As the month newly known as Movember (formerly known as November) draws to a clean-shaven close, I thought I’d tip my turban to the nation that first put fur on the facial map. Okay, so India may or may not have invented the moustache. But they’ve certainly perfected it, raising the lip dog to remarkable […]

I have two tiny kids, so my travel these days isn’t always far-flung and exotic. Think Chinatown, as opposed to say, China. But I still get ye olde travel itch on a regular basis and am always looking for little ways to scratch it. With the kids in tow, of course. This past weekend was […]

It hit 38 C (100 F) in Toronto this July. And that’s before the humidex (it’s a Canadian thing—if you’re American, you have the heat index) pushed it up to something otherworldly like 49 C. I know it’s taboo to think of winter in the midst of our too-short ever-sweet summers, but my mind couldn’t […]

If illusionist illustrator M. C. Escher had ever tried his hand at architecture, he might have designed a place like Argos in Cappadocia. This fabulous little hotel in central Turkey is a study in subtle confusion and organic delight. Steps lead up, stairs go down, bridges arc across roads, rooftops turn into terraces, and terraces […]

December has hit (along with the snow), and suddenly everyone is in a planning panic for Christmas vacation. We know, we warn you to come to us far in advance for the good stuff. But in the eleventh hour, we can still toss a few truffles in your stocking. Huvafen Fushi, Maldives Huvafen Fushi is […]

Some say that if we were meant to fly we’d have been born with wings. Perhaps. But I doubt those naysayers have been to Milford Sound. And I’d bet a golden grouse they’ve never seen it by helicopter. The truth is New Zealand’s epic fjord land can only be appreciated fully if seen from the […]

Clothes may make the man. But the car he drives… well, that will tell you all about him. Likewise, the cars of a country can provide entertaining insight into the character of the local culture. So, let’s say you’re planning a trip, you love cars, and you’re looking for a fun way to turbo charge […]

Even in a country as small as New Zealand, a three room hotel (for lack of a better word) is considered tiny. And yet, somehow there’s something about Edenhouse, in the Nelson/Abel Tasman area of the South Island, that isn’t little at all. Like any masterpiece Edenhouse plays the scales beautifully, twisting large and small […]

Ten years ago you had to look pretty hard to find a fantastic place to stay in Marrakech. Sure there was a grand dame (that would be La Mamounia), but mostly it was a city of damsels in distress—long-in-the-tooth-and-never-that-beautiful-in the-first-place sort of places. And then began the riad renaissance, a remarkable era of restoration in […]

Some countries have all the luck.  Just think of what the film ‘Lord of the Rings’ did for New Zealand tourism.  Or how about ‘A Year in Provence’?  One petit book and all of a sudden the world wanted to relocate to rural France and spend a year renovating an old stone house. Sometimes even […]

Close your eyes (enough to allow for some mental visualization, but not so much that you can’t read this). Now, imagine that you’re standing on an 18th century rampart overlooking the sea. The air is humid and heavy, the sun warm like a pancake on your forehead. Seagulls are swooping around, making noise, in their […]

If you’re going to build a hotel out of mud and straw, and place it on the far side of nowhere, then it had best be good. If you’re going to officially nickname it a ‘house of dreams’ and charge a thousand Euros a night, then it had best be phenomenal. Dar Ahlam, hidden in […]

Half the fun of travelling in Asia is learning to embrace the chaos and congestion, the colour and the noise. The other half is finding a place where you can escape the mayhem, and slip into a zone of visual, aural, emotional calm. Such retreats can be hard to find, especially in the increasingly turbo-charged […]

P.T. Barnum may have had “The Greatest Show on Earth”, but that was over 100 years ago. And you had to pay for it. These days, the finest, funnest, freakiest show we know happens every day in Marrakech’s Djemaa el Fna square. And it’s free. If Morocco is a target for the traveller craving the […]

Brazil’s not known as a country to cover its charms. And yet, the little towns of Paraty and Tiradentes are largely hidden from the traveller’s initial glance. One is tucked in the mountains of the interior, the other snuggles the coast (about halfway between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo). Geographically they’re 430 km apart, […]

How can it be that a town of two thousand people (give or take a thousand), a hundred temples and shrines (give or take a dozen), and a 350 ft high granite rock (give or take an elephant) doesn’t feature on Google Maps? You can zoom in ‘til the holy cows come home, but you […]