Four Reasons Everyone Should Visit New York’s Hudson Valley
From Westchester to Albany, the Hudson River Valley spans over seven thousand square miles, featuring dramatic cliffs and fjords, sprawling country estates, award-winning farms and vineyards, and vibrant town centers. This region has won our hearts with its unique blend of history, culture, and natural beauty. Whether you take a drive or bike tour of New York’s Hudson Valley, you will encounter a wealth of quiet country roads with riches around each bend. Here are four reasons this National Heritage Area deserves to be at the top of your travel...
Bike Tour Leader Profile – Meet Great Freedom Adventures’ Cameron Bloomer
Friendly, competent, fun, easy-going and knowledgeable – these are adjectives guests commonly use when referring to Cameron. These traits, plus his readiness to assist at all times, causes guests to realize very quickly that this is a person you can rely on. He is a valuable asset to the Great Freedom Adventures team, and is a highly regarded bike tour leader by his guests. Cameron graduated from Elon in May of 2015 with a degree in finance. Since then, Cameron has been adventuring and working in far-flung locales worldwide. From processing salmon...
Trip Report: Rock Climbing Mexico’s Limestone Spires
I’m sitting perched atop a rocky ridge 1,200 feet above the surrounding Mexican desert. It’s hot, and I’ve gulped down 3 liters of water and applied countless layers of greasy sunscreen while climbing the 13 pitches of vertical rock below me. Time for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My partner is occupied with investigating the summit register, an army-green metal box, slightly rusty but holding up quite well thanks to the dry desert climate. Inside: one G.I. Joe action figure, one small notebook with golf pencil, rolling papers with...
All Travel Tours Are Not Created Equal
Cycling Tours, Walking Trips and Active Vacations That Surpass the Norm Savvy travelers today seek experiential travel that provides a window into a place and its people. And across all generations, these travelers are increasingly seeking an active, engaging voyage that promotes health and fosters discovery through a full-sensory experience. At Great Freedom Adventures, we get that, and we live by it. Careful consideration goes into selecting tour locales that offer a unique diversity of natural beauty and cultural richness. Within each of these regions, a tremendous amount of time goes into...
Spotlight on Bike Tour Leader Hollis Plimpton
Next up in active travel company Great Freedom Adventures (GFA) Tour Leader spotlight is guide Hollis Plimpton. Hollis is starting his third season leading tours and he is, without question, an invaluable member of the GFA team. Guests on Hollis’ tours invariably comment on his ever-present smile and his unfailing good humor. Comments heard repeatedly are: “He put me totally at ease;” He’s so patient;” and “He made the tour so much fun!” His personality, coupled with his expertise in bike touring, outdoor sports, travel, and knowledge of each tour...
Planning Your New England Vacation: Quintessential Experiences Plus Unexpected Surprises
Advice from a New England Native on the Very Best of this Vibrant Corner of the Country Growing up in New England, we spent summers exploring every corner of the region: a visit to small-town Connecticut to see grandparents and drag a seine net through the frigid ocean searching for crabs; a few weeks at a sleepaway camp in Maine, listening fearfully to the humanlike screams of fisher cats and wondering if we dared make the journey through the woods to the bathhouse; a stint at a family campground in New...
Totally Cool Team Building Activities For Strong Teams and Workplace Happiness
[caption id="attachment_7760" align="alignright" width="207"] Microsoft built treehouse workspaces for employees (https://blogs.microsoft.com/jobs/meet-me-in-the-trees/)[/caption] We’ve all listened with fascination to tales of office reef tanks and treehouse desks, company ping-pong tournaments and daily happy hours. (Okay, maybe you hadn’t heard of treehouse desks, but now you have!) Whether you’d actually want to climb a tree as part of your daily commute, you can’t help daydreaming about what it might be like to work at one of these crazy tech companies where everyone works hard and plays hard and is staffed by totally cool people...
How to Train for a Bike Tour and Avoid SBS (Sore Butt Syndrome)
So you finally did it: you coordinated schedules, took time off from work, and booked a week-long cycling vacation in a beautiful place. So are you ready for your adventure? This may seem strange, but one of my favorite parts about epic bike trips is training for them! If you booked a Great Freedom Adventures bike tour, you’re guaranteed to be heading for some world-class cycling in a stunning locale. Bike tour training rides in the weeks leading up to your trip not only feel good, but they can mentally...
Five Things to Look for When Choosing a Bike Tour Operator and Adventure Travel Company
Don’t settle for second-best on your active travel vacation – you deserve the adventure of a lifetime! Here are some traits to look for when deciding whom to entrust with your big trip: In-Depth Knowledge Of the Region Choose a tour operator that has a thorough knowledge of the region you’ll be visiting. Ask for details about local attractions, restaurants, and terrain. The best companies will know the tour destinations inside and out. If they are helpful and informative with these details before the trip, the guides are likely to be a...
Meet Great Freedom Adventures Tour Leader Lydia
The Tour Leaders at Great Freedom Adventures are an impressively talented lot. We’d like to share a bit about them and thought we’d start with our newest leader - Lydia Glenn. It’s been GFA’s good fortune that Lydia came on board in 2017 because she brings a wide range of knowledge, a passion for all things outdoors and an excitement for sharing these things with guests. Lydia graduated at the top of her class at Boston University with a degree in Marine Science. She is fluent in English and German and...
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