LEAMINGTON, ONTARIO – I’m standing on the southernmost point of continental Canada, a thin strip of rocky sand at the south end of Point Pelee, Ontario that’s roughly the same latitude as Rome and northern California. There’s a soft wind in the air and hardly a cloud in the sky on a perfect summer’s day as I pose for a photo. Seconds after I leave, a young couple takes my place and I snap a picture for them. And on it goes; a steady line of folks waiting to have an Instagram moment at one of the most iconic places Read more

One of Canada’s top chefs. One of Toronto’s most romantic restaurants. And one great deal. It’s Summerlicious time in Toronto, with remarkable deals at some of the city’s top restaurants. Once again, Aeroplan is sponsoring the big event, not to mention other food festivals across Canada, including Montreal’s MTLaTABLE event. Toronto is one of the top cities in the world for food, so it’s great to get solid deals like the ones they offer at Summerlicious and also at Winterlicious, which Aeroplan also has sponsored in the past. I had a chance to check Summerlicious out on Monday night, taking Read more

I had long been in love with Hawaii by the time it happened. But a routine chat at the public golf course at Waiehu, Maui in the mid 1970’s did a lot to boost my affection for these islands and its people. I was in high school at the time and was vacationing on Maui for perhaps the third time. My parents had let me invite a friend from my home town in California, and we had planned to play golf one of the fancy-schmancy Wailea courses, which I believe were pretty new at the time. We pulled into the Read more

NEW MEXICO – Five nights. Three distinct hotels I can heartily recommend. I recently had a great trip to beautiful and surprising New Mexico, checking out cliff dwellings, cool slot canyons, art galleries and UFO museums, not to mention a museum dedicated to rattlesnakes and one of the best barbeque joints I’ve been to, a place in Albuquerque called Rudy’s Country Store and BBQ. I also got to stay in some very nice hotels along the way. In Albuquerque, a city I’d never been to before, I stayed at the Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown, a terrific property in a great location. Read more

**This is a post written by me on behalf of IHG Hotels. All opinions are my own. Many Canadians like you and me either have or plan to draw up a bucket list of great places to travel. But a study by IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) finds that almost nine in ten of us feel we’ll never make our dreams come true. With that in mind, IHG has partnered with an old friend of mine, Canadian author/travel writer Robin Esrock, to create a Great Canadian Bucket List that offers 25 unique experiences to inspire travel through this great country of Read more

A meal that’s as good as any five-star restaurant you’ll find. Comfortable, lie-flat seats with fine French champagne. And a brand new, plush BMW to whisk you to an exclusive suite at Pearson. The folks at Air Canada recently gave a few lucky members of the media a test run of their new Signature Service, which began on Friday for select customers on select flights. If you’re a customer who can afford it or a business person who needs some extra sleep and enjoys a fine meal and being treated like royalty, or if you’re a travel agent booking a Read more