The Yum Yum Factor

Always on the lookout for for great things to do in and around Toronto, I was happy to attend a media preview of Temperance and Temptation, the newest joint venture between York/Durham/Headwaters, Central Counties Tourism and ShortTrips.ca  this past September. Adamo Estate Winery The Temperance and Temptation tours take you on a guided, all inclusive two day exploration of the history of prohibition in the York, Durham or Headwaters Regions. I bet you didn't even know that was a thing, right? We only hear about the adventures in bootlegging and home stills that took place in the States with shows like Boardwalk Empire but this was an important time right here in the wild and wooly Ontario frontier. The tours take two forms - you can either download the Temperance and Temptation app that allows you to take a self guided adventure with stories to listen to between each stop (get a designated driver though because it IS all about the booze) OR you can pay to hop on a...

brightly coloured facades of the houses overlooking the Onyar River If you are in Barcelona more than a few days, you are missing out if you don't plan at least one day trip, depending on your interests. It's literally a hop, skip and a jump down to Sitges, 35km south of Barcelona by train and it's truly the place to be if you want to get a little taste of non stop festivals, beach life and all night parties. We JUST missed carnival so we didn't go this time but it is worth planning your trip around that week in order to experience what is considered to be one of the world's top ten carnivals. Sitges is also  one of the hippest,  LGBTQ friendly places you can visit in Europe, so if that is important to you, it really should be at the top of your list. On the other hand, if you are really into breathtaking scenery, sweeping views and want to take a cable car ride up to an austere monastery nestled high up in the mountains, with hiking opportunities galore...

I am always looking for something fun to do during the summer. Look, as much as I love driving to Niagara to hit a few wineries and grab a bite, you can only do that so many times before you start to get bored of doing the same thing every weekend. On a beautiful summer weekend, heavy tourist traffic can turn a 45 minute drive into a 2 hour excursion and I just don't always want to taste wine, if you can imagine.

The view from the 1st floor of the Eiffel Tower is stunning, even on a rainy, overcast day I lived in Paris for a time over 30 years ago, as a fresh faced, 20 year old Canadian girl on her first trip abroad, dreaming of a career as a high fashion makeup artist. Back then, you could truly live on a $10/day budget that included a bottle of wine and a little wheel of brie so, even if you felt lonely and isolated in a huge, foreign city, enduring rudeness that bordered on performance art , at least you could be spend the day pleasantly buzzed! The Eiffel Tower, lit up, will never stop being magnificent After a few months, being poor in this beautiful city started to weigh on me, I got sick of living off of bread and cart crepes, window shopping and eating pickled beets, so I moved on to Munich where I worked a lot more, made enough money to fund a nice life with new friends with ample left over for continued travel. Paris was not an easy city for a naive, young girl on he...