Montreal is consistently ranked as one of the world’s best cities to visit. Now it’s ranked as one of the safest. The Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection Group’s new city safety ratings put Montreal at number three in te world, behind only Reyjavik, Iceland and Copenhagen. “Less than a point separates Copenhagen and Montreal, which should give you an idea of Montreal’s relative safety,” Berkshire Hathaway stated. The only other North American city in the top 15 was Honolulu, ranked #12. “This former No. 1 safest city finished less than a point outside of the top 10,” the report said, From Read more
Iceland
The House of Commons committee that handles transportation issues this week will launch special hearings this week to examine the travel chaos that ruined the holidays for hundreds of Canadians. CTV reports the first hearing will take place on Thursday and is expected to see Transport Minister Omar Alghabra field a series of questions about what transpired and what accountability there will be. Airlines and VIA Rail also are expected to appear at before the committee. Major storms in Vancouver just prior to Christmas forced WestJet and other airlines to cancel a number of flights. Another storm moved into Ontario Read more
Canada isn’t the happiest place on earth, but it’s top of the heap in North America. A World Happiness Report rankings, based largely on life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll, finds that Canada is #15 in the world on the happiness scale. That’s one spot ahead of the United States, and two ahead of the United Kingdom. On the other hand, Canada was tenth in 2020 and ninth in the world in 2019, so perhaps we’re slipping. For the fifth year in a row, Finland came in as the world’s happiest country, based on such factors as healthy life Read more
We like to think we’re helping folks when we travel the world. Often we are, especially in some developing countries or places that rely on tourism, or when there have been recent incidents that scared people off and have hurt the local economy. Other times, though, we travel types are a bloody menance; trampling over flower beds and stomping along in church squares with a million other Instagrammers and bucket listers and ruining what should be a great experience. Such has been the case for quite some years with Venice. I think Moses once wrote that he was disgusted by Read more
NOTE: All thoughts about destinations and the kayak.com websites are my own. But KAYAK paid for the posting of this blog and for me to let people know about the blog via social media. The Internet is a wonderful thing when it comes to travel. But sometimes a bit terrifying at the same time. The choices are seemingly endless. Iceland’s hot springs and towering waterfalls look funky and off-the-beaten-track. But the temples and beaches of Thailand are tempting, too. Not to mention the pristine hikes you could take among the Alberta Rockies. On top of all that, the options for Read more
