Travel chaos could be coming to Canada in just a few days. Air Canada today (Sept. 9) said a pilots strike appears “increasingly likely,” and that it was preparing for an “orderly shutdown” as early as Sunday, Sept. 15. Even a partial shutdown of Canada’s largest airline would result in travel chaos in Canada, and also in other cities around the world. Air Canada flies to more than 180 destinations across the globe, including the U.S.A., Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. Bloomberg last week reported that Air Canada offered pilots a deal that would raise some pilot wages by Read more
Nice to see some places I know and love in Oceania come home with World Travel Awards. The World Travel Awards for Oceania were held recently, with awards being handed out to hotels, airlines and destinations in Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, and more. New Zealand (I’ve been twice and hope to go again in early 2025) was named Oceania’s Leading Destination 2024. It’s a remarkable country with an outstanding variety of things to see and do, and a wide variety of climatic/geographic zones that range from rugged mountains and fjords to wide, sandy beaches. Air New Zealand, which I Read more
Los Angeles Tourism invites visitors to experience the cultural explosion of events, exhibits and future openings that are redefining the city’s art scene. Los Angeles, and the surrounding region, will come together for Southern California’s landmark arts event, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, kicking off on September 15th with 70+ gallery and museum exhibitions opening concurrently across the city. The Destination Crenshaw project continues to take shape in South LA, while the surrounding neighborhood offers a cultural hub of arts organizations, galleries and dining to visit in the area. Lastly, the city’s major cultural institutions are debuting significant Read more
A new study identifies the most Instagrammable US small cities by analyzing their population, area in sq miles, Instagram hashtags, and hashtags per area. Sonoma, California ranks first with the most hashtags per area at 529,990. Newport, Rhode Island has the largest population and area, but it ranks seventh for the hashtag per area, at 258,808. Cannon Beach, Oregon, has the second-smallest area, 1.53 square miles, but it is among the top four with the highest hashtag per area number, at 367,849. A new study by Heepsy identified the top ten most Instagrammable small cities in the US by analyzing 50 cities with populations under Read more
August 30 is National Beach Day, and Canadians have a huge number of great beaches to chose from. To find out which were best, online review site CanadaCasino.ca analyzed the number of positive reviews received, Instagram posts, average monthly search volumes, and the average water temperature in peak summer, to reveal which are the best beaches Canada has to offer. Wasaga Beach is not only the third warmest beach of those analyzed, it is also one of the most popular. Home to the largest freshwater beach in the world, Wasaga Beach receives 90,500 searches every month and has been posted Read more
The end of summer is more than three weeks away, but the unofficial end of summer weekend is coming up fast. Labour Day Weekend is a great time to get out and enjoy fabulous destinations near major Canadian cities to try wine tasting, great hikes, small-town shopping and more. Here are suggestions for easy getaways for residents of Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary and Halifax. HALIFAX The Eastern Shore is an easy drive from Halifax and features wonderful Lawrencetown Beach, as well as beautiful bays for kayaking or canoeing. Taylor Head Provincial Park has a lovely beach and rugged hiking trails. Wolfville Read more
Cue the sad violin: it’s about time to bid summer adieu. The folks at KAYAK say that you can still leave town for Labour Day Weekend for $429 or less. So here are some ideas. First up: KAYAK’s Trendiest Searches. Folks are eyeing these destinations more than usual this Labour Day weekend. Orlando, Florida (59% more popular this year, with great food and fun neighborhoods to explore, such as Mills 50) Fort Lauderdale, Florida (33% more popular this year, and another fab food city with great beaches ) Edinburgh, Scotland (27% more popular this year, and one of the world’s Read more
