Clark Norton
Milford Sound is one of New Zealand’s top attractions. Photo by Clark Norton
I was surprised to read a few days ago that Tourism New Zealand — the organization charged with luring travelers to kiwi land and making their visits more enjoyable — has just launched its first mobile app.
Called “Essential New Zealand,” the new app can be downloaded for free and used to access travel advice throughout the country without having to have a WiFi connection.
Among its current features you’ll find:
The top 10 New Zealand experiences;
“must-do” experiences for 26 regions and many popular locations;
photos, descriptions and prices for hundreds of activities and attractions;
contact details and detailed map locations for activities and information centers;
and ways to plan, save and share your favorite activities.
More features are planned for future versions.
Smartphone usage is reported to have increased by 28 percent in New Zealand… Continue reading
In a recent post we reported on “gramping” — an amalgam of grandparenting and camping — aimed at baby boomers who want to stay in the comfort of a lodge while the younger generations of their family sleep in tents at nearby campsites.
Now another lodging is adding its own creative twist to lure baby boomers: Baby Boomer Adventure Camp.
Purity Spring Resort — time for camp, boomers! Photo from Purity Spring
From September 20-22 this year, The family-owned Purity Spring Resort in East Madison, New Hampshire, will host a weekend’s “camp” intended to tweak the nostalgia button resting inside each baby boomer’s heart — in this case, reliving those carefree days at summer camp back when we were kids (even if it is in the fall).
Campers can participate in classic activities like swimming in the lake, hiking, archery, tennis and kayaking.
But then comes the twist: according… Continue reading
Whitewater rafting in the Adirondacks of upstate New York.
I was glad to read in The New York Times that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo took time out from their busy schedules to promote tourism in the Adirondacks, a huge tract of parkland in upstate New York.
The two officials, who haven’t always seen eye-to-eye politically, agreed to meet each other oar-to-oar for some whitewater rafting on the Indian River. Each was part of a team of six rafters — consisting of various aides, bodyguards and relatives (including Cuomo’s two daughters) — who competed against each other for bragging rights, to see who could complete the river runs the fastest.
The rafting competition was part of a week-long event called the Adirondack Challenge, designed to call attention to various activities in this mountainous, lake-dotted region of the state: everything from art shows… Continue reading
Here’s an idea I love (complete with a great name):
“Gramping.”
Gramping comes courtesy of the Inn & Spa at Cedar Falls, located a half mile above Hocking Hills’ scenic Cedar Falls in southeastern Ohio, about an hour and a half from Columbus.
Boomers relax in a hammock at the Inn & Spa at Cedar Falls. Photo from Inn & Spa at Cedar Falls.
While the Hocking Hills is a popular family camping area, boomer grandparents who travel with their adult children and grandkids may not be as keen on sleeping in tents as are the younger generations.
This is where the Inn & Spa at Cedar falls comes to the rescue with…gramping.
The inn happens to be near Old Man’s Cave Campground, where the younger folks can pitch their tents. After a day’s hiking in the forests, canoeing and exploring the area’s waterfalls, caves and rock formations, the… Continue reading
Boomers still rely on old-fashioned print travel guidebooks — along with the latest apps.
Nancy Parode, who writes about senior travel at about.com, has a perceptive piece detailing eight reasons why a baby boomer or senior would make a good traveling companion. (Although I don’t like to mix the terms “senior” and “baby boomer” — for me, “senior” starts where “baby boomer” leaves off — I understand why others may at times lump them together.)
Among the eight reasons, Nancy writes, is that “We [boomers] don’t need high-tech devices to have a good time” and “won’t get too grumpy if our computers and smartphones don’t work.”
Now, I admit I do sometimes get grumpy in those situations, but Nancy’s point is that baby boomers have lived most of their lives without such technology and can adapt to life without them.
Similarly, she argues, baby boomers still know how… Continue reading
Best Westerns hotels go green. Photo from Best Western.
Best Western — the world’s largest hotel chain with some 4,000 independently owned and operated properties in 100 countries and territories around the globe — is going green in a big way.
Every North American Best Western — representing more than 2,000 hotels — is required to have at least one green program in place, ranging from offering in-room recycling bins to installing low-flow shower heads and power-flush toilets to using green cleaning products and energy efficient appliances.
Some of its geothermal- and solar-powered hotels actually sell power back to the grid. Others participate in national or international eco-labeling programs. More than two-fifths of Canadian Best Westerns, for instance, have earned Green Keys from the Green Key Eco-rating program, presented by the Foundation for Environmental Education.
Best Western Supply, which offers materials for hotel construction, renovation and operations, features more… Continue reading
Boomers explore Angkor Wat with Classic Journeys. Copyright Classic Journeys.
At Classic Journeys — a company that specializes in walking tours with cultural components around the globe, as well as culinary and family trips — baby boomers are the prime target market.
In fact, according to Classic Journeys co-founder and president Edward Piegza, fully half their guests are aged 60 or older, and, he writes, “their thirst for adventure is alive and well.”
Classic Journeys attracts boomers for all the reasons I’ve been writing about in this blog:
* Itineraries span the globe from Morocco to New Zealand, Turkey to Cambodia, Corsica to Costa Rica, Argentina to Zambia — 33 countries on five continents — helping to slake boomers’ thirst for seeing parts of the world that are off the beaten track. (See my previous post on boomers’ taste for the exotic.)
* Classic Journeys walking trips are adventurous… Continue reading
Dog catching Frisbee invites Provincetown visitors to “Stay and Play.” Image from iPtown app.
Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the tip of Cape Cod, has unveiled a free smartphone app that takes a whimsical approach to offering information to visitors — “befitting its image,” according to a press release announcing it.
Called iPtown, the app is produced by the town itself and promises the latest in digital technology. Visitors (or locals, for that matter), will be able to connect to businesses directly via phone, get directions “to anything in town a person could ever want to find,” as the release puts it, and generally locate things such as food and lodgings, shops, and special events as well as information like the weather and emergency services.
Known as an artists’ haven, Provincetown is playing off its reputation by featuring colorful images to direct users to different categories of information.
The “Stay and Play”… Continue reading
Hotel bathtub — luxury or menace for boomers?
One of my pet travel peeves for a while has been hotel bathrooms with high-walled bathtubs that are treacherous to climb into and out of — just to take a shower. The dangers of slipping on a wet surface — either within the tub or the bathroom floor after the shower — are always looming.
In fact, most hotel room accidents are related to bathtubs.
Yes, I admit it — I’m getting older and not as flexible as I once was. Which is true of many baby boomers — a huge number of whom are traveling these days. (The problems for seniors are even worse.)
And it all seems so unnecessary, if all one wants to do is take a shower. When I’m traveling, I seldom have time to take a bath, nor do I wish to. At home, I only take… Continue reading
Holland America ships carry knitting cruisers around the globe. Photo from Holland America.
Having written a column about theme cruises for Porthole Cruise Magazine for five years, I’ve covered everything from Goth cruises to ghost-hunting cruises, murder mystery cruises to psychic cruises, baseball legends cruises to pirate cruises (see my previous post on the latter) and many more.
For those unfamiliar with theme cruises, they involve like-minded groups of people going for a cruise together to spend usually a week or more pursuing a particular subject, including the topics above or others such as motorcycles, blues music, ukulele playing, ballroom dancing or soap operas. The may attend classes, talks, and practice sessions, take specialized shore excursions, and play trivia games and share meals with their fellow devotees. In some cases, they go scuba diving, play soccer at sea, or even run marathons.
The thing that’s struck me most about the… Continue reading
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