Ottawa Tourism has launched a visitor incentive campaign called It’s On Us whereby visitors who book at least a two-night stay in Ottawa receive a $100 Visa Gift Card. Rooms must be booked before September 30, 2020 for stays before December 31, 2020 at more than 30 participating hotels. Visa Gift Cards are distributed upon check-in and are encouraged to be spent to enhance the visitor’s stay… for dinner, tickets to an attraction or tour, or souvenirs before returning home. “With more of our tourism businesses opening up with enhanced safety protocols, we’re seeing more people planning staycations in Ottawa,” Read more
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TONGARIKI, EASTER ISLAND – The hour of 7 a.m. is still a nasty rumour. To the east, in a distant sky, the sun is rising over a deserted Pacific Ocean. I’m carefully making my way through a thick field of grass wedged with bits of lava rock, my iPhone flashlight helping point the way in the pre-dawn darkness. Horses that appear to come from a nearby ranch nibble noiselessly in the black morning. I get too close to what looks like a chestnut-coloured colt and it bounds skittishly to its mother a few metres away. The horses aren’t aware of Read more
This is shaping up to be quite a Leap Day for travel lovers. It’s barely noon in Toronto and I’ve already seen several really, really good deals for folks looking for travel bargains. Here are a few I’ve noticed so far… Air Canada Vacations: I got an email just after noon EST to say folks can save up to (yes, it seems there’s always that famous catchphrase, “up to”, but still) 50 per cent on trips to the Caribbean and Mexico with ACV. You also can get Aeroplan bonuses of 2,900 miles until March 3 for May and June departures, Read more
It started small and has mushroomed into a massive, mid-winter occasion that leaves some folks jubilant and others horribly confused. The “wave season” in the cruise travel business sounds a lot like the Super Bowl, but in this case it’s about saving money on a great vacation. Wave season started as a one-day cruise sale a couple decades ago and is now a weeks-long bonanza featuring hundreds of deals, discounts and extras ranging from free Wi-Fi to on-board spa treatments. “Wave season is sort of the Black Friday or Cyber Monday of the cruise space,” said Jason Sarracini, chief operating Read more
Some say Canada is a real blend between North American and European styles. You might say the same thing about Canada’s most successful – and sexiest – boutique hotel chain. I recently spent a night at Hotel Le Germain Toronto on Mercer Street. I’d stayed before, but I was told they’d done some substantial work on the rooms and wanted to see what they’d done to one of my favourite hotels. Luckily, the lobby is pretty much the same; with a lovely fireplace on two levels and high ceilings and plenty of polished wood. There’s a massive bookcase on one Read more
