Celebrity chef Ned Bell takes over the inn and its restaurant in the small Okanagan town of Naramata. It's Tuesday night and the new Restaurant at Naramata Inn is bumping. Every table in the high-ceilinged dining room is full, as are the tables on the heritage hotel's covered veranda, which doubles as the restaurant's patio. Between plating meals i...

This small surfing town of Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island has big tourism cachet Surf instructor Ania Splawinski makes us feel awesome about being kooks. Kook, or a Barney, if you prefer, is a beginner surfer and depending on how quickly newbies catch onto the sport, the term is either affectionate or derogatory. "These longboards yo...

Salmon fishing on the Canadian West Coast is one of the first tourism sectors to open as COVID restrictions ease. The big salmon are biting like crazy off the northern tip of Vancouver Island. COVID hasn't changed that. But what the pandemic did change is how the West Coast sport fishing tourism sector is rebounding after two months of lockdown. Fo...

Ship-wreck snorkelling and luxe-resort accommodation are just the ticket to feel special in Barbados. The Bajan Queen partied too hard. And now she's at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. But, all is good. This 45-metre tugboat, which toiled for years at the port in Bridgetown, Barbados and finished out her above-water life as a tourist-party boat, w...

A rainforest hike outside Auckland, New Zealand reveals waterfalls, towering ferns, palm trees and a black-sand beach. At first, the rain is barely a mist on my face. Feather-soft and refreshing, the tiny droplets have somehow navigated their way through the thick canopy of trees, massive ferns and vines. Before long, the precipitation is a steady ...

As we emerge from the urban, palm tree forest, there it is. The 17,500-seat SAP Centre, a silver-sided edifice better known as the Shark Tank, is the home rink of the National Hockey League's San Jose Sharks. This is definitely going to be NHL hockey, California-style. My son, Alex, and I have walked three blocks up downtown's main drag of Santa Cl...