What Countries Are Open in the Caribbean, Plus a Toronto Pearson Delay Update + Best Baby Travel Products

Here’s a lazy Sunday Labour Day compendium of a few stories I found on the old Internet this morning about new world hotels, travel products for people with small children, Caribbean visits and more, plus a note about Toronto Pearson delays.

First off, I’ve been tracking delays at Toronto Pearson Airport the past few days, and things aren’t a whole lot better. According to Flight Aware, here are the outgoing flight delay stats for the past few days.

September 1: 205 delays (15 minutes or more), which is 33% of all outbound flights.
September 2: 200 delays (34%)
September 3: 156 delays (30%)

I found a nice story today in Travel Weekly from veteran Caribbean travel expert Gay Myers about which Caribbean countries are open for visitors. Myers says most islands have dropped pre-arrival Covid testing for travelers, but regulations are still varied, particularly when it comes to entry protocols for unvaccinated travelers.

My second link of the day is for a good story from The Points Guy at what some of the best products are for travellers with kids, or grandkids. There’s so much out there, so this is a great starting point if you’re hitting the road with little ones any time soon.

Yahoo Canada has a nice compendium of great places to eat, relax and stay the night in Toronto. The latter includes The Royal York Hotel and the Hazelton Hotel, two personal favourites.

Speaking of Toronto, I spotted a story in the St. Albert Gazette about how the Kimpton St. George hotel in Toronto (Bloor Street West) now has “doggy bathrooms” that smaller dogs can use in a guest’s room. Sounds like a great idea for dog lovers.

San Francisco can be infamously cool in summer, but a website called insidehook says some city tourism folks are thinking that could be a selling point. With heat waves all over the world, it seems, perhaps selling a city with “natural air conditioning” isn’t a bad concept. As the saying goes, “When life gives you lemons…..”

Finally, I found a story at Forbes.com today that lays out dozens of new hotels coming to destinations around the world, including New York City, Nashville, Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Cancun, Paris, Madrid, Edinburgh, Milan, Bali and Kyoto.