Great local explorations. Fantastic food. And one of North America’s best hotels. The new “Off the Eaten Track” program is being offered exclusively for guests of the Ritz-Carlton Toronto features four distinct programs to help visitors truly engage with locals and learn about the Toronto food scene on an up close and personal basis. The programs are being offered with the help of Culinary Adventure Co., one of Canada’s top food tour companies. “It’s all about giving guests a personal experience,” said Kevin Durkee of Culinary Adventure Co., a long-time foodie who learned to cook at a young age. “We Read more

We all want to save money on our travel. So here’s a good study; a report from www.kiwi.com that looks at the cost of flights in 80 countries around the globe and comes up with what they call a Flight Price Index. Suffice to say Canada came out as fairly expensive, but not nearly as bad as Belgium. More on that in a minute. For now, here’s background from the Kiwi press release so you can see what they did. “We took into account short-haul and long-haul flights from 80 of the world’s most frequently visited countries and cities, calculating Read more

MAUI, HAWAII – Here’s what great people in Hawaii do for visitors. My son was in Hana, Maui for a couple days this week with his girlfriend but didn’t have a car. I drove them down because I love the drive thought he could take a cab to the Hana airport yesterday to get his flight to Kahului and then connect to a flight to the mainland. But we got to Hana and found out they have no cabs there. I should’ve thought of that as it’s a very small town. I’ve been many times but I stupidly didn’t think Read more

First they went low. Now they’re going long. It was just 10 days ago or so that Calgary-based WestJet announced they were going to launch Canada’s first ultra-low-cost air carrier, a move that would see them tangle directly with New Leaf Travel in a sort of Canadian version of Ryanair or Easyjet. On Tuesday, the airline zagged in the opposite direction, announcing it will buy up to 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners with an eye on grabbing some of Air Canada’s long-distance routes to Asia, Europe and South America. It’s a heckuva plan for a company that still positions itself as Read more

ORLANDO – A timeless Disney classic. And a wonderful place to stay just minutes away. I recently had a chance to spend a day at Disney Hollywood Studios, where I hadn’t been in at least 12 or 15 years. It’s a delightful spot, with a great mix of scary rides (alas, I didn’t do any this time) and fun, family attractions. Best of all for a guy who fell in love with Princess Leia, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in 1979 are the Star Wars bits. One of the first things we heard upon entering the park were the ominous Read more

MIAMI – A suite with almost 3,000 square feet of interior space. 493 chandeliers. And two original Picasso drawings. And if you asked for a partridge in a pear tree they’d probably get that for you, too. I had the chance recently to tour the Regent Seven Seas Explorer ship. It’s billed as “the most luxurious ship ever built,” and I’m in no position to dispute it. I’ve only been on a handful of cruises, but if there’s a more elegant, refined and beautiful ship on one of the world’s oceans I can’t imagine it. They also have introduced a Read more