Kudos to Iceland, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada. Great marks for Singapore, Honolulu and San Francisco. Travel insurance provider Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection (BHTP) has released its 11th annual State of Travel Insurance Safest Destinations report, “the longest running and most trusted research project evaluating the attitudes of U.S. travelers toward travel safety and travel insurance.” The Netherlands, Australia, and Austria have been named the safest countries to visit in 2026, while Reykjavik, Copenhagen, and Zurich top the list of safest cities. Canada was named fifth safest country, which is down slightly from its third place finish last year. Montreal Read more
Sydney
One of the world’s best beaches is getting bigger. Much bigger. I recently caught up with Brian Lowack, president and CEO of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater; one of the top destinations in Florida. He told me a beach renewal project that stretches from Sand Key on Clearwater Beach to St. Pete Beach will add 2.5 million cubic yards of sand, with roughly 200 feet of width. “It’s already great, but it’s going to be the most beautiful beach in Florida,” he told me in Toronto, where Visit St. Pete/Clearwater hosted media and travel agents at a Blue Jays-Yankees game. The cost Read more
The people who run the Global Liveability Index have come out with an exhaustive ranking of world cities. The top ten list is dominated by Europe and Australia, but Canada placed four cities in the top 20, which is nothing to sneeze at. According to Time Out, The Global Liveability Index rated more than 170 world cities based on five major factors. They are stability (such as the threat of conflict or prevalence of petty crime); healthcare (availability of over-the-counter drugs, quality of public healthcare); culture and environment (temperatures, levels of censorship); education (availability and quality of private education) and Read more
I’ve been to Australia a half-dozen times, and have been able to enjoy a wide variety of tremendous experiences. Of course, there are lots of things I’ve yet to do, and places I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing. So, here’s one Down Under lover’s list of nine great places I’ve enjoyed in Australia, and also at some fab places to stay. Okay, and a brief look at a few spots I haven’t been that might spark your interest in a future trip. LORD HOWE ISLAND This is a teensy, weensy between Australia and New Zealand. It belongs to the Read more
For many years, The New York Times has been delivering a solid, -thought-out list of the 52 best places to go in the world for any given year. For 2025, their list includes a few of my fave places in the world, including Western Australia, Sydney, New York City and the Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario, Canada, where my wife and I piloted a 42-foot craft from Le Boat on our own last June (and survived). Also making the list was Detroit, which the Times noted has undergone a remarkable renaissance, something I witnessed on a visit in July of last Read more
