When you think about visiting the U.S., places like New York City and San Francisco and Orlando obviously come to mind. Ditto for great natural sites such as the Grand Canyon, the beaches of Hawaii and the Rocky Mountains. You could make the argument that American music has had an even bigger impact on the world than any of those cities or destinations. From jazz to blues to rock and roll, and from George and Ira Gershwin to Elvis Presley and Jay Z, American musicians have influenced the world for decades. The Beatles wouldn’t have existed without Elvis or Buddy Read more

Sometimes a silver medal is pretty darn good. Especially when you’re competing against the entire world. British Airways has released a list of its top destinations for 2018, and Toronto came second. The only destination ranked higher for British visitors was the Seychelles, and it’s hard to compete with an island chain that beautiful. The British Airways website talked about Toronto and Vancouver are both great cities, but that the Ontario capital gained the edge (sorry, British Columbia!). “Toronto and Vancouver are competing for Canada’s tourist crown. According to British Airways, Toronto takes it in 2018,” the story said. “That’s Read more

It’s a tough act to balance. Canadian destinations and cities around the world want tourists to come and fill the coffers of local hotels and businesses. But sometimes it’s too much. If you’ve been following the news, you might have seen protests in Barcelona, where locals recently protested the annual onslaught of tourists from Britain and other countries, who party all night in Las Ramblas after jetting in on cheap flights from the likes of Ryanair with money in their pockets. Venice also has complained, as has Iceland. Today I read a story about similar sentiments in beautiful Amsterdam, where Read more

THIS ITEM APPEARED EARLIER THIS WEEK IN SUN MEDIA AND POSTMEDIA PAPERS AND WEBSITES IN CANADA You know about San Francisco and Beverly Hills. Not to mention Palm Springs and San Diego. But there’s a lot more to California than the big names. Here’s one former resident’s look at some of the other great places in the state. CAPITOLA This might be the best California town never mentioned in a Beach Boys’ song. The beach features soft, golden sand with a good-sized wooden wharf with a restaurant and colourful locals out fishing. The west end of the beach has a Read more

I wrote some posts earlier this week about what’s happening with Hurricanes Irma and Maria and how travel is being affected. But I didn’t have time to do a full-on, exhaustive story. The New York Times, however, did just a story that I found online today; a fine wrap-up that shows just what folks can expect and where you can take your holidays in the next little while. As I wrote earlier, it looks like St. Martin’s tourism sector has been devastated. Sunwing has cancelled all flights through April, while Air Canada has said it won’t be flying down this Read more

What a mess. As folks in Puerto Rico try to cope with flooding and the lack of electricity from the effects of Hurricane Maria, the post-Maria work continues for St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and in poor Dominica, which bore the full force of the hurricane’s wrath earlier this week. The Caribbean Journal today was reporting that “Hurricane Maria clobbered Puerto Rico on Wednesday, sending it into a total island-wide blackout, with reports of significant property damage.” Top that off with the severe damage done by Hurricane Irma to St. Martin/St. Maarten, Barbuda, Puerto Rico, Anguilla, Cuba and Read more