There’s an old saying that all roads lead to Rome. It appears the same goes for airplanes and Internet travel searches. With the funeral for Pope Francis taking place this weekend, and the election of a new pope coming in a few weeks at the Vatican, Expedia says global flight searches for Rome are up 125% for travel this week versus the same period last year. US residents are seemingly looking to make it to Rome soon, as flight searches are up 250% on Expedia.com and lodging searches up 35%. For Canada, flight searches to The Eternal City on Read more
Europe
The Summer Travel Outlook released this week by Expedia finds that Canadian travellers are rediscovering the charm of their own country through coast-to-coast exploration. Trending spots include Tofino, St. John’s, Nanaimo, and Gaspésie. Beyond domestic travel, Canadians are also checking international destinations off their bucket list by visiting international capital cities and the world’s top beaches, with Cancun being the number one popular beach destination for Canadian travellers. “While we’ve been seeing recent fluctuations in U.S. search activities, Canadians are still eager to travel and have been rediscovering all the beauty Canada has to offer.” says Melanie Fish, head of Read more
Maybe I’m a little sensitive about my home country these days. Many Canadians are, given the “51st state” talk and other nonsense about Canada coming from a certain U.S. president. But I was scanning some travel websites today, as Canada’s Travel Guy is wont to do, and noticed what I thought would be a nice list from Travel + Leisure, a publication I’ve come to respect over the years. This was a list published in January of this year that lists the world’s 25 most beautiful cities. I looked at the top of the list and nodded my head in Read more
It’s shaping up to be another “Summer of Europe,” with more flights than ever for both Canadians and Americans and a surging demand. Here are five of fave, mostly lesser-known places to explore. CIRQUE DE GAVARNIE, FRANCE The drive to get here is nice. But nothing prepared me for the moment when I came around a corner and was confronted with a truly massive, craggy circle of stone and ancient rock rising up at the end of an impossibly beautiful, green valley. There are jagged edges and smoothly worn bowls and patches of snow in shady pockets in Read more
Air Canada is building its European service for summer, while Porter Airlines is betting big on summer flights within Canada. Canada’s largest airline today (March 31) announced it is adding a new route and boosting frequencies to popular Europe destinations for the upcoming summer travel season. New summer services from Montreal to Edinburgh will complement the carrier’s existing summer services from Toronto to the Scottish capital city. The carrier is also adding close to 1300 weekly seats to Paris and Athens, and is also extending its peak Toronto to Rome schedule until October. (Here’s a story I wrote about Edinburgh Read more
