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
Parks Canada
BANFF, ALBERTA – It’s one of the great tourist attractions of Canada. And one of the top views in the world. I’ve been up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola in Banff several times. This year was the first time I’d done it in winter. And it was spectacular. I was out in the Rockies on a recent visit and had been hoping to do a helicopter tour near Kananaskis _ a gorgeous part of Alberta – and maybe some snowshoeing high in the mountains. But the winds were fierce and the chopper pilot said it wasn’t safe to fly. I always Read more
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND – I love it. The first (well maybe not, but close enough) road sign I see on my first trip here in 16 years gives me the distance to the nearest town. Below that is a blue and white saying with an arrow pointing north and the words “Liquor Store, 13 km.” Now THAT’s what I call a good tourism concept. In all seriousness, I had a great first day on the island. I got an 8 a.m. ferry with Northumberland Ferries Ltd. and was heading to Montague, PEI by 9:45 or so. It was windy as Read more
ON THE CABOT TRAIL IN CAPE BRETON – It’s like going back to your high school reunion and finding that sweetheart from grade nine even prettier than you remembered. I drove the Cabot Trail once before. But it was with three kids and my wife in a mini-van maybe 16 years ago. They’ve since changed, of course, as kids do, but at the time I remember them looking at my wife and I as we drove along beautiful beaches and high sea cliffs and thinking we were crazy. “We’re not view people,” my daughter said, or words to that effect, Read more
