Toronto is Canada’s most welcoming city and is the top 15 in the world, according to a new study by TravelBird. With the United Nations celebrating World Cities Day today (Oct.31), TravelBird looked at the top 500 tourists destinations around the world and then took into account factors that can lead to a visitor feeling welcome, including the happiness of locals, openness to tourists, airports and other issues. They gave Singapore the highest rating, with a mark of 8.22. Next were Stockholm (8.02), Helsinki (8.01), San Francisco (8.00) and Rotterdam (7.98). The next five were Lisbon, Tokyo, Oslo, Zurich, and Read more
October 2017
A shorter version of this story was posted earlier Monday on Sun Media/Postmedia websites in Canada. BLOWING ROCK, NORTH CAROLINA – I’m out to catch the first rays of sun in the mountains of northwest North Carolina. I’m driving along the famous Blue Ridge Parkway and pass a cyclist wearing an American flag jersey working his way up a steady hill. As I pass over a bridge suspended over a high canyon I glance to my left and see an electric pink sun rising over pale grey-white clouds on the horizon below me. I pull over as soon as I Read more
BARBADOS – There are certain places in the world that just kind of hit me the minute I arrive. One of those is the Crane Resort on Barbados, an island and a hotel/resort I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying for three full stays and a brief day visit. It’s one of the outstanding resorts in the Caribbean; a gracious and beautiful property that sits on a bluff overlooking the quiet and rugged southeast coast of the island. One of the best things about the resort is the way they’ve encompassed so many historical elements. A hotel was originally built here Read more
Lonely Planet says folks should choogle on down to Chile next year. But they also should slide over to South Korea and check out Portugal, Djibouti and New Zealand. The popular travel guide and publishing company today (Oct. 24) issued its annual book of top places for experience-hungry travellers to dine in and explore in 2018. Last year Canada was all over these kinds of charts owing to 2017 being our 150th birthday. This year we’ve slipped off the radar and nearly disappeared, at least in the Lonely Planet Guide. Canadian destinations failed to appear in the list of top Read more
Younger Canadian travelers focus on crossing off destinations on their bucket list and embrace the You Only Live Once attitude. But baby boomers in Canada enjoy worry-free, all-inclusive resorts and cruise trips. They also travel for longer periods of time. So says a study by Expedia Media Solutions, the advertising arm of the Expedia group. The study looked at Canadian Gen Z and millenials and compared their travel attitudes and spending habits with older members of the boomer generation. Expedia Media Solutions found that millenials take the most trips per year; 3.1. Next were Gen X’ers at 2.8, Boomers at Read more
