A look at a lovely hotel and a fantastic attraction on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu, a look at new Hyatt hotels across Canada, and a taste of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region in Toronto. Oh, and an Explora Journey’s Black Friday cruise sale! All in today’s blog post. O’AHU NORTH SHORE: A COOL HOTEL AND THE FAB POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER Tourism representatives from the north shore of O’ahu were in town recently, giving me a chance to hear more about a terrific part of Hawai’i. I’ve been to the north shore many times, including a visit to the Polynesian Cultural Read more
Black Friday
Most Expensive Countries to Visit: Iceland on Top; Air Canada New Flights to Peru, Mexico and Belize
A study by the Forex Complex has named the most expensive countries for Americans (and presumably Canadians) to visit. The study tallied daily costs for a typical visitor, including hotels or other accommodations, meals, transportation and other common expenses. In US dollars, here are the 19 most expensive countries they came up with in daily costs. ICELAND, $401.40 AUSTRALIA, $280.99 FRANCE, $263.21 GERMANY, $258.47 ITALY, $257.67 UNITED KINGDOM, $256.50 CANADA, $241.34 JAPAN, $229.96 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, $217.78 GREECE, $198.84 SPAIN, $187.79 CROATIA, $185.65 PORTUGAL, $163.81 COSTA RICA, $161.34 JAMAICA, $151.38 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, $148.51 MEXICO, $145.78 THAILAND, $81.87 INDONESIA, $70.23 I Read more
Canadians are looking for the usual spots for winter getaways, but Japan is gaining traction, according to a new study by Expedia. The study finds the most searched winter destinations for Canadians are New York City, Cancun, Las Vegas and Punta Cana. Those are followed by three Florida sports: Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, and then Puerto Vallarta and Playa del Carmen in Mexico. Tokyo is tenth on the list. For trending destinations (not most searched, but destinations with the biggest recent increases), the top 10 (along with percentage increase in searches) were Osaka (95%), Tokyo (90), Kyoto Read more
World’sBestCities.com has unveiled its list of, well, the world’s top cities. To no one’s surprise, London, New York and Paris take the podium spots, followed by Tokyo and Singapore. Rounding out the top 10 were Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin and Sydney. That’s six European cities in the top 10, which tells you something. In fact, I count 28 European cities in the top 100. The website says they considered a variety of factors, both the “performance and perception of cities around the world. I can’t say I fully understand the methodology, but I think they’ve missed the mark on a Read more
It’s almost U.S. Thanksgiving, and that means tremendous Black Friday and Cyber Monday travel deals are here. I’ve got a roundup of a few of tem. SCENIC CANADA CRUISE DEALS Scenic Canada is making it easier to give that special holiday gift this year with strong value-added deals on their award-winning river and ocean products during the Black Friday shopping period — effective on new bookings between Nov. 22 and Dec. 2, 2022. More details can be found at scenic.ca/blackfriday. European River sailings are being offered with free and reduced (CAD $295, $395 and $495) Premium Economy airfare, a CAD Read more
