WORLD CUP, SOUTH AFRICA, 2010: the inside scoop from the NY Travel Expo!

Only 101 days, 21 hours, 32 minutes, and 28 seconds… to the WORLD CUP!

Straight from Friday's NY Travel Expo...

Here's what you need to know:

RESERVATIONS:

• There is still time and space to get on board! Match tickets are still available, in Stage 4 of the ticket lottery, which runs through April 7, 2010. Here is a link to purchase: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/ticketing/index.html (For an explanation of ticket policies and procedures, feel free to give me a call… 609.923.0304)
• Prepare yourself for sticker shock but, yes, flights ARE still available! South African Airlines (SAA) has chartered 34 extra planes and added flights, around the clock, to accommodate all World Cup travel from June 11-July 11!

AIR TRAVEL TIPS:

• Keep your carry-on items to UNDER 18 pounds! For people like me, who like to travel exclusively with carry-on luggage, beware! SAA will be weighing carry-on bags, and forcing check-in for any bag over 18 pounds. (that’s about a laptop, one book, and a large wallet)
• Make sure you have at least 2 blank Visa pages in your passport. (don't count the cover pages).
• Go to the airport AT LEAST 3 hours in advance for international flights, and 2 hours in advance for even domestic flights. South Africa is expecting over 10 million visitors in 2010

FANPARKS:

• During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa fan parks will be set up in every host city. Based on the success of the fan parks in Germany in 2006, they will aim to create a party- like fun and festive atmosphere. The matches will be shown live on big screen TVs and there will be all day entertainment in-between.

• See sidebar for a full listing of locations and schedules!

LEARN THE DISKI DANCE

• The Diski-dance is based on South Africa's unique way of playing soccer – it's rhythmic, showy, energetic, and above all, great fun. There was a Diski dance contest…learn the Diski dance moves, feel the rhythm of South Africa, tape a dance, and upload the video to www.southafrica.net/dance. The contest ran through Sunday, December 13, 2009, and while only the winners earned free trips to the World Cup, all World Cuppers can join in the fun… so be ready!
• The winner was….. drumrooooll… Falls Church, Virginia's, 97 Fusion Soccer team! South African Airways will fly the U-12 girls travel squad to South Africa for their trip of a lifetime -- an adventure-filled 8-Day, 7-Night trip to South Africa, where they will visit Johannesburg and Cape Town, and even play a soccer match against a top South African youth soccer team.

THE ONLINE FOOTBALL QUIZ

• There’s a FIFA-sponsored Futbol quiz: prove you are a real football expert! Just answer the five questions on the monthly quiz, type in your email address, and send it to FIFA. This quiz is not for lightweights! Tough questions include “Who is the SA National football coach?” and “What nationality has Switzerland’s national coach?”, but if you’re a lucky winner, you get a pair of pop-up-goals including a bag… not to mention the respect of your fellow futbol fans! Here is the link to this month’s quiz: Online Football Quiz

NEW STUFF TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

• The new Durban stadium looks like a big basket, like this:

Not only can you walk up the “handle” as well as ride a tram to the top… you can even BUNGEE JUMP from up there!

• There’s wonderful infrastructure, new for the World Cup: a super-convenient train in Sandton (Joburg), a new Terminal B and a special VIP lounge at Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, and a brand new airport in Durban… the state-of-the-art King Shaka Airport

SKI SECRETS… you won’t find on Expedia

Ski the Haute Trail!

This most classic and famous of all European high route ski tours, connecting Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland, runs along the spine of the Alps and includes 10 of the 12 highest peaks, including the famous Matterhorn.

You’ll ski under the expert guidance of trip leaders, on amazing glacier runs and even, in skins, up a number of peaks too.

At night, you’ll stay in ski-in lodges and spectacularly situated small hotels, where your luggage is forwarded for you, allowing you to day-ski with only a light pack.

If this all just sounds too strenuous, try the Berner Oberland Haute Route, which has the same excellent Swiss Alpine huts but requires less skiing expertise (strong intermediates welcome).

A 9-day all-inclusive ski tour runs from US$2200-2900, plus air.

Ski-in to the Stone hut atop Mt Mansfield!

Built in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps as a warming hut, the Stone Hut is open about 150 nights each winter and has become one of New England’s most popular accommodations. For one thing, the Stone Hut is cheap: just $150 for an entire ski-in, ski-out property!

What else is the allure?

The novelty of sleeping atop Mt Mansfield, scoring first tracks on Stowe's Nosedive (or any of the Front Four) in the morning, and staving off the winter’s fierceness with a woodstove and good company.

Bring a headlamp and a sleeping bag!

And apply early… there’s a mail-in reservations lottery run every Fall, although last minute spots are handed out each Friday morning at 9am.

As Robert Fletcher, writer for Elevation 3550, once questioned: How many skiers can claim they have polished off steaks with a can of Pabst’s sweetest nectar, while the wind howled outside and the temperature dropped 10 degrees an hour? Brother, that’s skiing, Stone Hut style!”

Ski the pass from Crested Butte to Aspen!

This classic multi-day trip takes you from Crested Butte, over the Pearl Pass, to Aspen… through rugged and dramatic terrain!

You should have a good level of fitness and skill, but you’ll have the comforts of a cozy hut to look forward to each night.

And you’ll truly feel like you’re escaping civilization, on this one-way ski trek through deep wilderness!

At the end, you’ll take a small plane back to CB.

5-day Hut tour runs about $950pp.

Ski the Catamount Trail!

The Catamount is 300 miles long, running the length of Vermont’s Green Mountains and making it the longest ski trail in North America.

The trail is interspersed with fine country inns, like this one:

who are experienced in organizing multi-day tours and eager to offer fine meals and complete support services.

And you get to choose:

Take the “Touring Cat” route, on beginner/intermediate routes which use groomed trails by Nordic ski centers

OR Take the “Wild Cat” itinerary using wilderness trails and advanced-only terrain, covering 8 to 11 miles a day, and skiing through spruce forests, along panoramic vistas, and by secluded rivers and beaver ponds.

An all-inclusive ski tour includes cozy accommodations, hearty hot breakfasts and multi-course dinners, point to point skiing, car shuttles, maps, trail passes and day fees, gratuities, and even packed ski lunches.

Ski to a hotsprings cabin in Alaska!

Tackle the 11-mile trail on skis (or via dogsled!) and have your supplies brought in via snowmachine, for a super-comfy stay.

The route takes you over long steep hills and the Tolovana Hot Springs Dome, interspersed with low flat terrain.

You’ll be rewarded for this hard work, though, by your private rustic cabin, complete with a propane stove, a fully equipped kitchen, bunks for 4, and a woodstove. Firewood provided.

You’ll bathe in natural hot springs, exposed to the weather, the stars.. and the dancing aurora borealis, if you’re lucky!

Consider getting out of the hot tub on a cold night to be part of your experience!

This is strictly a wilderness adventure and there are no on-site personnel or emergency communications, so consider this outing seriously.

Ski Tuckerman Ravine and Mt Washington!

Do extreme backcountry, right here at home!

Mt Washington is the premier spot in the East for backcountry skiing and mountaineering. When conditions are right, it’s possible to ski practically 4000’ vertical feet, from the summit all the back to your car at Pinkham Notch Hut.

The scariest and most famous area is the Headwall at Tuckerman Ravine, but you don’t have to be an expert. The general rule is:

skiiers and riders wanting to experience these tours should be able to ski most runs at a lift serviced ski area.

All skiers, though, should be in very good physical shape, since the runs are accessed by a 1+ mile snowy, icy, bouldery hike from the parking lot.

Ski from Austrian Chalets above the fray!

Take the bray of a donkey, a sip of hot coffee from a creaky wooden balcony, and a view overlooking a timbered valley with a small river twisting far below, around church spires and through mountainside farms, with sheep and cows grazing on the alm, or mountain pastures….

Welcome to Taxhof farmstead!

Founded some 500 years ago, Taxhof has evolved from something solely utilitarian into an idyllic place to eat, sleep and breathe crystal-clean air. It has five guest rooms in the main farmhouse and two chalet-like outbuildings on the grounds. You can live here, high in an Alpine hut, for a uniquely serene, and now comfortable, mountain experience.

Austria’s mountain regions — the western provinces of Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, along with parts of Styria and Carinthia — have been sprouting Almdörfer, translated as mountain pasture villages, groups of chalets or huts on mountainsides that offer creature comforts to go along with the vistas.

You can make your own bread, learn cheese production, and even enjoy wellness and spa treatments.

Each farmstead is different, but all offer accommodations, above the fray, so to speak… as well as fine mountain meals.

“All the food is from right here; everything’s natural, except the butter and milk, which is from the dairy farm up the road,” says Taxhof’s owner, and sure enough, we sampled a breakfast spread of home-cured ham slices, fresh dark bread, homemade marmalades and eggs that might have just been laid by the chickens outside.

You’ll have direct access to the expansive Amade Ski area:

http://www.skiamade.com/en/winter/

or the Saalfelden Leogang Downhill Area:

http://www.leogang-saalfelden.at/winter/ViewPage.asp?lang=199

and cross-country enthusiasts can glide onto an extensive trail system right from their doors!

4* at 4am in 4' of snow... Going to the Outhouse

The outhouse was an unwelcome thought.

I snug up my down bag, watched the orange flickers from the fireplace glow on the rafters, and wondered how much longer I could stay there, cozied amidst my family in this remote backcountry hut, before my body urged me outside.

Tonight, I sleep in the cradle of the mountains. The camaraderie of our family is exaggerated by the isolation of the wilderness and the weather, by the clang of our calls to each other through the deeply silent, snow-laden woods. My days and nights are a steady march of snowy playtime, followed by thoroughly satisfied exhaustion, and my alarm clock each morning is the sunlight that creeps above the mountain ridges, to render one more day so glorious that the air is stolen from my lungs.

I am in the heart of the Gunnison Valley.

We chose Crested Butte Mountain Guides to get us into the backcountry. They bought and packed out foodstuffs, made our hut reservation, and would serve as our navigator and even cook for a 3-day trip. They even found Laura, who came along as Patrick (our wheaton terrier)’s personal escort… K9s being welcome on the trail, but not overnight in the BioLab area.

The ski out took us through open plains and along the foot thickly-forested mountains, and, in about 3 hours, to the camp called Gothic, a Rocky Mountain Biolab founded in 1928. It was a pocket of about 8 icicle-laced huts, surrounded by groves of snowy cedar and hemlock, mounds (and mounds) of the white stuff, all nestled in the cleft of the mountains.

We were pleased to find our hut- a small cabin of heavy logs and a laddered loft, a central stove, and a tiny kitchen out of which came enormous meals. We were even happier to get out of our snowy, sweaty gear, and as we fired up the woodstove and strung our gloves up to dry, our guide made us hot soup!

Our teenage set was happy to relax at that point, pulling out the cabin’s scrabble game and taking turns at the woodchop block (it’s funny what chores become fun when done on vacation!).

But I was itching for more, and under the care of our guide, donned dry socks and struck out into the wilderness… off-piste, as they say. It was an hour of heart-thumping, throat-burning work, but we were rewarded by our arrival, way up in the silent frozen woods, at a hidden waterfall!

The contrast, when I returned to the hut, struck me. Just as my body was a cooking oven inside with my cheeks and nose frosty on the outside, our cabin out in the subzero wilds held a toasty, homey scene of ragged-sweatered friends, crowded around the woodstove, with low chuckles and warm stove light all encircling a center table strewn with scrabble tiles, a rumpled Ski magazine, some assorted mugs, and a plate of cookie crumbs.

I’m not sure where the evening went. I have a vivid memory of our guide walking out of the kitchen with plate after plate of warm delicacies, made that much more decadent by our remote location.

And I recall the feeling of shock when the door opened for a firewood run, and our cozy, glowing enclave was sliced through with the wild winds of deep winter backcountry in Colorado.

The nights and days followed, in a steady beat of fires and frolics in the snow, scrabble and skiing and strombolis (from scratch!), and those memorable dashes to the outhouse!

We still tell stories of that week.

Yes, we enjoyed all the perks of Crested Butte, the big resort mountain to the north.

Yes, we liked snowmobiling…the thrill of speeding along the trail….bump, bump, BUMPing along packed-down rifts…pulling off into vast fields to “let loose’… and feeling, as darkness fell, that solidarity in the world that wilderness brings home best.

And, yes, we also loved Monarch, a mostly-ungroomed local ski hill with an easy-going attitude, where we spent day after day straying from the designated trails, boarding through trees and occassionally swerving into a tree well (the base of the evergreens that collects deep pools of snowy powder) which was hard to crawl out of, and harder still to shake out of your neck and ears.

But the stories we usually come back to revisit, again and again, are of our cozy times shared in the Gothic cabin.

Thanks to co-author, Rob, whose wonderful memories of the Gothic hut prove to me that wilderness is good for EVERYONE, even music and theatre addicts!

JACKSON HOLE: a Surprising Ski Secret!

Jackson Hole veterans will tell you that their spot is as famous for its pricetag as it is for its snowy cliff drops.

But not this year!

I just got airplane tickets for a client for $210, and that’s roundtrip from Newark! (no, not with 4 connections, and not through Miami,, either!))

And once there? They’re set up at in a log cabin with a fireplace

…historic(some are the original log homesteads from the 1800’s) yet modern (outdoor hot tubs),

…remote (right on the banks of Flat Creek) yet convenient (3 blocks from the Square)

…and it comes all in a package including a notable hot breakfast, complimentary airport shuttle (uncommon in JH), and even complimentary mountain shuttle!

All this, for 8 nights, and 6 days of lift tickets on the mountain, for under $900 per person!

If you don’t believe me, give me a call! 609 923 0304!

But, beyond the incredible deals of 2010, JH is special for other reasons. It’s authentic cowboy flair starts at the saloons lining Cache street, but continues with a relaxed rural attitude, its music, its endless wild vistas, and its “western themed” excursions! Here’s one of my favorites:

A DOGSLED OUT TO A REMOTE HOT SPRINGS!

Meet Frank Teasely...

He has a posse of mushing dogs, and together with his crew at Jackson Hole Iditarod Sled Dog Tours will set you up on double sleds, so you can take turns riding (and even driving!) on this 8-½ hour dogsled journey into the wilds!

The destination is Granite Hot Springs, where you can strip off those snow clothes and soak in the natural springs, out in the crisp mountain air!

They include a lunch (trout or steak), and make it convenient, picking you up right from your lodge.

It’s $295 per person (plus a gratuity) for this full day trip with the dogs. They do have shorter trips if you want to save some dough, but only the daylong goes all the way out to the Springs!

What a way to rejuvenate on your day off the slopes!