It was a pretty good year for travel outside Canada, with numerous trips to California, a couple to Hawaii, one to Florida, a river cruise in Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, and two weeks in Western Australia and New South Wales. From Santa Monica to Sydney and Maui to Vienna, here are some of my top experiences, fave foods and hotels of 2022. BEST ISLAND PHOTO: The Abrolhos Islands of Western Australia, as seen from my scenic flight with Geraldton Air Charter. We spotted pods of dolphins from the air. You also can take a trip that includes a nice swim Read more
Avalon Waterways
Vienna is rightfully famous for its polished palaces and prancing Lipizzaner stallions, not to mention the rich, pure voices of the Vienna Boy’s Choir. There are historic churches from the Middle Ages and homes lived in by the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Strauss. But there’s also a rich, vibrant modern side to this city, with rooftop bars that blast pulsating dance tunes, wildly inventive architecture, and funky shops based on Monty Python sketches. Tour guide Alexa Brauner, an engaging and enthusiastic art lover, recently took me on a three-hour walking tour that included both the old and Read more
It’s tricky when you invite someone who’s afraid of the water to get on board a ship. It’s especially unusual to ask that person to christen the ship, become the ship’s godmother, and then take a four-day cruise. But everything went according to plan this week when television star and journalist Meredith Vieira christened the newest “suite ship” in the Avalon Waterways fleet. (See short video here) Vieira handled the honors with aplomb in Bratislava, Slovakia on Tuesday, and with a bit of emotion to boot, cutting a long cord with a pair of scissors and sending a bottle of Read more
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. recently bumped cruise ship travel to its highest travel advisory level, recommending that Americans avoid cruise travel due to “very high” COVID-19 levels. But Avalon Waterways says they operated more than 100 cruises this past summer and fall without incident. “In fact, after operating more than 100 cruises this summer and fall across Europe, Egypt and the Galapagos Islands – and testing every single cruise passenger in preparation for their journeys home – Avalon Waterways ended its 2021 cruise season with ZERO (0) COVID-19 cases onboard. Not one of our Read more
Zoom, zoom, zoom used to make us think of a car commercial. Now it conjures up flickering images of friends and co-workers squirreled away in basements with Ikea bookcases or tropical beach backgrounds. The world has discovered that it can do a lot of things over the Internet. I’ve taken to depositing my checks/cheques by taking a picture with my phone. Lawyers are taking depositions by GoToMeetings. Teenagers who can’t go to the mall (horrors) are flooding Amazon with purchases. So, what does that mean for business travel? A lot, in my opinion. I’m a guy who practically lives for Read more
