A cool hotel in a fabulous part of Manhattan. A new, educational attraction from National Geographic. And a thoroughly enjoyable boat ride around the southern tip of one of the world’s great cities. A weekend in New York City is never a bad thing. This past weekend was better than most, owing to great weather (around 12 Celsius on Saturday) you wouldn’t normally expect in January. My wife and I had two nights at the recently opened The Frederick Hotel in lower Tribeca. I don’t love the upper end of Tribeca with its fancy shops and hipsters, but this seemed Read more
U.S.A.
Another busy year in the old rear-view mirror, with fabulous memories of cliffside walks on laid-back Molokai to terrific tours of Wrigley Field and buttery biscuits in Chicago. Not to mention a wonderful Bordeaux wine cruise, crazy beautiful mountains in the south of France, awesome ice cream in North Carolina and one of the most memorable meals of my life on the border between Napa and Sonoma counties in California. Here’s a look at my favourite experiences and photos from the U.S. and the rest of world for 2017. Best Hawaii hike: A short walk along the cliffs of northwest Read more
SONOMA – It’s a Friday night in this historic, beautiful town north of San Francisco. A large family is strolling past the brilliantly lit trees and centuries-old mission in the city’s handsome central square. They ooh and aah at the thousands of gleaming white Christmas lights that climb the trunk of a towering, graceful palm tree and spread out along its leafy fronds. Around the corner the popular restaurant The Girl and The Fig is hopping, with beautiful people dining on fresh, local cheeses, locally caught seafood and leafy greens harvested from the bounty of the Sonoma Valley. A few Read more
CARNEROS, CALIFORNIA – Some of the top chefs in the state. Fantastic local wines. And a table for 500 people that stretched down a hill in the middle of a vineyard on a perfect fall day. Visit California, the tourism board for one of the world’s largest tourist destinations, staged a truly remarkable event on Tuesday that raised tens of thousands of dollars for charities that help workers affected by the recent California wine country fires in Napa and Sonoma. “I think there are a thousand people here today to celebrate that the fires are over, that Napa County and Read more
“The first time I went to the area a friend showed me Sebastian’s Inlet. It was so pretty. And then there was a quiet, almost private beach with manatees.” “I fell in love.” Lori Booker is communications director for the Orlando-Melbourne International Airport, a growing facility that’s becoming a popular way for Canadians to fly to central Florida. Porter Airlines flies to Orlando-Melbourne on a seasonal basis from Toronto, as well as from Windsor and Ottawa. “It’s a wonderful way to fly,” Booker told me on a visit to Toronto last week. “You get great service and wide, leather seats Read more
