I had the honour of attending a British Travel Writers Award ceremony in London last week, at which Belgium tourism officials had a moving tribute to folks who fought in World War I. The 100th anniversary of that terrible, terrible war is coming up next year, and there will be plenty of opportunities to learn more about Canadians and Americans and British soldiers and others who died for their country. It’s also the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion during World War II. And a Canadian company is making it easy to remember the occasion. Baldwin Verstraete, President Verstraete Travel Read more
Canada
LONDON – It’s an impressive world in here. You can chat with a 10-foot-tall penguin from the Falkland Islands, relax in the first-class suite of an Emirates Airline A380 and pretend to sit behind the wheel of a tuk-tuk in Thailand. You also can get a massage in Indonesia, chat about trips to Montreal and get all weepy looking at giant posters of perfect, white sand beaches in Maui, Mauritius and the Maldives. The annual World Travel Market in London is a crazy, wild, impossible scene with tourism boards from around the globe meeting with buyers and journalists to nail Read more
Golf. Beautiful deserts. Spas. Cactus. Pretty good Mexican food. Those are some of the standard cliches you hear about Arizona. And with good reason. The golf is excellent, the desert landscape haunting and lovely, the spas to-notch, the cactus ever-present and the Mexican food to die for. 53_Vineyard-Wine_Photo Credit AOT But there’s so much more to the Grand Canyon State than that. Such as olive oils. Fresh citrus and tons of other produce, including organic honey. Great shopping in cities such as Scottsdale. And very good wine. We here in Canada may think of low-lying cities like Phoenix and wonder Read more
MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA – I’ve got a good round of golf going but I’ve left myself short on my approach shot. I line up my putt for a 20-footer that I need to make to save par. I really need to concentrate, but the loudspeaker is pounding out Jimmy Buffett’s “Boat Drinks” and the Hawaiian waterfall is rumbling and my pale blue golf ball is stuck up against a fake rock. Earlier in the day I had teed it up at Tidewater Golf Club in North Myrtle Beach, a tremendous layout with undulating greens that resemble the figure of Read more
The hotel focus in Toronto the past couple years has been on five-star hotels or five-star hope-to-be’s. We’ve seen the opening of the lovely Ritz Carlton and the Shangri-La, which I quite like, as well as the Trump and the new Four Seasons. Now comes one of the few four-star “full-service” hotels to be built in Toronto in years. Delta Hotels and Resorts unveiled its flagship hotel in the city’s South Core neighbourhood during a topping off event on Oct. 8, marking the completion of the hotel’s 46th floor. Scheduled to open in late 2014, the Delta Toronto at Southcore Read more
