The Northern Michigan Nordic Ski Council has organized Ski & Feast for the Feb. 25-27 weekend, featuring trailside dining at a dozen ski council properties. Beginning with a pig roast at Cross Country Ski Headquarters Friday night in Roscommon/Higgins Lake, the event includes a catch-and-cook-your-own-trout camp at Garland, near Lewiston; brats and locally made Boyne Beer at Boyne Mountain on Saturday; a Norwegian gooseberry dish called Stikkelsbarr prepared trailside at Corsair Ski Trails in Tawa. Cost is $12.50 a person for meals and trail pass each day; $6.25 for children 5-12 years old. For information, call Susan Wilcox Olson, 616-271-6314.
The Traverse City (Mich.) Convention and Visitors Bureau has begun a toll-free reservations service for 24 resorts and inns in the area. The computerized service details rates and availability for the properties in Grand Traverse, Antrim, Leelanau and Benzie Counties; it is in operation from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. CST year-round, with an after-hours voice-mail system. In addition, callers ringing 800-727-5482 the toll-free number detailing snow conditions in the Traverse City area, can receive a free winter area guide published by the Traverse City Convention and Visitors Bureau.
More on snow route
An eight-day, seven-night cross-country ski week in Finland features cottage-to-cottage skiing among the fells of Lapland, near the Arctic Circle. Packages start at $305 a person, double-occupancy and include round-trip Finnair flights from Helsinki, lodging and breakfast daily. Available at extra cost are reindeer safaris, ski school, dogsled and snowmobile treks. Call Holiday Tours of America, 800-677-6454 for reservations, information or a brochure, “Finland for Visitors,” with details on more than 35 packages and tours.
Everglades adventure
Two weeklong canoe trips in Florida’s Everglades are left on Wilderness Inquiry’s 1994 schedule. Slated for Feb. 12-17 and Feb. 20-25, the trips take visitors into Ten Thousand Islands, a protected area of mangrove islands, bays and lagoons where fresh water meets the sea. More than 300 species of birds are native to the area, including egrets, pelicans, eagles, herons, osprey and spoonbills, plus the usual complement of alligators and manatees. Participants will camp on the beaches of these subtropical keys. The $645 cost includes all meals, camping equipment, all permits and guides; participants provide only sleeping bags. Van transportation from Ft. Myers is $30 extra. Wilderness Inquiry offers financial aid for some trips and strives to accommodate those with disabilities. Call 800-728-0719.
Marco Island & The Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau are offering a free 24-page brochure and a new toll-free number with information on the area. Call 800-788-MARCO 24 hours a day.
South of the border
Club Med has arranged non-stop service from Chicago to its Huatulco resort in Mexico as part of its $999 weeklong vacation package through April 23. The cost includes everything but bar drinks on the Saturday-to-Saturday trips; among the amenities are four restaurants, windsurfing, sailing, golf at the 18-hole Tangolunda Golf Club, tennis and squash courts and an arts and crafts workshop. All instruction also is free. Call 800-CLUB-MED.
For its Feb. 5-12 week at the Sheraton Towers in Cancun, Olympus Vacations, a gay and lesbian resort holiday tour operator, is offering a $405 round-trip airfare Chicago to Cancun. Starting at $995 a person, double occupancy (single supplement $700), the land cost includes accommodations, three meals a day, all sports and activities, a tea dance each afternoon, nightly gay-oriented entertainment, special events and theme parties throughout the week. At extra cost, day excursion range from a Nautibus trip exploring the offshore reefs ($26) to the Mayan ruins at Tikal in Guatemala ($255 including airfare). Call 800-965-9678.
The centerpiece of Caribbean Adventures Ltd.’s weeklong trips in March to the island of Dominica, roughly 80 percent of which is rain forest, is the three- to five-hour hikes through forests thick with ferns and orchids, past bamboo thickets and waterfalls. One such trek ascends to a huge volcanically heated lake near Morne Diablotin, an often mist-covered volcano rising to 4,787 feet. The 8-day trips, March 4-11 and March 20-27, cost $1,450 a person, double occupancy, and includes all meals, lodging, transfers, ground transport and guides. Airfare and optional scuba rental are extra. A six-day trip to the island March 13-18 is $995. Other hiking destinations include St. Vincent and Bequia and the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Call 800-846-6594.
