Toronto gets 2 thumbs up from USA Today Travel - top food, shops, hotel picks

Okay, they trotted out that old cliche quote about Toronto being New York run by the Swiss, a hoary chestnut allegedly invented by wag Peter Ustinov.

I'd prefer something a little less antiseptic given how far this city has come. But there's still some truth to it, I suppose. Come to think of it, given what's happened down in Times Square these days you could say New York is now New York run by the Swiss...

Anyway, it was nice to wake up and see a story on Toronto on top of the USA Today travel pages, at least on-line.

Here's an excerpt:

"Indeed, this is a big, beautiful, and efficient city, one that has emerged from relative obscurity over the past half century to become the center of culture, commerce, and communications in Canada. With its colorful ethnic mix, rich history, and breathtaking architecture, Toronto is nonstop adventure for the willing tourist from the top of the CN Tower to as far as the eye can see."

Nice.

On the subject of food, here's a sample of the story:

"Immigration flourishes in Toronto, and even if you've come from a far-flung corner of the world, you can often find home cooking here. Multiethnic Little Italy (which has as many sushi and Thai restaurants as Italian), a half-dozen Chinatowns (urban and suburban), the Greek area of the Danforth, and Little India or Indian Bazaar are just some of the lively neighborhoods full of restaurants. Southeast Asian cooking—Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, and Malaysian—started tempting local taste buds with flavors like chili, lemongrass, coconut, and lime in the 1970s with the arrival of thousands of Boat People who were welcomed to the city with open arms. The abundant fresh produce of the province, once filtered through French, British, and Italian cooking techniques, now stars in dishes ranging from the sweet and pungent flavors of the Middle East to the soulful dishes of Latin America. In one short block of Baldwin Street at Kensington Market, there are 23 eateries—a de facto United Nations of gastronomy, if you will."

The top picks for tourists were fairly standard. The top sights were listed as the Art Gallery of Ontario, the CN Tower (yes, really) and St. Lawrence Market. I would rate the Distillery District or West Queen West higher than the CN Tower any day, but I guess some folks still enjoy the heights and the view.

The top hotel picks were the Royal York (always popular with tourists and a fine property), the SoHo Metropolitan and the Windsor Arms. For food, top honours went to Canoe, Lai Wah Heen and Splendido, as well as Rodney's Oyster House and Truffles. Top nightlife picks were Canoe, Massey Hall and the Rivoli.

There were a couple noted mistakes. I saw something about a B & B called Alan Gardens, when it should be Allan. The story also noted Le Royal Meridien King Edward Hotel, but I've never heard of the Royal part. And they referred to a shopping complex at Bay and Front called BCE Place, which is what it was called several years ago. It's been Brookfield Place for quite some time.

There also was a bit that said that the northern edge of the city is called "York Mills or North York," which is at least kinda close to being the truth. Many downtowners would say Bloor is the north edge of the city, I guess....

Anyway, it's nice to see the old town get some needed ink. And good ink at that.

Busy Hong Kong and quiet Wales - a traveller contemplates a wild contrast

Toronto Star Vancouver bureau chief Petti Fong is on the road, indulging her passion for travel and helping fill the pages of the Star's Travel section, bless her heart. Here's a thoughtful posting from her trip to Hong Kong and Wales this week.

HONG KONG — I cannot think of two countries more different than Hong Kong and Wales and in the past week, I’ve been in both places, a jarring transition from ancient countrysides to gleaming skyscrapers.

Here, now, in Hong Kong, I feel my mind is still in the sedate state of Wales. There’s no mistaking that the reality today is not green pastures and hills in the distance, but concrete, glass and people in your face.

The one thing I cannot see from 53rd floor of the Shangri-La Island Hotel are any sheep.

Here are the numbers: Hong Kong is 1,100 square kilometres; Wales is 20,000 square kilometres.

The horizon in Hong Kong is all about height. The tallest building here is the International Commerce Building at 484 metres high and 118 storeys.

In Wales, the highest point in many horizons remains ancient castles from a thousand years ago where the Normans could survey the land below.

Much of Wales' history and legacy today remains what was underground. On my last day in Wales, we visited Big Pit in Blaenavon, Torfaen where coal miners and 72 horses worked 100 metres below.

Residents in Hong Kong: 7 million.

The population of Wales: 3 million.

That’s about how many locals here in Hong Kong I've ticked off by walking too slow and looking for sheep.

Thanks, Petti. Back to Jim....

I've been to both places, and loved each for different reasons. My trip to Wales was a couple years ago and was mostly about golf. I played courses along the sea in St. David's and at Royal Porthcawl (a huge treat) and up at Nefyn, which might be the most beautiful and intriguing (if not necessarily fair) course in the world (see photo).

I didn't spend a lot of time in the cities, but I was surprised at how good the food was. Even in small  villages, I was taken to remarkable restaurants with fresh, inventive cuisine done up in fine style. Just tremendous.

The people were great and friendly and the scenery was spectacular.

My first introduction to Hong Kong was five or six years ago, also on a golf trip (to the crazy Mission Hills courses near Shenzen; a group of a dozen mostly terrific courses in one enormous complex). I was prepared to dislike Hong Kong, given my advancing age and general desire for peace and quiet.

Instead, I was blown away by what I think of as the quiet energy. It's loud, but not New York or Delhi loud. It's busy, but in a restrained kind of way. It's got crazy and wild scenes, but there's a veneer of civility that you won't find in some other cities of the world.

I tell folks who've never been to Asia that it's the perfect introduction; similar enough to the west to be familiar but exotic enough to provide a frisson of excitement.

There also are a surprising number of very quiet and remote parts of Hong Kong, where hikers can be lost for hours without seeing another soul. Most of the action is crammed into the central district on Hong Kong island and in Kowloon. But there are vast sections of hills and valleys with great hiking and walking trails, not to mention fine, lonely beaches on nearby and outlying islands. Even on the main island, you can take the crowded tram to the top of Victoria Peak and five minutes later find yourself wandering through a deep, wooded valley thick with trees and vines and darn few people; most of whom turned left and went into the shopping centre...

Thinking before we travel ... typing at Starbucks ... gap adventures is no more

Interesting conference/presentations in Toronto Tuesday night on the future of tourism.

To celebrate World Tourism Day, the company formerly known as gap adventures, started by the highly engaging and entertaining Bruce Poon Tip (see photo), staged a mini-conference at the Elgin/Winter Garden Theatre on Yonge St.

It was partly serious and partly fun, which is as it should be with travel. I mean, travel is great. But it's not curing cancer. I always tell people to lighten up a bit when it comes to travel and to have fun writing their stories.

But I digress. The evening was pretty good; better than I expected. But not always on topic.

Erika Harms of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, which also sponsored the evening, talked about taking tours that are mindful of a community and also talked about how travel can change vanishing cultures to enduring cultures.

Travelling to Costa Rica might seem destructive to the environment, but she pointed out how tourism has provided money to set up large tracts of protected forest and has helped establish fisheries in the ocean.

"Tourism is the biggest employer of women in the world," she said.

Shannon Stowell, president of the Adventure Travel Trade Association, compared tourism to a fire.

"If you can keep it in the right place, it cooks your food and keeps you warm. If it gets out of the hearth, it can be destructive."

Stowell said some $200 billion is spent by tourists in emerging markets every year, and that one in 12 jobs on the planet is related to tourism.

Of course, speakers noted that the destinations we love the most are the ones that often fall into trouble. Poon Tip talked about how so many people have moved into cities near Machu Picchu to support travellers, many of them on trips he's helped organize.

To combat some of those problems, he's worked to set up weaving outposts along the Inca Trail so locals can sell textiles and preserve a way of life. They also have built facilities in Cuzco to help feed and shelter local youth, and they send doctors to Tibet each year to perform eye surgery on hundreds of Tibetans.

It's a tough balance, really. I mean, how many carbon offsets does one have to buy to make up for flying to Punta Cana for a family vacation? How many towels do you have to hang up in your hotel bathroom and not have laundered each day to make a difference to the environment? I never ask for hotels to be washed while I'm staying somewhere. But, hell, how much does that really help?

(I'm reminded, to digress again, of one of my favourite M*A*S*H TV episodes. Hawkeye and B.J. are faking a pilot's medical condition so he can't keep riding about Korea in his chopper and buying mementoes from kids who risk their lives in mine fields, or something to that effect. The pilot gives the doctors the evil eye and says, "I'm just one guy. You think you can change the world?" Hawkeye just smiles and says, "No, just our little corner of it." It's a cliche, sure, but those are words I try to live by.)

Some folks Tuesday night talked about the evils of enclosed or all-inclusive resorts, suggesting most of the money goes offshore. True, it's probably better to stay with locals.

Travel writer/blogger Gary Arndt, a superb speaker by the way, talked about how he landed in Saigon and ended up staying with a local family for $15 a night. That money stayed with the family, of course.

He also strayed off topic but entertained folks with talk about how meetings are the biggest wastes of time in history and how pretty soon everyone will be able to do their work while typing at Starbucks. He's got a point.

Ethical travel is important. I think most Canadians travel fairly well. I try to tip generously overseas. I try not to bargain folks down so I can buy a scarf for $5 instead of $6. The extra dollar means nothing to me but it might make a world of difference to someone in Jaipur.

I was on a CBC radio panel with Bruce Poon Tip and other travel experts a while back, and we were talking about culturally acceptable travel. Most of the panellists were pretty liberal and were talking about how we shouldn't go to China because of civil rights and shouldn't go to Myanmar and shouldn't go to God knows where else.

I had had enough at one point and started firing away, more to cause trouble and spark some conversation than anything else. I work hard. When I go on vacation, I don't want to have to worry about a government's politics. I mean, am I supposed to boycott Toronto restaurants because Rob Ford wants to close libraries?

Poon Tip made a similar point last night, saying he's in the business of selling travel all around the world.

"If I ran my business as an ethical tourism company, I'd be out of business tomorrow," he noted. "I couldn't go to China."

He also suggested Barbados might be off-limits because homosexuality is illegal in the country.

There are no easy answers. But it IS important to at least give a little thought before we travel. If we can make a choice between an eco-friendly resort and one that isn't, by all means we should take the low-impact resort.

If one resort employs locals and they've been there for 30 years and they give back to the community, such as the Ka'anapali Beach Resort on Maui, then we should give them some business.

It's not easy. And I'm not about to get on my high horse and tell folks what to do. But it's all food for thought on this incredibly shrinking planet.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about gap adventures. They've been battling The Gap in the U.S. for years, arguing that a Canadian gap adventures company isn't hurting the big clothing seller one iota. I'd have to agree, but the courts in the U.S. recently ruled against Poon Tip.

"I've had enough," he told supporters at the conference last night, revealing he's spent $5 million on legal fees and can't afford any more battles against the jeans and khaki goliath from San Francisco. From now on, the company will simply be known as g adventures, but they're keeping the distinctive g with the ampersand around it that has stood out for some time. Poon Tip earlier this year said they'd still be known as the Great Adventure People, so there's still a good link to the past there.

Not a bad solution, but too bad it had to come to this. Poon Tip took more than a few theatrical swipes at The Gap. At one point, he showed a slide with a cowering person or maybe an animal, I don't quite recall since I'm battling a bad head cold, standing up against the giant American beast. Off to one side were the words, "F--k You."

The crowd went wild. Good thing Bruce didn't see the label on the sports jacket I was wearing....

 

 

Jimmy Kimmel and Guillermo Rodriguez tour Toronto ...funniest thing in years!

A buddy of mine sent me the YouTubelink to the five-minute bit that Jimmy Kimmel and sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez did following their Toronto visit during the Film Festival.

They did some TIFF stuff for the show, which I didn't see. (I found a photo of Diaz dressed like a Mountie, however). I was surprised there wasn't something about TIFF in the video they did. That having been said, it's a great video and it puts the city in a pretty good light.

I'd never seen, and this is embarrassing to admit, but I'd never seen Jimmy Kimmel on TV. I wouldn't have recognized him if I'd bumped into him at the library. I'd never even HEARD of Guillermo Rodriguez. But after watching their shtick, I think these guys have the best chemistry I've seen on our streets since Keelor and Cuddy. Or maybe Gillick and Beeston, that famous duo who helped bring a pair of World Series titles to our beloved Blue Rays, as Diaz calls them.

I adore that old, yellow car (a Lincoln, maybe) that Diaz drives, and I love that he speaks into this clunky old p.a. system even when they're a foot away from each other in the car, or when they walk Sugar Beach holding hands, which is a great scene.

I think somehow the city itself, although we don't have a speaking role, comes off as somewhat self-deprecating. Which is great. The streets shine, Lake Ontario sparkles, and the Ontario Tower pokes its head up into a great, wide, blue, Canadian sky, rising over a people blessed with fabulous bacon and fresh syrup.

We learn many things on this wondrous trip. Winston Church Hill was a Canadian who apparently lived from 1974 to 1935. Our baseball team has the same name as a famous style of DVD, the Blue Ray. And our weather is beautiful.

"We should move here," Kimmel (see photo) tells Rodriguez as they wander the streets, avoiding death from sliding left into the path of oncoming streetcars (which also look good on TV; better than in person). "The weather's beautiful."

Rodriguez agrees.

"They have syrup."

"They have the bacon that's better than our bacon," Kimmel replies in a very sweet, not too overly smarmy kind of way (like, say, David Letterman, who I like a lot, would do).

I find the end, when they sing at the Celine Dion star on our horribly cheesy walk of fame, a bit of a letdown. Too easy a target for guys who are this clever. Or maybe I just hate having Toronto saddled with the shadow of someone like Celine Dion, who's vocal stylings are so much posturing and designed far too much to impress, not unlike the yahoos who foul up the national anthems at the Blue Rays games.

(Hey, did anyone else who watched the video catch that weird bit in the middle? They're down at Harbourfront looking at the lake, and Kimmel asks Diaz if they can get out of the car. Diaz says of course, but then the video cuts to a scene of the car travelling NORTH past the Ontario College of Art and Design. Then, suddenly, they're at Sugar Beach near Jarvis and Queen's Quay - the opposite direction. They must've got their directions from a Toronto cabbie. It's a pretty minor thing. Not quite like the scene in The Graduate where Ben (Dustin Hoffman) is travelling the wrong way on the Bay Bridge to get to Berkeley. But kinda the same thing. Well, sorta the same thing.)

Anyway, I can't believe I've never seen these guys before. They're wonderful together. And I love the fact that Rodriguez used to be the parking lot security guard at Kimmel's studio. Some folks might think he's being exploited, but you gotta love the ability of a security guy to rise up so fast so quickly. I think he's absolutely marvellous.

And it's nice to see Toronto come off looking pretty spiffy.

Next time they're in town, the Toronto Star will take them out for bacon and syrup. All they can eat.

 

Montreal's ice village, Nanaimo Bar martinis and more Canadian bits

Here are a few more tidbits I picked up last week at Go Media, the annual Canadian Tourism Commission meeting.

VANCOUVER ISLAND There's a new road leading from Cowichan, across the island west to Port Renfrew, which allows visitors to do a circle route from Victoria. It used to be you had to go up to Cowichan and then come back the same way, officials told me. Or you'd go up to Port Renfrew and come back the same way. Now you can do a circle tour. It's about 250 km and it takes you over to Port Renfrew on an old logging road that's been fixed up, then head down to Sooke and back to Victoria. I'm told there are great beaches with hardly anyone on them. There's also a new Nanaimo Bar Trail with Nanaimo Bar cheesecake, ice cream, deep fried bars, and a Nanaimo Bar martini. Yikes. New wineries also are opening up Nanaimo way. It's a fun, pretty town (see photo) I got to visit a couple years ago.

WHISTLER Last year, visitors were able to ride down the track used for skeleton races at the 2010 Winter Olympics. This winter, they'll do it again but they have added piloted bobsleigh runs so you can experience the thrill of an Olympic bobsleigh race, albeit from a little further down the hill. There's also a new ampitheatre for concerts, located where the Olympics medal plaza was situated at the north end of the village. They also have a new app at Whistler, where folks who are so, um, inclined can check their vertical speed and exact positions on the hill, and more. Of course, you could simply ski and enjoy the scenery. Folks also say they've added wi-fi at the top of both Whistler and Blackcomb and that the food has been upgraded at hilltop restaurants. They had their first snowfall of the season just the other day.

YUKON I didn't know this, but the Yukon is about the same size as California. But instead of, oh, 38 million folks there are 35,000. Most of those live in Whitehorse, where the surge in gold prices is keeping prices high. "There was no such thing as a condo in Whitehorse five years ago," said Jim Kimshead, the colourful spokesman for the tourism ministry. "Now lots have sprung up, and they're going for up to $500,000." Kemshead told  me there are 20 peaks in Kluane Park that are more than 14,000 feet high. "There aren't any mountains that high in the Rockies," he said.

WINNIPEG In addition to the return of the Jets, there's tons going out in a place that says it offers  "Small Town Friendly, Big Town Fun." The new Canadian museum for Human Rights is being built at The Forks. A new airport opens in October, and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the city's Union Station. The University of Winnipeg is expanding, and Red River College is moving its culinary school to a building in the downtown Exchange Disitrict. Oh, Assiniboine Park is getting a polar bear rescue centre, which should prove immensely popular for folks who can't make it north to Churchill.

NEW BRUNSWICK The Acadian Festival runs up around Caraquet in the first part of August, when the town swells from 5,000 residents to about 25,000. The Hotel Paulin in town has a chef from Toronto and there's a new French boulangerie in town. And a sushi place, too. Not to mention you can get lobster poutine! The 2014 Acadian World Congress will be held outside Edmundston, with representation and help from Quebec and Maine.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND The Holman Grand Hotel, an 80-room boutique property, is the first new hotel in town in 20-plus years. There's a deck on the 10th floor with great views. It may not sound like much but I'm told it's the highest point in the city. The island has introduced something called PEI authentic experiences, where you can work alongside a fisherman or a pottery maker and get the straight goods without a guide or interpreter to mess things up. I didn't know, but they have a bike path that stretches from one tip of the island to the other; about 250 km. You can do it yourself or get a guided tour and stop along the way at various inns.

QUEBEC The new Le Massif train is up and running. You leave at 9 a.m. from Montmorency station and get gourmet meals on your way to and from La Malbaie, where you get a three-hour visit mid-day. It's $250 and right now runs only on weekends. It'll stop at the ski hill in February, so that'll be big news for Le Massif's ski business. Also, there's a Transatlantic sailing race every four years from Quebec to St. Malo, France. It's back this year, departing July 22, with some 30 boats in competition.

MONTREAL An entire ice village on Ile St. Helene Jan. 5 March 27 with an ice hotel, a bar, a chapel that looks like where Superman got married in the first Superman movie, and replica ice buildings of famous Montreal structures, such as Notre Dame des Bonsecours church. A new Daniel Boulud restaurant will open with the Ritz Carlton hotel in Montreal in April or so.

OKANAGAN A company called Okanagan Spirits makes not only fruit wines but absinthe, grappa and now gin, that's wheat based. They're said to be still testing recipes. Also, there are three zip lines in the Thompson-Okanagan region (see photo taken from the luscious patio at Mission Hill winery), all of them brand new. We suggest not drinking too much absinthe prior to a zipline trip....

SASKATOON There's a place just outside of town where you can go snow kiteboarding; riding on a snowboard-like apparatus if the wind and ice are right. You move incredibly fast, but they'll apparently give smaller sails to beginners to try. Their will be a Blues Festival this winter, and they're staging the Brier in March of next year and the Canadian Country Music Awards in September. There's also a new hotel, the James, a boutique-style property with less than 100 rooms, and a new Art Gallery of Saskatchewan is in the works. That's a very busy city, not surprising given the boom in Saskatchewan these days.

TORONTO There's a Fellini exhibit on now at the TIFF Lightbox. A Grace Kelly exhibit will move in in the fall, complete with her gowns and Oscar awards.

EASTERN TOWNSHIPS There's a wine route to take you to 17 vineyards in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. They also have driving trails in the hilly, far east region. At Mont Bromont they've expanded their lighting and now more than one half the slopes are lit for night skiing. Every second Saturday they leave the lights on until 2 a.m. for the late night types. It's said to be the largest lighted ski resort in northeastern North America.

Drinking the "sourtoe cocktail" at Yukon reception ... farewell to sunny Edmonton

EDMONTON - I gave in.

I've been out west at the annual Canadian Tourism Commission's GoMedia session. Last night, in honour of next year's event being in Whitehorse, the Yukon tourism folks put on a big wingding with dancing can-can girls, a dynamite band, some Yukon beer (I really liked the India Pale Ale) and ... the sourtoe cocktail.

For three years, I’ve resisted putting the words “Sour Toe Cocktail” into the paper. For those who don’t know the story, the Downtown Hotel up in Dawson City that serves up a cocktail that features a preserved human toe. It’s quite vile, actually; quite long and brown and you can still see the toenail. Gross doesn’t begin to describe it.

They have a keeper of the toe, if you like, named Captain Dick, and he places the weathered digit into a glass and fills it the liquor of your choice and you down it. Not only do you down it, but to get a certificate of accomplishment you have to let the gross, wrinkled, mottled, scuzzy toe touch your mouth.

“You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow," the saying goes, "but the lips have gotta touch the toe.”

They dehydrate the toes and preserve them in salt. Kinda like having a human margarita, if you will.

Some folks even wrap their lips around the thing but I wasn’t ready to go that far. I did, however, line up and sign my name and had someone put the toe into a glass of Crown Royal for me, then gulped it down and let the toe rest against my lips, albeit briefly.

I could’ve used vodka or rum, but I like to think using Crown Royal makes it a more distinctly Canadian experience and the flavour of the toe balances nicely with the caramel notes of the Crown Royal. I guess you also could say it becomes a true Whiskey Sour, too.

Not only did Yukon put on a great show, they had a fabulous band with the best name I’ve heard in years: Sasquatch Prom Date. They mostly did rockabilly and Johnny Cash but they also tossed in some other stuff, and it was a fabulous time, even if I didn’t join Robin Esrock in donning a traditional Yukon dancing girl outfit and performing the can-can on the dance floor.

The CTC’s Go Media showcase is in late May next year in the Yukon, and I’m hoping to make it. It looks like one of the real iconic and beautiful places in Canada.

I'm told it's the size of California but with only 35,000 people. Compared to, what, 38 million?

FAREWELL TO EDMONTON

It was a lovely day, indeed, out here in Edmonton. Actually, EVERY day the last week was phenomenal, with clear skies and warm temperatures. The trees are changing colour nicely, albeit with more deep  yellows than orange or bright red.

Still, being down on the river on a warm day in September is a real treat. And I come away with a much greater appreciation for the city than I had before. And that's the point of travel, isn't it? That and meeting some great folks, such as friendly bus drivers and the poet laureate of Winston Churchill Square, Mr. Kevan Lyons.

Lyons is a guy who sits at the square nearly every day and writes poetry as a way to help him combat his gambling addicition. Look for more from him and more on Edmonton in general in a coming story in Star Travel.

Look for more on my blog tomorrow about interesting tidbits I learned about Canada this week....

 

Whales don't like John Denver, a cool B.C. Thai-British ranch, Air Canada deal

EDMONTON - I'm out here in Alberta enjoying not only a heat wave (up to the mid-20's in the next day or two) but also learning a ton about new and existing attractions in this great country of ours.

I spent Tuesday sitting down with 15 or 20 (I lost track) tourism folks from various cities and provinces and territories and came away quite impressed with what we have to offer. Here's a sample of what I was told.

- Ottawa is gearing up for a big 2012. The Chateau Laurier turns 100, the Junos are being held April 1, the NHL All-Star Game (with or without Sid the Kid) is there early in the year and there’s a major Van Gogh exhibit May 25-Sept. 3. Oh, and it’s the 60^th anniversary of the city’s tulip festival.

- Next year marks the 100^th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede. Be sure to look for the Keister Family Fiddlers. They entertained at lunch yesterday and they’re a hoot; a mom on guitar and four adorable young girls playing the fiddle and stomping and singing like there’s no tomorrow.

- Best line of the day goes to Jantine Van Kregten of Ottawa Tourism. I was telling her about how I spotted these gag gifts called “Squirrel Underpants” at stores in Halifax and Edmonton. They come in white and in pink and they’re just tiny little things that look to go onto a photo of a squirrel. “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe it’s a great place to hold their nuts.”

- The Canadian Tourism Commission has a facebook page at facebook.com/keepexploring

- There’s a guest ranch called Echo Valley in B.C. that’s run by a fellow from Britain and a woman from Thailand, and they have a Thai-inspired spa in the interior of the province, as well as riding and other traditional ranch activities. Sounds cool.

- They turn Fort Henry in Kingston into something called Fort Fright at Halloween time, with ghouls and goblins and ghosts, and you can even stay overnight. Oooooohhhh, scary.

- You can snorkel with beluga whales in Hudson’s Bay in summer. Many folks like to hear the whales sing. Others like to sing back to the belugas. “They like Amazing Grace,” said Cathy Senecal of Tourism Manitoba. “Also they like it if you sing ‘Corinne, Corina’ in a really high voice. But they hate John Denver.”

- The Keefer Suites in downtown Vancouver (Chinatown) has three suites, each a whopping 2,400 square feet, and a huge pool on the roof. Owen Wilson recently rented one of the suites, and is said to have come back another day with a friend and knocked on someone’s door so he could show them where he had stayed.

- They raise chickens on the roof of the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City. I knew they had a beekeeper on top of the Royal York in Toronto, but the Quebec chickens were news to me.

- Great Lakes Cruising is an increasingly popular activitiy, with cruises that include Toronto, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay. Sounds cool.

- The Chapleau Game Preserve in northern Ontario is said to be the largest preserve in the world.

- I don't look so good in a cowboy hat. Of course, the photographer asked me to ham it up a little for this photo.

- I hadn’t thought of it, but 2017 will mark our nation’s 150^th anniversary.

-  There’s a new Rock and Roll Musical History tour in Winnipeg that includes sights and places frequented by such greats as Neil Young and Bachman Turner Overdrive. Takin' care of business, indeed.

- There’s a big pond hockey tournament on Lake Louise again this winter, their third annual such event.

- The Tergesen General Store in Gimli, Manitoba has been run by the same family for more than 100 years.

- Sault Ste. Marie has the second largest wind farm in Canada and the largest solar energy farm in North America.

- A new provincial museum will open in Edmonton in 2015, right downtown. The existing Royal Alberta Museum is a fine facility a few minutes from downtown. They had a reception for media and tourism types there on Tuesday night, with Tom Jackson handling the entertainment and native dancers out front. The aboriginal history exhibit is terrific.

- The World Figure Skating Championships will be in London, Ontario in 2013.

- Starwood is about to open their 60^th property in Canada, a Sheraton in Red Deer, Alberta. Their biggest property in Canada is the Four Points Sheraton brand, with 23 hotels.. They’re also breaking ground on a new Element Hotel in Vancouver, which will be branded as an eco-friendly hotel. There are no firm plans for a W hotel in Toronto, but the Aloft brand will open a facility next year across the parking lot from Vaughan Mills. They already have 70 hotels in China and will open 100 more in the next few years.

- The Banff Centre has a new feature called the Shaw Ampitheatre with 1,500 seats. Blue Rodeo (see photo of Jim Cuddy of the band, courtesy of Julia Pelish) and the Calgary Philharmonic each have played there.

- Victoria’s Secret opened its first Canadian store at the West Edmonton Mall two weeks before it opened at Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto. Nyah, nyah.

- The Soho Metropolitan Hotel on Blue Jays Way in downtown Toronto has a 4,000 square foot penthouse unit with three floors and its own library.

- Wine is growing as an industry in Nova Scotia. A lot of money is being poured into sparkling wine, especially.

- They clear snow on the main lake in Sudbury in winter and some students at Laurentian university skate from their apartments over to the university for their daily classes.

AIR CANADA DEAL

A huge sigh of relief from anyone (me included) who was to fly today or tomorrow on Air Canada. It remains to be seen if the union members will ratify the tentative deal, but at least for now it's business as usual for Air Canada and for thousands of fliers. Good news, indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

Touring in Edmonton: enough with the bashing of Canadian cities, already

EDMONTON - As I stood waiting for a tour of this city’s Old Strathcona neighbourhood Monday (see photo), I struck up a conversation with a travel writer from Calgary.

“I guess since you’re from Toronto we can both make jokes about Edmonton,” she said.

I don’t think she meant anything by it, but there’s no doubt this town takes its fair share of abuse. I don’t know why people make jokes about a city that they think is somehow lesser than theirs, I really don’t.

Okay, there’s that superiority bit that some folks in Toronto have. I get it from people who live downtown and think my house at Yonge and Lawrence is in the sticks. Of course, people who live in Barrie think I live RIGHT DOWNTOWN, so it’s all relative.

This city isn’t Toronto and it isn’t Montreal. So we’ll get that straight. But so what? We don’t need another Toronto or another Montreal.

At the risk of being fitted out for Pollyanna pigtails, I really hate it when Toronto folks joke about other cities. It’s isn’t becoming and it should be beneath us.

I think that, by and large, most Torontonians love Vancouver. We adore St. John’s and Halifax and we wish we had Calgary’s mountains and Quebec’s old streets.

Okay, Edmonton’s urban form isn’t what it could be. The downtown reminds me of, say, Yonge and Finch with its spotty development and towers that stand beside underused buildings or Subway restaurants.

But the people I’ve met are friendly as all get out. An elderly woman in a wheelchair spent five minutes on the Jasper Avenue bus yesterday telling me jokes about doctors telling nuns they’re pregnant to stop them from having the hiccups, and an old one that made me laugh about what you call a dwarf psychic that escapes a mental hospital, the answer being “a small medium at large.”

The bus drivers are all helpful as can be, explaining how many stops there are to get me where I want to go, and there’s quite a bit of diversity in the town; East Indians with turbans in business suits, Asian kids playing outdoor chess with giant black and white pieces on Winston Churchill Square downtown, and aboriginal families enjoying a picnic in the park.

There are cowboys in funky hats playing guitar on the street corner and singing mournful songs, and there’s plenty of good shopping and they don’t make you line up at a government liquor store to buy a bottle of wine.

Hey, Toronto, they also have a Thai food truck selling - wait for it - pad thai and curry and all sorts of goodies, and nobody seemed to be lying in the gutter clutching their stomachs and dying of food poisoning. If Edmonton and other cities around the world can sell lunches not entirely comprised of hot dogs, so can we.

The sky is gorgeous out here; big and deep and wide and blue. And I found some pretty nice shops down in Old Strathcona, as well as taking a short but fantastic ride on an old trolley that rattles over a bridge high above the wide and lovely Saskatchewan River.

I’ll write more about Strathcona and the trolley ride later in the pages of Star Travel.

I’m out here for the Canadian Tourism Commission’s annual Go Media conference, where journalists and tourism folks mix and mingle (often at the same time and without an official license) and talk about what’s new in the biz.  

The Edmonton tourism folks put on a tremendous welcome reception Monday night at the Art Gallery of Alberta, a wavy glass structure that looks like a Frank Gehry project. There were native drummers in deep blue costumes thumping out some magnificent beats in the giant atrium, and opera singers clad in shimmering white singing from an open balcony area on the second floor.

There wasn't a ton of food but they had pasta and some Alberta beef and plenty of beer and wine, so they obviously knew what the journalists in the crowd were most worried about.

I went in to check the gallery exhibits for a brief bit near the end of the reception and found some cool art, including videos and urban art and even a strange (for an old Toronto City Hall correspondent) exhibit of old Toronto municipal election posters, including what looks (at the top) to be an early version of Art Eggleton, the Senator and former Toronto mayor. I've attached the photo so you can see for yourself.

More to come on Edmonton in the next couple days, and I'll be trying to keep an eye on the Air Canada strike situation, as well....

 

 

 

First impressions of Edmonton: airport wine shops and Toronto jokes

EDMONTON - I'm here for a Canadian Tourism Commission conference called Go Media, where tourism folks and journalists mix and plot out stories and such. It's always a great deal of fun, to be honest, as the people are awesome. And the tourism boards and host cities always do a nice job of entertaining us visitors.

Yesterday, we arrived to lovely, 17C sunshine - a nice bonus. Immediately upon exiting the plane I found a wine shop with lots of nice stuff from around the world. It wasn't a duty-free shop, and it wasn't a government shop, as folks out here actually allow REGULAR STORES TO SELL ALCOHOL. WOW.

I didn't buy anything, but it's nice to see a private enterprise wine store at an airport. It's a nice, bright terminal, and, get this, my bags arrived FIVE MINUTES after I got off the plane. Pearson, eat your heart out. Of course, this airport is far less busy than Toronto, but still...

The Edmonton tourism folks had a juggler entertaining arrivals at the baggage claim area and then again on the sidewalk as we waited for buses to take us downtown to our hotels. A nice guy, and a darned good juggler, too.

Of course, he had to tell at least one southern Ontario joke.

"Hey, how does a Torontonian change a light bulb? He holds the bulb and the rest of the world revolves around him."

The view coming into town is great as you cross over the Saskatchewan River and get a great view of a pretty impressive skyline rising up above the riverbanks. It's far larger than I expected and there seem to be a lot of new apartment/condo buildings.

I went for a walk along Jasper Ave., which is really 100th Avenue. There's a grid system in Edmonton, so streets are numbered and go north-south, while avenues also are numbered and go east-west. I"m staying at 101st Ave. NorthWest and 100 St. NorthWest, which I find pretty confusing. 

Anyway, I was told Jasper is the main street downtown. To be honest, it's not much. There are a couple decent-looking buildings and a few restaurants and shops, but it's pretty uneven and not so attractive.

Far better is a short trip to Whyte Avenue, which is really 82nd Ave. They call the area "Old Stratchona," but I think from a marketing standpoint it could use a sexier moniker.

It's kinda like a version of Queen West. Not quite so edgy, but it does have some nice architecture and lots of nice bars and restaurants and shops.

I had dinner at a simple Italian place called Chianti Cafe. It's okay, but they get far too weird with putting pineapple into pasta with seafood and topping salmon with pesto and asparagus and overdoing things. A simple bowl of pasta should have three or four ingredients and that's about it, I think.

Anyway, it wasn't bad and it was only $12.99 for pasta with sliced Italian sausage and onions (cooking the onions would've been nice, but, hey, it was 13 bucks) and $3.99 for a decent starter salad that had Italian vinaigrette and diced ginger, I think.

I'm getting a better tour of the area today so I'll report back on that more tomorrow....

 

Sunwing launches hotel division .. Tories neglecting tourism? .. Smiling Albino

Sunwing Travel Group has announced creation of "Blue Diamond Resorts," a new, wholly-owned subsidiary that will manage and develop its own destination resorts.

The resorts will provide "unique and differentiated products specifically tailored to the needs of discerning North American vacationers."

The emphasis will be on quality, not quantity, officials said, and there will be several brands. The first will be "Royalton Luxury Resorts," a five-star brand aimed at sophisticated travellers and their families, with personalized service and "an unparalleled attention to detail."

(Always smart to go after the high-end stuff and families I had a coffee Thursday with Daniel Fraser from Smiling Albino, a tour company that does both walking tours in Southeast Asia cities such as Bangkok and Hanoi but also will put together week-long trips for high-rollers who want to take motorcycle tours through remote Khmer ruins in north Thailand and Cambodia. He says they get a lot of business from Toronto, much of it family business from folks with lots of money. So Sunwing is seemingly on the right track here.)

The first Sunwing property is the Royalton Panama Luxury Resort, a "South Beach-style" hotel in the Playa Blanca area on Panama's Pacific Coast. There are 230 Deluxe rooms, one, two and three-bedrom suites, each with free WiFi, 32-inch flatscreen TV's with premium channels, iPod docks, a fully stocked minibar and more.

The Royalton Panama Luxury Resort is now open for guests and Sunwing vacation packages are available.

FEDERAL TORIES BLASTED

Joyce Murray, the Liberal MP who acts as critic for Small Business and Tourism, says the federal government needs to use the fall session of Parliament to boost small business and the tourism industry.

Murray says a good start would be exhibiting a pavilion at the upcoming Expo 2012 in South Korea.

Murray says she met with business owners during the summer and they are "absolutely shocked" that there are no plans for a pavilion, especially given Korea's trading status.

I'm more worried about tourism in general, myself. It's a critical industry in this day and age, and I see very little evidence that ANY level of government takes it as seriously as it should.

TORONTO A HIT ON HOTELS.COM

The folks at hotels.com say Toronto was number four on the list of most visited destinations on their web site in the first half of 2011. The top three were London, Paris and Rome, officials said.

For international visitors as a whole, Vancouver was the Canadian city that website users looked at  most, followed by Toronto, Montreal, Niagara Falls and Victoria.

Canadians "clicked" on Toronto the most, followed by Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Niagara Falls.

Canadians looking outside our fair borders looked at hotles in New York the most, followed by Las Vegas, Orlando, Chicago and San Francisco. Then came Seattle, Los Angeles, London, Boston and Paris.