Brits aiming to leave town for 2012 Olympics...Airline serving lemon drizzle cake!

I spotted something on travelmole.com today that made me think, and that's not always easy, folks.

The story said that a study found nearly four million adults in the UK plan to flee Britain during the Summer 2012 Olympics, which start July 27 next year. Another four million, to be fair, will stay in the UK specifically because of the Games.

And that's damned smart, if you ask me. Anyone who's been lucky enough to go to the Olympics, and I've covered the last six for the Star, will tell you it's sheer magic. People congregate all over town and sit together and cheer for athletes they've never heard of. They meet folks wearing funny costumes (see accompanying photo, courtesy of Macleans) and drink a little too much and generally have a wonderful time.

And the host city is almost always easier to get around in than during non-Olympic periods. When the Games were in L.A. in 1984, they said you could drive across town in half an hour - even less if you were being chased by a white Bronco.

The atmosphere in Vancouver after the Winter Games ended last year was absolutely marvellous; one of the highlights of my life.

The survey also found that only 37% of UK residents felt positively about the Olympics, although the number in London was 46%.  However, only 48% of Londoners believe the event will have a positive impact on the economy, compared with 54% in the rest of the UK.

I've always believed it's silly to invest too much in the Olympics as a future economic boost. The truth is, they're all about having a big party and investing in things you normally wouldn't get around to and speeding up infrastructure that usually would take decades. (More like centuries in Toronto. It's a little known fact that John Graves Simcoe, when he was Lt. Governor back in the 1790s, proposed a light rail transit line from downtown to Pearson).

Barcelona is on everyone's list of cities to go to in Europe not because they held the Olympics per se but because they went WILD for infrastructure and created beautiful parks and funky sculptures (see photo) and built beautiful bridges and SPENT MONEY to fix up the place. (Which brings up my personal memo #17 to Rob Ford - you have to SPEND MONEY and INVEST IN YOUR CITY if you want things to improve. Nobody goes to Barcelona because they cut taxes and have a balanced budget).

So, my advice, for what it's worth, is for Brits to stay home and enjoy the party in 2012. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to let loose and party like it's 1999.

LEMON CAKE? SIGN ME UP!!!!

Also spotted on the travel wires this morning was an item at businesstraveller.com that said BMi airlines was doing something extremely radical and ADDING SERVICE to their flights. What a concept!

Apparently, folks on select flights will get Victoria sponge cakes, carrot cake (hopefully without nuts) or, even better, lemon drizzle cakes. I've never tried a Victoria sponge cake, but anything with lemon has to be pretty good. And it's cake, folks. Cake!

I have a nephew who doesn't like cake. Personally, I don't think he'd recognize Margaret Atwood on the street, either. And I think he's crazy.

I adore a good piece of cake. Coffee cake with cinnamon and crunchy crumble stuff is absolutely divine, and you simply can't beat a good chocolate cake, especially if you follow your father's lead and ask your server (my Mom did this for my Dad and deserves sainthood for it, I think) to put the part with the icing on top facing outward to your left, so that when you eat the cake right to left your last bite has icing on two sides, if you get my drift.

The Business Traveller story had comments from readers. One funny guy, danwolf, wrote the following:

"I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought of Mary Antoinette when I saw that flexi economy passengers will be allowed to eat cake...I'm sure it will only be offered once the plastic vacuumed bread rolls have run out."

Another chap wondered about the cake and wrote, "Is it off with their heads for overweight baggage?"

Nice.

 

 

 

 

 

Of those surveyed, only 4% of the UK successfully purchased tickets, with only one in 10 Londoners managing to get their hands on the biggest ticketed event the country has seen in many years.

Toronto hotel goes all-inclusive...Grand Hyatt NYC reno (and a bare butt story)

Good story by Tony Wong in Star business today, outlining how the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Toronto is taking advantage of Ontario's new liquor laws  with a new, all-inclusive policy.

Before I get into that, I have to say I really like Premier Dalton McGuinty's new liquor laws, which allow alcohol to be included in all-inclusive deals and also allow folks to, wait for it, drink beer at a festival OUTSIDE OF THE BEER TENT. I really, really, REALLY like the motto behind the chages: ONTARIO: Even more free with liquor than Saudi Arabia. It's quite catchy, Dalton.

But I digress. I mostly wanted to point out the story to those who didn't spot it and to suggest I'm surprised hotels up in Muskoka haven't tried. It seems like a natural for Taboo or some such. The Hilton deal Tony wrote about costs $159 per person and gets you a night at the hotel, a buffet breakfast,a  packed lunch, a buffet dinner, unlimited drinks with your meals and at the bar, plus valet parking for one car, which is worth $35. They have free wi-fi, as well as a pool and a gym.

For two people, the all-inclusive deal would cost $320. The parking brings it down to $285, in essence. Then consider the breakfast, lunch and dinner worth at least $120 and you're at $165. A room alone in downtown Toronto is going to cost you $150 most nights, I'd say, so then you're looking at $15 for unlimited drinks. Hell, given prices in Ontario (see above note on Dalton), that's barely a beer per person at dinner.

I checked the website for current prices, and a room for Saturday, Aug. 20 was listed at $239, including breakfast. Which makes the rest of the all-inclusive package seem that much better, as you'd get the packed lunch, the valet parking, the buffet dinner AND all the drinks you want for $80 LESS if you're on your own or for just $80 more for two people. The item I saw on Travelzoo.com said the savings were $180 compared to booking things separately, although how you price someone's alcohol consumption I don't quite know.

Assuming the food's halfway decent at dinner (anyone can make breakfast), it's an attractive deal that should spark others to follow suit. How about unlimited martinis on the patio at The Drake as part of a package?????

GRAND HYATT NYC...AND A FUNNY BLUE JAYS STORY

Got a note to say the Grand Hyatt New York is "ushering in a new era" with a $130 million renovation, slated for completion in October. There will be re-designed guestrooms, a new restaurant called New York Central (the hotel is adjacent to Grand Central Terminal; a superb location), a "refreshed" lobby and mezzanine level and more.

They say the New York Central restaurant is the only such facility in town that is located over a sidewalk and that "several coveted tables appear to float above 42nd Street."

Sounds pretty cool. I wasn't crazy about the hotel back in the mid-1990s, when I stayed there quite a lot as a member of the Star's sports department charged with covering the Blue Jays. The rooms were so-so, I thought, and the place was just too busy. But most visiting baseball teams in those days stayed at the Grand Hyatt, and the Jays would book us rooms at the same time, so it was convenient. We also got to fly on their team charter in those days, which was REALLY terrific as we didn't have the hassle of commercial airlines. And there was no security in those days, and when we landed we simply handed our custom cards to a guy who came up the stairs and onto the plane.

Anyway, the Jays had a bus that would leave from right in front of the hotel at 2:30 p.m. or so for the drive to Yankee Stadium for night games. I remember one time there were some rookies on the bus for the team's first trip to New York City of the year, and the veteran players called them over as the bus was filling up. They knew what was coming, but the rookies didn't.

"Come over to this side, you gotta see this," the veterans told. The kids, of course, did as they were told. Sure enough, out from a men's store came a big, sweaty fat guy. He proceeded to turn his back to the bus and, yes indeed ladies and gentlemen, drop his pants. He then gave the rookies a rather hairy moon shot, whacked himself on the behind and shouted out, "Good luck tonight, boys!"

It was hilarious. Apparently the guy did this on a regular basis.

Only in New York....

 

 

 

Air Canada strike over? Vancouver shoots itself in the foot with Stanley Cup riots

The Star's Vanessa Lu is reporting a tentative deal has been reached in the Air Canada strike; excellent news for travellers.

The Canadian Auto Workers, which launched a strike at midnight on Monday, has called a press conference for 2 p.m. CAW spokeswoman Shannon Devine confirmed the deal, but said nothing else would be released until the briefing.

Union officials criticized the government's quick decision to end the strike.

Stay tuned for more.

VANCOUVER'S WALK OF SHAME

It's not bad enough their star players performed like chumps in the Stanley Cup finals. Now, Vancouver has suffered a black eye around the world.

Many folks don't pay attention to hockey, but lots of people have surely noticed the headlines and terrifying photos of the looting and fires in downtown Vancouver following the Vancouver Canucks' embarrassing loss Boston on Wednesday night. Don't think so? There were photos of the riots as of noon eastern time on the front pages for the websites for both the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times; papers that represent prime markets for Vancouver's charms.

It's funny. A year and a few months ago, hockey served as the icing on Vancouver's cake at the Olympics. Sure, there had been issues and some negativity about the 2010 Winter Games early on, but by the time Sydney Crosby did his magic in overtime it all had been wiped away. Vancouver positively glowed in the after-party, and the reviews from press all over the world was remarkably positive.

Not today. Not when besotted youths set fire to cars and carry on like that. Shame on them. Someone's car can be replaced. But when people behave like that, they sully the reputation of an entire city and, by association, all of Canada.

Don't think it was all that bad? Check this report from the Star's Damien Cox, who witnessed it first-hand:

"First, it wasn't a small group. We're talking hundreds, probably thousands, of citizens involved in the ugliness that erupted even as Gary Bettman was handing the Stanley Cup to Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. Having been around other sport "riots," I can tell you this was a whole other level.

Vancouver was an ugly, dangerous city last night, and people got hurt. Frightening. Not just police cars on fire. Not just looting and tear gas. Stabbings. Vicious, fights. Wanton violence accompanied by the joyful whoops and hollering of young people who apparently believed they were part of something exciting and were having a great time.

The game ended at about 7:45 local time, and by midnight weary riot police were still trying to disperse crowds. As I watched from my hotel balcony on Burrard St., a line of riot cops walked up the street, police dogs barking, police sirens wailing, a police helicopter overhead shining a light down on the street."

It's even worse than that, really. The Star's main web site has a video - posted this afternoon - that shows a man being horribly beaten after trying to stop looters. It's all over Twitter, as well.

I don't think anyone from San Francisco or L.A. is going to cancel their vacation to British Columbia because of a few idiots, but when you're in a competitive tourism market it can't help.

 

 

A big cricket win for India and a small taste of the pleasures of New Delhi

NEW DELHI - That was something else.

I must admit I'd never watched even a second of a cricket match before Saturday night, but when you're in New Delhi and India's trying to win its first world cup of cricket in 28 years you'd be crazy not to watch, even if your hotel is charging $100 Canadian for a buffet dinner (drinks included but it's still a fortune for Inida) and a big-screen TV.

I don't regret it, though. The food was varied and quite good, the Indian red wine (a Cab-Shiraz blend) quite decent and the cricket, well, that was about a great a sporting event as I've ever witnessed, and I got to cover the Blue Jays winning the World Series twice, a couple of major golf tourneys and the Kobe Bryant 84-point explosion against the Raptors in LA a few years ago.

There was a great spread at the Intercontinental Nehru Place, which isn't quite on the normal tourist circuit but is in a nice part of town that's a bit quieter than the "downtown" areas. And folks went pretty berserk when India rallied from being down a sizable 274 to Sri Lanka.

It was a lot crazier at India Gate, the popular WW I memorial, but it still was fun to watch folks party a bit at the hotel.

That was Saturday. Sunday was spent, among other things, touring the India Gate and the city's biggest Sikh Temple, where they serve up free lunches to anyone who comes in. My tour guides showed me around the kitched, which was stuffed to the gills with folks making bread and pickles and with giant, copper vats boiling lentils. Quite colourful and fascinating to watch (see photo).

We also checked out the Lotus Temple, which looks a lot like the Sydney Opera House, and the lovely mosque and tombs at Lodi Gardens, which are awesome near sunset and which might be my favourite stop so far in a city that's quite a blast to visit.

I love the tuk tuk's most of all; small, three-wheeled taxis that can shuttle you for several miles for not much more than two dollars. You really get to see the people - and the wandering cows on the street and the women with kids on their laps on the back of a moped and, yes, the occasional monkey or elephant - up close and it's a fabulously entertaining trip.

More on Monday, including, I hope, the city's biggest mosque and some of the flavours of Old Delhi.

 

 

A little bit of Massachusetts and a bigger bit of (scary) Morocco on tap for today

A brief session with the folks representing Massachusetts Tourism on Thursday. The state's been on a role roll for quite a while, what with all the movies featuring the state: The Fighter, The Town, Social Network, and more.

The Fighter apparently has helped turn Lowell, Mass. from an industral town in something of a tourist centre. Boston was doing fine without The Town and we suspect Cambridge does okay, even with The Social Network, but it doesn't hurt to have an aggressive state government pitching their product and reeling in Hollywood movies. Don't forget The Perfect Storm was based out of a Massachusetts fishing village, as well.

I've been to Cape Cod, Nantucket (a great place, see photo) and Boston, which I sometimes prefer to New York because it seemed more manageable in size. But it's been quite a while.

Ron D'Amico from the Connelly Partners was telling me about all the wineries (30-odd), foodie spots, fishing villages and, yes, ski hills his state has to offer. I didn't know, but apparently some of the Berkshires (which I only know about from James Taylor's song Sweet Baby James) are as high as 6,000 feet. Pretty impressive.

D'Amico said the state tourism folks are big into social media (fitting, with The Social Network, I guess) and that the Mass Insider page on Facebook has all sorts of deals, but you have to go in and say you "like" the site. They also have a Twitter handle, @visitma, and there's lots on their website,  massvacation.com (nice name).

D'Amico said the Boston Film Festival goes in early May, while there's one in Provincetown in summer and on Martha's Vineyard in September.

On a more exotic front, here's a file from Morocco from Star Travel columnist Bert Archer....

Dakhla, Morocco – We were far away from most things, in the part of Morocco referred to on many maps as Western Sahara out of respect for the separatist feelings among many of its residents. We were there for the Dakhla Festival, a cool combo of music and surfing, with a camel race tossed in for good measure.

It was the second last day of the fest. Ivorian reggae star Alpha Blondy was in the house, which in this case meant one of the tents set up for participants along the beach on this peninsula of sand jutting out from the very bottom of Morocco. So were any number of surfers – kite, wind and regular – taking time off from the regular circuit to take in a bit of Africa.

We were at the Hotel Doumss [http://fr-fr.facebook.com/hoteldoumss] in downtown Dakhla [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakhla,_Western_Sahara] -- a newly developing city, the beneficiary of King Mohammed VI’s nation-wide investments in tourism and culture -- and had asked organizers if we could spend a night with the big boys in Tent City. They said we could. But when our driver showed up about an hour later, she was in a panic. “Are you ready?” she asked quickly when she saw me in the lobby. I was in the middle of tweeting something or other about the city or the helicopter ride I’d just taken, and I told her I would be in a second. A second was no good. “No. Now!”

We were hustled into her car and driven, fast, out of town. Apparently, there were riots. And with every café’s TV screen turned to Al Jazeera’s coverage of what was happening in Libya, playing and replaying the few bloody close-ups they had, every one was a little nervous. Was Morocco rising against its king? Was this happening all over the country, or just in wee little Dakhla, population a little under 100,000?

She didn’t know. And now that I’d lost my hotel’s WiFi connection, I couldn’t find out.

When we got to the WiFi-less camp, the surfers were huddled around various energy drink kiosks mumbling and speculating. Our driver, a PR person for the festival, said it was probably just kids on drugs. When someone with a smartphone came up with pictures of a car on fire, it became obvious it was something more than that. But that turned out to be one of the only posts on the subject. News dried up, and even those with smartphones were in the dark.

As afternoon turned to night, I heard that all the journalists in town for the festival had been rounded up and brought to the camp. I was told it was for my own safety, but when I asked to go into town that evening to see for myself what was going on and offered to absolve them of their responsibility for my well being, they refused. The same thing happened the next day, when, after a few hours of peace (during which I made it briefly into town [http://twitter.com/#!/bertarcher/status/41968352997933056], the military barricaded part of the city, ostensibly to prevent any more violence. I went to the gate of the tent city to hop a ride into town, and was asked if I was a journalist. I said yes, and they refused to let me pass.

Now, there are worse places to be stuck. There was a tea tent, and the place was lousy with wet surfers. But the camp was on edge, the officials already formulating their defenses of the king and attacks on whomever the rioters might turn out to be in scattered conversations with surfers and journalists. Over the course of the two days, the rioters transformed from kids on drugs to the Sahrawi [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahrawi_people] to foreign agitators back to kids on drugs. Spontaneous outpourings of support for the king were frequent. Still not completely clear on what was happening, the director cancelled the last day of his festival. People hung out, Blondy played to his captive audience that evening as I watched the big stage erected for the week’s concerts being dismantled in town (I’d finally managed to hitch a ride when the military had begun withdrawing that evening).

As it turned out, it was – probably – a fight between people in different neighbourhoods, possibly started by a slap in the face and fuelled by internecine disdain between Moroccans and the Sahrawi people, whom one Arab Moroccan cab driver described to me as “dark and unemployed.” It had been brewing for two days, and apparently only became a real problem when the already tense police and military intervened.

The violence turned out to be isolated, and though there remained rumours of a death and a rape, things went back to normal, and some journalists who’d been expecting to file stories on the re-birth of windsurfing as a possible sign that 90s nostalgia had truly taken hold ended up with a little personal insight into just how nervous people in Morocco are these days.

 

Vegas tip sheet: "What to do after the 'I Do's." ... Oahu news ... Real Madrid

Got a funny note from the folks at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas the other day, giving me ideas on "What to do after the I Do's." Which got me thinking ... isn't it pretty obvious?

I mean, some of these activities sound fine: a trip to the Grand Canyon, a Hot Stone Couples Massage and oysters with "piquillo pepper and Tabasco sorbet." That's fine. The note also advised me I could enjoy an enchanted garden setting at the Blossom restaurant and enjoy pan-fried beef with sweet ginger and pineapple. "Enjoy a spicy dish now to enjoy an even spicier "dish" in the bedroom later, the press release said, by which time I was, I think, blushing.

My fave is a room at the Sky Suites, with "romantic in-room candlelit dinners, customized balloons and flowers covering every inch of the suite," plus, and get this, "a three-inch replica of their wedding cake." Not enough? How about "luxury lingerie" or "24K gold-plated restraints and other, cheeky intimacy products."

Whoo boy. Gotta take a cold shower.

I managed a night at Aria in November. I'm not a big Vegas guy but it's a nice hotel if you can figure out the high-tech lighting system.

OAHU IN THE NEWS

Had a brief session with the folks from Oahu tourism the other day. I'd forgotten that Disney is opening a new resort - minus the theme park - outside of Honolulu. Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa, Ko Olina, is slated for a first phase opening on Aug. 29, and it'll be a big event in Hawaii.

The 21-acre resort will have 360 guestrooms, 481 Disney Vacation Club Villas, pools, hot tubs, a snorkeling lagoon, a river, wedding facilities (see photo, not to mention the above note from Vegas) and more.

The Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort and Spa, famous from Hawaii 50 episodes, is renovating its iconic Rainbow Tower, with new tubs, sinkers, counters, beds and TV's.

The Royal Hawaiian, a stunner right on Waikiki Beach, recently finished a $70 million renovation, while the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach launched a $13 million renovation two months ago.

REAL MADRID (as in football) BOOSTS CITY TOURISM

Madrid tourism officials announced that the Real Madrid Football Club will start promoting the Spanish capital and Spain as a whole as tourist destinations. It's a clever idea, methinks. Guess we could do the same thing with the Maple Leafs if they ever make the playoffs. Toronto FC? Not so much....

 

 

Star man Adrian Brijbassi in Jerusalem for Star Travel Grand Tour of the World

JERUSALEM — David Weinberg and Gerald Segal grew up together on Charlton Street near Finch and Bathurst in Toronto, they both attended the University of Toronto, and now more than 10,000 kilometres away they’re still part of a community. Weinberg and Segal are among a large, active, expatriate Canadian contingent that has moved to Israel to build a country their Jewish ancestors couldn’t. 

They and Paul Shindman, another Torontonian, joined me for dinner the other night at Gabriel, a five-year-old restaurant on Ben Shetach Street in Jerusalem.

David and Paul, who studied together at U of T, arrived in Israel more than 20 years ago while Gerald made the move in the mid-1990s. David's father, Henry Weinberg, taught at U of T and became an elected member of Israeli parliament. Paul is a freelance writer who started the Israeli Ice Hockey Federation and Gerald is an investment banker living in a suburb of Jerusalem.

They've watched their nation emerge as a significant economic power with a number of high-tech and bio-tech companies growing fast over the past two decades.

"There's an excitement here," says Gerald. "People are very entrepreneurial. There's a desire to create things and people aren't afraid to take risks."

Israel got through the global recession suffering only flat GDP growth, in part because the savings rate of its people is high and its homeowners didn't buy into subprime mortgages. It expects good economic expansion this year and one big area of increase is tourism.

Close to 3 million people have already visited Israel in 2010 and this summer there was a shortage of rooms in Tel Aviv while luxury hotels are among those recently opened or expected to open soon in Jerusalem.

Tourism, which David says had been decimated following the bloody conflict with Palestinians earlier this decade, is of significant importance to Israel for more reasons than just the money it brings in.

"We want people to see that side of Israel," says David, "the side that's welcoming to all kinds of people, that's democratic and pluralistic."

He and Gerald point out that it's not just religious tourism that comes to the country. Medical tourism is increasing and so is leisure travel as Europeans arrive for beach vacations in Tel Aviv and elsewhere.

Of keen interest to David, is wine tourism, another exploding industry that continues to see amazing growth. A self-professed wine nut, David remembers when Israeli wines were limited to a small handful as recently as 15 years ago. Today, there are nearly 300 wineries in the country and they're getting big-time recognition for their quality.

"It's warm and dry in the day, and cold at night," says David. "Ideal for making wine."

The industry started to boom when grapes were planted on the Golan Heights by wine entrepreneurs. In 2007, there was a high point when The Wine Advocate's Robert Parker gave 14 Israeli wines an "outstanding" rating; the publication's highest rank.

David ordered us a bottle of Carmel Winery's 2007 Mediterranean, a wonderfully velvety and fruity blend of four red grapes and one white.

"We have some excellent wine tours now," says David. "You'll have to try one."

I hope to, and I also plan to attend a hockey game at Israel's only regulation-size ice rink, which was made famous on "Hockey Night in Canada" back in January. I also plan to continue exploring the elephant in the room - the tensions with the Muslim groups in the area. All three Canadian-Israelis I dined with lamented the lack of peace.

"The Palestinians could have exactly what we have," says David, the director of the Canada-Israel Committee's Israel Office, and a noted commentator and writer on Israeli politics (www.davidmweinberg.com).

He says the rigid stance of Islamic groups like Hamas is keeping that wealth from coming to Palestinians. I hope to report what the Palestinians say later in the week.

IT'S HOT IN TEL AVIV

Temperatures on the weekend in Tel Aviv were up beyond 30 Celsius, a surprise to everyone since temperatures are usually comfortably in the low- to mid-20s as winter here nears.

The beaches along the Mediterranean Sea were full with sunbathers and swimmers who congregated outside of the long stretch of hotels in the centre of the relaxed city, and sailboats were out on blue waters.

Tel Aviv is a real treat for more reasons than just the weather (although you can't understate how great it is to be in a warm climate with fresh air at this time of year). It feels like a west coast city, with a laid-back attitude, active lifestyle and vibrant café culture.

Neighbourhood after neighbourhood is packed with bars, restaurants and clubs. Plus, the streets are impressively clean and although we all know there are serious security issues in the region, there isn't a palpable sense of anxiety in this leisurely city.

Lots more about Israel in coming weeks in Star Travel.

 

Sydney and Opera House (or is it Oprah House?) tour...Visit Britain time is here

SYDNEY (and TORONTO) - Still pretty rainy here in Sydney. Unusual for this time of year, but we can probably blame El Nina. Or El Nino. Or some kind of weird climactic situation.

It was close to 30 degrees here a week ago, and it's usually in the mid-20's by now as Sydney approaches the summer. This would be the equivalent of early May for them, so it's usually a brilliant time of year. Instead, it's gone from beautiful to bizarre, with daytime temperatures in the teens and plenty of wind and cool rain.

It's not helping my photographs, but it's still a great place to walk around. I spent the morning near the Royal Botanical Gardens, getting shots of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Later I did a tour of the Opera House, where I learned there are 1,056,006 (exactly) ceramic tiles on the roofs of the various sail-like buildings. Pretty amazing.

My tour guide showed us the lovely interiors and said that among those who have appeared in the main hall are Michael Buble and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who apparently won his last Mr. Olympia (or something like that) title in these hallowed halls. The project was slated to take three years and cost $7 million, but ended up taking 16 years at a cost of $102 million. Oprah Winfrey will be here for a slew of shows next month, which means lots of people are calling it the Sydney Oprah House, and sorry about that.

Unlike our pathetic SkyDome/Rogers Centre, however, the Opera House put Sydney on the map. Or, rather, embellished its placement as a forward-thinking/hip city. It's now impossible to think of Sydney without it, as it would be to think of Cape Town without Table Mountain or San Francisco without the Golden Gate Bridge. Toronto has improved, but we have a long way to go if we want to be in the big leagues with cities like those. It takes vision, something even David Miller lacked when it came right down to it.

Anyway, it's great to be in a place that's so cutting-edge. I had lunch in the historic Rocks district and ate at a place called Sake, a dynamite Japanese joint where one of the specialties is an appetizer called Sashimi Tacos. Sounds bizarre, but a crunch taco surrounding fresh tuna or salmon sashimi and onions  and soy and spices is absolutey brilliant. Comes with glasses of sugar-rimmed Sake, which never hurts. Likewise the sashimi with soy and thinly-sliced jalapeno peppers were top-notch. Call it Jap-Mex if you want; I call it fabulous.

I wanted to see Manly Beach and the North Head bluffs, but it was raining and I only had time for the ferry ride. Still, it's magical to see Sydney's Harbour even in the mist, and to realize how lucky folks are down this way to have so much water and beautiful beaches and tumbling, rocky bluffs all around them. Manly reminds me of Vancouver with the waterfront and the pine trees and the high-rise apartments.

I took dinner at a spot called Wine Odyssey, where they have dozens of bottles of wine where you can slip a special card into a slot and get various sizes of all sorts of wines in a variety of prices. It's very sophisticated (albeit expensive) and really lets you try a whole variety of wines by reading the labels and the little ads or blurbs that accompany them. The food is decent, but the wine selection is superb. A fun spot, topped only by a brief stop at the Fortune of War Pub, which dates back to the 1860s and has atmosphere to spare. A great guitar player/singer was singing Aussie country songs last night including ones about the Yukon Gold Rush and an old English song about Ernie, the fastest milkman in the west. It was great fun.

I remembered it was a pub that Star sports types Dave Perkins and Doug Smith and I visited the night before the start of the 2000 Summer Olympics. I remember running into Paul Beeston's daughter down near the harbour at around midnight and thinking it was a good idea to call Beest in New York, where he was working at the commissioner of baseball's office. We had a couple too many Victoria Bitters, I think, and I doubt Paul liked being woken up at 5 a.m. by a bunch of sodden Toronto Star reporters. But it was fun for us.

More later on Australia and Sydney. But now it's time for a short update from Star Travel writer Adrian Brijbassi, who attended a Visit Britain event in Toronto Thursday night.

VISIT BRITAIN

The Olympics are coming to London, and they’re going to help draw millions to Great Britain before, during and after the 2012 Summer Games. On Thursday night, VisitBritain, the British tourism agency, hosted a press gathering at the King Edward Hotel to fill us in on what’s happening around England, Scotland and Wales beyond just athletics.

Of the nearly 750,000 Canadians who cross the Atlantic to Great Britain annually, more than three-quarters are return guests, VisitBritain says. Those numbers indicate both the strong bond our nations have and the comfort we feel travelling to the land of Shakespeare and the Queen. With the exchange rate more favorable for Canadians than it’s been in years ($1 will get you about 60 pence), a trip over the pond is enticing these days. There’s also lots more excitement than just the Olympics, including: Elizabeth II’s 60th anniversary on the throne (also in 2012) and a potential royal wedding (c’mon, Will, get that ring on Kate’s finger already).

One of the highlights discussed in Toronto includes a plan by Wales to have a walking path circling that coastal nation. Wales has a total area of more than 20,000 square kilometres, so that’s no mere footpath for an evening stroll they’re setting up.

“It would be very hard to imagine anyone walking the entire path, so we’ll have a Dylan Thomas stretch, and other stretches named after historic figures or prominent people, and visitors will definitely want to walk the length of those,” says Bob Titley, a PR consultant for Visit Wales.

The London Olympics will run from July 27 to August 12, 2012, and is expected to generate about $3.5 billion in tourism spending during the next decade.

If you’re thinking about heading to Britain between now and the Summer Games, keep reading Star Travel. We’ll get you prepared for what’s new in and around London well before Usain Bolt takes a run at another gold.

 

St. Lucia tourism riding high; new casino could do even more...Whistler changes

St. Lucia's tourism director was in town on Monday and we managed a few minutes over lunch.

"Canadian visits to St. Lucia are up 109 per cent" in the last year, Louis Lewis told me. "That's amazing at a time when many countries would be happy with a rise of nine per cent."

Yes, they would. Most of us would be happy with an increase of that size in our economic portfolios, too, but that's another story.

Lewis said they've made a concerted effort to boost tourism from North America and that U.S. visits were up 40 per cent so far this year compared with 2009; also a terrific number.

"We had a good winter, and summer outpaced winter for the first time," he said.

More flights - there are now four per day from Canada - have helped a lot. So has the boost given the country's website, stlucianow.ca, which earlier today was offering all-inclusive rooms for as little as $109 per night per person and was advertising fall deals of 60 per cent off.

As good as things are, Lewis said St. Lucia isn't standing still. A new casino north of Rodney Bay, on the northern part of the island, should open in December, the first casino on the island.

Casino City Times reports the casino will include 350 slot machines and 14 gaming tables and will be managed by Treasure Bay Corp. LLC of Biloxi, Mississippi. It's said to be about 15,000 square feet and will employ 300 full-time workers in St. Lucia.

I told Lewis about how I'd visited the country music bar in Castries, the Nashville Palace, when I was there and we chatted at length over lunch about his country's fascination with hurtin' tunes and how they don't like modern country music.

"There's a joke on the other islands that they can always tell who the St. Lucia workers are by turning off the Caribbean music at a club or bar at night and turning on a country-western song. If anyone dashes onto the floor for the country music, they're from St. Lucia."

Romance remains a huge part of the attraction of St. Lucia; not surprising when you see the beaches and forested highlands and the grand Pitons that dominate the skyline on the south end of the island.

WHISTLER CHANGES

Things are heating up, or , rather, cooling down nicely in Whistler, host (in part) of some pretty famous sporting events a few months back. The Olympics are firmly in the rear-view mirror, but the first FIBT World Cup events take place Nov 25-27 during Whistler's opening weekend, with bobsleigh and skeleton slated for the Whistler Sliding Centre. It will be great to see Canadian medallist Jon Montgomery in action, with or without a post-race beer on the main streets of town. For more information, check out the link.

Whistler/Blackcomb also has an Early Booking Offer, where guests can book by November 15, 2010 and receive the best deal of the season and a price guarantee. Lock in at the current rates, and if the price drops for the equivalent package during the season, they’ll match it. Families can save even more, as kids 12 and under stay, ski, rent, and receive airport transfers for FREE. Early booking packages are available from just $86CAD per person per night

Amber Turnau of Whistler/Blackcomb tells me they're "really looking at leveraging the awareness built up from the games (both internationally in Germany and Australia) and at home here in Canada."

Turnau says that based on a study conducted by Tourism Whistler in partnership with Tourism British Columbia, awareness of Whistler increased significantly in the key overseas markets of United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. The study measured awareness of Whistler before and after the 2010 Winter Games (November 2009, January 2010 and March 2010). Increases by market:
              - United Kingdom - awareness increased from 32 per cent to 45 percent
              - Germany - awareness increased from 19 per cent to 42 per cent
              - Australia - awareness increased from 48 per cent to 62 per cent.

Guests this season can ski/ride where the Olympians raced on the Dave Murray Downhill and Women’s DH, she points out. Not me, but thanks anyway.

GOOGLE TV AND GOOGLE TRAVEL?

A fellow Star worker was just telling me how Google is going to be available on TV's, or some such. It probably is already and I just don't know it. I remarked to her that I also had heard Google was getting into the travel business, which kinda scares me in a way I can't even begin to explain.

We both agreed we're totally screwed with technology once our kids leave home, although I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get the toaster to work all right.

TRANSPORTATION WOES in TORONTO

So, last Friday I get off the subway at Lawrence Station, and for the second time in a few weeks, only one of the escalators at the north end - five flights worth - was working. And it was, for the second time in a few weeks, the DOWN escalator that hardly anyone uses at rush hour. My goodness, folks, is is THAT hard?

Then, yesterday, BOTH escalators at the north end were out of service in the evening. Today, I went in the south entrance and one of the four escalators wasn't working. Glad to see my hard-earned tax dollars are being well-spent, guys.

It's also been a strange few trips. On Monday morning, some poor fellow sat on the floor of my subway car and cried and repeatedly banged his head. Poor fellow. On the way home, some guy stopped a buddy and I and looked at our Blackberries and wondered if we worked for the Secret Service. Today, a young Anglo woman started hurling racial epithets at a young, black woman, who wasn't taking any lip and gave it right back to her until the TTC finally had to call the cops and hauled the Anglo woman away, thank goodness.

Phew. Of course, on Sunday I tried driving into work and got caught up in the Toronto Marathon madness. Yes, the road closures were in the paper but would it have hurt the city to tell drivers that the Gardiner ramps to Yonge and Bay Sts. would be closed BEFORE WE GOT THERE and then found out we had to go to SPADINA and then double back in city traffic, only to find a huge backup of cars trying to get off the eastbound Gardiner at Jarvis? Just a couple signs, guys? Honestly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lonely Planet travel awards recognize Tokyo, Barrier Reef, Rio, Reggae, Rum

It's perilously close to year-end, folks. I mean, I hate to say it, but Christmas is only two months and a week away. They're already getting the Christmas ornaments ready at some of the malls, I bet. Anyhoo, year-end also means travel awards are being collected/doled out by a number of publications. Lonely Planet Magazine and lonelyplanet.com just put out their first-ever awards, and it makes for some interesting reading.

Rather than simply listing the top 100 hotels or some such, which is fine, they changed the categories around a bit and got folks to list such items as their "greatest outdoors experience," greatest food experience" and favourite place to relax." It makes for a more interesting read, I think, so good on ya guys. Here's a rundown of some of the category winners and runners-up, with a few thoughts from yours truly.

"Most Incredible Journey": This award, not surprisingly, went to the Trans-Siberian Railroad, followed by driving a 4x4 along the Silk Road from Uzbekistan to China, Cruising the Amazon, Taking an overland truck from Cairo to Cape Town (people DO that?) and driving the Pacific Coast Highway from L.A. to San Francisco. I'm a big fan of the latter, but an Amazon cruise would be far more interesting and incredible as a cultural experience. More than taking a train across Siberia, too, I would think. But likely with more bugs and sharp-toothed piranhas in the water than the train trip.

"Greatest Food Experience" Eating a steak in Buenos Aires. Now, I'm told that they have great steaks in Argentina. My fellow travel department guy, Adrian Brijbassi, is going soon and will report back. But it's still a steak, guys. Can't we be a bit more adventurous? Number two was Pad Thai at a place called Chote Chitr in Bangkok, which sounds more up my alley. I actually make a decent Pad Thai at home, if I do say so myself. After that was sushi at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, which I did for breakfast two weeks ago. It was unbelievably good. And, of course, remarkably fresh. Definitely a memorable experience.

"Greatest Sporting Experience" The Monaco Grand Prix came out on top, and I'm thoroughly baffled. This might anger some friends of mine in the Wheels section, but I can think of almost nothing in the world more stultifyingly dull than watching a car race. I guess if you're gonna do it, though, at least have the common sense to do it in Monaco versus Indianapolis or on the Toronto lakefront. Second was the Rugby World Cup, but I think we have to keep in mind that this magazine is based on England and we all know how crazy they are when it comes to sporting choices. Their number three choice was Wimbledon tennis (blatant homers!), then a football match at Camp Nou in Barcelona (great town) and, finally, The Olympic Games. Not sure that's the message Brits want to be sending out in advance of the London Summer Olympics in 2012, but there you go. And where's the World Cup on the list? They're bidding for the darned thing and it's not in Britons' top five sporting events? I'd take the Olympics over any of those. Camp Nou would be a close second. But I'd personally prefer the British Open Golf, having never had the pleasure. Many folks, of course, would rather watch a toenail-clipping contest than watch golf, so I understand if some of you are reaching for the telephone to harangue me about being impossibly middle-class and boring.

"Greatest Historical Experience" Tops was climbing the Mayan temples of Tikal, followed by touring the pyramids of Egypt, visiting the Taj Mahal, listing to Aboriginal stories around a camp fire in the Australian outback and exploring the Angkor temples of Cambodia. Hard to argue with any of those.

"Event You'd Most Like to Attend" Carnival in Rio topped the list, followed by Chinese New Year in Hong Kong.

"Greatest Cultural Experience" Reggae on the beach in Jamaica topped the charts, follwed by ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. I'm not a ballet fan but I did see a performance once at the Bolshoi in Moscow when I was there for Toronto's losing campaign for the 2008 Summer Olympics. I sat in the audience with Star sports columnist Dave Perkins and Vladimir Putin walked right past us. I was afraid to breathe, to be honest. Truly scary. But a wonderful thing to say I saw a performance at the Bolshoi.

"Greatest Outdoors Experience" Swimming the Great Barrier Reef in Australia topped the charts. Makes sense, although when I did it in 2000 I must've had a bad tour guide as we didn't really see that many interesting fish. Numbers two to five went to trekking to Everest Base Camp in the Himalayas, husky-sledding in Lapland, Sweden, climbing Mt. Fuji in Japan and hot-air ballooning over Cappadocia, Turkey.

"Greatest Place for a Drink" went to drinking a mojito (ugh, nasty things; I'll take a mai tai over a mojito) at Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, Cuba, while "Favourite Place to Relax" was Ko Kood in Thailand, followed by a treehouse in Costa Rica and a farmhouse villa in Tuscany (see photo).

"Greatest Wildlife Encounter" went to watching gorillas at Mgahinga National Park in Uganda, followed by checking out the "big five" animals on a safari in Kenya, seeing giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands, visiting orangutans in Indonesia and...the only mention I could see of Canada in the whole shooting match...seeing the polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba. A close sixth for greatest wildlife encounter was Rob Ford and George Smitherman in a ring full of jello.

Being a British publication, they asked for the most underrated British day out. Winning that category was "walking Scotland's wild beaches." Next was exploring British cities in August when workers are on holiday, and doesn't that just end any thoughts you might of Brits being dull???

The Lonely Planet folks also did some fun categories, including "You Wouldn't Go There If We Paid You," which was topped by checking out an all-inclusive resort in Benidorm, Spain. (Sounds about right if you've ever listened to the Monty Python travel agent sketch, and if you haven't you should).

Finally, and here's the segueway you've all been waiting for, readers were asked the person they'd most like to travel with. Topping the list was Michael Palin, currently a travel TV guy and formerly a Monty Python guy (who played the travel agent in the sketch I mentioned, I believe). The next four were Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Charley Boorman and Simon Reeve.