Planet of Escapes There are hundreds of other great trips, apps, and lodges out there, but the 50 winners of our 2014 Travel Awards have them snorkeling all beat. in belize Now geT goiNg. by Tim Neville ANd sTephANie peArsoN 52 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE OUTSIDEONLINE.COM 53 87°55’51.74”W 51°0’0”S 73°0’0”W 54.0000° N 125.0000° W 18°02’27”S 141°24’34”W 18°0’50.21”N 87°55’51.74”W 51°0’0”S 73°0’0”W 54.0000° N 125.0000° W 18°02’27”S 141°24’34”W 51°0’0”S 73°0’0”W 54.0000° N 125.0000° W 18°02’27”S 141°24’34”W 18°0’50.21”N 87°55’51.74”W 87°55’51.74”W 51°0’0”S 73°0’0”W 54.0000° N 2014 outside travel awards 125.0000° W 18°02’27”S 141°24’34”W 18°0’50.21”N 87°55’51.74”W 51°0’0”S 73°0’0”W Tour of Flanders orval Abbey, belgium patagonia dispatches Awasi by horse dispatches destinations Best New Lodge vanilla oil. From $2,100 for south destinations three nights, all-inclusive;columns Lab rat water awasipatagonia.com Caye Winner columns Lab rat FOB Awasi Runner-Up PatagoniaFOB Lodge, Chile Mallard Moun- 1 It’s not hard to find a 1tain Lodge, great lodge near Torres British Columbia del Paine National Park The sweetest lodges are Tuamotu Islands with a and its larger-than-life remote yet right on top 180-square-mile lagoon scenery. It is tough to of great adventure. The twinkling in the middle. find your own private Mallard, reached by a The choicest views villa, though. The recently 25-minute helicopter are from the 24-suite, opened Awasi Patagonia flight over four roadless 13-bungalow Pearl Beach Lodge has 12 of them, valleys in the Canadian Resort on the southern each equipped with a hot Rockies, is a prime exam- end of the atoll (from tub overlooking Laguna ple. The solar-powered $626 per night; spm dispatches Sarmiento and the Sierra wooden hut sleeps eight hotels.com/resort/ Contreras mountains. in summer (seven in Best Beach the shoreline, snorkel at tikehau). Fly directly from The modern glass-and- win ter) and provides destinations night, and, if you’re lucky, Tahiti’s Fa’a’a airport, wood villas come with easy access to high- dispatches dive with whale sharks then rent an overwater Winner columns Lab rat a 4x4 and a guide to alpine trekking through off a nearby atoll. The bungalow with a glass help you explore the meadows and across South Water Pelican Beach Resort is floor panel and watch 600,000-acre park how- mountain streams. Caye, BelizeFOB one of just three on angelfish swim past. destinations ever you choose, be it In winter, the eastern There are hundreds of the island and has eight dispatches on a rigorous hike to look slopes fill up with powder beautiful cayes along 1sandydispatches cottages, four Best Foodie for a nandu (an ostrich- for backcountry skiing Belize’s Caribbean coast. kayaks, and acolumns sister propLab rat - Destination like bird) or a horseback along the lonely Alberta Our pick is South Water erty on the mainland— destinations destinations ride through the park’s border. From US$1,700 Caye, east of Dangriga— which makes transfers columns Winner Lab rat rugged hills. Come home for four days, a guide, a 15-acre island inside the easy (from $369; pelicancolumns Lab rat to feast on scallop car- and all meals; canadian country’s largest marine FOB beachbelize.com). Flanders pac cio or salmon with adventurecompany.com reserve. You can paddle and Wallonia,FOB FOB Belgium Runner-Up 1 Most European tours 1 1focus on Italy’s Chianti Strategy Tikehau Atoll, Get There First Tahiti or France’s Beaujolais. Central Asia is largely off the tourist map due to security issues. but one coun- Sometimes called the That leaves Europe’s beer try is safe and primed to break out: Kazakhstan. “There are deserts, forests, and Pink Sand Island because capital—not to mention mountains, and much of it is empty,” says Kazakh climberd enis Urubko. whether it’s of the color of its shores, meals like wild boar and mountain-biking 10,000-foot Tien shan passes, searching for snow leopards in the Aksu-Zhabagly Nature reserve, or floating thei li river, there’s enough adventure Tikehau isn’t a beach so venison for dinner, cro- to keep you busy for months. go with one of world expeditions’ 15-day mountain- much as a ring of them— quettes for lunch, and, of biking trips (from $4,190; worldexpeditions.com). a Tahitian atoll in the course, a waffle or eight RATH. TONY CORNFORD-MATHESON; ALISON WAELE/CORBIS; TIM DE (2); PATAGONIA AWASI OF COURTESY LEFT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE STOCK. GRABOWSKI/GALLERY MIKKEL PAGES: PREVIOUS 54 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 51°0’0”S 73°0’0”W 125.0000° W 18°02’27”S 141°24’34”W 18°0’50. 2014 outside travel awards 125.0000° W 18°02’27”S 141°24’34”W 18°0’50.21”N running the dolomites The inn of the Five graces, santa Fe FOOD ghernacia seven days; holimites K hut .com). You’ll combine the at breakfast—for the gulf best of the Alta Via 1—a rest of us. The guides at Coast classic north-south trail Massachusetts-based oyster through the heart of the Ciclismo Classico Dolomites—and the stitched together a more rugged Alta Via 2, ; HERBERT LEHMANN/STOC ; HERBERT nine-day, 250-mile spin a five-stage, 75-mile through Flanders and route on singletrack. Best Guide: FAMILY holimites Wallonia that takes you biglakeguideservice.com), You’ll cruise through dispatches OF past World War II sites, where you can cast for alpine valleys in Fanes- Kasey Austin, moody castles, and the and gloriously irrever- redfish and then blacken Sennes-Braies National Austin canals of Bruges, with ent foodies in America. it on the grill. Park and stay in places Adventures dispatches destinations courtesy dispatches TURF: yellowstone and plenty of stops along the For a DIY gourmand’s like the Ghernacia hut, grand Teton National way at places like Orval ramble, there’s no place Best Trail Running which serves hot homecolumns - Lab rat parks; Alaska, south Abbey, one of just ten better than Louisiana. destinations made tortes. dakota, south America, destinations Trappist breweries left Start at Lake Charles, and europe Winner columns Lab rat columns FOB CRED: yes, she’s young, in the world ($4,495; Lab rat about 250 miles west of dispatches Runner-Up just 25, but Austin ciclismoclassico.com). New Orleans, and piece Dolomites, Italy started tagging along together stops along the Outfitters around the 1 FOB Santa Fe, on multi sport trips with FOB Runner-Up Seafood Sensation route, world are starting to New Mexico her father, Austin- a collection of nine Cajun stringdestinations together self- 1The high desert around lehman cofounder dan Southern 1restaurants and seafood guided, lodge-to-lodge Santa Fe is braided with Austin, at the age of six to help enter tain the shacks (visitlakecharles trail-runningcolumns trips. “TheLab rat warm arroyos, high- Louisiana clients’ kids. by 16, she’d Étouffée. Gumbo. .org). Big Lake Guide idea is to organize trips alpine singletrack, and learned an essen tial Jambalaya. Oysters Services rents homes in areas where support buff trails just beyond secret: “if you can make on the half shell. And on the shores of Calca- is not really necessary,” the downtown adobes. the kids happy, then their parents will be the most enthusiastic sieu Lake (from $225; FOB says Tullia Caballero Augi, Get your legs under you happy.” Austin, also the director of S-cape Travel, with loops along the vp of operations, has which offers outings Dale Ball complex, where a degree in elementary AUSTIN; KASEY OF COURTESY PHOTO; PATITUCCI SCHAFFER; GRAYSON across Europe. Our 1 well-marked trails let you education, can fix a AND favorite hot spot? The piece together runs of brake or a flat tire, and Strategy Dolo any length. Then head can whip up feasts. mites of northern CAUGHEY CAUGHEY Tread Lightly Italy. You’ll find 10,000- high into the Sangre de And she’s funny. “i take C with more than 100 organizations that monitor chocolate Clif bars, foot spires, rollicking Cristo Mountains for sustainable travel practices, it’s more confusing roll them into elk-scat than ever to navigate the difference between green trails, supreme land- an 11-mile run from the shapes, and scatter and greenwashed. our advice: start with the global scapes, and cushy huts Santa Fe Ski Basin to them on the trail. Then i sustainable Tourism Council (gstcouncil.org), the within solid running Lake Peak and down pick one up, explain the inter national umbrella organization that creates distance. Go with Italian Raven’s Ridge, much of it difference between elk best-practices criteria for sustainability. Anyone and bison scat, and eat outfitter Holimites, which above 12,000 feet. Crash accredit ed by the council—from individual hotels it. everyone freaks out.” to entire regions, like botswana’s okavango delta— arranges lodging, airport at the historic Inn of the BooK HER: austin receives a seal that looks like a footprint, a sure sign transfers, and extras like Five Graces (from $500; lehman.com that the council’s standards are being met. morning yoga ($1,760 for fivegraces.com) and walk HANNAH M LEFT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE 56 OUTSIDE MAGAZINE 51°0’0”S 73°0’0”W 54.0000° N 2014 outside travel awards 125.0000° W 18°02’27”S 141°24’34”W 18°0’50.21”N 87°55’51.74”W 51°0’0”S 73°0’0”W Fogo island inn, New- foundland sUping moraine lake, oregon the Baja Peninsula.