Adventures in Yellowstone

Walter Begelman is a printer in Manhattan, and was born and raised in New York. He and his wife, Glenda, don’t travel that frequently—and when they do, they usually spend time in Europe. But on a recent vacation, Walter decided that he wanted to try something off of his beaten path.

I wanted something try something really different on my last vacation, so my wife and I went to Billings, Montana to see a re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand. She thought I was crazy when I suggested it, but we wound up having such a good time. It was an adventure, that’s for sure.

We flew into Billings, and stayed at the C’Mon Inn. It was clean and comfortable, and very well run. Plus, the people out west are so nice and so accommodating, even though they drive down two-lane roads at 95 mph.

The next day we drove to Harding, where all of the festivities around the anniversary of the Last Stand were taking place. There were actually two re-enactments, one from the Calvary’s perspective and one from the American Indians’ perspective. We got to go to the battlefield, which is in a national park and so really hasn’t changed for more than a hundred years. It was really like going back in time—we went to a trading post, saw where the Indians had camped, and spent some time on the reservation. Sure, the 83rd Airborne division parachuted in at one point, so that was a little anachronistic, but otherwise is was a real taste of the Old West. We even went to a local museum, and saw an old farmhouse and a teepee.

The next day we drove to Yellowstone, and getting there was an adventure in itself. We were driving over the Beartooth Mountains, so the views were amazing, but the switchbacks and the curves really set your teeth on edge. I definitely developed a whole new appreciation for the early settlers. I can’t imagine doing something like that in a covered wagon—it was nerve-racking enough in an SUV!

We finally made it to the Yellowstone Lake Hotel, which was also very well maintained, but very old-fashioned. No television, no Internet access—we had to stargaze at night. You never see the stars in the city, but they’re still there.

I recommend taking a bus tour around the park. We saw deer, elk, buffalo, all the geysers and hot springs. The countryside was so incredibly beautiful…I’d never seen anything like it before. And, you know, the people out west are really different than New Yorkers. They really are more rugged and independent than we are.

After Yellowstone, we went to Cody, Wyoming, to the Buffalo Bill museum. You know, I used to have an office at 1 Union Square West, and in a picture of Buffalo Bill, I actually saw my old office building! It used to be a theater or performance hall, I guess, and Buffalo Bill performed there.

On the whole, Glenda and I had a really fantastic trip. We learned a lot, saw a lot of interesting things, and had a totally new experience. I think travel should always include really new experiences. Plus, with the economy the way it is right now, it was important to me to not only see some more of this amazing country, but to spend my money here as well.

I’m really glad we went. I feel like, through traveling in Europe, I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of man’s beauty. Out west we had the chance to see some of God’s beauty.

Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Brian Cafferty is not only a busy real estate agent in Manhattan, he is an artist who teaches painting at NYU and helps raise money for the New York City Ballet, among other artistic interests. He is also an avid traveler, and kindly agreed to share his memorable trip to Peru.

One of the best journeys I ever took was a trip to Peru. A good friend was turning 40, and she said she wanted to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, the sacred Incan city. I said to myself, I just have to be a part of that, so we decided to go together. One of the smartest things we could have done was to let the experts plan the trip for us. We ended up traveling with a group of eight other avid hikers…and we had a blast.

We spent four days on the Inca trail, and then ended up in Machu Picchu. The entire trip was 17 days. We started our journey in Lima, the capital and largest city in Peru, and had some time to explore before heading to then we went to Cuzco. This city is considered one of the most important tourist destinations in Peru. It is a simply beautiful Peruvian village type of town, with churches, a town square, and very friendly people. We stayed there a couple of days to get used to the altitude before we began to hike the Inca Trail.

The Trail experience was basically climbing mountains in a jungle. It’s about 28 miles in total, and we took several days to reach our destination of Machu Picchu. This pace allowed us to enjoy the incredible sights along the way. For example, on one incredible day, we sailed to a beautiful island in the middle of a lake along the trail, which was actually the top of a mountain of a valley that had flooded long ago.

At the end of the trail was Macchu Pichu, the “lost” Incan city. It was everything we ever thought it would be, and so much more. We climbed to the top of the Temple of the Sun; I will remember the view – and the moment – for the rest of my life. As part of our tour, the ten of us were booked at the four-star Machu Picchu Hotel. Staying there allowed us to explore Machu Picchu before all the tour busses started to arrive.

This experience solidified for me the importance of booking vacations with the help of a travel expert. I would never have known about the hotel, and many people visiting the city came on buses, missing many of the things we had seen along the way, and having a relatively short time to take in the beauty of Machu Picchu before leaving again.

Interestingly, my Peruvian vacation didn’t completely end when I got back home! I am an avid artist, and I love to paint. Thinking I would want to capture the beauty of the area, I brought along my art supplies. That was ill advised, though. Thinking back on the itinerary, I realize we never stopped moving once! Needless to say, I didn’t do a single painting while in Peru.

I took a lot of photos, though, and when we got back, I painted the beautiful things I had seen from those pictures. I went to the Peruvian Consulate in Manhattan, and was granted a meeting with their Special Projects Director, who was interested in my work. The Director offered to sponsor an exhibit of my paintings, putting 60 of them on display at the Consulate. The opening of the exhibit was a mere six weeks after 9/11, and many people who came told me it was the first time they had gone out since the tragedy. It was a very special time, and an incredible way to commemorate one of the most special experiences of my life.

An Idyllic Trip to the Wine Country: France and Italy

Eve Kecskes is the founder of Nutrition by Eve. Eve and her husband are avid travelers who carefully researched and created an exciting trip to Europe this summer.

Besides traveling, my main love is food. I’m a Registered Dietitian, and I love writing about food on my blog. My husband loves Italy, Italian food, and wine – not necessarily in that order. We had two weeks allotted for our vacation, and we went back and forth about where to go.

We had gone to French Polynesia for our honeymoon not too long ago, so we decided to stay a bit closer to home this time. We really had our eye on Europe, having done a trip to Paris, Rome, and Florence in 2006. In that vacation, we mainly stayed in the cities. I had done some countryside trips, but my husband hadn’t. So we said, why not rent a car and see the wine country in France and Italy?

We flew into Paris, where we spent two days – one of them in Versailles – and flew home from Rome after a final two days there. In between, we created a really interesting itinerary. From Paris, we started driving south. We spent our first night in the Burgundy region, in a tiny town called Chagny. Then we visited the Rhone region, staying in Grignan. Then we went on to the Riveria; we stopped in Cannes for lunch, and stayed overnight in Monte Carlo, Monaco, that night.

The next morning we crossed into Northern Italy. We spent the day in the town of Valpolicella – where the Amarone wines are produced. We then drove to Venice for an overnight, then on to Florence for another full day, and then spent three days in Tuscany before heading on to Rome.

With a rental car armed with GPS, and my husband ready to do the driving for us, we had a wonderful time. Driving is such an amazing way to see things; we were really able to immerse ourselves in the areas we visited. It was a lot of “get up and go” each day, but we never would have been able to see so much, and so exactly what we were interested in, if we had not customized this trip ourselves. This was truly more about the “destinations” rather than being a totally relaxing vacation.

That being said, one of our biggest splurges was a night at the Banfi Wines estate in Tuscany. This winery is the largest producer of wines in all of Europe. It is so huge – literally thousands of acres of grapes. They have a very intimate resort – literally less than ten rooms – on the property, called Costello Banfi Il Borgo, which is everything you would imagine a luxurious resort to be. We spent some time relaxing by the pool, which was a wonderful break in the middle of all of the sightseeing.

One thing we learned about driving in Europe is that it is very easy to get from city to city, but getting around in the cities themselves is a challenge. We learned that it’s really important to have specific instructions on how to get to the hotels by car. The GPS doesn’t register the tiny little streets in these old cities. In Florence, for example, with the odd street directions, the GPS kept saying “we’re calculating…we’re calculating.” It’s definitely a good idea to get a local map to use while navigating around the city. But the GPS was awesome for finding our way outside the metro areas.

We had a bit of a sticky situation in Montalcino. This area of Tuscany is famous for its wines, producing some of the most expensive labels in Italy. The region is comprised of a lot of hilltop towns. Our car was a front-wheel drive stick shift, and one day while we were driving around one of these little towns, looking for a place to park, we suddenly found ourselves outside of the main part of the town, where we began to see warning signs stating we were getting to a 25-degree angle!

Then the road turned to gravel, and we knew we had to turn around. The wheels were spinning because of the gravel and the angle of the road – and I should mention also that there was a cliff on one side of this narrow mountain road. Luckily, a local saw our plight and managed to make us understand, in his broken English, that we should use very low gas. That was definitely an experience! Thankfully that was the only really “challenging” experience during the trip.

All in all it was an amazing trip. The food was amazing, and I took so many wonderful pictures for my blog. When you travel abroad, you can’t – sadly – bring food back (we had to eat our fill of our favorites, like the truffles we had in a tiny vineyard near Rome).

Thankfully, we were able to ship some wine back. We shipped half of what we bought and brought the rest in our checked baggage. They have some really ingenious products to help with this, like wine carriers to check with your luggage. They are lined with Styrofoam, to keep the bottles secure and safe. They even have Styrofoam inserts for luggage, also. My husband is a real fan of Brunello wine. It’s hard to get in the US – and very expensive – so we stocked up on those. They made up most of the 44 bottles we brought back, and every time we open one, we are transported back to memories of this incredible journey.