Archive for the ‘Inline Skating’ Category

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Alumni Skate Tours in Colorado

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

We recently ran not just one but two alumni-only skate tours in Colorado. The idea for an alumni tour came to us last fall and given our long history of running inline skating tours, naturally we selected that sport for our first-ever alumni tour. The tour concept was a hit and sold out within a month, leading us to add a second tour.

The groups of 18 and 27 skaters and bikers (including guides) spent five days on the paved trails of Colorado, my home state. We spent time in Summit County, skating between the cities of Frisco, Dillon, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, and Keystone – paved paths connect them all.  We then traveled to the Mineral Belt Trail, a 13-mile paved trail that circles the town of Leadville at over 10,000 feet in elevation, an amazing trail that is difficult in large part because of the lack of oxygen. Our next two trails were the long Rio Grande and Glenwood Canyon trails near Glenwood Springs and we capped both tours with an overnight stay in Boulder and a skate on my local skating path.

We didn’t know what to expect from our first-ever alumni tours but they both turned out great. There certainly were advantages to having all veterans, including the ability to skip our standard “Setting Expectations” talk about how Zephyr’s tours run.

I didn’t actually guide the first, smaller tour since we only needed two guides on it but that didn’t change the fact that the highlight of both tours for me was the same. My girlfriend and Zephyr High Roller Devon and I hosted both groups at our condo – the first for dinner and the second for drinks and appetizers. This was a very cool way for me to connect with two groups of very important people on a personal level, a level that goes beyond the deep connections I already had with many of the Colorado tour participants because it involved people actually coming into our home.

In fact, sometimes as guides we run a tour, have a great time, and let loose a sigh of relief when the tour is done. Some of the tours require a lot of work hours, after all. Having people over to my home, though, really made me realize what Zephyr’s adventures mean to our participants. This is a week of vacation that most of them had been planning for nine months and which they had eagerly been looking forward to doing. It was also a chance for these groups of alumni to connect with old friends, meet new ones, and feel part of what we like to call the Zephyr family.

My biggest takeaway from these alumni tours is they made me proud that Zephyr Adventures has been running great tours for 12 years,  tours that add enough to people’s lives that they keep returning year after year.

Stay tuned for our Alumni & Friends tours for 2010!

(Photos provided by Marlena Crovatt-Bagwell.)

Posted in Colorado, Inline Skating | No Comments »

Mosel Valley Skating and Biking

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

I didn’t know what to expect from our first-ever Mosel Valley tours. The setup was a bit strange as I had done all the town and hotel research while two of our guides, Sabine and Christian, had done the route research. On most new tours I do all the research myself. More importantly, right before the two July tours we had to shuffle around guides, primarily because I broke my leg playing soccer in June and wasn’t sure I would make it to the Mosel Valley at all.

The Mosel Valley follows the Mosel river as it starts in France (Moselle in French), runs along the border of Luxembourg, and then into Germany where it ultimately flows into the Rhine River at Koblenz. It is a beautiful valley known for its winding curves, small quaint towns, and steep vineyard-covered hillsides.

For us, the Mosel is also the location of an incredible paved bike path that runs from Thionville in France – on both sides of the river for a total distance of 535.5 kilometers – down to Koblenz.

The really cool thing about the Mosel bike path for me as a tour organizer is that we can pick which side of the river offers the best skating and biking and use that path. Christian and Sabine during the tour research divided the entire route into segments based on the many bridges, scouted the path on each side, and chose the best path for our participants. During the tour, participants didn’t need any “route directions” other than one of three items: skate on the left, skate on the right, or cross the bridge to the other side. It was a perfect system.

We had a total of 50 participants in two tours last month and 40 of these skaters and bikers were Zephyr alumni. These groups have had experience with every skating and biking tour we offer. Yet, the excellent hotels, beautiful scenery, and very good bike paths garnered comments from this group:

  • Loved it! The skating was superb, the hotels great, the food was nice and the group was fun.
  • Breathtaking scenery in Germany. I had no idea Germany was so beautiful. The images of the hills and vineyards come back to me in wonderful unexpected moments.
  • Everything was so well-planned, organized, pleasant, convenient and fun! Very little stress about the route compared to other trips. I hope this one stays on the schedule for a long time.
  • We voted and this is now one of our favorite international trips and we would do it again.
  • It was one of our best ever: the folks we were with, the terrain, the boat ride. and the towns we got to sightsee in. Everything was superb.
  • In one word–fantastic.
  • Please keep this trip on the books. All skaters and bikers should have the opportunity to savor what we all did this year.
  • To all at Zephyr, thank you for providing me with a lifetime of memories.

Keep in mind, those are comments from some very well-traveled Zephyr alumni. I consistently heard comments like “we’ll come back on this trip again”, “this was our favorite trip”, and “this beats Switzerland and The Netherlands”.

And my broken leg? My outstanding guides covered for me on the first tour with Sabine, Christian, and Terry handling all the tour and pre-tour logistics without me. I was able to fly in for the final dinner and then join the second group – on a bike with my leg in a brace. Thanks to all – participants and guides – who made this a fantastic tour. For those of you reading this blog, come join us next year!

(Thanks to participant Jaime Rojo for the photos. )

Posted in Biking, Germany, Inline Skating | No Comments »

Peru and Idaho – Sold Out and New Trips

Friday, May 30th, 2008

It is a rare year when we sell out a trip and add a new date for the same trip. We have tried that approach in the past but in most cases, the new date just doesn’t sell well. I am not sure if it is because the new date is not listed in our printed catalog, whether people have already made up their vacation plans by the time we add a new trip, or what.

This year, things are a little different. First, we sold out our April departure to Peru for the Inca Trail Trekking Adventure and added a new October date. Now THAT trip is sold out too! Peru has turned out to be a very popular destination – and for good reason. To stay ahead of the game, we have already created and listed on our website an April 18-26, 2009 Peru date. So, if you are interested in traveling with us to Peru, plan ahead!

We have also sold out many of our Skating Adventures: Idaho and Quebec in August are both sold out and the two Mosel trips in July have only four spaces remaining total. That doesn’t leave our skaters with much choice, especially for those looking for a summertime or domestic tour. So, we have added a new Idaho Skating Adventure to the schedule: August 9-13. The Idaho tour features long, smooth skating paths that wind through forests and fields, past streams and lakes. You can’t beat it.

Posted in Idaho, Inline Skating, Peru, Trekking | No Comments »

Netherlands Fitness Skating

Friday, February 29th, 2008

It is amazing this is my 17th posting on the Zephyr Adventures Blog and the first one about our Netherlands Skating Adventure.

We have been running our Netherlands skate tour since 1997. It was our very first tour location and the only location back in that first year. I still remember wondering whether the concept of skating through the Netherlands on inline skates would work. Eleven years later, the success has been proven. This Netherlands tour in 2008 will be our 25th skate tour in that country.

Let’s face it. One of the reasons the Netherlands is such a great place for a skate tour is it is flat. The only hills we ever face there are when we go up and over a freeway on one of the small country roads or bike paths we use there. The bike paths are another reason the country is so perfect for skate touring. Every single town in the northern provinces where we skate are connected to each other by paved paths. The Dutch are living 21st century transportation methods.

However, I think when it comes down to it the reason the Netherlands tour is so popular with us is the culture. The Dutch are very open and warm, the landscapes are beautiful, and sitting on a hotel front porch with a beer after a long skate can make you feel you’ve hit life’s zenith. I like that – hitting your zenith with Zephyr.

In 2008, we have made a few changes to our Netherlands tour. First off, we changed our route so we skate directly from Amsterdam to our first hotel in the countryside. This eliminates a shuttle and will also give our skaters, I am sure, a sense of major accomplishment the first day. We even get to use a ferry to cross a canal on our way out of the city.

Second, this tour is a Fitness Tour, designed for intermediate and better skaters. Some participants will be on racing skates but most will be just regular skaters who like to go long and steadily. If you have never skated in a peloton skating pack but would like to try, this is your opportunity.

Finally, we are working hard to get Canadian skating legend Barry Publow on the trip as a guest guide. Barry was originally signed up to join us but had to cancel last fall. In the interim, I made other plans and we now have two great Zephyr guides on this trip, one Dutch (Irene) and one American (Andrea). After hearing from Barry just this week he is now available again, I agreed with him he will be our third guide on the trip if we hit 17 participants. We are at nine now and I hope with Barry’s planned participation we will hit 17 or more.

Barry skated for the Canadian national team and runs a speed skating website, www.breakawayskate.com. More importantly, he is known as one of the best technicians in the skating world. If you want to learn how to double push, Barry is your guy. You’ll have that opportunity on our Netherlands tour as Barry teaches formal clinics in the morning and gives you tips during the days of skating.

Come join us on our 25th skate tour in The Netherlands, June 21 through June 27.

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Posted in Inline Skating, Netherlands | 1 Comment »

Mosel Valley Skating

Friday, August 24th, 2007

It was a tag team approach this year as we checked out the Mosel Valley for our new Skating Adventure. Zephyr’s German guide Sabine, based in Switzerland, visited the area in May to see if it was a suitable tour location. I then followed up last month to set up the details.

The Mosel Valley, created by the Mosel River, actually starts in France, runs along Luxembourg, and then heads into Germany. It is known as a vacation area, for its wines, and more recently for the 535.5 kilometers of paved trail running along both sides of the river!

I must say, Sabine and her family got the best of this deal. Sabine, her fiancée Christian (who also guides for Zephyr), and her daughter Luisa made a skating vacation of their trip to the Mosel in May. And skating is pretty much what they did. I’ll let Sabine explain it to you, in her typical email fashion:

“We had 5 days of great skating! We were skating every day. Luisa was skating around 200km, and take a day off. She was a good exemple, like a typical Zephyr Tourist… ( her speed, and how often she wand to take a time out). We were skating around 250km.Very nice scenery. The streets are all to skate. Most of them are very good. The towns are nice and some of them are really beautiful. The people were very friendly! It’s a good place for a Zephyr tour!”

Since Sabine had already checked out the skating, my girlfriend Devon and I were left with the organizational details! We checked out hotels, restaurants, transportation options – and of course got in some skating, too.

The Mosel Valley is beautiful. The river has cut a path through the hills, so both banks of the river rise up above the valley floor. Wine has become a major industry in the area and vineyards cover both banks for much of the valley’s length. Cute German towns are spaced about 5-10 kilometers apart, making for nice destinations on the routes.

I think three unique items make this a wonderful skate tour. First, the Germans have done an amazing job at creating the paths that line the river. For much of the time, the trails are separate bike paths that run through fields or vineyards. Sometimes the paths are small side roads and at other times they are simply marked lanes on the side of a road. The nice thing is that with a trail on both sides of the river, we use the many bridges to cross back and forth so we can pick the best skating surfaces the whole way.

The second thing I really like about this trip are the “shuttling” options. Because we will essentially skate or bike in a linear path along the river from France to Germany (neither the river nor the trails are at all straight), the Long Routes each day will go from hotel to hotel. That means the Short and Medium Routes will require a shuttle. But instead of simply having a van shuttle, we use a combination of our van, the local train system, and ferry boats that ply the river to get people to and from the best skating parts of each day. It really adds a nice cultural twist to the tour.

Finally, I love that this tour involves three countries. We meet you in Thionville, France and spend the first night in Remich, Luxembourg before heading into Germany. It is a great mix – and if you like wine, so much the better!

We will run two tours next year in Germany and I am confident they will be full by October 31. Come join us July 13-19 or July 20-26 next year!

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Posted in Inline Skating | 1 Comment »

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