronic fire breathing mantis and several local art galleries and small local food shops. (Watch your back, bicycle and hover board groups that race around the area and collect “tips” and the area is popular with protestors and folks living on vacant lots.)