Aw shucks, folks; we’re speechless. A new study from the folks at usjetcost.com finds that Americans rate Canada as the country with the nicest, most welcoming locals. They also rated Canadians as the second nicest tourists in the U.S.. I’m personally baffled by this, but a majority of Americans in the study said the British are the most annoying tourists, with 31% of respondents naming them as the most bothersome. Next were Germans (16%) and Brazilians (13). I get that Americans overthrew the British government a couple hundred years ago because of taxes and the high cost of tea and Read more
RICE LAKE AND ENVIRONS, ONTARIO – A deep-in-the-woods garden with hundreds of Zimbabwean stone sculptures. A new winery run by a young couple who refused to let naysayers ruin their dream. Maybe the best butter tarts in the country. And a great family resort on a beautiful stretch of water. I live in Toronto and have been writing travel stories full-time for 11 years, but I’d somehow never made it to the area around Rice Lake until a recent, late-summer weekend. What I found was a surprisingly diverse array of attractions run by wonderful, passionate people with the kind of Read more
NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO – A shiny new restaurant. The same world-beating view. The new Table Rock Restaurant overlooking the Horseshoe (Canadian) Falls in Niagara Falls is a beautiful and tasty addition to one of the world’s most popular destinations. The restaurant, formerly known as Elements On the Falls but originally called Table Rock, was shut down for four months at the start of this year. It re-opened in May, and it’s a stunner. Thanks to the massive windows, you still get the same jaw-dropping views of the falls. But now the décor is equally impressive; deep blues and greys with Read more
I’ve been lucky enough to interview the likes of Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Bill Clinton and other famous folks in my long journalism career. But I’ve never had much exposure to movie folks, so that made Sunday a lot of fun. The good folks at the Ontario Heritage Trust, who are involved with the Toronto International Film Festival, were kind enough to supply my wife and I with tickets for The Report, a new U.S. film about the battle to release top secret U.S. Senate reports that looked at the use of torture by the American CIA in the aftermath Read more
There’s been a good deal of attention paid to how the ongoing trade wars and increasing political hostility between the U.S. and China and between Canada and China is hurting the economies of both the U.S. and Canada. What I hadn’t seen until today is something that focusses on how travel and tourism are being affected. A report on CBS News paints a troubling picture that should have American tourism folks pretty scared. I also found a Statistics Canada study from this week that shows Canadians also are being hurt. The CBS News item quotes a study from Tourism Economics, Read more
So, you want to be a travel writer? Can’t say I blame you. I spent 32 years at the Toronto Star, the last five as the paper’s travel section editor. I left in August of 2013 to work as a freelance travel writer, and have worked for dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites in the interim period. I’ve been to every province in Canada and the Yukon and to dozens of countries on most of the continents in the last 11 years, including far-flung spots in Australia, Asia, Europe, South America, The South Pacific and the Caribbean. It’s been a Read more
A fabulous addition to a classic Muskoka getaway. And a new way to get there. I was lucky enough to spend a little more than 24 hours up in Muskoka last week, allowing to take a quick peek at the new Deerhurst Resort outside Huntsville and also to fly home from Muskoka to Toronto on the first Porter Airlines flight. More on that in a bit. I can’t quite figure out how it happened, but this was my trip to Deerhurst in maybe 36 years. Which is pretty crazy for a travel guy that absolutely adores Muskoka. But there you Read more
