It’s spring. Well, it’s almost spring, even though it feels like frickin’ January in Toronto. And that means folks are looking to bust out and hit the road. With summer holiday planning underway, more Canadians are looking at trips to Europe. The latest information from hotwire.com shows the top 10 places Canadians who use the site are looking to book. And what they’re paying. So here you go! The first spot is Toronto. No surprise given the financial clout and sheer size of the city. Average hotel room price on Hotwire? Just $83. Obviously the average guy or gal isn’t Read more
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It’s a touch late for booking that trip to Dublin or Galway (or anywhere else in Ireland) for St. Patrick’s Day. On the other hand, there are great locations right here in North America to go green come Monday. I can’t think of many better places than St. John’s, Newfoundland, which seems more Irish to me than parts of Ireland. They’ll be having a grand old time in town on Monday, for sure. Also awesome would be Cape Breton or Halifax in Nova Scotia, where you’ll find a serious Irish influence and great dancing and music. Of course, you could always Read more
VANCOUVER – An unusual sushi spot, classic outdoor walks and an historic hotel. Despite what we might think of the weather out west, it does occasionally snow in Vancouver. Such was the case early last week, when my planned frolic in the canyons of North Vancouver and crossing of a couple of pedestrian bridges turned into something a bit chillier than I had planned. Mind you, it was extremely beautiful and not very cold by Ontario standards; around plus 4 Celsius. And the snow wasn’t particularly bad, only a few centimetres. I’d probably prefer to tour the canyons in good Read more
Welcome Rewards, the Hotels.com loyalty program, has just reached 10 million members and has redeemed more than one million free nights since its launch in 2008. In the program, customers can earn a free night at more than 100,000 hotels across the world for every 10 nights stayed, with no blackout dates. They issued a list today of where Canadians are using their points. And it’s mostly to stay close to home. Here’s the list of the top 10 redeemed destinations for Canadians in 2013: 1. Toronto, 2. Montreal, 3. Niagara Falls, 4. Edmonton, 5. Calgary, 6. New York City, Read more
It’s that time again. The Sochi Olympics have already begun, and the Opening Ceremony is Friday at 11 a.m. Eastern time. This is the first winter Olympics I’ve missed being at since Nagano. I was the Star’s Olympics assignment editor and on-site web person for all the Games from Sydney in 2000 up to Vancouver in 2010. Vancouver was a magical way to finish my Olympics career. I spent pretty much 15 to 16 hours a day at the Main Press Centre, organizing assignments and covering the odd press conference and writing sometimes eight or 10 stories a day for Read more
