SONOMA – It’s a Friday night in this historic, beautiful town north of San Francisco. A large family is strolling past the brilliantly lit trees and centuries-old mission in the city’s handsome central square. They ooh and aah at the thousands of gleaming white Christmas lights that climb the trunk of a towering, graceful palm tree and spread out along its leafy fronds. Around the corner the popular restaurant The Girl and The Fig is hopping, with beautiful people dining on fresh, local cheeses, locally caught seafood and leafy greens harvested from the bounty of the Sonoma Valley. A few Read more
November 2017
This item appeared earlier this week on Sun Media and Postmedia websites in Canada. BARBADOS – This island in the southeast corner of the Caribbean has been a Canadian favourite for decades, a gentle, warm and welcoming place with a bit of a British feel and a series of remarkable beaches. But you also can take fun tours on rambling, rollicking 4 by 4’s, enjoy quiet walks along deserted coastlines and soak up the sun at one of the Caribbean’s best resorts. Here are seven ways to enjoy a visit to Barbados. TAKE IN A SHOW: The Harbour Lights dinner Read more
Leaving our hats in the bedroom closet. Forgetting our passports. And leaving our kids’ favourite toys under the bed at home. Just in time for the Christmas holiday season, the folks at booking.com have released a fun survey that shows the most common mistakes Canadians make when they leave for a winter vacation. We’re pretty good at remembering to take our kids with us (no Home Alone situations, thank goodness), some 88% of Canadians routinely forget to take their child’s favourite toy or comforter/blanket when they go away. This is easy to do when one has to remember travel documents Read more
CARNEROS, CALIFORNIA – Some of the top chefs in the state. Fantastic local wines. And a table for 500 people that stretched down a hill in the middle of a vineyard on a perfect fall day. Visit California, the tourism board for one of the world’s largest tourist destinations, staged a truly remarkable event on Tuesday that raised tens of thousands of dollars for charities that help workers affected by the recent California wine country fires in Napa and Sonoma. “I think there are a thousand people here today to celebrate that the fires are over, that Napa County and Read more
This story originally appeared on Postmedia and Sun Media websites in Canada… HALIFAX – This is one of the great cities of Canada; a vibrant but super-friendly spot where people aren’t in a rush and where drivers stop to let crazed Torontonians jaywalk across a busy street at rush hour. You’ll also find a wonderful waterfront, terrific food and trendy neighbourhoods to explore in a city that’s seeing a big boom in downtown condos. DINING 2 Doors Down is owned by the same folks who run the popular Chives restaurant. It’s modern and airy but also cozy, with lots of Read more
