I recently spent a week on the Holland America Line Eurodam, soaking up the sights on a seven-day Alaska cruise in an out of Seattle. We saw magical glaciers and wondrous waterfalls, as well as surprising sunsets. We explored fun towns like Juneau and Ketchikan, and enjoyed some fine food and excellent on-board entertainment Here’s a look at the Eurodam, and at our excursions. And here’s a link to my previously published story on Holland America’s Global Fresh Fish program. EXCURSIONS AND SCENERY Our first chance to explore anything on land was in Juneau. It’s fairly commercial, but we enjoyed Read more

The puck is about to drop on another National Hockey League season, and both the NHL and its teams are cashing in. The NHL says it has signed Norwegian Cruise Line to a multiyear sponsorship agreement in the U.S, marking Norwegian’s first tie-up with a professional sports league and the NHL’s first with a cruise line. The deal begins tonight when the league drops the puck on its season in North America following two games in Prague between the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres over the weekend.  Norwegian will be the first NHL sponsor to receive exposure via the Read more

A new study has found Vancouver to be Canada’s most expensive city for renting Airbnbs.  The research, carried out by financial advice website Money.ca, calculated the cost of renting property on Airbnb in different cities. They used Airbnb’s earnings calculator to work out the average cost of renting out an entire one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom property in Canada’s 50 most populated cities.   TOP 11 MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES IN CANADA Ranking  Location  Average Airbnb cost per night (CAD)  1.  Vancouver, British Columbia  $325  2.  Toronto, Ontario  $315  3.  Mississauga, Ontario  $305  =4.  Kelowna, British Columbia  $286  Lévis, Quebec  6.  Quebec Read more

I’m standing on a dock in Seattle on a Saturday morning in August, just a few feet away from the towering form of the Holland America Eurodam. Eurodam head chef Nata Manilal and I are surrounded by dozens of pallets of fresh fish and produce that are about to be tucked into the belly of the Eurodam for a seven-day Alaska cruise. The loading procedure is an intricate, tightly choreographed dance that happens prior to every cruise, and one that most cruise pax never see. We’re only a couple hours from departure, but Manilal is giving me an up-close and Read more

The crowds are gone. But the weather’s still pretty good. Fall is a fabulous time of year to explore European cities and villages. Here are some of my favorite places to check out in Europe in autumn, including Portugal, Italy, France and Austria. WESTERN ALGARVE, PORTUGAL We stayed in the village of Burgau, Portugal a few years ago with friends, and absolutely loved it. It’s a small, huggable little town with several nice restaurants, but it’s not as well-known as other villages on the Algarve and never seemed crowded with visitors. You’ll find fabulous hiking along the cliffs in both Read more

I always knew I was ahead of my time. Okay, all joking aside, I was happy to read in Travel + Leisure magazine that a poll of 2,000 U.S. travellers found that Maui is the most romantic place on earth. The magazine said that FunJet Vacations recently released the findings of a poll it conducted with Talker Research looking into the most romantic destinations in the world. After polling 2,000 “general population Americans” to find out their preferred spots for romance, it turned out that Maui led the way, with 34% of respondents naming it the most romantic destination in Read more