LOOKING BACK - AND FORWARD

A rollercoaster ride for the loonie. A plummeting economy. And trouble in Thailand, Mumbai and Athens.

It was a pretty interesting year in the travel biz, all things considered. From a personal standpoint, I was lucky enough to squeeze in some pretty cool trips. Not to make it too much about me (then again, it's my blog, so what the hay), here are some personal highlights:

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about a golf trip I took to Georgia in February for the Star's golf magazine, which I edit. I've never been big on Atlanta as a city as a like compact, urban downtowns and don't like staying in hotels where they warn you not to walk down the street at night. But I fell in love with the people and the golf resorts of Georgia, which are pretty stunning.

The setup at Reynolds Plantation, a couple hours south and east of Atlanta, is outstanding. A night at the Ritz Carlton revealed giant barbeque pits and a lakefront setting with muskoka chairs and lakeside walking trails. Terrific golf courses, too. The nearby Cuscowilla Resort has remarkable golf and lakeside cottages with docks; a little taste of Muskoka in the Peach State.

But the best part was the coast. The Cloisters at Sea Island gave me a personal butler and stationery with my name on it "Jim Byers, in residence at the Cloister." Oh, my. And I had one of the great meals in recent memory at the hotel dining room. The golf course is a stunner, nestled along the coastal marshes.

That was decadent. But if you can't afford $500 a night, and most of us can't, check out Jekyll Island Club Hotel, where I was lucky enough to see one of the most beautiful sunsets imaginable (for a few images of Georgia and other personal faves from 2008, go to Jim Byers' Top photos of 2008.

Jekyll used to be the playground of folks like the Rockefellers, but it's still not overly high-brow. The lodge is lovely, but there are cheap alternatives nearby. The beach goes on forever, and the public golf courses on Jekyll are one of the great bargains in North America.

Pebble Beach is a course I've always wanted to play. Still haven't, but I did get to walk around it on a glorious day in February as I tracked down Canada's Mike Weir for a 2009 Golf magazine story. I parked in the wrong lot (bad advice from a local and some poor map-reading by mois) and had to hitchhike and walk three miles to one of the other Monterey peninsula courses to find him but it all worked out.

Later, a quick visit to Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic revealed how the DR is quickly becoming an upscale favourite. The Donald is building a golf course on site and there already are a couple beauties, most notably Punta Espada. The beach at the Caleton is great for swimming, and if you want one of those three-mile walks on the sand you can go a little further north to the main Cap Cana beach. A very classy stretch of the DR, where even more upscale resorts and golf courses are in the works.

The highlight of the year was China, where I spent a month for the Olympics. Got to see Michael Phelps win his record eighth gold medal of the Summer Games and was in the crowd for Usain Bolt's 100 metre win, plus the stunning opening and closing ceremonies. Very blessed. The Chinese people were lovely, but the Olympics still felt a little sterile. And I'd love to go back in a year or two and see if all those nice flowers they planted for the media village are still in place. I suspect not.

I squeezed in a couple trips to Vancouver, as well, and got to eat at legendary Tojo's for the most amazing sushi you'll find. And there are few things as lovely as a sunny, fall day in British Columbia or a crisp, winter's day in the mountains near Whistler. There's a reason real estate sells for gazillions of dollars out there.

We'll see what the new year brings, but I'm hoping to get over to Europe a couple times to check out some tried-and-true and some new locations. If you have any ideas, lemme know.

Anywho, thanks for listening and talk to you again in the new year.

Comments

[William Engel]

I was not sure if I had the right email address for you, so I thought I'd take a chance and leave this here for you. - W.

William Engel
Martina Leitch
10 Marshall Street
Toronto, Ontario
M6K 1S4

416 214 6192

Jim Byer

12-27-08

Dear Sir;

My partner and I come from opposite ends of the travel spectrum, Martina was a resort traveler until she met me, and I have always been the backpacker type. I used to pride myself on how cheap I could get down to Central America, several times I've made the trip for virtually nothing. I've been teaching scuba diving in the Bay Islands of Honduras since 1997, and every year the trip gets more interesting.

This year we will be delivering a Cadillac to West Palm Beach for Toronto Drive away, then flying with Spirit Airways to San Pedro Sula, (for $8). After stopping off at the expatriates bar in La Ceiba we are off to see Trujillo, then to the islands to see our friends at Coconut Tree Divers.

Martina is a graduate of Ryerson University, with a certificate in New Media, and I have been working in the film industry for the past twenty five years! We are planning to take the travel videos that we have always made to the next level.

We will be making a series of "webisodes" shot on HD and then compressed for the net, each one about eight minutes. We hope to produce five of these. We are both in our forties and think that other "empty nesters" like us well be interested in this sort of travel. Especially in this time of economic woe.

When we are not slipping away from the cold Canadian winter we are getting ready to slip away to the country. Martina having launched her kids off into the world is about done with city life. I have a solar powered farm north east of Kingston and that is where we are headed.

I think that our lifestyle is something that will be very appealing to readers, and the nature of our position on it's development timeline, as well my personal travel history is very interesting, not to mention the literary ties.

I'll leave it at that and include a few links so that you can check us out a bit more if your interested.

William Engel

http://splitzvillefarm.com
http://willgrip4food.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0257161