Europe faves: Where to get fat in France, plus top views in Rome ... Deal of day

A recent study by the United Nations’ world tourism organization found that 43 per cent of all the tourism money spent in the world last year was spent in Europe.

Meanwhile, the folks at TripAdvisor this week announced their 2013 Travelers’ Choice Destinations, based on reviews and opinions of millions of TripAdvisor travelers. The top 10 was as follows: Paris, New York, London, Rome, Barcelona, Venice, San Francisco, Florence, Prague and Sydney. That’s seven of 10 for the Euros, which is why so many of us book trips to places like Paris and Prague each summer.

With that in mind, here’s a personal look at a few European faves (or not) I’ve discovered over the years.

Favourite Irish pub: Gus O’Connor’s in Doolin, which looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. Great music and Irish camaraderie in a perfect little town (see below).

Best-looking museum (outside): City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain. A beautiful interplay of structure and light by Santiago Calatrava, who designed the interior of what’s now Brookfield Place at Yonge and Front Streets (the old BCE Place).

Best-looking museum (inside): The Musee d’Orsay in Paris is a former train station that’s a joy to simply sit in. Toss in some of the world’s best Impressionist art and you’ve got a killer combination.

Sweetest treat: Some folks swear by macaroons in Paris, but I’ll take the crème cakes in Lake Bled, Slovenia; thin pastry with custard-like crème and vanilla and powdered sugar. The views of Lake Bled, a perfect church on a small island, a fort on a towering cliff and the Slovenian alps are even sweeter in what might be the prettiest spot in all of Europe.

Best place to get fat: The Dordogne region of France, east of Bordeaux, features tons of Foie gras, local duck, good wine and more foie gras. The rivers are lined with beautiful castles on high hills, which makes for a great canoe trip to work off some calories.

Best golf course views: Nefyn and District (photo at left) is a fabulous links setup in northwest Wales. The last couple holes are played out (mostly) on a tiny peninsula high on a hill. You can peer down at a small, beachside village that’s achingly beautiful and features the renowned Ty Coch Inn.

Best tour of Paris: Take a ride in an old Citroen and tour the City of Light with a company called 4 roues sous un Parapluie.

Best place to get to another continent: If you stay on the European side of Istanbul, you can take a short ferry across the Bosporus and plant your feet in Asia for lunch.

Best place for a cheap hotel in London: Inexpensive places abound in the area near Bayswater and Paddington, north of Kensington Gardens. Good access to the underground, too.

Best place to get in touch with George Clooney (in your dreams): They say he still hangs out occasionally in the Lake Como area of Italy. It’s a beautiful spot with Swiss effiency, alpine scenery and Italian food. The perfect match.

Best mix of sweet and spicy food: In Holland, be sure to try Indonesian rijstaffel; a huge array of small dishes surrounding a serving of rice. Too exotic? You can’t go wrong with a Dutch pancake house.

Easiest Athens escape: Sick of the crowds in the Plaka? Hop on a short ferry ride to the island of Hydra, where there are no cars but wonderful seaside bars or places to dip into fresh calamari or a giant bowl of rich, Greek yogurt.

Best view of Rome: Snag a room (if you can afford it) or dip into your pocketbook for a drink or a small meal at the Hotel Hassler, built at the top of the Spanish Steps. Magnificent views of beautiful churches, piazzas and The Vatican (see photo at right).

Tastiest coffee: Caffe Al Bicerin is an Italian institution in Turin that serves up a mix of espresso, chocolate and crème in a small but glamorous shop. Heavenly.

Best place to hit the beach in Sweden: Halmstad offers a lovely stretch of sand on this Scandinavian country’s gentle west coast. A great place for a game of beach soccer.

Worst Mexican food: I don’t remember the name but I had without a doubt the most inexcusable, sorry plate of Mexican food at a place in Salzburg a dozen years ago. Yes, I know, why would anyone order Mexican in Austria?

A great place to impress your friends: The island of Corsica is part of France but feels like old-time Italy. Towering, craggy mountains that plunge into impossibly blue seas, small villages that are perched on top of giant cliffs over the water, fabulous drives, terrific food and wine, amazing historical sites and lots more. Easily one of the best places I've ever visited.

Best place to rub something: Folks have been rubbing a likeness of St. John of Nepomuk on the Charles Bridge in Prague for years. They say if you do you’ll return to the city. I gave it a go in 2003 but haven’t returned. Yet.

THIS AND THAT

What's up with the freaking weather? It was four degrees Celsius and windy this morning in Toronto. In northern Italy, heavy snow forced cancellation of stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia cycling race. It's almost June; will someone PLEASE turn up the thermostat? ... Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey held a grand opening Thursday for Margaritaville, the $35 million restaurant, bar, and gambling complex that's part of a $70 million expansion and renovation of Resorts ...

JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, has a deal today for a fabulous trip to Scotland, priced at $1,492, including $623 in taxes.

Jaunt Highlights

• BONUS: Includes 7-day Economy car rental (Ford Fiesta or similar)
• BONUS: 1-day Edinburgh Hop-on/Hop-off Bus Tour Passes
• 9-Day/7-Night Scotland Freedom vacation with Air Canada rouge, offering the freedom to explore Scotland at your own will!

• Only 3 nights of included accommodation lets you decide where you'd like to stay next

• Scotland's diverse geography is one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world
• Having your own car rental leaves you the freedom to choose where you want to go and allows you to travel at your own pace

Offer Details

• Valid for travel on July 4 & 9, 2013
• Includes return airfare from Toronto to Edinburgh via AC rouge
• Accommodations for 3 nights at the 3-Star Edinburgh City Centre Haymarket Premier Inn
• Pricing (Rates are per person, plus tax and based on double occupancy):
  
  July 4, 2013:
  Double: $999
  Tax: $623
   
  July 9, 2013:  
  Double: $869
  Tax: $623
  
  
  
• Valid passport required for travel from Canada
• Car rental insurance and local fees not included and to be paid locally
• This offer is 100% non-refundable at time of booking

Mr. and Mrs. Smith come to our fair land/Canada means business/Deal of day

Mr. and Mrs. Smith have arrived in Canada. No, not Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie,  although James Lohan and Tamara Herber-Percy are used to the mixup.

The couple, a highly entertaining husband and wife team from England, took their love of travel and interesting hotels to a new level ten years ago when they formed a company called Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

We’re not entirely in on the joke here in Canada I suspect, but in Britain a “Mr. and Mrs. Smith weekend” implies something racy; a couple checking in under an assumed name and wink-wink-nudge-nudge and all that.

They showed a hilarious video with a tremendously hot, young couple trying to get it on at home on after work, only to be interrupted by their dog, who seemingly has worms and is dying for a visit to the vet and scrapes his butt along the carpet outside the couple's bedroom door just as they're about to, well, you know. Thus, the need for a getaway to a smart hotel somewhere.

Herber-Percy and Lohan specialize in helping folks book unique and sexy hotels around the world; usually smaller places (but not always) that don’t have a large marketing staff of their own. It’s a great concept, and you can book some absolutely tremendous places all over the world; some 850 in all. Bookings can be made in Canadian dollars as of June 1 or so at smithhotels.com, or you can call 1-800-464-2040 and TALK TO A REAL, LIVE PERSON. What a concept!

Properties range from handsome inns on Nantucket Island, near Cape Cod, to the Shangri-La hotels in Vancouver and Toronto, the Drake in Toronto, the awesome Wickaninnish Inn in B.C (see photo above right), the Standard and the Crosby in New York and Hotel St. Paul in Montreal.

In Europe, you can book places such as The Grazing Goat, a small pub with rooms in London, or Cliffside dwellings in Basilicata Italy or mountain retreats in Corsica, an island I visited a few years ago that’s absolutely tremendous.

They showed off a wide array of properties at a posh reception at the Shangri-La Toronto last night, topping it off with a reception in the 17th floor Shangri-La suite with its terrace view of bustling University Avenue.

The emphasis for Smith hotels are luxury properties, but Lohan said many go for well under $200 a night.

All properties are evaluated by them and then by a writer who goes in and checks things out, sometimes a local but occasionally someone famous such as Stella McCartney or Modesty Blaze.

The emphasis is on “buzzy” places and boutique properties with cool design.

“We don’t care if they can make a swan out of a napkin,” Lohan said. “We want a place that makes a perfect martini, where you will get wet when you take a shower and with a bathtub that can fit two people.” 

AIR CANADA GETS READY TO ROUGE

Air Canada has taken possession of its first Airbus aircraft in advance of the debut of its discount airline rouge, which hits the air July 1 (aw, Canada Day1) with flights to Europe and the Caribbean. They’ll be unveiling their new flight uniforms next Monday at the Distillery District in downtown Toronto and will be talking about the flight training workers have been given, reportedly under the direction of Disney folks in Orlando. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of cute rodents make the trek north for the announcement.

CANADA MEANS BUSINESS

The Canadian Tourism Commission has launched a new arm aimed at bringing more business travel and convention biz to our country. Called Business Events Canada, it's said to place a "new focus on seven priority sectors where Canada holds a competitive advantage. CTC’s BEC team will be leading its sales approach on aerospace, agriculture and food, clean technology, infrastructure/engineering, information/communication technology, life sciences and natural resources;" areas where the CTC says Canada has a leading role.

 

The new BEC brand reflects the growing significance of the meetings industry to Canada’s economy. Meetings, conventions and incentive travel attracts close to two million visitors each year to Canada with total spending of $1.7 billion—almost a quarter of all money spent by inbound overnight travellers. Canada is the No. 1 location for outbound meetings business from the US, which brings in about $1.4 billion annually.

Interesting addition here: In case you missed it, Toronto City Council voted the other day (when they were killing the casino idea) to look at adding more convention space in our fair town. It's a good call given the competition from the likes of Chicago and San Francisco, for sure. 

JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, has a deal today for a great trip to beautiful Antigua, priced at $1,262, including $363 in taxes.

Jaunt Highlights

• EXCLUSIVE TO JAUNT: Savings of $166 per couple!
• BONUS: AirCanada Vacations Privileges offer personalized check-in/check-out, beach towel in room, 25% spa discount (excluding products) and more!
• All-inclusive 7-night stay at the 4-Star The Verandah Resort & Spa located in Long Bay, Antigua
• FREE CONNECTOR FLIGHTS: The cost of your connector flight from Kingston (ON), Ottawa or Montreal to Toronto is FREE (subject to departure gateway tax)

• The Verandah is the perfect place to visit for honeymoons or vow renewals
• Antigua is a breathtaking, serene island

Offer Details

• Valid for travel on June 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 2013
• Includes return airfare from Toronto to Antigua and round-trip airport/hotel transfers in Antigua
• Accommodations in a Super Saver Room, featuring 1 king-size bed and 1 queen-size sofa bed and Kitchenette facilities. Maximum occupancy: 4
• Daily breakfast, lunch and dinner, and unlimited alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
• Pricing (Rates are per person, plus tax and includes all tips, taxes and service charges):
  
  Toronto:
  Double: $899
  Single $1309
  Triple: $859
  Quad: $789
  1st Child (2-11yrs): $599
  2nd Child (2-11yrs): $699
  Tax: $362
  
  Other DATES and GATEWAYS available.
  Call us at 1-855-687-5925.
  
  
• Why choose Air Canada Vacations?
  Earn & Redeem Aeroplan® Miles, in-flight seat-back entertainment on most flights, airline service and reliability of Air Canada, and more!
• Valid passport required for travel from Canada
• This offer is 100% non-refundable at time of booking

 

 

 

Affordable U.S. getaways/Via Rail price structure change/Jaunt.ca deal of the day

The Canadian dollar is slipping a bit against the U.S. greenback, down to just higher than 97 cents. The loonie is still roughly at par with the U.S. dollar, but there's talk it slip further. Which makes this a great time to take that U.S. trip and discover some affordable getaways.

The folks at Travel + Leisure have come up with a nice list of the most affordable U.S. cities, and it's a useful piece that takes you beyond the normal talk of New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and the other "biggies." 

Topping the list for 2013 is Kansas City, which comes in with an average summer rate of $137 for a hotel. There's great barbeque and good live music, plus terrific art museums and fun shopping. I used to hang out a lot at the Country Club Plaza shopping area when I covered the Blue Jays back in the day, where there were great restaurants in an area built to resemble the south of Spain, featuring towering fountains and colourful tiles and red-tile roofs. Very pleasant.

Next on the list was Nashville, cited for its excellent music and good, cheap food. Then came San Antonio, with its famous riverwalk, good food and history. Here's the rest of the list: 4. Minneapolis/St. Paul, 5. Memphis, 6. Salt Lake City, 7. Houston, 8. Savannah Georgia, 9. Austin Texas, 10. Providence Rhode Island, 11. Portland Maine 12. New Orleans, 13. Portland Oregon, 14. Charleston, 15. San Juan Puerto Rico, 16. Dallas/Fort Worth, 17. Philadelphia, 18. Baltimore, 19. Denver, 20. Atlanta.

CANADIAN NATIONAL PARKS OPENING

Most Parks Canada locations will be open for the season starting this weekend, Ottawa announced on Tuesday. Officials say there's been a 35 per cent increase in pre-season online reservations for Parks Canada compared to this time last year. For Georgian Bay Islands National Park the increase is 57 per cent  and for Bruce Peninsula National Park the increase is 33 per cent. So get out there and enjoy, already.

VIA RAIL ADOPTS AIRLINE STYLE PRICING

Not sure this is good. But it's the new reality.

Star reporter Francine Kopun has a good story in the business section today on how VIA Rail has ripped a page from the airline handbook when it comes to setting fares. Now they’re handled like airline ticket sales – some tickets go high, some tickets go low, depending on the month, the day, even the hour of travel.

It means doing everything to get as many people on a trip as possible, at the highest fare the market will bear in each fare category.

The system was implemented at VIA last June, helping drive an increase in ridership of 10.4 per cent in the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto triangle in the last quarter of 2012, compared to a year earlier, according to the Crown Corporation’s annual report.

CAESARS GOES WILD IN NYC

The folks at Caesar's in Atlantic City put on quite the skin show in New York City on Monday, sending out brightly painted women to publicize their properties by handing out hotel room key cards to thousands of passerby’s for a FREE room at one of Caesars Entertainment’s four Atlantic City resorts and casinos. Caesars Entertainment Atlantic City body painted street team visited lunch go-ers in Bryant Park, two legged and four legged friends Madison Square Park, suits in Wall Street and finally showed commuters some love near Penn Station who all snatched up a room at either Caesars, Harrah’s Resort, Showboat or Bally’s after spotting one of the four body painted models emblazoned with the hotels’ logos.

LOS ANGELES BIKE SHARING

Los Angeles is bringing in the nation’s second biggest bike sharing program. To be introducted next month, they’ll have something like 80 stations to start.

The City has many bike friendly areas. Downtown is quite walkable and, aside from a couple big hills, probably isn’t hard to do on a bike. Ditto for much of Hollywood and Westwood Village and other cities, including Santa Monica and Pasadena.

Unlike Toronto, they've also spent massive amounts of money on new subway and transit lines. Check Thursday's Travel section for a good story on the colourful artwork you can find on the Red Line subway.

THIS AND THAT

The Scotiabank Caribbean Festival will run in Toronto July 9 to Aug. 3, when the Grand Parade will be held ... Officials at Cedar Fair LP, which owns and operates Canada's Wonderland and other theme parks, says they're encouraged by early sales of season passes ... The Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai has taken extravagance (or indulgence) to a whole new (ridiculous) level, giving guests gold plated iPads to use during their stay ...Associated Press reports the Muppets are getting a new home in a Queens museum with a permanent exhibit the city hopes will persuade more tourists to venture beyond Manhattan. Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Bert and Ernie of "Sesame Street" fame, the stars of "Fraggle Rock" and other puppets, costumes and items from throughout Muppets creator Jim Henson's career have been donated to the Museum of the Moving Image, which is building a new gallery to house them, the institution announced Tuesday.

JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, has a deal today for a great family trip to the wonderful Riviera Maya in Mexico. It's priced at $1,217, including $348 in taxes.

Jaunt Highlights

• EXCLUSIVE TO JAUNT: FREE upgrade to an Oceanview Room
• BONUS: Occidental Grand Unlimited Xcaret Xperience including unlimited multi-entrance access to Xcaret Park, Private eco-cultural tour, Free access to the children's activity `Xiquitos Sonando` and more!
• All-inclusive 7-night stay at the 4-star Occidental Grand Xcaret located in Riviera Maya, Mexico
     
  

• Located next to the spectacular Xcaret Park, Occidental is the perfect place for engaging eco-adventure in Riviera Maya
• An exclusive room upgrade means extra special inclusions like a traditional Mayan welcome

Offer Details

• Valid for travel on July 6 & July 13, 2013
• Includes return airfare from Toronto to Cancun and round-trip airport/resort transfers
• Accomodations in an Oceanview Room featuring a king sized bed or 2 double beds and balcony. Maximum occupancy: 3 adults or 2 adults + 2 child
• Pricing (Rates are per person, plus tax):
  
  Toronto:
  Double: $869
  Single: $1279
  Triple: $829
  Child (2-12yrs): $499
  Tax: $348
  
  Other DATES and GATEWAYS available.
  Call us at 1-855-687-5925.
  
  
  
• For more info on Xcaret Park and how you can redeem your resort credit, click HERE
• Valid passport required for travel from Canada
• This offer is 100% non-refundable at time of booking

 

 

Airline mixup sends folks to wrong continent ... Top Canadian cities ... Deal of day

You say Dakar, I say Dhaka. You say Oakland, I say Auckland.

It amazes me how these things can happen in this day and age of the information highway. But every once in a while the airlines give us a doozy.

The latest is a mixup involving a couple from Los Angeles who thought they were flying Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and then on to Dakar, Senegal. Their flight to Turkey was fine and they went to sleep on the second leg, thinking they were headed southwest to Africa. Instead, Sandy Valdivieso woke up and looked at the seatback video and found their plane was flying over the Middle East.

Turns out that there was a mixup at Los Angeles International and she and her husband were mistakenly given tickets to Dhaka, Bangladesh instead of Dakar, Senegal (see photo below right of Goree Island in Dakar, which I'll mention in a minute).

They got things fixed up and were sent back to Istanbul and then on to Dakar. Their luggage arrived a couple days later.

The airline wasn’t doing much for them, apparently, until the Los Angeles Times learned about the incident. The couple was then given free flight passes. In economy.

The story reminds me of the time, way back when before the Internet, when some guy in L.A. allegedly was trying to fly to Oakland, California (a one-hour flight) and couldn’t figure out why two hours later he could still see the Pacific Ocean outside the airplane window. The story goes that he was mistakenly routed to Auckland, New Zealand.

At the risk of offending my home town of Oakland, I think I’d prefer Auckland, actually. Putting aside the 12-hour flight, that is.

I also can recommend Dakar, actually. It’s the only place I’ve been to in Africa, having taken the trip to cover an International Olympic Committee meeting for the Star’s sports department. There are a couple of lovely hotels on the ocean with beautiful pools and even a small golf course with local caddies.

I didn’t see much of the city, although I did conduct an interview with the family of then Toronto Raptor Mamadou N’diaye, who was from Dakar.

The IOC folks also took the media along on a visit to Ile Goree, a pretty island near Dakar with a terrible history as the embarkation point for thousands and thousands of West African slaves. We toured the tiny chambers where people were held against their will while waiting to be put onto ships with deplorable conditions and saw the chains used to bind prisoners.

An awful place, for sure. But also one very much worth seeing (not unlike a World War II concentration camp in Europe) to remind us just how cruel we humans can be to one another.

The slave quarters and the so-called "door of no return" that led to the ships is powerful. But there also are beautiful views of the surrounding ocean and brightly-coloured boats on the beach, plus casual shops selling casual clothes in a million shades of red, green, yellow and blue - and just about any other colour you can imagine.

TOP TRIP ADVISOR CITIES

TripAdvisor today released a list of the most sought-after cities in the world, and the places Canadians are looking for.

The awards, based on reviews and opinions of millions of TripAdvisior travelers, found Vancouver on top, followed by Montreal, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Quebec City, Banff, Victoria, Whistler, Lake Louise and Ottawa. No surprise, I guess, given the millions of folks who live in the Greater Toronto Area and would be searching for places like Niagara and Ottawa and Montreal for weekend getaways or family trips.

Still, it's too bad we didn't get Halifax or St. John's on the list as they're both tremendous cities to visit.

TripAdvisor also did a world list, with the top 25 listed. No Canadian cities made the top 25. Here's the top ten: Paris, New York, London, Rome, Barcelona, Venice, San Francisco, Florence, Prague and Sydney. Three cities from Italy in the top 10; not bad.

For the U.S., the top ten were New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando, Washington D.C., Boston, Los Angeles, Honolulu and New Orleans. Once again, Minot North Dakota failed to elbow its way into the top 10. Or 25,for that matter.

CALLING ALL LOTTERY WINNERS

Someone down in Florida just won something like $60 million in a lottery. Which is an almost unfathomable amount of money.

The interest alone would be enough to live like a king. Or you could try living the high life in New York City.

A story I spotted on the weekend in the Telegraph (England), talked about the most expensive hotels in New York City. Topping the charts, the paper said, was the St. Regis.

At $823 a night, it’s quite pricey. Then again, there are marble floors, Louis XV furniture from France (I prefer Louis XIV myself; although he was a big fan of Ikea), Waterford crystal and more. Probably they have good soap and shampoo in the washrooms, too. And I bet they don’t bolt the blow dryer to the wall to prevent thefts.

JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, has a deal on tap for a fabulous-sounding seven-night trip to Sicily, priced at $2,422.

Jaunt Highlights

• 7-Day/6-Night Taste of Sicily Tour, featuring visits to Palermo, Marsala, the Valley of the Temples, Mount Etna and much more!
• 6-Nights' accommodation in a variety of 4-Star hotels, based on double occupancy. See below for hotels included (or similar).
• Includes transportation via deluxe motorcoach, services of an English speaking guide, and all guided city tours as per itinerary
• Meals include 4 breakfasts and 5 dinners

• Early fall in Italy is the absolute best time to visit: perfect weather and less crowds
• Leisure time in Palermo paired with guided tours for the rest of your trip give a perfect balance of freedom and itinerary-based fun
• Visit stunning landmarks in Siracusa, Taormina and the beautiful and towering Mount Etna

Offer Details

• Valid for travel on September 25 & October 9, 2013
• Includes departure airfare from Toronto to Palermo (via Rome) and return airfare from Catania (via Rome) to Toronto, both on Alitalia, plus airport/hotel transfers
• Pricing (rates are per person, plus tax):
  
  September 25, 2013:
  Double: $1949
  Triple: $1949
  Single: $2199
  Tax: $523
  
  October 9, 2013:
  Double: $1899
  Triple: $1899
  Single: $2149
  Tax: $523
  
  For Other DATES or GATEWAYS Call us at 1-855-687-5925.
  
  
• Accommodations Included (or similar): Mercure Hotel (Palermo); Hotel Della Valle (Agrigento) and (Giardini Naxos) Antares or  Caesar’s Palace (Taormina)
• Includes all taxes and service charges
• Valid passport required for travel from Canada
• This offer is refundable until 5 PM EST on May 23, 2013. After that time, this offer is 100% non-refundable.

 

A cool Holland video/Jaunt.ca deal of the day/Win a scholarship based on travel!

I haven't spent a lot of time in Holland, but their latest video sure gets me thinking about a trip back.

It's a fun, cheeky piece of work that talks about everything from Van Gogh to gay-friendly lifestyles, not to mention fresh food, bicycles, tulips and beer. Oh, and cheese. And wooden shoes. And probably there's a windmill in there, too. And there's a fun bit about the one guy in Holland who doesn't speak English that's borderline brilliant.

I was in Amsterdam after graduating from university and had a great time at the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, both of which offer some of the most amazing art on the planet. The Rijksmuseum recently underwent a major renovation.

I remember being quite moved, as anyone would be, by the Anne Frank House. And I loved the canals and the small cafe/bars with the Delft tile and the old, wooden floors. I think I stayed in a hostel on the Prinsengracht, one of the great canals in town.

I distinctly remember some great pancake houses and a great spot that served rijsttafel (rice table in English). It's a great dish where you get a big bowl of rice and then a whack of small bowls with different foods from Indonesia, including satay, curried dishes, sambal, egg rolls, and much more. Often there are a few dozen small side dishes to choose from, which is an awesome concept.

There are a million Thai places in Toronto these days but I haven't seen much from Indonesia lately, which is too bad.

I also remember taking a bike tour outside the city centre and passing some beautiful pastoral areas with windmills and contented-looking cows. Definitely one of the real treats of Europe.

SCHOLARSHIP FOR TRAVEL LOVERS

Here's a cool concept. Someone sent me a note that talks about a scholarship kids can apply for,  based on their love of travel.

You can get $7,000 in school funding, so it's definitely worth doing a video and getting supporters, which is a requirement.Applications are being accepted until May 31^st 2013, so student travel lovers still have two more weeks to apply and then gather support for their application.

FLORIDA AND WORLD RECORD TOURISM NUMBERS

Hey, Florida, you’re welcome.

Visit Florida officials today reported 1.5 million Canadians visited the Sunshine State in the first three months of the year; part of a record 26 million visits between January and March.

That marks a 4.7 per cent increase over the first quarter of 2012.

Of those visitors, the Miami Herald reports, 21.8 million were domestic, 1.5 million visited from Canada and 2.7 million were overseas visitors.

Guests also spent more on hotels, with the average daily rate increasing 6.8 percent compared to a year ago to $136.45 across the state.

The state’s official tourism marketing corporation also revised its earlier estimate of 2012 numbers. The total count of visitors last year was actually 91.4 million, not 89.3 million as initially reported.

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the “discovery” of Florida by Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon. You can check out the action in this YouTube video.

As if Florida's numbers weren't impressive enough, the United Nations World Tourism Organization reported record numbers for the planet for 2012.

According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts hit a new record in 2012, reaching an estimated US$1,075 billion worldwide, up four per cent in real terms, from US$ 1042 billion in 2011.

By regions, the Americas (up seven per cent) recorded the largest increase in receipts, followed by Asia and the Pacific (up six per cent), Africa (up five per cent) and Europe (up two per cent), said the website breakingtravelnews.com.

In absolute values, Europe saw US$ 457 billion in tourism earnings, equivalent to 43 per cent of the world’s total tourism receipts, the largest share by region.

The top ten ranking of destinations by receipts remained virtually unchanged in 2012, with the United States, Spain, France, China and Italy leading, followed by Macau (China), Germany, United Kingdom, Hong Kong (China) and Australia.

“It is encouraging to see that the growth in international tourist arrivals was equalled by a comparable increase in spending in spite of continued economic challenges” said UNWTO secretary general, Taleb Rifai.“Considering that tourism is a key export for many economies around the world, this result is good news as it provides foreign reserves to destinations, and contributes to job creation in tourism as well as in related economic sectors,” he added.

JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, is offering a deal for a great trip to China, priced at $1,789, including $690 in taxes. The deal is hugely impressive in that it includes airfare and seven days in various parts of the country, including wonderful Shanghai and areas used in the filming of the movie Avatar.

Jaunt Highlights

• SAVINGS: Save up to $3400 per couple, compared to the cost of booking your air, accommodations, touring and meals separately!
• 9-Day/7-Night Visit China’s ‘Avatar' Tour, including visits to Huangshan - the filming location for the movie Avatar - Thousand Islands, the legendary Silk Factory, Suzhou and more!
• Includes international round-trip airfare from Toronto, Vancouver or Calgary to Shanghai with Air Canada
• Includes transportation via private air conditioned coach, accompaniment of licensed English speaking local tour guides, tours & entrance fees as per the itinerary and more!
• Pricing includes single-entry China Visa (valued at $120) and gratuities for local driver & guide (valued at $120)
• Accommodations for 7-Nights in 4-5-Star Hotels, based on double occupancy. See below for hotels included (or similar).
• Meals include 7 daily breakfasts, 6 lunches & 6 dinners including dinner with a traditional Apsara show 

• Visit one of the epic filming locations of the 2009 James Cameron film 'Avatar', the UNESCO World Heritage Site Huangshan
• Discover some of China's most unique places from Hangzhou to Sunzhou
• Shopping time in the immense city of Shanghai

Offer Details

• Valid for travel on October 23, 2013
• Pricing (Rates are per person):
  
  Vancouver:
  Double: $1099
  Single: $1369
  Tax: $690
  
  Calgary:
  Double: $1199
  Single: $1469
  Tax: $690
  
  Toronto:
  Double: $1399
  Single: $1669
  Tax: $690
  
  For Other DATES or LAND ONLY option, Call us at 1-855-687-5925.
  
  
• Accommodations Included (or similar): Howard Johnson Zhengdi, Shanghai (2 nights); Junrui Baihe Hotel, Tunxi (2 nights); New Century Hotel, Hangzhou (1 night); Nobel Crown Hotel, Wuxi (1 night); Marco Polo Hotel, Suzhou (1 night) and the Majesty Plaza Hotel, Shanghai (1 night)
• Valid passport and visa required for travel from Canada
• Valid passport required for travel from Canada
• This offer is 100% non-refundable at time of booking

 

 

 

 

Nova Scotia comes to T.O., Snowbird warning, Get social at Sheraton, Deal of day

Nova Scotia has come to Toronto.

From now until June 9, a 28-foot replica of the world-famous Peggy’s Cove lighthouse is on display at Bay and Wellington in the heart of downtown Toronto; part of a big push by Nova Scotia tourism that also included a series of stories in Star Travel a few weeks ago.

Thousands of folks braved morning rain and enjoyed afternoon sunshine and sat on deep blue Muskoka chairs yesterday, when the replica was unveiled. TV crews filmed at the site in the morning and at lunch there was fresh lobster being served up to hungry passersby.

“You get something like 25,000 people walking past this intersection every day, so we figured it was worth it,” said Patrick Sullivan, CEO of the Nova Scotia Tourism Agency. “Toronto is the largest city in Canada and an important market for Nova Scotia’s tourism industry so we thought it appropriate to extend a formal invitation.”

It’s a smart move, even if it did cost (Sullivan confessed) more than $100,000 and uses 30,000 pounds of sand for the base.

"Almost 500,000 visitors come from Ontario every year," Sullivan told me. "We wanted to finish our campaign with a big exclamation point."

Visitors to Peggy’s Cove west are encouraged to post a photo of themselves with the lighthouse with the hashtag #peggyscorner from now until June 9 for a chance to win a daily prize of a fresh lobster dinner for two delivered straight from Nova Scotia. There’s also a chance to win an all expense paid trip for four valued at $10,000 with the recently launched Hit the Road With Me Facebook contest. Simply “like” Nova Scotia on Facebook, enter the contest and you quality for a chance at four return flights, accommodations, a rental car and spending money. Hit the Road with Me is open until June 25 and you can enter the contest daily.

The tourism folks also have a Nova Scotia food truck/mobile kitchen that will patrol Ontario and Quebec until late July.

It's a beautiful province with tons going on; great restaurants, a fabulous coastline and the wonderful city of Halifax just for starters.

SNOWBIRD TAX TRAP?

I wrote in this space earlier this week about how U.S. politicians are considering a couple of bills that would allow Canadians to spend eight months of the year in the U.S., versus the current limit of six months. I pointed out there are health care issues as provinces tend to restrict the number of days Canadians can spend abroad and still get coverage. In Ontario, OHIP allows us to be gone no more than seven months.

Now comes word of a potentially bigger issue: taxes. I got a note from Moodys LLP to say Canadians would be subject to U.S. taxes if they stayed more than six months, which could be drastic.

While the proposed legislation would allow the individual to remain in the US for a period of 240 days, the law does not exempt these days for tax purposes, said Roy Berg, a Moodys tax specialist. "In other words, the “day count” for purposes of the visa is independent of the “day count” for tax purposes. As a result the would-be holders of the Snowbird Visa will become subject to US income tax and US estate tax and hence have light the fuse on the Snowbird Visa TAX BOMB.”

Yikes.

 

 SHERATON GETS SOCIAL

Here’s a great idea. Sheraton Hotels around the world, including the Sheraton Centre in Toronto and Le Centre Sheraton Montreal, will be hosting a Social Hour from Monday to Thursday nights each week from 5 to 7 p.m.

The program features top-rated wines from around the world (only wines with 85 or higher points from Wine Spectator magazine are included) and small glasses of wine will cost just $5; pretty good for Canada.

They’ll also have tasting events.

They held a reception Wednesday night at the Sheraton on Queen St. to toast the start of the event, serving up awesome pulled pork tacos and cheese and appetizers along with some stunning wines. I particularly enjoyed the Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon from California; rich and smooth and silky. Apparently it’s available at the LCBO for about $35, assuming you can get past the hordes of folks who’ll be lining up at the liquor store tonight to avoid a potential workers’ strike over Victoria Day weekend.

Similar events were held around the world, from Montreal to Buenos Aires to New York and Hawaii.

“Following tremendous early success, we’re proud to offer our guests at all Sheraton Hotels around the world the opportunity to experience this award-winning premium wine program,” said Michael Giguere, general manager, Le Centre Sheraton Montreal.

“As the world’s gathering place, we are continuously looking for ways to elevate our guest experiences with new social interactions and believe Social Hour to be a great program for both business and leisure guests,” said Tony Dunn, general manager of the Sheraton Centre Toronto.

There are more than 400 Sheraton hotels in nearly 70 countries round the world. Hseraton just finished a $6 billion global hotel revitalization plan and now is in the middle of an $8 billion global expansion in the next three years.

On a related note, Four Points by Sheraton will open its 175th hotel worldwide this year and plans for 200 by 2014. Among the properties planned by May of next year are Four Points by Sheraton Waterloo-Kitchener and at the Edmonton International Airport, as well as hotels in Edmundston, New Brunswick, Regina, Surrey, B.C. and at the airport in Kelowna, B.C. They also have plans for the Fort Myers Airport in Florida if you’re heading that way. Four Points also is debuting in Peru, Sri Lanka and Libya (Libya?) this year and expanding in Malaysia, Mexico and China, not to mention a new hotel in Brisbane, Australia.

 

AMERICAN TRAVEL PLANS

Trip Advisor did a story of summer travel trends and found these as the top five summer destinations: the ocean (51 per cent), the city (50), countryside (29), a national park (23) and a lake (17 per cent). One quarter of travelers said they’ll spend more on leisure travel than they did in 2012. Asked for their favourite summer treat, 33 per cent said ice cream. Top beverage was a margarita (nice choice), named by 15 per cent. Next favourite drink was beer (12) and iced tea (nine per cent).

 

THIS AND THAT

For the first time in the 25 year history of the park, a regular transit service is being offered from Toronto up to the Bruce Peninsula. The so-called Parkbus will soon be running, departing from various Toronto locations beginning at 7 a.m. and arriving in the Tobermory area sometime after 2 p.m. Folks can contact the company at 1-800-928-7101 or by emailing info@parkbus.ca. ... New Orleans has launched a new tourism campaign aimed at 35 to 65-year-olds, versus the party hardy sorts who come down for the pleasures of sidewalk and street drinking on Bourbon St. … I got a note from someone yesterday who represents the GSpot Hostel in Lisbon, Portugal. I didn’t know there was any such thing but a friend of mine at the office heard me mention the place and promptly replied: G Spot? I’ve been looking for that for years.” Ba-da-boom.

 

 JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, has a deal on tap for a magical, 7-night trip to Disney World in Florida, priced at $1,131, including $142 in taxes.

Jaunt Highlights

• EXCLUSIVE SAVINGS of $140 per couple
• BONUS: Includes 7-Day Magic Your Way Base Tickets with FREE Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan
• 7-night stay at Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort, Disney’s All-Star Music Resort or Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
• Includes return airfare from Toronto or Montreal to Orlando with Air Canada, and round-trip hotel/airport transfers in Florida
• Accommodations in a Standard View Room, featuring 2 double beds. Max. occupancy: 4 adults or 2 adults + 2 children

• You’ll be close to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park and will enjoy complimentary transportation to other Walt Disney World Resort locations
• Enjoy the ultimate family vacation - create memories to last a lifetime!
• Find the perfect resort for your family; choose from a music, movies or sports-themed getaway

Offer Details

• Valid for travel on the following departure dates: September 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 & 12, 2013
• Pricing: (Rates are per person);
  
  Toronto:
  Double: $989 + tax
  Single: $1399 + tax
  Triple: $879 + tax
  Quad: $839 + tax
  Child (age 2-17): $669 + tax
  Tax: $142
  
  Montreal:
  Double: $1134 tax included
  Single: $1544 tax included
  Triple: $1024 tax included
  Quad: $984 tax included
  Child (age 2-17): $814 tax included
  
  For FLIGHT TIMES, OTHER DATES and GATEWAYS call us at 1-855-687-5925.
• Your FREE Meal Plan: The Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan offers a convenient way to enjoy snacks and quick-service meals at over 50 select restaurants throughout the Walt Disney World Resort. The Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan includes two (2) Quick-Service Meals and one (1) Snack per person, per night of your package stay for everyone in the party ages 3 and over. The plan also includes one (1) Resort refillable drink mug per person, that is valid for the length of your stay (eligible for refills at Quick-Service locations only in your Disney Resort hotel). It is included in your package
• Book this offer at a Disney Moderate Resort and get the Disney Dining Plan Free. The Disney Dining Plan offers a convenient way to enjoy snacks and meals throughout the Walt Disney World Resort, including many located in the Downtown Disney area. The Disney Dining Plan includes one (1) Quick-Service Meal, one (1) Snack, and one (1) Table-Service Meal per person, per night of your package stay for everyone in the party ages 3 and over. The plan also includes one (1) Resort refillable drink mug per person, that is valid for the length of your stay (eligible for refills at Quick-Service locations only in your Disney Resort hotel)
• Magic Your Way Theme Park Ticket with Park Hopper Option: This option gives you the flexibility to come and go through all four Walt Disney World Theme Parks: Magic Kingdom Park, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. To add the Park Hopper Option to your booking, call our travel professionals at 1-855-687-5925.
• Why choose Air Canada Vacations?
  Earn & Redeem Aeroplan® Miles, in-flight seat-back entertainment on most flights, airline service and reliability of Air Canada, and more!
• Valid passport required for travel from Canada
• This offer is 100% non-refundable at time of booking

Canadians will spend slightly more than a week in hotels this summer. And they’ll be looking for a bargain. And nice amenities.

The folks at Room Key recently completed a survey and found Canadians plan to spend 7.84 nights (maybe they’ll get up early the last night) in hotels this summer for vacation. Some 78 per cent of travelers plan to spend about the same per night as last summer, when six out of ten folks spent $100 to $200 a night on a room and about 32 per cent paid less than $100.

Among those Canadians planning a hotel stay between May and August, they expect to spend an average of $1,029. Which adds up to about $14 billion on hotels for the summer season; a sizeable amount for sure.

As you’d expect, 78 per cent of respondents said price would drive their hotel decision, followed by location (64 per cent) and amenities (57 per cent). The hotel brand was cited by 37 per cent, while points and rewards programs were mentioned by 34 per cent of respondents.

“Value reigns supreme in the search for hotels this summer,” said Chief Marketing Officer Stephany Verstraete. “But today’s savvy traveler is looking beyond room rate to perks like complimentary Wi-Fi or free breakfast, the ability to earn loyalty points and more.”

When asked about their favourite part of staying in a hotel, 66 per cent amenities. Folks also said they prefer to avoid a room by the elevator or, no surprise, near the ice machine. (Of course, one option is to go to Europe and stay in an old hotel and avoid the ice machine entirely).

Fifty four per cent of folks said they plan to take it easy on a beach or on an island or at a spa. Big city sight-seeing that includes shopping came second at 48 per cent, following by family or school reunions at 32 per cent. More than half – about 55 per cent – said they’ll stay home on summer holiday weekends. Twenty seven per cent plan to travel for Canada Day, 17 per cent for this coming Victoria Day weekend and 23 per cent for Labour Day weekend.

I wouldn't turn down an invite for a cottage on the Canada Day weekend, but I do find it hugely relaxing to stay at home and do my chores and gardening and relax in the backyard with a nice glass of wine...

BARBIE HOME IN FLORIDA

I seem to recall my daughter playing with Barbie dolls. I’m sure my wife did as a little girl.

But I can’t help but feel a little weird about the idea of this Barbie The Dreamhouse Experience at the mall in Fort Lauderdale. It just seems so over the top and plastic. But maybe it’s just me.

If you haven’t heard, there’s a story on it in today’s Living section of the Star, a piece that talks about “an endless closet, elevators, a kitchen, bedroom, and everything pink."

It’s a life-size house that has some women turning to puddles.

“It’s a big deal,” said Lynn Mulvaney-Japes, who’s 51 and should have better things to do. “In fact, we all want to go work there.”

Japes says she has more than 3,000 Barbie dolls in her home and plans to visit Barbie’s home this week, along with other members of what’s called the Fashion Queen Doll Club.

It sounds awful. But, then again, somewhere in my basement at home is a Willie Mays bobblehead doll that’s cracked all apart and a Captain Kirk Star Trek figurine someone once gave me. So maybe I should keep quiet.

JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, has a deal on tap for Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, priced at $821, including $392 in taxes.

Jaunt Highlights

• EXCLUSIVE TO JAUNT: Enjoy a FREE ROOM UPGRADE and a Bavaro Runners Tour - value of $220 per couple!
• BONUS: No single supplement!
• All-inclusive 7-Night stay at the 4-Star Vik Hotel Arena Blanca & Cayena Beach, located in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
• Upgraded accomodations in a newly renovated Superior Room Garden View featuring a king sized bed or 2 3/4 beds and balcony. Maximum occupancy: 3 adults or 2 adults + 2 children
• Daily breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and unlimited alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks

• We can't get enough of how gorgeous Bavaro beach is, and VIK puts you right on the beachfront
• Rejuvenated rooms for maximum comfort
• A revamped kids club will have your little ones entertained all vacation long

Offer Details

• Valid for travel on June 15 & 21, 2013
• Includes return airfare from Toronto to Punta Cana and round-trip airport/resort transfers
• Pricing (Rates are per person, plus tax):
  
  Toronto:
  Single/Double: $429
  Triple: $399
  1st Child: $199
  2nd Child: $299
  Tax: $391.50 
  
  Other DATES and GATEWAYS available.
  Call us at 1-855-687-5925.
  
  
• Your Bavaro Runners Tour includes transportation, tour guide, lunch, beverages and more! ( 1 tour per room)
• Valid passport required for travel from Canada
• This offer is 100% non-refundable at time of booking

Another Toronto Olympic bid could be on the horizon ... Deal of day: China

Here we go again. Maybe.

Canadian Olympic Committee chief Marcel Aubut was quoted last week as saying the COC is considering a Toronto bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Aubut was believed to be pushing for a Quebec City bid for the 2022 Winter Games. And maybe he still is. But he said last week that the country needs a Summer Games more.

"Toronto is going to deliver a great 2015 Pan Am Games and it should be the first step in going higher for the Olympics like Brazil did (in winning the 2016 Summer Olympics), Aubut told Reuters. "If not we are going to look again at the Winter Games, and Quebec is a very good possibility. But the first goal is to convince people to go with Toronto in the summer."

The time for a 2022 Winter Games bid is almost here, actually. The International Olympic Committee will vote in September of this year on the site of the 2020 Summer Olympics, with the final ballot consisting of Istanbul (the favourite), Madrid and Tokyo.

A 2022 decision will be made by the IOC in 2015, while the 2024 decision comes two years after that.

It's good to see Aubut talking about the need for a Summer Games. Because Canada still needs good, Olympic pools and running tracks and other facilities. And a Summer Games in Toronto would do a lot for the city's tourism if it's done right.
Lord knows we should've learned how to bid, too, having lost out for the 1996 Games and then losing to Beijing in the 2008 race.

What we do NOT NEED is another ski jump or another bobsleigh/luge/skeleton course. It's bad enough to have Olympic winter facilities in Calgary and Vancouver; to spend public money on duplicating them in Quebec would be absurd.

Having staged the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver is probably enough for Canada. But the trouble is that, with global warming (or global inconsistency), there aren't many places cold enough to pull it off any more. Quebec might be one of the few dependably cold places the IOC can find for a Winter Games at some point, although there should be plenty of options for 2022, including perhaps China, Norway or maybe a Slovakia-Poland joint bid.

Staging the 2024 Games in Toronto is fairly soon after Vancouver. But it's definitely time for the big summer event to return to a North American stage as the last one here was way back in 1996 in Atlanta (after Atlanta nudged out Toronto and other cities).

Since then we've seen the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, and Rio in 2016. It's time to come back to North America.

But I’d be leery of the U.S. Big-time. The U.S. and the IOC were kinda like Karen Stintz and Rob Ford for a while; very much at each other’s throats. But they resolved a major issue over television money a while back and are now back on good terms. I think a Canadian bid would be extremely hard-pressed to elbow the Americans from the front of the IOC food line.

So far there's been interest from Los Angeles (which already has held the Games twice), Philadelphia and, um, Tulsa. I think Toronto could take on Tulsa, no offence to my Oklahoma friends. Also rumoured to be mulling a 2024 bid are Rome, Paris, Doha, Dubai and Durban, South Africa.

Aubut sounded excited.

"There won't be any political problems, there won't be a problem with terrorism. They (members of the IOC) love Canada. It's close to America. They love our country.

"But we have to make sure the interest is there, the government support is there."

I can see Mayor Ford jumping at it. Hard. But I'm not sure Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Ontario government would feel the same way about such a huge undertaking during tough economic times. I'm also hugely worried about the potential security costs of a Toronto Games, as the bill would be massive.

Still, it should be fun to watch.

JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, has a deal today for a great-sounding trip to mystical China to see The Great Wall, rhw remarkable Terra Cotta Warriors and more. It's a five-star, 11-day trip priced at $2,419, including $720 in taxes.

Jaunt Highlights

• 11-Day/9-Night Terracotta Treasures Tour, including visits to Tian An Men Square, the Imperial Palace, and the Great Wall of China, an itinerary offering time to shop for cultural and artistic treasures, and more!
• Includes international airfare with Air Canada, plus domestic airfare and airport/hotel transfers throughout the tour. See Offer Details for more info.
• Includes transportation via private air conditioned coach, accompaniment of licensed English speaking local tour guides, tours & entrance fees as per the itinerary and more!
• Pricing includes single-entry China Visa (valued at $120) and gratuities for local driver & guide (valued at $150)
• Accommodations for 11 nights in 5-Star Hotels, based on double occupancy. See below for hotels included (or similar).
• Meals include 9 daily breakfasts, 8 lunches & 6 dinners including dinner with a traditional Apsara show 

• You'll experience China in depth, from traditional medicine to dance shows and savoury foods
• See the Great Wall of China, Forbidden City and the Terracotta Warriors
• Stay in true luxury at five-star acommodations

Offer Details

• Valid for travel on November 20, 2013
• Pricing (Rates are per person):
  
  Vancouver:
  Double: $1699
  Single: $2119
  Tax: $720
  
  Toronto:
  Double: $1899
  Single: $2319
  Tax: $720
  
  Calgary:
  Double: $1799
  Single: $2219
  Tax: $720
  
  For Other DATES or LAND ONLY option, Call us at 1-855-687-5925.
  
  
• Accommodations Included (or similar): Oriental Bay Hotel, Beijing (3 nights); Titan Times Hotel, Xian (1 night); Sanli New Century Grand Hotel Zhenjiang, Hangzhou (1 night); Landison Plaza Hotel Wuxi, Wuxi (1 night); Grand Metropark Hotel, Suzhou (1 night) and Majesty Plaza Hotel, Shanghai (2 nights)
• Your Flights Include: Departure airfare from Toronto, Vancouver or Calgary to Beijing and return airfare from Shanghai to Toronto, Vancouver or Calgary, domestic round-trip flight from Beijing to Xian and Xian to Hangzhou.
• Valid passport and visa required for travel from Canada
• Valid passport required for travel from Canada
• This offer is 100% non-refundable at time of booking

 

More time down south? Canada tourism chases China & Brazil ... Deal of day

Fascinating news that the U.S. is considering a law that would allow Canadians to spend more time on American soil.

Currently folks are allowed to live in the U.S. only for 182 days or six months. After that, you're considered an American for tax reasons. And you don't want to be paying Uncle Sam and Mr. Harper, do you? No, I didn't think so.

Six months is a long time, but some folks might prefer more time in Florida or California or Arizona or some other sunny spot. Which makes the potential new law so intriguing.

It seems a clause buried inside a massive immigration bill that's before the U.S. Senate would allow Canadians - and apparently only Canadians - to stay in the U.S. for 240 days, not 182. Which would mean perhaps a snowbird being able to stay from October til the end of May and avoiding (pretty much) any chance of the white stuff.

The bill apparently would apply to Canadians 55 and older who own a residence in Canada and would rent or own in the U.S. Those eligible wouldn't be able to work or go on welfare.

It's an attractive proposition except for the fact that provinces usually limit how much time we can spend outside our provincial homes if we want health coverage. In Ontario and B.C., the limit is seven months.

The Canadian Snowbird Association is hoping it can get the provinces to match the U.S. eight-month limit, but that's no sure thing. Nor is it a sure thing that any bill will be approved by the U.S. government given the complexity and the rancour that exists these days in American politics.

Still, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

IGNORE U.S. TOURISM AT YOUR PERIL

China, China, China.

Brazil, Brazil, Brazil.

Almost every day I get press releases from tourism boards, or stories about tourism boards, around the world. And almost every day they say the same thing: “We really have to zero in on the Chinese market. And Brazil. That’s where the money is.”

And now comes word, courtesy of the Sunday Star and a story from Star reporter Curtis Rush, that the Canadian Tourism Commission, too, has heard the siren call.

And I’m a little worried.

Rush notes in his story that the average American who visits Canada spends $518 per trip. But the average Chinese person spends $1,670 and the average Brazilian spend $1,874.

On the face of it, the quotes from CTC officials about having limited resources and not chasing the U.S. market make sense. The Harper government has for no explicable reason slashed the CTC’s funding from $72 million in 2012 to $58.5 million. And this at a time when the Americans are going nuts with their lively and effective Brand USA campaign.

Also note that the state of New York last week upped its tourism spending from $19 million to $60 million. Which means that one single (albeit large) state in the U.S. is spending more than the entire Canadian Tourism Commission. Nice.

The CTC may be right when it suggests re-allocating dollars to China, Brazil, Australia and Europe. But one has to be careful not to chase the dazzling new baubles and ignore the steady stream that comes from the U.S.

If you look at the CTC’s just-released annual report, you’ll see that Americans don’t spend as much per trip as other visitors. But Americans last year spent a whopping $6.4 billion in our country. Brazilians spent a puny $152 million. The Chinese spent a healthier but still relatively tiny amount of $481 million.

In fact, if you add the spending together from Brazil, China, Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, The UK and South Korea you get only $3.7 billion in spending; barely half of what Americans spend here.

True, the provinces spend a good deal of money in key U.S. markets. But the CTC, I think, has to be careful not to focus so much on growing but still small markets in Brazil and China and needs to keep its eye on the American ball.

Besides which, to get back to my first point, EVERYONE is chasing Brazil and China. And, rich as they are, the Brazilians and Chinese can only spend so much.

A GOAT ON A HORSE IN NEWFOUNDLAND

You gotta love a province that sees a goat on the back of a horse and includes it in their tourism campaign. It happened in Newfoundland and you can find it by clicking here.

Kudos to the tourism folks, who at first rejected the idea but then figured they'd go ahead and emphasize that this is a province that's a far cry from Disneyland. And that's a good thing.

 

JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, has a deal on tap for a great, 16-day trip to fabulous Turkey, priced at $3,307, including $458 in taxes.

Jaunt Highlights

• EXCLUSIVE SAVINGS: Save $200 per couple by booking this offer through Jaunt!
• 16-day/14-night Ottoman Discoveries Turkey Tour with visits to ancient cities, mosques, Turkish markets and more!
• Includes return air from Toronto to Istanbul via Air Transat. Land-only option also available. Call us to find out more!
• Includes all transfers in Turkey via air-conditioned motorcoach, services of a professional English speaking tour guide, and all sightseeing and entrance fees as per itinerary
• 14 nights' accommodation in a variety of 4-Star and charming hotels, based on double occupancy. See below for hotels included (or similar).
• Includes 40 meals throughout the tour including: 14 breakfasts, 13 lunches & 13 dinners

• Your small tour and boutique-style accommodations ensure a unique, personalized experience
• You'll visit famous sites of antiquity like Ephesus and Troy
• You'll experience the energy of Istanbul and the healing powers of Turkey's countryside

Offer Details

• Valid for travel on June 30, July 14, 28 & August 11, 2013
• Pricing (Rates are per person, plus tax):
  
  Toronto:
  Double: $2849 plus tax
  Single: $3539 plus tax
  Tax: $500 per person
  
  We also offer other departure DATES and GATEWAYS.
  Call us at 1-855-687-5925.
  
  
• Accommodations included (or similar): Aziyade (Istanbul), Iris (Canakkale), Kalehan (Selcuk), Pam (Pamukkale), Dogan (Antalya), Anamas Konukevi (Beysehir), Upper Greek House (Cappadocia), The Apple Palace (Amasya) & Kadioglu Sehzade Konagi (Safranbolu)
• Valid Passport and Visa required for travel from Canada. Turkish Visa’s available HERE.
• This offer is refundable until May 15 at 5PM EST. After that time, this offer is 100% non-refundable

  

 

Improved customs/entry for Canadians at Pearson ... Jaunt.ca deal of the day

Those new Automated Border Kiosks went live yesterday in Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson Airport, which should help considerably with the customs process.

In a note I received from the p.r. folks at the airport, I was told the kiosks can be used by Canadian passport holders returning home.

"You enter your (customs) declaration card and scan your passport, then you get a receipt and move on. A CBSA (customs and border/security) officer checks the paperwork and then you go to the baggage hall.

"No membership, no sign up – just scan your passport."

Border rules apply, so this doesn't mean you can go sneaking in 14 gallons of Crown Royal or $5,000 worth of clothes from the cheaper American Target stores. Still, it's a big improvement.

There are 20 of the kiosks in effect at Terminal One. They also have 20 at Terminal 3, which has had the system since February.

NOVA SCOTIA COMES TO TORONTO

Here's a great idea. The folks at Nova Scotia tourism will be re-creating the world-famous Peggy's Cove Lighthouse in downtown Toronto next week.

The likeness will arise at Bay and Wellington at noon next Wednesday, May 15. So check it out. And remember: it's BYOFAC - bring your own fish and chips.

FLY ME TO THE MOON ... AND MARS

Wow. Thirty five Canadians have signed up for a one-way trip to Mars on a space flight. We haven't actually figured out how to make the trip just yet. And certainly not how to get back. But some folks are just adventurous that way. Or maybe they're depressed about the Maple Leafs' prospects.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Dion Phaneuf take the trip given his bonehead play in game four.

As for me, I think I'll take a pass. To quote Elton John, "Mars ain't the kind of place to raise the kids. In fact, it's cold as hell."

WESTJET KUDOS

WestJet today announced it has once again been named Canada's most-preferred airline in a national study of Canadian flyers conducted in April of this year by Leger Marketing. The study also rated WestJet as the most trusted airline and the airline that offers the best customer service.

In a separate study also conducted by Leger Marketing, WestJet is also ranked as the most reputable transportation company in Canada. Leger's Canadian Corporate Reputation Study ranked the airline tops among six airlines, rail and bus companies.

PORTER STOPS RELEASING LOAD FACTORS

I thought something was funny the other day when WestJet reported its latest load factors, but Porter didn't follow suit. It turns out there was more to it than I thought.

The Financial Post reported today that Porter has stopped releasing its monthly figures on what percentage of its seats were filled. They claim it's normal procedure, but it seems strange that they did it for years and now, with their numbers slipping, have stopped.

In an earlier report, Porter said that for March their load factor fell 1.7 per cent to 58.1. Air Canada and WestJet have been reporting load factors higher than 80 per cent.

I'm no financial analyst but the failure to report can't be a good sign for Porter.

BOMBARDIER JET TEST COMING

The Star's Vanessa Lu reports today that the CSeries jetliner from Bombardier - the ones Porter says it wants to buy and fly out of longer runways at the Toronto Island Airport - is set to take off in late June for its first flight as promised.

“Most of the issues that could trip us up are behind us,” said Guy Hachey, president of Bombardier’s aerospace unit, after the company’s annual meeting in Montreal on Thursday.

“We’re still feeling very good about flying in June. Obviously there are always some risks until the end. I don’t anticipate any major delays if something were to happen,” Hachey told reporters.

JAUNT.CA DEAL OF THE DAY

Jaunt.ca, a division of Torstar, has a deal on tap for the Dominican Republic, priced at $746, including $387 in taxes.

Jaunt Highlights

• SAVINGS: Two travellers save up to $112 by booking with Jaunt.ca!
• BONUS: ACV Privileges offer exclusive check-in/check-out, 10% spa discount, turndown service and in-room beach towels
• All-inclusive 7-night stay at the Barcelo Puerto Plata, located in the Dominican Republic
• Includes return air from Toronto to Puerto Plata, with hotel/airport transfers in the Dominican Republic
• FREE CONNECTOR FLIGHTS: The cost of your connector flight from Kingston (ON), Ottawa or Montreal to Toronto is FREE
• OPTIONAL UPGRADE: Enhance your vacation by upgrading your airfare to Executive Class (C Class) which includes premium wines, spirits and cuisine, Maple Leaf Lounge access, extra baggage allowance, priority check-in and more!
• Accommodations in a Double Room, featuring 1 king or 2 twin beds and a balcony or terrace. Maximum occupancy: 3 adults + 1 child
• Daily breakfast, lunch and dinner, and unlimited alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks
  
  

• Valid for travel on May 29, 2013
• Pricing (Rates are per person, plus tax):
  
  Economy:
  Double: $359
  Single: $409
  Triple: $333
  Child: $349
  Tax: $387
  
  Executive Class (C Class):
  Double: $458
  Single: $508
  Triple: $432
  Child: $448
  Tax: $387
  
  Other DATES and GATEWAYS available.
  Call us at 1-855-687-5925.
  
  
• Why choose Air Canada Vacations?
  Earn & Redeem Aeroplan® Miles, in-flight seat-back entertainment on most flights, airline service and reliability of Air Canada, and more!
• Valid passport required for travel from Canada
• This offer is 100% non-refundable at time of booking