The kids may be going back to school in three weeks (sorry kids), but there are still roughly 40 days of summer left in Ontario. Late August and early September are great times to visit the province, with cooler weather and fewer crowds than July or early August. Here are some top spots from my travels around the province. DURHAM REGION  I had a great trip to this area two summers ago. Less than 90 minutes from Toronto, Beaverton has a wonderful spot called the Underground Bake Shop with outstanding croisstants, quiche and other treats. The Sunflower Farm is great Read more

They have an exciting few months ahead at the Muskoka Discovery Centre and onboard their ships. If you haven’t visited yet, be sure to check out the new exhibit, The Muskoka Story, and treat yourself to an afternoon cruise on Wenonah II.  The Muskoka Story includes Misko-Aki, a Confluence of Cultures. The exhibit won an award for Outstanding Achievement in Exhibitions from the Canadian Museums Association (CMA). There were more than 25 organizations under consideration in a multi-juried process with criteria including potential impact and connection with community. The Muskoka Steamships and Discovery Centre in Gravenhurst, Ontario (I’m a member Read more

I’m paid to have a way with words. But as the anniversary of a truly terrible day edges closer and closer, syllables and vowels and nouns and verbs aren’t coming easily. It’s a lovely, sunny day in Toronto. I am surrounded by my little green garden, which is spiked with deep pink impatiens, hanging ivy and colourful coleus. I should be sitting in my big, blue, wooden chair with my feet up after finishing a couple of travel writing assignments. But I keep thinking about Hawaii. About Maui. About Lahaina. It was a year ago tomorrow that the world came Read more

Great photos. Awesome video. And, of course, amazing connectivity. The newest iPhone and Apple Watches from Apple provide a lot of great features you probably already use. But they also have many you might not be familiar with. EMERGENCY SOS – VIA SATELLITE Sometimes I like to go off the grid. And sometimes I’m just in a dead zone where there’s no cell coverage (like on a nature hike in northern Ontario or the Rockies, or, if you can believe it, in downtown Detroit a week ago). With iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15, or iPhone 15 Pro, you Read more

McKinsey consulting reports more than 62 million people visited New York City in 2023, representing 93% of 2019 levels. That’s also a significant increase (9.3%) from the 56.7 million visitors to the Big Apple in 2022. Domestic tourism has recovered to roughly 95% of pre-pandemic levels, with more than 50 million domestic travellers coming to the city in 2023. International travel is not far behind, recovering to about 86% of 2019 levels. Eleven million international travellers visited New York City in 2023. They are an important source of travel revenue as they spend, on average, three times as much as Read more

It wasn’t the luxurious, immense room. It wasn’t the attentive service. And it wasn’t the Shakespeare dresses from Stratford plays. Heck, it wasn’t even the cute bunnies scampering along on the green grass near our patio. No, if you ask me the thing I’ll remember most about my recent overnight stay at Stratford’s The Bruce Hotel it will be the cookie hotline. Some hotels have fresh cookies waiting for you in the lobby when you come home from dinner, and that’s nice. But the Bruce takes it a step further. If you take a look at the phone in your Read more