AP-Travel Online, August 14th, 2006
You don't have to rough it in a tent in the wilderness. There are grand inns in U.S. national parks and other luxury lodges in wild places around the world. Men's Journal's September issue lists the best of them.
-King Pacific Lodge, a floating hotel built on a giant barge that is moored to an uninhabited island, Princess Royal Island, where you'll find a temperate rainforest. The lodge is accessible by floatplane from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; http://www.kingpacificlodge.com.
-Hotel Salto Chico, in Chile's Patagonia, near Torres del Paine, a 600,000-acre national park. Every room has a view of mountains, a lake or waterfalls; http://www.explora.com.
-Old Faithful Inn, the granddaddy of the elegant yet rustic lodges that were built in U.S. national parks in the early 1900s; http://www.travelyellowstone.com.
-Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, with a Versailles-like interior (chandeliers and porcelain tubs) and exteriors that resemble Masai huts. Located in Tanzania on the edge of Africa's most famous volcanic crater, the lodge offers daily game-viewing drives across the crater's 12-mile floor; http://www.ngorongorocrater.com.
-Kasbah du Toubkal, in Morocco's High Atlas Range above a remote village on the flanks of North Africa's highest peak, 13,665-foot Mount Toubkal. Guests hike 10 minutes to the lodge from Imlil while mules carry luggage; http://www.kasbahdutoubkal.com.
-Bay of Fires Lodge on a beach in Tasmania's Mount William National Park, accessible via a 14-mile, two-day hike. The lodge is solar-powered and eco-friendly; http://www.bayoffires.com.au.
-The Point, one of the original Adirondack "Great Camps," which were built for wealthy New York families like the Carnegies and Vanderbilts in the upstate wilderness. The Point, located on Upper Saranac Lake, was originally a home for the Rockefellers; http://www.thepointresort.com.
