Roadtripping

Georgia: A lesson for first-time campers

If you have never camped out, never pitched a tent or made dinner over a campfire or worried what critter was making noise outside your tent, you might find the prospect of camping for the first time a little intimidating.

Georgia State Parks has a way to ease novices into the camping life. Six state campgrounds are offering the First-Time Camper Program, complete with the use of gear and a Camping 101 lesson.

Here’s the deal: For $45, first-time campers (anyone who has never camped in a Georgia State Park) get two nights in a campground, gear borrowed from REI (six-person tent, four inflatable sleeping pads, chairs, camp stove and more), help from park staff in setting up the tent and making a campfire, and a camping lesson. Cost of a staying at one of these campgrounds is usually $25-$29 a night, so the program is a saving on a two-night camping fee already.

The parks are A.H. Stephens State Park in Crawfordville, Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, James H. Floyd State Park near Rome, Reed Bingham State Park in Adel, Skidaway Island State Park in Savannah and Victoria Bryant State Park near Lavonia.

No dogs allowed in the first-timer program.

Reservations are required and can be made by calling the individual parks or the program coordinator, Cindy Reittinger, at 404-657-0029.  Park telephone numbers and details of the program are posted here.

 

Intercontinental will develop hotels for healthier traveling

For roadtrippers who struggle to exercise and eat healthy while traveling, here’s good news.

InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns Holiday Inn, Candlewood and other chains, on Tuesday announced it will launch a new chain with hotels that will have more space and possibly even exercise equipment in rooms, a large gym, and a marketplace where guests can purchase smoothies, salads and other healthy food.

The first hotel in the Even chain will open early next year, the company said.

For those of us who don’t do so well at healthy travel, this means we’ll have one less excuse.

Read the full story here.

 

A look at new St. Regis Bal Harbour

At the beginning of the year, Forbes magazine listed what it said were the 10 most anticipated hotel openings of 2012. The first and the last on the list were in Miami, and on Sunday, I got a tour of the first, the St. Regis in Bal Harbour.

The St. Regis, on Collins Avenue immediately across from Bal Harbour Shops, opened a month ago
with 243 rooms in the hotel plus two residence towers. The hotel’s fanciest restaurant is J&G Grill, by Jean-Georges Vongerichten, offering Peekytoe crab cake, black truffle pizzas, roasted grouper, and grilled veal chop. The 14,000-square-foot spa (and bathroom amenities) are by Remede. The complex has 1,000 feet of oceanfront beach, two pools and cabanas that run $500+ a day.

Forbes chose the St. Regis, in part, for its glam ambiance. It was hard not to be dazzled by the décor, especially the high-ceilinged lobby with its upside-down-rosebud chandeliers of rock crystal, the faceted mirror walls, and the elegant wine vault that is part of the lobby bar.

Standard rooms run $400-$800; suites run well into four figures or more. Every room has an ocean view from a balcony of about 200 square feet or larger (the presidential suite has a 1,200-square-foot balcony).  Marc Rapp, the butler who gave me and another journalist the tour, said the allure of the balconies, with their lounge chairs plus table and chairs, is such that a higher-than-usual percentage of guests order room-service meals. Looking at the view of palm-lined sand and dramatically green water, I could see why. 

The other Miami hotel on the Forbes list is the James Royal Palm, a renovation of the historic Royal Palm hotel, scheduled to open at the end of 2012. Click here for the complete list.