Members-only in Tuscany
It was dark and drizzly, but that didn’t dampen the mood. Maybe it was the Chianti we were drinking, or the tranquil Tuscan countryside—or maybe it was the pizza. We had just spent the...
Scandi chic: Bergen, Norway
At one time, Scandinavia brought to mind ABBA, furniture that requires assembly and mackerel-based culinary traditions. But now it’s a hotbed of design, décor, fashion, literary mysteries and Nordic noir. It also has one...
City break: Madrid, Spain
You don’t need to wine-and-dine at a fancy restaurant or fashionable bar to get a taste of the sophisticated Spanish capital—just step into one of its many food markets. Madrid has a thing for renewing...
Gothenburg: Sweden’s hidden gem
Stepping into the fish market, I wish I had put more effort into my hair and makeup. Sure, people come here to buy fish—but this is Scandinavia. And as I’m discovering, they do things...
The lightness of being: On the search for hygge in Copenhagen
I'm looking at a dustpan, trying to decide if I should buy it, when I start imagining the conversation I’d have at Canadian customs when asked what I’m bringing back. A dustpan? I imagine...
Berlin: Germany’s creative capital
Nov. 9, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the peaceful revolution when repression gave way to creativity, and an influx of artists and activists gave the city its...
8 stops on a Eurail trip from Copenhagen to Bergen
Explore Scandinavia by train with scenic, cultural and tasty excursions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Using Eurail’s Scandinavia Pass, I travelled from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Malmo and Gothenburg in Sweden, and on to Oslo...
A vacation in Westeros: Relive Game of Thrones in Croatia
At the War Photo exhibit in Dubrovnik, there’s an image that stands out: a sweeping staircase, eerily deserted during shelling that destroyed more than 60 per cent of the medieval walled city after Croatia...
5 islands to visit near Greece and Turkey
The Aegean Sea—an arm of the Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey—brings to mind the whitewashed, blue-domed buildings of Santorini or the party scene of Mykonos. While they’re stunners, they’re also jam-packed with tourists. So...
Discovering the sea less travelled in Greece and Turkey
There are no swaying palm trees here, no powder-white sand. There isn’t a single hotel or resort in sight, no striped umbrellas or beach bars or sunbathing tourists. Instead, the deep-blue sea is surrounded...