EpicQuest puts cycling tours on sale

by Kraig Becker on

With the 2011 Tour de France now underway, adventure travel company EpicQuest has announced that they have put their cycling tours to Sun Valley and Europe on sale. Travelers looking for an active escape this summer or fall will save as much as 50% on some of the more popular offerings.

With tours designed to appeal to the hardcore rider and the leisure cyclist alike, EpicQuest has created unique and exciting options for active travelers. European destinations include Switzerland, Italy, and of course France. Each of these options include daily rides through beautiful countrysides, mixed with gourmet meals, wine tastings, and luxury accommodations.

One of the more popular EQ offerings is their road tour of Tuscany. The seven day ride perfectly combines art, culture, food and physical activity in the best ways possible. Riders will explore Italy’s Chianti region, rolling through the spectacular hill country, while stopping at local wineries. The tour includes all food and beverages, seven nights stay at the villa Montecastelli, and even a private cooking class.

Alternatively, mountain bikers looking for a more adrenaline fueled ride will want to consider the EpicQuest tour to Sun Valley, Idaho where they’ll find a 160-acre Bike Ranch that combines BMX style riding with cross country trails. Located in the Sawtooth Mountains, visitors will stay at the Idaho Smokey Mountain Lodge while they can learn to master the basic skills of riding, while enjoying natural hot springs, an outdoor sauna, and other amenities. This tour comes in three and six day itineraries and is an excellent choice for anyone looking to hone their skills.

EpicQuest has a number of other great cycling tours as well, so if you’re feeling inspired by the events taking place in France at the moment, perhaps you’ll want to hop on a bike and experience your own cycling adventure.

Wine lovers can win ski trip to Chile this summer with “Sips & Slopes” contest

by Laurel Miller on

If wine and schussing are your thang, unleash your inner poet and enter the Wines of Chile “Sips & Slopes” contest. The rules are simple: compose and tweet an original haiku about Chile, using the hashtag #SipsSlopes. The lucky winner and a guest will win a five–night stay at Chile’s largest ski resort, Valle Nevado, including two round-trip tickets on LAN airlines. As you might expect, being wined and dined is included.

Chile is well-known for its stellar skiing and other outdoor recreational pursuits (both winter and summer), as well as for being “un pais de poetas,” a country of poets. Literary greats such as Pablo Neruda and Isabel Allende are the inspiration behind the “Sips & Slopes” contest, which is to showcase Chile’s reputation as a rising star of South American wine production.

The country’s diverse landscapes and topography provide ideal microclimates for the production of a wide range of varietals, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Carmenere, Chardonnay, and Viognier. Where Chile was once merely a mass producer of low- to mid-range wines, today it’s a serious contender against the high-end wines of Argentina’s famed Mendoza Valley across the border.

Chilean wine regions such as the Maipo, Aconcagua, and Colchagua Valleys are drawing visitors from all over the world, who come for the Mediterranean climate, rural pastimes such as biking, horseback riding, and hiking, and excellent (and affordable) dining, wine tasting, and accommodation options.

Applicants to “Sips & Slopes” will be judged on “creativity, originality, and adherence to haiku format.” Entries will be accepted until June 30th (only one per person and Twitter account, please); the winner will be announced on or around July 7th. Buena suerte!

[Photo credit: Flickr user wharman]

SkyMall Monday: Top 5 things to crush with the Quick and Easy Pill Grinder

by Mike Barish on

Crushing things is hard (unless you have superhumanly strong hands). When it comes to pills, I’ve used everything from hammers to books to steamrollers to grind them into a fine powder for snorting sprinkling over my dog’s food. Whether your dog (or child or spouse or guy you just met in an alley) is elderly, sick or just needs a good buzz, it’s easier to get pills into his system if you crush them beyond recognition. Here at SkyMall Monday, we prefer to crush our hopes and dreams rather than pills, but we were intrigued when we saw this week’s SkyMall product. We’re all for experimentation here at the ol’ HQ, so our minds have been racing with ideas for how to best put this bad boy to use. That’s why this week we’re looking at the top 5 things to crush with the Quick and Easy Pill Grinder.First, let’s take a quick look at the product description:

Our new Quick and Easy Pill Grinder grinds one or more tablets into a powder with the turning of a handle so that pet medication can be mixed in food or in a liquid and given more easily. The convenient hand-held device reduces the medication to a fine quick-dissolving powder in seconds and deposits it into a snap-in cup to make it easy when there is difficulty in swallowing or administering the tablet.

It’s the modern science of pharmaceuticals mixed with good old-fashioned hand crank power. It’s like making meth in a butter churn.

Now, on to the best things to crush.

5. Pills

Whether it’s your kid’s Ritalin, black market Oxycontin or maybe just some Imodium after a particularly grueling Thai meal, it’s way more fun to take pills in powder form. Snort ’em, sprinkle them over some homemade granola or use them to season your favorite tomato sauce recipe. No matter what you do with your powdered pills, you’re bound to have more fun than your doctor recommended.

4. SweeTarts

Why buy Pixy Stix when you can make your own? Grind up some SweeTarts and create your own bold flavor combinations. This can also double as Fun Dip so long as you have a piece of chalk to use as the spoon.

3. Bang Snaps

You remember bang snaps, right? They’re the little fireworks that pop when you throw them on the ground. You’re bound to make your neighbors poop their beds when you grind a handful of these tiny nostalgic fun bags.

2. Grapes

Homemade wine, here we come!

1. Dippin’ Dots

This has nothing to do with the end product and everything to do with Dippin’ Dots finally being punished for their heinous crimes against dessert. No one likes Dippin’ Dots. Given the choice between real ice cream and Dippin’ Dots, have you ever heard someone say, “Oh, yes, give me those dry, unsatisfying, nearly tasteless balls of unknown chemical makeup that were flash frozen in liquid nitrogen by some kid trying to win a science fair”? For too long we’ve remained silent as Dippin’ Dots invade our baseball stadiums, county fairs and monster truck rallies. It’s time to rise up and crush these balls with some crank force!

Check out all of the previous SkyMall Monday posts HERE.

Tweet your way to New Zealand

by McLean Robbins on

We at Gadling are all about the freebies, and even more so when they involve travel. Brancott Estate, a New Zealand winemaker, is helping our wanderlust take flight with their new Twitter-based promotion dubbed the #WhatIf challenge. The winner will get two round trip airline tickets to New Zealand and a tour and tasting at the winery.

(Wait, we have to drink, tweet, and we could win a free trip? Sounds like an average Friday night with a potential prize …)

“Social media, and Twitter in particular, has changed the way we share our thoughts and feelings with the world, and has democratized subjects once dominated by a select few,” said Patrick Materman, Chief Winemaker for Brancott Estate.

To enter, write a creative tweet on the traditional tasting note using the #WhatIf hashtag. The winemaker has a range of varietals ranging from Sauvingon Blanc to Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio. The winner will be chosen based on creativity, length of tweet (get as close to 140 as you can) as well as interpretation of a tasting note form. The contest ends June 13, and complete rules are on their Facebook page.

Five steps to a romantic New Hampshire getaway

by Tom Johansmeyer on


Put the stress and pressure of the workday behind you. This is exactly what was on my mind a few weeks ago. I needed to get away from the daily grind for a bit, and the back roads of New England were calling. I wanted something quiet, remote and relaxing. New Hampshire came to mind immediately.

It had been a while since my last trip to New Hampshire – close to 20 years since my last visit to the White Mountains. So, I had to reacquaint myself with the local options. In the process of doing so, I found five crucial steps to planning a great romantic getaway to the Granite State.

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When you’re planning your long weekend (or longer) in New Hampshire (or western Massachusetts, Vermont or Maine), keep the following in mind:

1. Invest some time in picking the right room: for me, this was probably the most important part of planning my getaway. I wanted to find an inn (not a bed and breakfast or a hotel) that had a fireplace and an in-room Jacuzzi. I wouldn’t compromise on these criteria … and I wanted them at less than $200 a night (all in). Since the New England Inns and Resorts Association website allows you to search member properties based on these elements, that’s where I went to do my homework and book, finding the Christmas Farm Inn, in Jackson, NH. It wound up being exactly what I was looking form.

2. Remember the New Hampshire state liquor stores: wine is not expensive! The state liquor stores have a wide selection of wines, and they’re a bit cheaper (in most cases) than they are in nearby Boston and not-so-nearby New York. Pick up a few bottles, depending on the length of your stay, for in-room enjoyment. Think about it: (a) wine by the fireplace, (b) wine in the Jacuzzi, (c) wine on the deck and (d) wine in bed. This really is a no-brainer.

3. Get a sense of the cuisine ahead of time: if you’re visiting northern New Hampshire from a city, be ready for some differences. The restaurants close a lot earlier, especially off season. So, hitting the local restaurant at 10:30 PM just isn’t an option – you’ll starve! Plan to eat earlier dinners, leaving more time for chilled wine in the Jacuzzi back at your room (there’s an upside to everything). While there are some interesting options in the area (such as Wine Thyme in North Conway, NH), upscale alternatives aren’t as common as they are in New York or Boston. Be ready to de-prioritize culinary and focus on the “romantic” part of “romantic getaway.”

4. Fight the urge to stay in your room: the whole point of a romantic getaway is to enjoy the person you’re with … which sometimes leads to longer mornings in bed and the temptation not to wander too far from the room (hint, hint). Keep the spirit without becoming a hermit by packing a lunch and a bottle of wine before heading over to Rocky Gorge in White Mountain National Forest. Sit on the rocks as the river rushes by, and sip on a glass of Pinot Noir if the air is crisp (Gruener if it isn’t). Circle the nearby lake for a bit of privacy; the trail is easy to walk and won’t draw as much traffic as Rocky Gorge.

5. Take in a sunset: for a fantastic sunset, head over to Cathedral Ledge. It isn’t far from the Conway, NH area, so you won’t lose much time to the drive. In summer, the later sunset might leave you scrambling to find dinner afterward, so choose a restaurant that’s nearby to make sure you aren’t scrounging after enjoying a bit of natural beauty.