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Winter escapes

It’s not easy. It’s never easy picking a place to go on vacation and even harder when you’re faced with the winter grit.

And what are you to do if you’re choosing from Bermuda? We have the sun and sea here, but in the winter it rains, the wind pushes us over and it’s basically…..ok well it’s not winter everywhere, but it’s our winter.

It’s not a perfectly sunny day every day.

So should you go somewhere warmer than Bermuda or somewhere colder? Not an easy question.

I vote colder.

Good thing CTravel is there with Brenda Warwick is there to help you with all of your cold, winter vacation plans.

This is a one-woman skiing machine who knows the best resorts from the East Coast to the West Coast and everywhere in between.

Check out this interview we did with her here on Robyn’s Wanderings .

Maybe you can ask her about out little post last week about skiing in Vail, Colorado. There are lift tickets for just $14.21 a day! It’s true.

Yep about the price of lunch. Ok so maybe it’s lunch with a drink and dessert, but it’s not a stretch at Bermuda prices.

For just $199 a week you can ski for a week in Vail during the second snowiest month of the year ….. April! Imagine flying through the powder of the top ski vacation destination for the price of lunch in Bermuda!

Well make sure you book the ski pass through Brenda Warwick who can also help you find the right resort for your ski trip!

Or maybe you’re interested in staying on the East Coast! I can totally understand that. Heck I wrote the column on it yesterday.

What are plane ticket prices like right now? Well have no fear CTravel is here for you too! Book your vacation through CTravel and right now they have  flight specials for just $258 (without tax) to Boston.

Boston is only about two hours from some of the best resorts in Vermont so what are you waiting for?

Even better is if you contact an agent at CTravel you know they’re going to find the best deal for you! And

Learning to Ski

without you having to stress or spend hours negotiating those airline sites (expedia, hotwire, etc…) which have now dropped American Airlines.

Or perhaps you’re looking for some more deals?! Well good thing CTravel has some amazing Seat Sales on right now!

Even better? Take a vacation for Valentine’s Day.

Book through quickertix.com and prepare to spoil your loved one for Valentine’s Day with a trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico for as little as $358 (before tax).

Or go to Toronto, Canada for $286 (before tax). Want some ideas of what to do in Canada? Well we have that covered here at Robyn’s Wanderings.

Our new wanderer, Nicola Arnold gave us a complete run down of events in Toronto for all of us to read last Saturday.

Oh you didn’t catch it? Ok well here’s your chance.

Have a happy Thursday!

 

How to find the best hotel and flight fares online!

Boston (while running along the Charles River)

“Mrs Skinner do you have a credit card?”

I felt smug. Usually I wouldn’t. I mean who would when you’re being asked to hand over a piece of plastic used for large charges. Especially after they messed-up my name (I’m still a Miss)!

Why was I smug? Because I had already paid for the hotel in Boston (it was part of my trip over New Years) on the online site www.hotwire.com.

You don’t know hotwire? Well Hotwire.com has one gimmick and only one gimmick. What is it? Good question. Essentially they claim to offer reduced prices for hotels and airline tickets.

“Sounds like everywhere else Robyn.”

Yes, I know, which is why reduced prices is not the gimmick, just the substance.

Hotwire.com is about gambling. While this reservation site will offer you explanations about the hotel rooms or cars you want to rent, i.e. the room is in a three star hotel, the site will not name the hotel.

So for Boston I selected a three and half star hotel in the Back Bay area (i.e. central Boston). Sounds like it could be expensive? I actually found it on hotwire.com for just $93 a night before taxes – it came to a total of $359 for three nights.

A little over my $100 budget on my recent trips from London (so Dover, Berlin, Stockholm, Brighton, to name a few), but it was a holiday. Plus I was splitting the price so technically it was still under $100 a day.

Which hotel did I book? After I gave hotwire.com my credit card they told me it was the Sheraton in the

View from my hotwire.com booked room

Prudential Centre (i.e. above a mall). I felt pleased with my gamble.

“But the room is already paid-for, right?” I said to the receptionist.

“Oh yes, this is just for incidentals.”

My piece of plastic was much more for the Sheraton. The hotel then decided to also charge me for the three-night stay.

But that’s not the worst part. Nope. Neither is the hassle I went through to deny this charge. The disappointing part was that the hotel was only going to charge me $288!! I might have saved more than $70 if I had booked directly through the hotel!

Which led me to this column: how to use these online travel agencies such as hotwire.com, expedia.com and orbitz.com (to name a few of the most popular). Who am I to write this after my Boston fiasco?

Well that brings me to tip one: don’t be lazy or too busy. I know, I know you can’t always make a lot of time to book your hotels and flights, but make half an hour to do a little research,(which is what I normally do and what I didn’t do for this trip) and you could save yourself close to $100.

Which is why, to be fair to tip two and to hotwire.com, I have to concede they were providing a service to me, which was pulling together a bunch of hotels in Boston, providing me with their descriptions and, according to the online agency, the best price on that day….allegedly.

Taking me to tip three be careful about these sites, which also compound the search engines. I discovered this as I gave myself half an hour to try and find flights than I could find on hotwire.com (why not try another portion of the site?). Instead of hotwire.com searching, however, I was directed to two of its partners (i.e. to search through expedia.com, kayak.com, etc…) to find flights. Hotwire.com was not even going to do the work!

This discovery led to tip four and my result, which was prices above and beyond what the actual airline was quoting. In the experiment I chose Boston again (on hotwire’s partner sites), just to keep it in the family, and both expedia and kayak were above the price quoted by the airline.

Delta leaves Bermuda

On Delta’s site the round-trip flight from Bermuda to Boston and back, from January 26th until January 30 was $315. On Expedia.com? That would be $322! An extra charge of $7 just to use that service, apparently.

Ok so this column is not meant to pick on hotwire.com. Unfortunately they are in my crossfires this week because I have had to pick-up my bank account pieces thanks to them.

But tip five is watch the small print because the booking site provides plenty of clauses that release them from me actually being irate at the higher prices. i.e. “Savings based on lowest published rate we’ve found on leading retail travel sites in the last 24-48 hours for the same neighborhood, star rating, and stay dates. Availability is limited and rates are subject to change.”

But that doesn’t mean I will return in the future and in fact many of these online agencies, such as hotwire, orbitz and cheapoair.com are facing a lash back from people much bigger than me.

I’m not the only one, apparently, who is tired of being taxed, which leads to tip six. American Airlines led the way by pulling out of advertising their fares on Orbitz.com.  Other airlines, including Delta, have contacted sites such as Airfare.com, cheapoair.com and OneTravel.com to also remove their flights.

Which is seven: don’t get caught in a flight pricing war because now even the sites are fighting back. Expedia.com actually removed American Airlines from it’s flight selection, while Delta contacted them and told them to discontinue the flight listings.

Low-cost carriers, such as JetBlue and Virgin America, decided to be Switzerland and just always did their own thing by listing their seat deals directly from their sites.

So to book the best tickets, hotel prices, etc… my tip eight is to initially visit an expedia.com or a kayak.com

Get ready to ski in Vermont!

and figure out the days that are looking cheaper to travel.

Then (AND ONLY THEN) do I touch on tip nine, which is to then travel to the website of the lowest airline, car rental or hotel to see if they have better deals BEFORE booking. Sure the want to book immediately and spend less time is there. But that brings us back to tip one: don’t be lazy.

Which brings us finally to tip ten: sign-up with the travel agency online sites to received their discounts and best prices. These can direct you to good deals, but again DO NOT BOOK through them. Take these as guidelines to then research on the actual provider’s site.

You will be happy you do especially when you save a possible $70 and can put that towards skiing in Vermont, which will be next week’s Rock Fever. And as always visit Robyn’s Wanderings every day for more tips and tales!

A Bermudian, a Brit, a Canadian and two Americans walked into a Vermont pub……

Menu from Firestones in Quechee, Vermont

Yes, a Bermudian, a Canadian, a Brit, and two Americans walked into a pub (Firestones) in Quechee, Vermont and we ordered three Dark n Stormys, a gingerale (definitely not for the Bermudian) and a Vermont Ale (for the Brit).

No, this is not a joke. Well what transpired was a comedy of errors, but it was never meant to be. Nope, this was supposed to be my New Year’s Eve.

I had planned ahead. I never do that, but this time I had four other people depending on me. Why? Because I decided to drag two friends who live in Bermuda (the Canadian and the Brit) and my college roommate and her boyfriend to a house in Quechee, VT.

Some skiing, New England quaintness and a place where I wouldn’t know anyone was just what the doctored ordered. I had rock fever.

Unfortunately this ailment is nothing that a doctor can cure. Nope. Instead, it is what Bermudians feel after spending too much time on our 21 square-mile island. That and my travel column every Wednesday in The Royal Gazette, of course!

After Delta delayed our escape by five hours we arrived in Boston by 7 p.m. and began our trek to Vermont. It’s only two hours so it wasn’t too bad.

The Americans had already made it to Quechee and we found them ensconced in beer and nibbles at the Firestones’ Pub waiting for us. It was busy, but our waitress was so amazing it made the time fly.

She even carded me! I felt young again. Heck maybe I’m a questionable 21-year-old at 31? Works for me. This was going to be a good vacation.

Even better, we had a little bit of Bermuda waiting for us on the menu. Yes I wanted to escape, but I always love seeing my home country featured somewhere. Well especially because we’re so small!

There it was listed on the Firestones’ menu: a Dark ‘n’ Stormy. Arguably Bermuda’s National drink,  the Dark ‘n’ Stormy consists of our Black Seal Rum (a dark, rich

Quchee's Waterfall/Glass Blowing Company

and smooth alcohol) mixed with Barritt’s Ginger Beer. Any other ginger beer just simply will not do.

I was sure Firestones did not have Barritt’s, but I thought I would give Firestones’ the benefit of the doubt (the friendly waitress who carded me, helped) and we decided to book our New Year’s Eve dinner here.

There were not many other choices. I mean, I love Quechee. It’s quintessential New England. But as far as eating on New Year’s Eve we were at a loss.

Sure we could have chosen Simon Pearce and spent $80 on a four course meal, but that would not have included drinks, tax or service. We didn’t have that kind of money.

The 31st came. We put the skis down, showered and even donned some make-up for the occasion. At 8p.m. we were ready for a good night.

Too bad our Firestones’ waitress wasn’t. Our friendly, first night waitress had been replaced with another.

“What do you want to order?”

Well, hello to you too. Yes, we would love to have a great New Year’s Eve, thank you for asking, I belittled the waitress in my head. I bit my tongue and we gave her the drinks order.

Three Dark ‘n’ Stormys, a gingerale and a Vermont ale.

“Ok, now do you know what food you want to order?”

“uhh, I mean, uh…no!”

She was starting to get downright pushy. I was getting tired of it. She left.

Five minutes later, she returned.

“Ok fine we’ll order.”

That meant our starters. We were still holding out on her. I mean we planned to be there for midnight. We were not going to get so lucky. As soon as she placed the order in the kitchen she was back.

“Now do you want to order your mains?” Not much of a question really. We did. Three Kobe steaks at various levels of cooking, a sea bass and chicken parmesan.

Easy, right? Nope.

The starters came, they entered our stomachs and the cutlery was taken away….never to return. Well not until we’d already had the steaks and the chicken.

Robyn, you forgot the sea bass?! Nope, nope I didn’t. Actually the waitress did.

I remained gracious: “Dig in guys. Please don’t wait for me.”

Drive-by photo of Firestones

“Ugh, mine’s cold. Mine’s not cooked enough,” echoed around the table.

We called over the waitress. Our conversations turned from borderline impolite to downright rude.

Us: “Sorry, but our steaks are all cold and we still don’t have the sea bass.”

Waitress: “What do you want me to do about it?”

I get it’s New Year’s Eve. I get that no one wants to work, but well, we would have spent a decent chunk of change. She would have done all right if she had managed an iota of pleasantness.

“Are you sorry they’re cold?” I asked her.

“Yes, I’m sorry. So what would you like me to do?”

Fly to the moon, solve world poverty, find the cure for cancer, I don’t know, maybe cook new steaks?!

The men at our table decided to confront the manager; I had already tried to no avail.

Manager: “Oh, yeah well I only heard about this five minutes before. I’m supposed to have dinner with my wife of 27-years. Um….let’s see how this turns out.”

It turned out that after fixing the steaks, my sea bass came out colder than before, the chicken parmesan had congealed cheese and we were done.

And so was her tip and half of the bill! We bid Firestone’s farewell.

A quick trip to the gas station delivered a few beers and some wine into our party and as we arrived home fireworks erupted on the ski hill!

I think we had the last laugh!

Walking their way through Europe

Combloux from above

When Bermuda resident Martin Williamson retired his route was not to the couch. Oh no, his wife, Kimberly, had other plans. Plans that included walking across every country in Europe. Their first? France. Their walking expedition took them through St Gervais Combloux and Megeve where they ended up buying a house. The house turned into five apartments. Martin and Kim have one, sold the other three and have one more for sale. Check out this new page for more information on the apartment.

But where’s Combloux, you ask? What is there to do there? Let Martin tell you in Bermuda Abroad.

Our first target country was France using the famous GR5 (Grand Randonee 5) which runs from the Hook of Holland to Nice. France has a huge network of long distance paths and this one was perfectly placed almost running through our village in Belgium.

At the end of September 1998 we were crossing the Col de Brevent north of Chamonix (about 2000 meters altitude) and the snow had already arrived. We were not prepared for these conditions and we knew that the GR5 route south only got higher so when we arrived in Chamonix we planned a reroute via Albertville and Grenoble that should be snow free.

Our reroute took us through a beautiful region of Haute Savoie via St Gervais Combloux and Megeve.

I had visited Megeve many years ago but I had forgotten how unspoiled the area was.

In 2003 after moving to Bermuda we decided to go back to the area and spend some time during the ski season.

The three villages I mentioned are all linked by a ski area called ‘Evasion Mont Blanc’, so named because you have spectacular views of Europe’s highest peak from all over the ski area.

The area is relatively low compared to the major resorts with the highest point at only 2000 mts, however it benefits from a local microclimate caused by Mont Blanc which ensures good snow fall.

As a result of the altitude the villages remained relatively unspoiled when the ski boom of the 70’s and 80’s ruined some of the higher resorts. This is what gives the area it particular attraction.

Housing in Combloux

Admittedly the skiing is not too difficult with only about 5 black runs on the 450km of pistes but there is plenty of opportunity for avalanche free off piste if you are looking for adventure.

Skiing in this area is often about deciding where to go to lunch with an abundance of mountain restaurants. These converted ‘alpages’ are all family run and compete vigorously for the title of best cuisne.

Megeve is considered (by the people who live there) very chic and is sometimes described as St Tropez with snow. As a result the property prices are sky high and there is and very snooty atmosphere. Something that I doesn’t appeal to me. However the shops and restaurants are great and I occasionally succumb to the primary Megeve pastime; people watching from the coffee shop with the best chocolate in the world.

St Gervais is an attractive town which has recently undergone significant renovation of it’s old ‘Belle Epoch’ buildings. Has thermal springs and was quite a resort before skiing (for fun) was invented. However we found it a little claustrophobic nestled on the north-west side of Mont Blanc.

Combloux is a true mountain village with only about 2000 permanent residents and 4 or 5 working farms that still produce excellent cheese. The village sits on a natural plateau at 1000 mts. And has wonderful views of Mont Blanc.

We rented an apartment in Combloux for two seasons before we decided to buy there. Combloux is definitely not Megeve (but it is only 4km away) and as a result the property prices are much more reasonable. Combloux still has easy access to the pistes and if you want boutique shopping it’s only minutes away.

In addition to skiing the area offers fantastic walking and mountain biking and Chamonix, the epicenter of European mountaineering is only 30 minutes by car.

To find out more about Combloux click here and if you would be interested in buying a property in the area check out Bermuda’s Properties Page.