Mexico has its playas, the Caribbean its beat, but Americans are prone to overlook the charms of the neighbor to the north. I’ve already had a healthy dose of the remedy to that affliction with visits to two of Canada’s largest cities; Calgary and Vancouver. Soon, I’m off on a four day journey back across this great big land on VIA Rail, Canada’s version of the Orient Express. A full report on the train trip will follow my arrival in Toronto, but I already know it will be a far different experience from the ones I’ve had so far. While a tour by train… Read More…

If you saw my story in the Travel section of The New York Times last month, you might get the impression I’m eager to get in and get out of airports as fast as I can. That would be wrong. My affection for airports goes back to the days when my dad would throw the plastic webbed lawn chairs in the back of the pickup truck and he and mom and the four of us kids would all go down to Miami International Airport and have a picnic at the end of the runway.  We would watch planes take off and land until it was… Read More…

I’ve made no secret of my affection for Singapore’s Changi Airport. But perhaps you don’t know that I also love chocolate. Which is why I was intrigued by a press release sent to me by the airport today announcing that when Americans pass through Singapore’s airport, the thing they most often buy is, you guessed it, chocolate. My fellow Americans – we are so out there in our obsession with chocolate,  that we purchased 1.35 million boxes of chocolate at that airport last year. I’ve been to Changi airport 3 or 4 times. I don’t remember buying chocolate there, ever. I do, however remember buying… Read More…

Sometimes I have to travel to places I wouldn’t choose to visit. This was the case recently, when I was asked to speak in Las Vegas. Full disclosure; I hate Las Vegas. I just forgot how much until I got there. And it’s not just me who thinks it’s just too close for comfort to the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. What do you think they mean when community boosters say, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”? But I’m a traveler constantly espousing the philosophy that a great trip begins in the head, so with a quick attitude adjustment I’m determined to bring… Read More…

It should not be surprising that Bangkok, home of the ancient gilded barge, the horse drawn tram, and the famous tuk tuk, should now boast about its large and modern international hub airport. And as the growth in air travel shifts from North America and Europe to the far and Mideast, Bangkok is seeing a boom in airport traffic.  Many of these travelers do not have Thailand as their destination; they are passing through on their way somewhere else. That is what brought me there early this month. My plan was to travel from Christchurch in New Zealand to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates… Read More…

Everything I preach about enjoying the journey as well as the destination should not be undone when I tell you that on a recent trip to Frankfurt, I flew Lufthansa business class. Yes indeed, that’s a significantly different experience than flying coach. “Sure,” you’re saying, “who doesn’t enjoy the journey when you’re traveling premium class?”  But that’s not what I’m going to write about here, not now and probably never. There are plenty of other travel websites that cover that experience, In fact, I did write a story about this for The New York Times a few weeks ago, which you can read here. Suffice… Read More…