Looking for an authentic, perhaps even unusual experience on your next trip to Italy? Or maybe you've already been a few times and want to try something totally different when you visit Venice, Naples, Rome, or Tuscany. Then you'll love these unique, sometimes-off-the-beaten-path recommendations from local staff members at a handful of our Italy partners in The Hideaways Collection^®.

This is our fourth installment of "Cool Concierge Tips," and we must say, these concierges and staff members in Italy outdid themselves in providing juicy tidbits and well-kept secrets for where you should shop, dine, and see the best sights.

What's old may be new again, but definitely not in the world of cruising. Sure, some things about this mode of travel remain the same-the relaxation that comes from only unpacking once, the pampering from an attentive staff and crew, superb dining experiences shared with like-minded travelers, a roster of on-board enrichment classes and lectures-but so many exciting changes are in the wind!

Come along with us as we showcase a few brief staff and ambassador reports from hideaway-style places we've experienced recently. In this issue, we focus on retreats in the Western U.S., each with a family-friendly slant and perfect for summer travel.

Sometimes, it takes a milestone event to gather one's extended family for a long-overdue visit-and that's exactly what inspired our four-generation family gathering in London this past fall. It was my eldest daughter Sarah's 50^th birthday, and she wanted to go back to England, having been born there and not having visited for some 20 years. It was the perfect excuse for my husband, Adrian, and me to pack up three of my four adult children (one daughter couldn't make it), their two spouses, and the three grandchildren-11-year-olds Amelia and Simon, and 15-year-old Jack-for a Thanksgiving week we will always remember.

As the floatplane glided to a stop at the dock of British Columbia's Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort, I succumbed to the view of a pristine bay surrounded by lush, evergreen hillsides. Immediately, I was greeted by a smiling young lady who unloaded my duffle and escorted me to my rustically elegant cabin, suspended high on pilings above the rocky beach. The first thing I noticed inside was the wall mount of a beautiful steelhead-a sea-run rainbow trout that in life must have weighed about 10 pounds. Yes, I was in the right place.

Nimmo Bay has a reputation as a most luxurious and exotic fishing lodge, a bucket-list sort of place for the outdoorsy, and that's what brought me here. I was fulfilling my fishing fantasy of roaming a virtually untouched wilderness in pursuit of Pacific salmon and steelhead—the stuff of a die-hard fisherman's dreams.