You can set your watch by it. Every time an Olympic Games year rolls around, out come the stories about over-priced tickets and soaring hotel prices. I was the main Olympics reporter for the Toronto Star for 15 years or so, and I’ve seen it happen time and time again, from Vancouver to Athens and Sydney to Salt Lake City. Now it’s Paris’s turn to take the brunt of the criticism. The New York Times reports that tickets for the Opening Ceremonies, which will feature a flotilla of barges carrying athletes down the River Seine to the foot of the Read more
Europe
The annual Trip Advisor Best Beaches List is out again, and there’s plenty to like. For the world, Trip Advisor users named Baia de Sancho on the idyllic island of Fernando de Noronha in Brazil as the top beach, followed by Eagle Beach in Aruba and Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia. I haven’t made it to Cable Beach, but I can tell you that beaches in Western Australia are some of the best – and least crowded – in the world. In world voting, Grace Bay in the Turks and Caicos was fifth, Varadero Beach in Cuba ninth and Read more
Kudos to Canada. And a nod to Hawai’i, as well. A study by Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection has anointed Canada as the safest country on the planet for 2024. Montreal came second in the world for safe cities, beaten only by Honolulu. Berkshire Hathaway nalyzed the responses of 1,702 travelers who were polled between August 24 and September 13, 2023, along with third-party data sources to evaluate concerns such as terrorism, weather emergencies, health measures, and the safety of underrepresented groups. The Berkshire Hathaway rankings also take into account data and information sourced from the U.S. State Department, The Economist, Read more
Folks in Southern Ontario have some great new options for sun vacations, and a new way to reach a cool part of Canada. Toronto Pearson Airport put out a note on social media the other day to point out several new routes to great destinations. Here’s a short list, along with the airlines that are flying there. Fort Myers, Florida — Lynx Air Montego Bay, Jamaica — Canada Jetlines Bonaire, Netherlands — WestJet Miami, Florida — Porter Airlines Fort-de-France, Martinique — Air Canada Kingston, Jamaica — Flair Airlines Lima, Peru — Air Transat Yellowknife, Northwest Territories — Air Canada Read more
Looking for a great winter/spring getaway? TAP Air Portugal has some terrific deals for flights to Europe. The airline is welcoming 2024 with promotional fares to Portugal and more than 35 destinations across Europe that start as low as $478 CAD from Toronto to Lisbon. The sale runs until Jan. 18, 2024 for travel from Jan. 11 to May 31, 2024. Flights are on sale from all nine US and Canadian gateways, including Boston, Chicago, Miami, Montreal, New York (JFK and Newark), San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington, DC (Dulles). Each TAP roundtrip ticket includes the option of a Portugal Stopover Read more
