Northern Finland is one of only a few places to catch the famous Northern Lights, which earns our vote as perhaps the best natural light show on Earth. If you can’t trek above the Arctic Circle to experience this mystical phenomenon, don’t fret. Just park yourself in Helsinki for a … Read more
I think I have a good reason to be proud … I’m an honorary Calgarian. That’s what I became after reciting the oath and receiving my “White Hat.” The hat is not only an enduring symbol of the Wild West and the cowboy but also of the Calgary Stampede which … Read more
Centuries of history, celebrated French cuisine, a towering cathedral on the river … Paris? No, I’m talking about Lyon, a city steeped in history and the home of Paul Bocuse, a culinary legend who changed French cooking forever. Compact and eminently walkable – you’ll need to burn off the calories … Read more
Japan remains for me “the trip of a lifetime” and even though I am there frequently, its magic makes each visit memorable and instructive. I learn something new every time. On a personal level, my time there has led me to think more about the group than myself; to be … Read more
If you’re one of those folks who tunes in regularly to the Food Channel and gets excited at the thought of attending one of the many Food & Wine Festivals held regularly across the USA and Canada, take my advice and head for Calgary, Western Canada’s latest destination food city … Read more
Whether or not Niagara-on-the-Lake is the prettiest town in North America is up for debate, but if you ask Marian Markarian, trip advisor at Niagara Wine Tours International, you’ll get a resounding “Absolutely.” With its stately homes, pristine lawns and manicured gardens, a Main Street to rival any quaint New … Read more
Canada’s largest city, Toronto, is home to a diverse population of nearly three million people which includes virtually all of the world’s culture groups, reflected in the more than 100 languages and dialects spoken. As a result of this diversity, Toronto is known for its tolerance, open-mindedness, and acceptance. Multiculturalism … Read more
If there’s anything that Canadians – at least the ones we’re hanging out with – know for sure, it’s that we own winter. The coldest season of the year is in our blood and in our bones. It’s a lifelong love affair born during childhood when, after the first major … Read more
The first time I visited Nova Scotia, I stayed three weeks, the longest I’ve ever stayed in one place in all my travels. It wasn’t just the natural splendor of this Canadian maritime province—an idyllic landscape of wide sandy beaches, towering bluffs, lush forests, and rolling green meadows lapped by … Read more
It isn’t easy to match a single word with every hotel you’ve experienced in your travels but word association comes easy when it comes to the Windsor Arms in Toronto – discreet. You realize this at check-in when you’re introduced to your butler. Don’t think starched collar and white gloves, … Read more
A black bear flips over giant beach boulders as though they were mere rubber balls then paws at rock crabs hiding underneath – a bountiful seafood feast at the water’s edge. We watch transfixed for a good ten minutes, before motoring slowly out of Ucluelet. Ucluelet and its more gentrified … Read more
What’s the first thing you notice when summer turns to fall in Canada? It’s the color … especially in Southern Alberta, our neck of the woods, where autumn hits early and the low hanging, late afternoon sun lights up the landscape like a movie screen. This is peak hiking season, … Read more
Cities, restaurants, temples, shops, markets? Cultural experiences? Museums? Bars, late night jazz clubs? Dancing? Drinking? Who needs any of it? Japan offers, instead, a unique and magical one of a kind opportunity to explore the depths of your soul, and live to tell the tale. Ryokans, a type of … Read more
For decades, Antwerp has scored high for its coolness quotient. Situated in Belgium’s northwest province of Flanders, its second-largest city put itself on the map in the late 80’s when a group of fashion school graduates threw their designs into the back of a rented truck and headed to … Read more
There’s never enough time in Berlin to see and do everything but I thought I’d give it my best shot recently on a whirlwind weekend in the German capital. A friend told me about an interesting neighborhood that she likened to the “SoHo of Berlin” called the Hackesche Hofe in … Read more