How do you decide on a travel guide?

Honestly every traveller is different, every trip is different.  We all want different things, so how do you chose the right travel guide… I was asked recently about my preferred travel guides.I’m not sure there is an easy answer to the question on how you decide on one, but here’s what I prefer to do before going on a trip:

The Age Traveller.  Every newspaper has a travel section, there are some particular writers in the Age Traveller (a Melbourne newspaper) that I particularly like (there’s some that really frustrate me too).  So I am on the mailing list for it, and I save articles of interest – including ‘the cheapest Michelin star restaurant’ and ‘what not to do in Las Vegas’.  Some of my clients will have seen me add these to their documents, sometimes for fun, and sometimes because I think they offer really great suggestions that are missed by the bigger books.

The great thing about The Age Traveller is that you can go back and search.  If you are going to Greece go to http://www.traveller.com.au/ and there’s a search box, type in Greece and I got 10 pages worth of articles (about 8 articles per page).  Not everyone is going to have information that would interest you, but if you can’t find something of interest in there then we have issues.

Conde Naste Traveller. This is my big secret, I’ve been giving these to clients for ages.  They are fantastic, and go through where to stay (I usually don’t give this to clients with their documents, by that stage the decision has been made), where to eat, what to see, where to shop and so on.  They cover a range of budgets, they are online so can be updated, and give a reasonable amount of information without being a massive book to carry around. 

Lonely Planet.  I’m not sure why I started out with Lonely Planet, probably back when I first started travelling it was the best known ones, and covered my budget (or lack thereof) at the time.  And I’ve stuck to it since.  From I have a pretty little collection of them from Fiji and Vanuatu, to the big US one and some smaller European country guides.  The US one definitely came in handy when I did my big road trip across the states, we booked most of our accommodation as we were driving into a city from the book.  Vanuatu I think is good as well as it is easy to get around town no matter where you are staying on Efate (the main island).  Fiji is a bit harder if you are out on the islands, but for those staying in Nadi or Denarau it has some good information. I’m yet to try their online/app versions, but I would like to as the books aren’t small. 

Finally, Luxe City Guides I think these are great for people who have travelled a bit and don’t want to be carrying around huge guides, but want to know some basics of what’s new in town.  These guides are not the easiest to get a hold of and for the size they don’t necessarily feel good value.  But I still like them, I think they are good quality, easy to carry and full of good info, and really that’s what we want in a travel guide. 

I know it’s cliché coming from a travel agent, but one of the best things you can do is book with a travel agent and seek their recommendations.  If the agent is worth their value then they’ll have places, hotels, restaurants, tours all kinds of info to recommend.  This particular question to me came from someone going to Portugal, they went on to ask me more about where I recommend, and I was able to send them a hotel that my colleague recommends, and that I’ve sent clients to.  Not every recommendation is going to match each traveller, but I spend my life looking at hotels, talking to people about their trips, and travelling as much as I can.  So I do have some cool places/ideas rattling around in my head…

By the way, here was the recommendation for Portugal - http://www.conventodoespinheiro.com/en

A Quick Trip to Toronto

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This was my first trip to Canada, and it’s one of those places I MUST return to.  I think I say that a lot but this trip was way too short, and Canada is beautiful, big, bright and full of adventures waiting…  I really feel like I barely scratched the surface, of both Vancouver and Toronto.  And to be honest I didn’t give Toronto enough time.  2 full days, 2 half days.  One of those days I spent at Niagara… So to make the most of my time and take in as much of Toronto as possible, I set out to walk.  I could have seen more sights if I’d taken a tour bus, but I wanted to get the feel for the place, and I really feel like I did.  This is a beautiful old city with so much to see…  I stopped (at Starbucks) halfway through my walk – the walk equated to around 20000 steps – and wrote the following:

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Walking up Yonge Street, the apparent longest road in the world, or one of them, I started out at Eaton Centre, where my hotel is, not realising how good of a location this was. After walking past all the big brand shops, Toronto's version of Time Square, past a university (I didn't expect that there) and past the high buildings you find yourself in a weird place. For blocks all you can see is 2-3 story buildings, bottom floor being a range of shops from boutiques, to hair dressers, to 'Mr Cheappies'. It's quieter here, but there's some major construction going on.  

As you continue walking you start getting the feeling you are heading into a different neighbourhood again. But maybe the fact that I knew where I was headed made me more aware of the situation.  And so with a left turn I am in Yorkville, on Yorkville ave. walking down this street you feel you’ve left the city and are in a small posh town, except for the overbearing high rise building of the Four Seasons. The town library and fire station are two of the first noticeable buildings you come across, kept from a previous era. As you continue walking the old buildings continue, mixed in with some from the 70-80s and some more modern. The streets are really quiet, and the few people you see are a bit older than what you’d see in this type of area in other cities. Walking past the high end boutiques and stores this area is definitely what I expected from the brochure.

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Back to current times, I think back to what I saw after leaving Starbucks.  I feel like my memories are from London, where a large park, Queen Park, is surrounded by beautiful old buildings belonging to the University mostly.  The only difference is the wide avenue’s with lots of traffic, but nothing compared to the traffic craziness of London. 

As I kept walking South away from the main road, I found myself in the beard and ‘manbun’ part of town, otherwise known as the Entertainment district, where the Scotiabank Theatre and Bell Lightbox are.  Things are much trendier here, there was a large gallery and associated school.  With art student types everywhere, smaller streets and much less traffic.  I didn’t feel so out of place walking here, where as there were few people walking in the previous areas.  

As you head further south you’ll end up in what would be the nearest thing to a tourist area in Toronto, although I think the city itself is a tourist area, in that there’s something cool to see around every corner.  My goal was to go up the CN Tower, the second tallest building in the world, and I did it, it takes a minute to get up the 346m to the look out level in their glass elevators.  Being winter it wasn’t super busy, but also means that the view wasn’t the clearest.  But it was a great way to finish my visit to Toronto. 

So my recommendation for Toronto – find a walking tour, there’s lots around, whether it’s a foodie tour, or even a bike tour.  It’s a relatively flat city and so easy to get around.  And there’s so much to see, so much history.  The weather was clear and nice – not too hot, not too cold – but not the season for tourists, so you may need to keep this in mind when looking for tours.  And despite it being a tourist destination go up the CN Tower, the views are beautiful:

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Niagara in November

I went to Toronto, 2 days, and 2 goals to conquer.  Both were pretty huge goals:

1 was to see the city and explore as much as possible

2 was to get to Niagara falls.

You would think getting to Niagara wouldn’t be that hard, it’s a major tourist destination.  Problem is this was November, late November.  The snow hadn’t yet arrived but it was close.  There was no one wanting to get to Niagara, except me.  I had tried to prearrange a tour, as this just seemed easiest, but to no avail.  They just weren’t running, at least not on the days I was there.  So with the help of the team at my accommodation – Yonge Suites – we put together an itinerary the night I arrived… 

I could go into lots of detail about the route, but let me put it in a short form - local train (I walked for fear of getting lost), regional train, bus then walk… Easy right?  Not so much.  There was a lot of information I didn’t get like how to buy tickets, how to get tickets cost effectively, how to get on the right train/bus and how to figure out the renovations at both train stations…  Oh, and that Emily, you need a warm jacket!!!  I was very blessed to have met two angels, one who helped me get on the right train, get a REALLY warm jacket and get back on the bus.  I missed bus stops and walked miles out of my way, and waited around in the cold a lot.  But I achieved something that had been on my bucket list and it was so worth all of it… 

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Me and my jacket, and the snow

Niagara being the tourist destination that it is like a mini Vegas or Disneyland.  One street with bright lights and lots of different music and noises trying to get your attention.  You can tell you are getting close, then you turn the corner, and the road itself is only 100 metres or so, but it’s intense.  As I made my way down I decided it was time for lunch, so went inside, while in there it started snowing outside.  As a Melbournite this made me happy as we don’t get to experience it very often, but I soon realised that this was not the fun snow - whether it was because of the falls, or because we were near water or just the snow that day - it was swirly and wet and cold.  Oh, how happy I was to have that jacket! 

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From the falls looking back towards ‘mini vegas

After lunch, and enjoying the snow for a couple minutes I continued down Clifton Hill to the falls…  And there they were.  They are big and wet and everything I expected…  I took heaps of photos, but because of the snow they didn’t work out the greatest.  I did the boat trip out (Hornblower) and got really wet, but I did it.  I got to see the falls.  I didn’t get to experience all that there is to do in the area – there’s a place where you can walk over the falls and some wineries nearby.  But I got to see these famous falls. 

I’m not always one for seeing famous sights but this was one I’d been close to on several occasions and never gotten there.  So I’m so glad that I went despite the length of the journey and all the drama.  And I’m kinda glad it snowed, it made for a different experience.  And I’m really glad I bought that jacket!  And I’m so grateful for the two angels…  If I had my time again, I’d probably drive myself, and maybe stay a night.  Or at least experience crossing the border by car.  Actually, I intend to go again, in summer, and spend more time in the area, and do some more cliché touristy things.  But for now, if I don’t ever get back I can say I’ve been to Niagara, and my crazy adventure was worthwhile because it is such a beautiful experience.

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Oh Canada, I love Vancouver…

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One of the hardest things about writing about Vancouver is trying to figure out which photos to share…  It is such a beautiful place, quieter than I imagined, I could have spent so much longer exploring than I did.  But don’t worry, I did my fair share of exploring, walking more than 14km around the seawall in one day.  The Island of Vancouver has a 22km seawall built the whole way around it, 8km around Stanley Park.  We went the ‘shorter’ option and walked through the different neighbourhoods of Vancouver and along the waterfront…  There are distinct differences in the neighbourhoods of Vancouver, similar to that of New York. 

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With Yaletown being filled with converted factories and lots of new boutiques and coffeeshops, flowing into the high rises by the waterfront, then you head towards the main sports area, before cutting up inland through Chinatown and into Gastown another very trendy area of town.  Across the north side of the island you find yourself in the touristy part of town where the cruise ships come in and the large convention centre with its famous sails can be found.  We walked down further to Coal Harbour for lunch with a view.  Then as we were cutting off Stanley Park we walked past the Lost Lagoon where I saw my first racoon. And down to the southern side of the island where the beaches are.  I could just imagine this place being packed during summer.  Then it’s a walk either continuing along the seawall with it’s grassy areas to one side and apartments to the other, or you can cut up through the West End, I did a bit of both. 

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The smallness of the city or downtown surprised me, but I so enjoyed this walk and seeing all the different neighbourhoods which have very distinct feels to them.  Along the waterfront in Yaletown and Coal Harbour there are a lot of art pieces to be seen, this picture was one of my favourite, although at the time we thought it was actually a useable space, only to find out it was just an art piece.

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I’m not going to lie the weather in November was cold, but it wasn’t wet or snowing, and the colours of the trees were beautiful, and the snow capped mountains in the background made me smile every time I caught a glimpse.

Day two brought new adventures, this time off the island and over to Granville Island an old industrial island where there are now public markets, art spaces for the students, and non students, of the University of Art on the island, as well as the fun cement factory.  I read up on Granville Island while there to find out more about it, the original buildings are still there and are considered heritage listed so can’t be changed.  The island got is name from Vancouver originally being called Granville…  The silos were painted as a part of an art exhibition by two Brazilian men and suit the island feel perfectly.

From here we headed to Kitsilano one of the trendy areas off the island where we had brunch worthy of Melbourne standards, then we went up into Suburban Vancouver and to Queen Elizabeth Park.  A great place with beautiful gardens and an amazing view back over Vancouver Island:

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We drove along Main Street which has a mixture of old historic buildings and shopping of all different types.  There was one thing left for us to do (well, there was heaps, but our plan was to see as much of Vancouver in two days as possible) and that was to head over to Stanley Park.  We drove around the park, and stopped to see the different views.  Two places stood out, one, was looking back over Lion’s Gate Bridge, at the right time of day you can watch the sunset from this point, and off to the other side, you can see the snow covered mountains in America.  Further around towards downtown there are a number of Totem Poles, each has a story of the area it is from, and its design.  Vancouver had a lot of different areas with First Nations art, and little that seemed touristy, I was really impressed with these memories to the indigenous people.  And fascinated to finally understand the story behind these poles. 

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The rest of my time in Vancouver was spent eating, trying the different local beer brews and walking around the ‘financial district’ which never seemed to get THAT busy.  There was a relatively high amount of homeless people, I was told this is because Vancouver is the Hawaii of Canada, but I never really felt unsafe, even walking at night.  I intend to go back to Vancouver, not because I feel I didn’t see it all, but because it is the kind of city I could easily just hang out in and explore the secrets of, plus I want to visit Victoria Island and the Inside Passage, so I must go back…