Journey to the edge of the Arctic on April 4, and stay five nights in an igloo that you build. Or if you want to watch the northern lights in more comfort, stay in a nearby heated lodge.
The tour leaves Churchill, in Canada’s Manitoba province, by helicopter or float plane and travels about 13 miles to Polar Bear Lodge, surrounded by wilderness on the edge of Hudson Bay.
Travelers can explore the area by dogsled, snowmobile or tundra buggy – the last a boxy, oversized, heated vehicle on big snow tires – while looking for polar bears, caribou and seals.
Mike Reimer of Churchill Wild adventure tour company said this wasn’t his most popular tour, “but if you can tolerate any cold at all, it’s magical … the sun bursting off of everything, the ice rising blue out of the snow, polar bears wandering by. We’ll watch the aurora borealis.”
Cost: $3,250 Canadian (about $2,686; price may vary because of fluctuations in the exchange rate). (Single supplement is not available.) Includes transportation from Churchill, all meals, lodging and excursions. Airfare is not included.
Contact: Churchill Wild, Churchill; 888-326-7325, www.churchillwild.com.
Off-season bargain
Find solitude and save money during the off-season through March 31 at Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona. The Thunderbird Lodge in the 83,840-acre preserve has reduced rates.
Half-day tours in six-wheel-drive vehicles, led by Navajo guides familiar with area history and terrain, are available through the lower parts of Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto. Stops include prehistoric Anasazi pueblo ruins, petroglyphs and other sites of historical significance. (Independent hiking is allowed only along the White House Ruin Trail. A park ranger or Navajo guide must accompany travelers in other parts of the national monument.)
Cost: $58 for one, $65 for two, $71 for three and $77 for four people per room, per night. Tours cost $39.95 for adults and $30.50 for children 12 and younger. (High-season room rates start at $101.) Meals, taxes and transportation are not included.
Contact: Thunderbird Lodge in Chinle, Ariz.; 800-679-2473, www.tbirdlodge.com.
Diversity skiing
The ski industry wants to lure more minorities to the slopes, hoping to cash in on the population boom of Hispanics, blacks and Asians across the United States.
Studies by the Leisure Trends Group in Boulder show that 47 percent of potential skiers who say they are seriously interested in trying skiing or snowboarding are black or Hispanic. More than 25 percent of skiers who have tried the sport once are minorities, yet fewer than 8 percent of the nation’s skiers and snowboarders are nonwhite.
It is a vast market that so far has been largely ignored.
The challenges include finding transportation to the mountains from urban areas and changing what consultant Roberto Moreno described as a “Euro-centric vibe” at ski resorts that makes some minorities feel unwelcome.
Moreno, a former ski patroller who owns Denver-based Moreno &Co., last year founded the group Alpino, which gives Denver-area minority kids a chance to ski and snowboard at Colorado ski areas.
Pirate museum
Pat Croce, former president and part-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team, wielded a replica pirate’s sword for “ribbon slashing” festivities to open his pirate museum in the Florida Keys.
The Pirate Soul museum features nearly 500 authentic artifacts, many from Croce’s private collection, depicting piracy’s golden age from 1690 to 1730. The 5,000-square-foot, $10 million museum uses audio-animatronic elements to explore the lives of notorious buccaneers.
According to Croce, museum highlights include one of the only two authenticated pirate flags in the world and the world’s only authenticated pirate treasure chest, which experts have traced to Captain Thomas Tew.
Visitors also can view the original journal of Captain Kidd’s last voyage, a blunderbuss gun owned by Blackbeard, a 1696 “wanted poster” for the dreaded Henry Every, centuries-old surgical and navigational instruments, and an assortment of rare pirate gold and weapons.
For details, visit www.piratesoul.com.
Tourist traps
No self-respecting native would admit having fun at the local tourist trap, but that shouldn’t stop the rest of us.
So says Budget Travel magazine in its February issue, which lists the country’s eight best tourist traps.
They are:
Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, where you’ll find the Walk of Fame, the Kodak Theatre home-of-Oscar tour, the Hollywood sign seen from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and Frederick’s of Hollywood.
The Tonga Room in San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel, where you can sip a “Bora Bora Horror” and take in an outrageous fake tropical storm over the pool every half hour.
Sunset celebrations in Key West, including the Mallory Square show with cats who jump through flaming hoops at the Hilton.
Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in Seattle, with an inventory that includes shrunken heads, fleas wearing dresses and three mummified humans named Sylvester, Sylvia and Gloria.
The Hope diamond at the Smithsonian Institution’s gem collection in Washington.
Durgin-Park in Boston, where you’ll eat prime rib and chowder at communal tables as diners have done since 1855.
Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, a place to have coffee with chicory, eat beignets and take in the performers, freaks and horse-drawn carriages of Jackson Square.
The Circle Line in New York City, a three-hour cruise around Manhattan complete with corny jokes from the tour guide.
Prices, dates or itineraries may change. These should be confirmed with travel agents or tour operators.
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