This item appeared earlier on Postmedia/Sun Media websites in Canada. The Caribbean is open for business. Yes, there was damage to a number of islands from hurricanes over the past couple months. Canadian airlines have pretty much shut down winter service to battered St. Maarten. Puerto Rico is still in bad shape, as is Barbuda, Dominica and parts of other islands. But there was little or no damage to most major Caribbean destinations, including Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua and the Cayman Islands. In destinations that were hit, work is proceeding nicely and many hotels and resorts have already re-opened. Read more
Dominican Republic
I spent a great deal of time in Canada and the U.S. in 2016. I also had visits to several Caribbean Islands, including small spots like Mayreau on a Sea Dream Yacht Club cruise and larger islands such as the Dominican Republic, Anguilla, Barbados and St. Martin. I had week-long visits to both Australia and New Zealand. And I managed time in Portugal, England, Italy, Germany and several other countries on my Viking River cruise. Here are my Jimmy Awards for top travel spots of 2016 outside Canada and the U.S. Best Beach Surprise: Playa Rincon, Dominican Republic. Reached via Read more
A province for all seasons. And one that absolutely LOVES Ontario. The folks from Quebec Tourism threw a fabulous cocktail reception at a cool gallery in Toronto’s Distillery District on Tuesday, talking up the fabulous, year-round destinations they have to offer. It’s pretty remarkable when you think about it. They have awesome cities like Montreal with great festivals like Montreal en Lumiere, which started today and goes to March 2. They also have Carnival in Quebec City, which just wrapped up another fabulous season. They also have some of North America’s best skiing and snowboarding in places like Tremblant, Mont Read more
Pretty cool report the other day from hotels.com showed that Toronto is now the third most booked international city for U.S. travellers. The report, which analyzed bookings on hotels.com, found that U.S. travel types booked the most rooms in London, followed by Paris. Toronto was number three, moving ahead of Rome. Which is pretty cool. After Rome, in position five, was Vancouver, followed by Tokyo, Hong Kong, Montreal, Barcelona and Niagara Falls. It’s a not a definitive study in that it only takes into account bookings on one website. But it’s encouraging for Toronto and Canadian tourism types, I’d think… Read more
