Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, which makes it a perfect time to fire up the romance quotient with a weekend getaway to a great hotel, or a fine meal at a top restaurant. Here are some suggestions from Skyscanner on romantic places to visit. I also have some deals I found for Canadian hotels and restaurants, as well as some in the U.S. SKYSCANNER VALENTINE’S DAY SUGGESTIONS Skyscanner’s recent Travel Trends 2026 Report revealed that an overwhelming one in two people choose to travel not merely to see new places, but explicitly to reconnect with loved ones and build Read more
Europe
Japan rules the tourism world. A new look at the world’s best cities gives the top spot on the podium to Osaka, with Kyoto in the bronze medal spot and five Japanese destinations/cities in the top 12 in the world. Yanolja Research recently published its Global Tourism City Attractiveness Index, which it says “objectively measures the attractiveness of global tourism cities from the perspective of tourists—the actual demand side of tourism.” This index directly reflects how tourists perceive and evaluate the appeal and popularity of tourism cities. It is derived through sentiment analysis and the measurement of positive and Read more
As a junior reporter at City News Service in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, I was once assigned to cover a meeting of the group planning the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. I had grown up watching the Games on TV, and it was pretty cool to be at an Olympics organizing committee press conference. I had no way of knowing it, but that assignment was, to paraphrase “Casablanca,” the beginning of a great relationship. Ten years later I was reporter at the City Hall Bureau for the Toronto Star, covering Toronto’s bid for the 1996 Summer Games, which Read more
Bloomberg recently came out with nice recommendations on great places to travel in 2026. Among their suggestions were Taipei, Corsica, Lake Louise, San Francisco and Scotland. I’m a big fan of Corsica, a French island in the Mediterranean I visited back in 2009. The food (especially the wine, cheese and seafood) is quite good, the coastline magical, and the surprisingly rugged mountains great for hiking. Bloomberg noted a growth in new boutique hotels and called the island “the perfect blend between private luxury and uncrowded, European summer bliss.” Notwithstanding those comments, I’d aim for a visit in late April or Read more
According to travel app Skyscanner’s latest research, while 66% of Canadians are planning to head abroad in 2026, only 48% have taken the plunge and booked their flights. Destination indecision and concerns over cost are reported as the biggest booking barriers, as nearly half (45%) share they are still deciding on destination, and 43% are still trying to find the best deals. Canadian travellers’ perception of flight pricing in 2026 is not the reality of the great value deals on offer. While 69% of Canadians think their round-trip flights are going to cost more than $500 this year, Read more
