MUSKOKA – The magic of Muskoka comes in a shiny, bright new package at JW Marriott The Rosseau Muskoka. I’ve been around the world and have yet to find a place I’d rather spend a summer’s day in then Ontario’s Muskoka region. I get up to the lake district north of Toronto several times each summer, and the sights and sounds leave an indelible mark on my consciousness; the sun’s rays bouncing off the deep blue water, the dark and bright green trees that arise out of the tiniest moss and lichen-covered islands and the quiet, rhythmic “galumphing” sound the Read more
golf
SCOTTSDALE – From service to food to crazy beautiful pools and great golf, The Phoenician is a resort that stands the test of time. I recently had a couple nights at the hotel, just a few minutes from downtown Scottsdale and close to the airport in Phoenix. And I loved it. You pull into the place feeling special, cruising past one of Arizona’s most beautiful golf courses and winding your way to the foot of Camelback Mountain. The valets are quick and efficient and friendly, even if you arrive in an Uber driver’s Hyundai instead of a Porsche 911 convertible. Read more
We lost Prince and Glenn Frey of The Eagles and Leonard Cohen. And a certain Twitter-loving business guy of mixed intelligence got elected president of the U.S. But there were some great things for me in the year in travel, including a yodelling shop owner, a sex-crazed marsupial and a chance meeting with the son of one of the fabled Marx Brothers. So here are my annual Jimmy Awards for travel, this time with an eye on the off-kilter, weird and just a little bit strange. Best Rum-Punch-Drinking-Monkey: This fellow (of course, it may have been a lady monkey) at Read more
PRINCEVILLE, KAUAI – It’s dusk at the Princeville Makai golf course on the north shore of Kauai and I’m bouncing around the practice area on a golf board. It’s kind of a Segway meets snowboard affair, a mechanized bit that golfers can use to get around the course in a different, youthful kind of way. It takes some getting used to, but it’s clearly a step above the dowdy golf carts you see puttering around most courses or Florida subdivisions. Also different at Princeville Makai are the short, four-hole lessons you can take and the $10 Saturday clinics and sunset Read more
Woe is the Canadian dollar, eh? Hovering below the 70 cent line, and causing many of us who like to vacation in the U.S. no end of worry.The price of oil is seemingly to blame, what with barrels going for an unheard of $30 or so these days. As oil prices have cratered, so has the loonie, sparking all sorts of business headlines about what the government should do. At the risk of repeating an age old mantra of mine, I’m disturbed by the lack of talk about tourism. Oh, sure, there’s the odd story about how our dollar is Read more
