It’s that time of year. Time to thank all the people who’ve been nice to me in my 2024 travels. And, more than likely, time to annoy all my friends who feel like I’m bragging. It may seem that way, but I really am just trying to send another thank you to the hotels, restaurants and destinations that hosted me this year. It’s also fun to look back a bit, and to post some silly or inspiring photos. So, without further ado, here are some great experiences I had this year in Ontario, Florida, Alberta, Alaska, Hawaii, Vancouver, New York Read more
Tampa
World’sBestCities.com has unveiled its list of, well, the world’s top cities. To no one’s surprise, London, New York and Paris take the podium spots, followed by Tokyo and Singapore. Rounding out the top 10 were Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin and Sydney. That’s six European cities in the top 10, which tells you something. In fact, I count 28 European cities in the top 100. The website says they considered a variety of factors, both the “performance and perception of cities around the world. I can’t say I fully understand the methodology, but I think they’ve missed the mark on a Read more
Canada may be a winter wonderland, but Canadians prefer their holidays in places with turquoise seas and waving palm trees. A new study from KAYAK, the world’s leading travel search engine, finds Canadians have their eyes set on international travel this holiday season. According to an overwhelming majority (90%) of hotel and flight searches show Canadians are looking at international destinations. Cancún, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando top their list of most popular destinations for Canadians. The list isn’t particularly different from other years, but I forgive my fellow Canadians for looking at tried-and-true vacation spots. After all, I’ll be heading Read more
J.D. Power’s latest study of U.S. and Canadian airports is pretty harsh when it comes to Canada. If you take this study at its word, we suck. We truly suck. But I don’t know if that’s quite true. The company’s annual airport review for 2024 ranks Toronto Pearson/YYZ as the second-worst mega airport in the two countries, ahead of only poor Newark-Liberty in New Jersey. J.D.Power ranked Vancouver International 15th out of 27 large airports, which is at least middle of the pack. But Calgary was 22nd and Montreal-Trudeau next-to-last at 26th. The 2024 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, the Read more
Domestic travel is up. But Canadian visits to Florida are still lagging slightly, new figures show. Florida tourism reps say 31.5 million domestic travelers visited the Sunshine State in the second quarter of 2024. That’s up 1.8% from the same period in 2023, and 8.7% higher than in 2019, the last full year before COVID-19. But CBS News reports Canadian and international visits are still down slightly from a few years ago. VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s tourism-marketing agency, said there were 2.44 million overseas visitors in the second quarter of 2019, with 848,000 Canadians. In the second quarter of last Read more
