A new report from hotels.com finds Canadians are looking for trips to Spain, as well as football rivalry games and cool, Nordic adventures. For the upcoming Civic Holiday (Aug. 1-3), searches for Mallorca are up 85%, while searches for Madrid are up 45%. Domestically, searches are up 40% for the London, Ontario ribfest and up 20% for the 50th annual Festival of Friends in Hamilton, Ontario. For Labour Day, searches for Reykjavik, Iceland are up 100%, while searches for Copenhagen have jumped 90%. On the domestic front, Regina has seen a 330% increase in searches ahead of the iconic Labour Read more
Japan
Barbados is celebrating its 60th anniversary as an independent nation. I first visited in 2009 or so, and have been at least four or five times since. It’s one of my fave places in the world; beautiful and safe and relaxed, but with many elegant places to stay. This list is mostly about food and drinks, so here’s a link to a story I wrote after a great food tour of the island a few years ago. Barbados Food & Rum Festival – One of the Caribbean’s premier culinary festivals brings together renowned local and international chefs each year. Meet Award-Winning Read more
A new list of the top cities in the world for international travelers from the U.S. gives the inside edge to Portugal, with Spain coming in second. Coming in at number one (a tie, actually) were Lisbon, and Porto, Portugal. I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting Porto, but I love Lisbon, which has fabulous food and great neighbourhoods to explore, including the vibrant Aflama district. There also are great beaches. Spain had two cities in the top 10; Madrid and Seville. Sadly, I haven’t been to either. The authors created a list of 40 major cities around the world, Read more
Sports Illustrated recently published a ranking of the best cities for taking in the World Cup. They looked at the quality of the games, the cities themselves, the stadiums, and the locations of the stadiums to come up with a list of the best cities of the 16 that are hosting games. Here are the results, along with some of the reasoning. 16. SAN FRANCISCO – not the best games, and too far from downtown S.F. 15. KANSAS CITY – Again, stadium too far from downtown. 14. NEW YORK NEW JERSEY – The Meadowlands stadium is “a nightmare” to Read more
Both Skyscanner and Hotels.com have come out with handy suggestions for travel this summer, as well as information on where Canadians are heading for their vacations. HOW TO SAVE ON HOTELS: TRAVEL TIPS FROM HOTELS.COM As travellers watch their wallets, new data from the Hotels.com 2026 Hotel Price Index reveals travel lovers don’t have to sacrifice luxury to save this summer. New data shows savvy travellers are redefining high-end travel and saving big while doing it. Here are the top three takeaways for Canadian travellers: Booking last-minute pays off: Reserving less than a week in advance nets Canadians an average Read more
