The “gallumph” sound of water bouncing off ancient rock covered in pretty patterns of moss and lichen. The way the sun gleams on the surface of a shimmering lake. A solitary pine tree, bent with the wind and eking out a living on a rocky islet. Not to mention great food, golf, sunset boat excursions, shopping, swimming, lake tours on the Segwun or Wenonah steamships, friends, quiet hikes, diving loons and old wooden boats varnished to a glossy sheen. Come summer, there’s no place on earth I’d rather be than Muskoka. I’m lucky enough to have three good friends with Read more
Muskoka
This is getting harder. Now that I’m travelling a lot more (and not tied to the desk as much as when I was the Toronto Star Travel editor, a post I left in August, 2013), my year-end “Jimmy Awards” are proving a little more tricky. I did a fair bit of travelling in Canada this year, hitting all the provinces except Newfoundland and New Brunswick. Which means I have a great many more things to single out than in previous years. Which is why I’m splitting up the Jimmy’s into two categories: Canada and the rest of the world. I’ll Read more
MUSKOKA – I love a hotel where a general manager pitches in and gets his hands dirty. In the case of the Sherwood Inn up in Muskoka, it’s true in both a figurative and literal sense. I arrived with my Dad and a friend last week, only to see GM (he calls himself the ‘general manipulator”) Esa Paltanen in shorts and a t-shirt in the lobby. He’d been planting annuals that day and was planning to do so again the next day with a member of his family. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d prefer a GM in shorts Read more
National Geographic Travel has launched a product that should give our fair nation a nice boost. They’ve taken some well-known travel writers and some of the magazine’s best photographers and produced what they’ve billed as “a breathtaking, destination-based, digital super mag unparalleled in its comprehensive coverage of any single country.” Aw, shucks. Just for little old us? In what’s being called “the world’s first digital super mag,” (I don’t know if that’s true but it SOUNDS good), the National Geographic folks are showcasing “all-new content from every Canadian province and territory.” The feature launched at Nationalgeographic.com/canada50 on Oct. 1 and Read more
