PRINCEVILLE, KAUAI – It’s dusk at the Princeville Makai golf course on the north shore of Kauai and I’m bouncing around the practice area on a golf board. It’s kind of a Segway meets snowboard affair, a mechanized bit that golfers can use to get around the course in a different, youthful kind of way. It takes some getting used to, but it’s clearly a step above the dowdy golf carts you see puttering around most courses or Florida subdivisions. Also different at Princeville Makai are the short, four-hole lessons you can take and the $10 Saturday clinics and sunset Read more
Boating
OTTAWA – Great food. Sleek new hotels. And lively neighborhoods. Ottawa is a city that’s most definitely moving in the right direction. Here are five things you need to do on your next visit. Oh yeah, Ottawa’s legendary Tulip Festival runs May 12-23. PARLIAMENT HILL – I hadn’t visited our nation’s Parliament for at least 20 years. They offer wonderful tours, with fun stories about the history and architecture contrasted with very sobering areas, including the Memorial Chamber near the base of the Peace Tower. A few minutes watching the House of Commons is a fascinating experience, and the main Read more
Like many great ideas, this one had a lot of help from a trip to the pub. James Whittle and Tom Caulfield had hardly any experience in rowing, but that didn’t stop them from recently completing an insane, 54-day row boat trip across the Atlantic Ocean in a ship they called Tempest Two. I was lucky enough to catch up to the two British lads recently at Sugar Bay Resort in Barbados, where they were recovering from their ordeal – and trying to make sense out of a return to something like a normal life. “I think I was inspired Read more
Yesterday I handed out my Jimmy Awards for my best/favourite spots of 2015 in Canada and the U.S. Today, it’s the turn for the rest of the world. Again, thanks to everyone for reading. And Happy New Year! BEST OVERALL MOMENT: I might live another 60 years and not do better than watching the sun come up behind ancient stone Moai statues on Easter Island. Truly the most wondrous place I’ve ever been in my life. COOLEST CITY DISCOVERY: Georgetown, Malaysia. Colonial buildings, old fishing villages on piers and funky, urban art combine to make this one of the world’s Read more
I was one very lucky guy in 2015, checking out magical places all around the world from Easter Island to the beaches of Lake Huron and tea plantations in The Azores. It takes a lot of work to travel this much, and there are a lot of people in the business who make it all happen for me; tourism boards and airlines and hotels and tour guides and more. So thank you to those folks. I’ve been compiling some of my favourite travel moments for year, and here’s another version of the annual Jimmys; awards for just about anything from Read more