JIM BYERS PHOTO 104th St. in downtown Edmonton is filled with hip spots. EDMONTON – This might be the next great Canadian city. Or at least the next cool one. Lots of folks in Toronto pooh-pooh Edmonton. Yeah, it’s a city that’s still rough around the edges. And, yeah, it’s a tad chilly in winter. But there’s a very sizable gentrification going on, not unlike what has happened in Winnipeg and Calgary and St. John’s, and I get the feeling that folks won’t recognize this Alberta city’s downtown five years from now. Not that it’s turning into Toronto or Montreal or Read more
ON THE TRAIL OF GREAT WOMEN IN ALBERTA – A couple years ago I visited a wonderul museum in Whitehorse. There were tons of stories about interesting miners from around the world, but I was particularly struck by a woman named Lucille Hunter, who was one of the first black women in the Yukon and used to walk 200 km from Mayo to Dawson City every year. I also found it fun to read about Martha Louise Black, a Yukon resident who was the second woman elected to the Parliament of Canada. The history of Alberta, similarly, is filled with Read more
FIVE GREAT PLACES FOR FIFTY PLUS TRAVELERS I get asked a lot about the best places to travel for folks who are 50 and over. Of course, I’m almost eight years into that category myself so I guess it’s a fair question. A lot depends, like many things in life, on what you’re looking for. If you’re a foodie, I probably would suggest a weekend in New York or maybe Vancouver. If you’re into wine, the Niagara Region of Ontario or, naturally, northern California works. Not to mention the interior of British Columbia, almost anywhere in France and several great Read more
NEW YORK – What a great treat. Somehow, having visited New York City perhaps eight or ten times over the years, I’d never strolled across the Brooklyn Bridge. Until last Sunday. It wasn’t as warm as the day before, and there was a brisk wind. But what a huge treat. One of the great things about the walk is the accessibility by subway. I walked out of the City Hall subway station and it was maybe 10 metres to the start of the bridge walk going east to Brooklyn. It’s an absolutely glorious walk, maybe a couple of miles but Read more
NEW YORK – Had a chance to spend a couple days in The Bronx the other day, which was terrific. But I also managed some time in Manhattan, taking in the scene in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side. There are few places more cool to hang out on a warm spring day than Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The tulips were a blaze of pink and red and the cherry trees were blossoming and the sky was blue and folks were suntanning on the grass and the jump-rope folks were out showing people how to skip. I Read more
Jim Byers photo. Wave Hill Gardens, a magical area of The Bronx. THE BRONX, NEW YORK CITY – I was torn about what parts of New York to check out for the trip I took over the last few days. It seems there are a lot of stories around focussing on trendy new areas of Brooklyn. And talking about fun things to do in Manhattan and even Queens. But when the tourism board’s representative in Toronto sent me a note and pointed out some things to do in The Bronx, I was intrigued. Really? I used to cover the Blue Read more
FINGER LAKES OF NEW YORK – We have wineries. And we have lakes. But I think it’s fair to say Ontario doesn’t have anything to quite match the total Finger Lakes package in upstate New York. Only an hour or so east of Buffalo, which means maybe three hours from downtown Toronto, you’ll find gorgeous lakes surrounded by hills covered with pretty vineyards ahttps://jimbyerstravel.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpnd thick forests. Not to mention tremendously attractive small towns and stately white homes. The town of Geneva is one of those solid if not hugely beautiful towns. Probably it’s seen better days. But the surrounding area Read more
