Girl in the North Country - Plattsburgh, NY

A park on the shore of Plattsburgh Bay.This week I find myself in quiet Plattsburgh on the Adirondack Coast (which is home to a whopping 600 miles of shoreline). The historic little town is a quick ferry jaunt across Lake Champlain from the coffee shops and art galleries of Burlington, Vermont. The locals and their signage call this area of upstate New York the ‘North Country’.

I took the scenic Amtrak Adirondack train directly from New York City’s Penn Station, through the Hudson Valley and alongside the shores of Lake Champlain. The ride even includes a free talk by National Park Service volunteers in the train’s cafe car, who provide information about the surrounding landscape, point out historic landmarks, and answer questions. It certainly beat a trek to the airport and being harassed by the TSA.

A country road antique shop in Plattsburgh, NY.Folks often roadtrip the surrounding area, past hilly cornfields in-between cute antique shops and farmer’s markets along backroads and highways, or to see the changing of fall leaves.

And francophiles can even get a bit of a fix because of Plattsburgh’s proximity to Québec, Canada.

Directional signs in Plattsburgh’s historic center show off a little French.Historic sites are marked all along Plattsburgh’s Riverwalk.The Battle of Plattsburgh was won by the US Navy on Sept 11th, 1814 and helped prevent the British from making any claims on US land during treaty negotiations.

A highlight is taking a stroll down the city’s Riverwalk with fantastic views of Lake Champlain, Plattsburgh Bay, the historic center of town and the Saranac River.

Boats docked in Plattsburgh Bay. Those seeking a cold beer can head by foot over to The Naked Turtle with its large outdoor patio.

Lake Champlain is only rivaled in size by the Great Lakes if US lakes were a competition. My little neice frolics in the foreground as we get ready to embark on a Riverwalk exploration.

Outdoorsy types abound here and one can’t turn around without bumping into various recreational vehicles: boats, campers, jet skis, ATVs… Scuba diving enthusiasts can even check out less fortunate steamboats and schooners of the past. Eight shipwrecks — some of them 100 years-old are part of a public trust thanks to the Lake Champlain Underwater Historic Preserve.

A grand statue of Samuel Champlain watches over the lake.It’s not often we see a monumental statue of a 16th Century Frenchman in the States, but in Plattsburgh it’s a centerpiece of the downtown area and a culminating point on the Riverwalk.

And Americans are taught all about Civil War battles, but tend to be less familiar with us continuing to war with the British — decades after US independence — during the War of 1812. Lovers of under-dog war reenactments can catch a week of Battle of Plattsburgh flashbacks each September.

All in all it’s a pretty great little town far away from the hustle of the big city and full of opportunity to get up and close to nature, as well as history.

 All photos by Kim Mance.

Kim Mance is Galavanting’s editor-in-chief and host of web tv like Galavanting.tv. She’s based in Brooklyn, NY and has blogged for places like Condé Nast Traveler Marie Claire,
Travel + Leisure, Huffington Post, and Babble. Kim is also host of the popular TBEX conferences in North America & Europe.
She’s @kimmance on Twitter.

Take me out to the ball game - Chicago, IL

The air is seemingly solid, it is so thick. While the slowly setting sun casts a rosy-golden hue on the summer haze, red and blue foam fingers, baseball caps and shirts become an ocean of people that is neither refreshing nor cool. It is Game Day in Wrigleyville, Chicago, and the Cubs and Phillies are about to go head to head. It is hot, and I am bothered. “What am I doing in Wrigleyville?” I thought to myself.

Easy enough answer: I’m going to my first Cubs game.

I don’t “do” sports. I’m kind of plushy and lazy, and the thought of watching athletes compete makes me short of breath, not to mention feel a little guilty. “I should probably go do something, huh?” So it came as a surprise when I got invited to

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A Rainy Day in Paradise - Roatan, Honduras

One of my fondest and most vivid memories is of me and a childhood friend playing in the heavy, cool rain, on a warm summer day. It rained all day and it never got old. We only threw in the towel when my mother forced one around us.

Several years later, I found myself in what would become another fond and vivid memory of a rainy day.

I had been looking forward to our stop in Roatan, Honduras for months. I knew we only had one day there, and I wanted to make the most of it, but the rain just poured and poured with no signs of stopping. My high hopes of exploring beautiful Roatan were dashed. That is until my travel companion Kim Mance took the bull by the horns (the bull being a very grumpy, heavy set fellow working for a tour company). Everyone was lining up for personal van tours, as just about all other activities were canceled due to the downpour. Explorers, we are! Tour people, we aren’t. It took some scaling language barrier walls, but Kim finally got “the bull” to agree to just drive us wherever we would like, and forego the actual tour. Genius!

Our main mission that day was to leave the tourist town and stop over at the Elfrida Brooks grade school. When Kim realized we were stopping over in Roatan, she took up a very successful fundraiser through Galavanting for this tiny school.

The kids—who had come for miles to see us and get some new school supplies—were fantastic! They were all polite, grateful and energetic, as was their teacher, Darla. It was very plain to see that Darla cared about each and every one

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A Taco Ride - Your Hometown

A gathering of bicyclers for a “Taco Ride” in small town Iowa (photo by Courtney McGann).

Do you remember how fun it was to first learn to ride a bike? Now imagine how fun it would be with cocktails! Every Thursday night, a few friends and I join hundreds of cyclist for a nearby ‘Taco Ride’. Could sound a little dirty depending on where your mind is, but I’ll explain.

We all set off at whatever time we please and meet 10 miles down the trail at a tiny little steak house in a tiny litte town. That’s where you rest your legs and start workin’ your liver. The special here on Thursday nights is six tacos and a pitcher of (very

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Wrapped in a Plastic Bag in Czech Republic

I’m actually not much of a spa treatment kind of gal while traveling. I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true. Sleek and indulgent spas tend to bring the feeling that I’m sitting idly by while unexpected discoveries or local interactions whiz past me in a blaze of travel glory. 

But when a chic former fashion model from the Czech Tourism office invited me to come along on a roadtrip 3.5 hours from Prague into the Moravia region to visit tiny Luhačovice — a sleepy town of 6,000, full of medical spas, dollhouse architecture, and evergreen trees — I was intrigued. Not only because I’d never been outside Prague, but because it’s quite common for Czechs to visit this ‘spa town’, and because my regionally-traditional spa treatment would be overseen by a bonafide neurologist.

Plus, it meant I’d spend about a half an hour in a dry bath of carbon dioxide. Whatever that meant.

Typical architecture around Luhačovice, in the Moravia region of Czech Republic / photo by Kim Mance

A sign in the medical spa sanatorium points the way to CO2 dry bath bags / photo by Kim Mance

Upon arriving at the Spa Hotel Miramare, which indeed had hotel rooms and package deals, it definitely looked and felt

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