PORT STANLEY, ONTARIO – Call it a tale of two cities. Or maybe three. On the one hand, Port Stanley is your quintessential southern Ontario town. There are old-time B and B’s with giant porches and carpets of stunning flowers and quaint shops selling outdoor gear and fashionable women’s shoes and a cute coffee shop. There’s also a busy port, one of many lovely inlets on the north shore of Lake Erie, where brilliant white boats bob in dark waters surrounded by deep green hills. But there’s also a wild beach scene, with warm, gentle waters and endless sand and Read more
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LES ILES DE LA MADELEINE, QUEBEC – I had a business call to make to Toronto and was on the phone with a co-worker. “How’s your trip,” he asked me. “It’s absolutely spectacular out here,” I said. I told him about the endless and glorious and empty beaches and the adorable towns and the wildly colourful houses and the incredible food and the utterly fabulous art and the local beer and the towering cliffs and the red rock coastline pockmarked with caves and carved into arches and the pounding surf and the gentle lagoons. I think I sounded like a National 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
It’s a touch late for booking that trip to Dublin or Galway (or anywhere else in Ireland) for St. Patrick’s Day. On the other hand, there are great locations right here in North America to go green come Monday. I can’t think of many better places than St. John’s, Newfoundland, which seems more Irish to me than parts of Ireland. They’ll be having a grand old time in town on Monday, for sure. Also awesome would be Cape Breton or Halifax in Nova Scotia, where you’ll find a serious Irish influence and great dancing and music. Of course, you could always Read more
HALIFAX – We all know about the harbour here; the tall ships and the Titanic connection and the seafaring history. We also see those pictures of the Citadel’s green, rolling hills and the beautiful clock tower. And we know Peggy’s Cove waits just a few minutes down the road, waiting to seduce yet more camera-toting visitors. (And a quick nod here to the 13th anniversary of the Swiss Air 111 flight departing from New York for Geneva, which crashed near Peggy’s Cove on this day in 1998; a very grim mark on an otherwise beautiful place). There are lots of Read more
