I love a good list. And this one’s pretty cool. Oxford Economics recently released a list of the top cities in the world. The list was based on five categories; Economics, Human Capital, Quality of Life, Environment, and Governance, which are aggregated to create a overall score for each city. Each category was comprised of multiple indicators (four to six, depending on the category), which aim to address some of the most important considerations within their respective categories. “As a result, the Global Cities Index provides a more complete comparison of cities, by ranking them not just on their economic Read more
Europe
The Paris Summer Olympics begin a week from tomorrow, on July 26. And I’m very much looking forward to it. I covered the Olympic Games for the Toronto Star for many, many years, including both of Toronto’s failed bids to stage the Games and then Vancouver’s successful gamble for the 2010 Winter Olympics I also was in Sydney, Salt Lake City, Athens, Turin, Beijing and Vancouver to cover the Games in person. I haven’t covered any Olympics since then, but it remains a magical event that I tune into when I can. This year’s Games will be especially cool because Read more
Five inches of rain in Toronto this morning has me thinking that maybe instead of cool-weather vacations, which I mentioned in this space yesterday, it’s time to look at dry-weather destinations. I don’t normally dream of the desert in summer, but maybe it’s time to look at places where you’re vacation is unlikely to require a heavy-duty umbrella and thick, rubber rain boots. With that in mind, here are some great, dry (not in an alcohol availability sense) vacation places you could think of. The Atacama Desert, Chile There was a pretty good rain here a few years ago, but Read more
There’s no denying it: this summer is absolutely sizzling. If the only things getting you through the season are chafe sticks and ice in every liquid (even soup), it might be time for a coolcation – or a trip to somewhere temperate. The folks at KAYAK have rounded up our cheapest flights to chiller-than-average cities. So you can dial the temperature down from a boil to a simmer. 1. San Francisco, California ($539) Highest average temperature: 18°C 2. Seattle, Washington ($539) Highest average temperature: 23°C 3. Reykjavík, Iceland ($860) Highest average temperature: 11°C 4. Lima, Peru ($925) Highest average temperature: 18°C 5. Dublin, Ireland ($965) Highest average temperature: 18°C 6. Edinburgh, Scotland ($1089) Read more
A country’s safety and sense of security are often key criteria for international travellers. Using a set of 35 objective indicators, HelloSafe has published for the first time its HelloSafe Index of the safety of countries worldwide, based on 5 categories of criteria: risk of natural disasters, violence in society, involvement in armed conflict, health infrastructure and militarization. The results show that Iceland, Singapore (here’s a story I wrote about Singapore recently) and Denmark are the three safest countries in the world to travel to in 2024. The Philippines, Colombia and Mexico are the three least safe countries in the world in Read more
