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
Amsterdam
London’s prices are falling down. But you’re still much further ahead if try Prague or Bangkok. A new study of hotel prices by hotels.com shows that the Brexit vote has had an effect on hotel costs. The study found that Canadians last year paid an average of $254 a night for a hotel in London, England. That’s down 9% from the 2015 average price of $278. It’s a sizable drop, but $254 Cdn. per night is still a hefty price to pay for a night’s sleep. The hotels.com Hotel Price Index study found you’re much better off in Paris, where Read more
Year after year, Europe tops the charts of travellers from around the world. It seems we just can’t get enough of classic European cities such as London and Paris, not to mention Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome, Zurich, Berlin and many others. With that in mind, the folks at TD Canada and Aeroplan and I are holding a Twitter chat about Europe on Wednesday, April 29 at 1 p.m. EST. Be sure to tune in (I’m at @jimbyerstravel on Twitter) and look for the #TDAeroplan hashtag. I’ll be chiming in with what I hope are useful tips and advice about using your Read more
BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA – I’m standing in a pretty mountain bowl at Sunshine Meadows with small hills all around dotted with white and yellow flowers. The sky is that famous shade of Alberta blue and the deep grey hills are patchy with winter’s leftover snow. Our guide, Thalia Christou with White Mountain Adventures, points out the yellow Alpine Butter Cups and the western anemones, which look like yellow and white crocuses but grow interesting, fuzzy bits to stay warm. They look like they’ve grown hair in summer, causing Christou to refer to them as “hippie hair flowers.” We spot Read more
My recent trip to Amsterdam with KLM started off great. Then it got better. I was expecting an economy ticket to be provided by the airline, which was getting me to Holland on behalf of the Dutch tourism folks. But woman in line at Pearson told me m ticket looked like one in business class. Sure enough, 6F. I try not to take these things for granted, because no travel writer getting a free ticket to Europe should complain about being in coach. I always arrive at the airport expecting to go in economy class, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as Read more
