Outdoor enthusiasts with a taste for wine can double their pleasure with the new Napa Bicycling and Kayak Tour offered by Enjoy Napa Valley. This combo tour begins with a narrated kayak excursion on the Napa River at 8:30 a.m; then, after a two-hour lunch break between 10:30 and 12:30 p.m., you hop onto a bicycle and head to three wineries. All tours are led by Justin Perkins, a Napa native with more than 25 years’ experience. Cost for this new kayak/bicycle tour is $134 per person. Contact: www.enjoy-napa-valley.com
HAWAII: Waterfalls and volcanoes are two of the Big Island’s most dramatic – and popular – visitor attractions. On Paradise Helicopters’ Waterfall and HeliTrek tour, A passenger can search for red-hot lava sightings, then venture deep into uninhabited valleys where picturesque waterfalls cascade at every turn. Once on the ground, one can enjoy a guided, relaxed trail walk – where it’s possible to fulfill a dream experience of swimming beneath a waterfall. Cost is $699 per person. Contact: www.paradisecopters.com
MASSACHUSETTS: The Prudential Center Skywalk Observatory – 50 floors above Boston – has always been a terrific way to get a sweeping, 360-degree view of the Greater Boston area. The observatory offers personalized tours with its Acoustiguide Audio Tour handsets, with one version for adults (in six languages) and one for children (English). Its newly reopened Dreams of Freedom exhibition tells the city’s immigrant story through new interactive displays, maps, a theater and a virtual helicopter tour. Pricing (which includes Audio Tour, Dreams of Freedom Museum and Multimedia Center) is $17 for adults; $14 for seniors 62 and older; $12 for children 6th grade and under. Contact: www.skywalkboston.com
MICHIGAN: What’s new at the zoo? In Detroit, there is a new penguin facility, the largest in the world. Just opened, the Polk Penguin Conservation Center is an ice-cold, 326,000-gallon, 25-foot deep aquatic zone where more than 80 penguins of four species will explore their habitat and do their customary deep dives. Two acrylic underwater tunnels will provide guests with views above and below water as the birds dive and soar – something that’s impossible to see even in the wild. Tickets are $14 for adults, $10 for children ages 2-14 and seniors; all tickets include admission to the PPCC. Contact: www.detroitzoo.org
