Recently I spent a fun-filled weekend in Toronto. I was there for a cousins’ get together and we stayed in the downtown Entertainment District. With a WalkScore of 97/100 it was within easy walking distance of Queen Street, CN Tower, Kensington Market and many theaters. CN Tower is the major landmark in Toronto’s skyline (kind of the Canadian equivalent to the Space Needle) and helped us get our bearings on more than one occasion.

Exploring the city in July, I saw many beautiful flowers adorning outdoor cafes and pubs. For shopping we headed to Queen Street. Some of our favorite stops included: GetOutside for shoes, Mujamba for an amazing collection of ribbons & shoe laces, and Fashion Crimes for every type of party dress you could imagine. If you’re on Queen Street be sure to stop in at Dufflet, known as the ‘Queen of Cake’ and best baker in Toronto. For lunch or dinner try the secluded patio at the Queen Mother Café which serves Dufflet cakes for dessert.

For more shopping visit Kensington Market to see a collection of funky, local shops and hear live music in the streets.

Take a streetcar or cab to the historic Distillery District to see some beautiful buildings, shop and then relax at Mill Street Pub with some local ale and sweet potato fries. If you have time, catch the short ferry ride to Toronto Island. Walk around the well-groomed park or rent a two or four person carriage bicycle to explore the island. The return ferry ride provides a postcard perfect view of the city.

Since Tucson is home to two destination spas we had to include a visit to at least one during our weekend visit. We’d all booked a Spa Day Pass at Canyon Ranch which included a 50 minute spa service, lunch and unlimited access to Canyon Ranch’s fitness classes and activities. Established over 30 years ago in Tucson, Canyon Ranch was one of the first destination spas in the US. Now with several locations around the country it’s a regular on Travel & Leisure’s Top 10 Destination Spa list.

On Saturday after a quick check-in, we found ourselves at Canyon Ranch’s hiking center. Outfitted with a pair of high-powered Bushnell binoculars and a day pack, we headed out for an early morning bird watching walk. It was a gorgeous Arizona spring day and the birds didn’t disappoint us. We almost immediately spotted our first Gila woodpecker in a towering saguaro cactus, followed by iridescent hummingbirds, cactus wren, quail and many others.

With the spa offering over 40 fitness activities a day there was plenty to choose from. We tried a sampling of yoga, zumba, world beat with live drummers, foot fitness, stretch class and hiking. Between classes, massages and facials we had a leisurely lunch at the pool-side café.

People go to destination spas for different reasons – all out pampering, meditation, relaxation and fitness. At Canyon Ranch the focus is on exercise/fitness and – if you can afford it - it’s a great place to kick-start a change to a more active lifestyle.

I’ve mentioned before how I think the best way to really experience a city is on foot.  But when you’re new to a city, how do you know where the best walking districts are?  One very cool site makes this easy for you.  Walk Score helps you to quickly find the best walking neighborhoods within a city.  After ranking over 2,500 neighborhoods in the 40 largest cities in the U.S., they show you the top walking districts for each city along with detailed Google maps of walkable destinations.  

Created as a tool for home buyers, this is also a great resource when choosing a hotel and seeing how well located it is in the city.  I just entered the address of the Hotel Andra, where I stayed during my last visit to Seattle and here are the results from Walk Score (green = best districts).   

Wouldn’t it be nice if every neighborhood were ranked a “walker’s paradise”! Unfortunately it’s more of a rarity than the norm in many cities.  It’s good to know there are tools like this that make finding the best walking districts a breeze.

Recently I read a book that made me think of vacations in a brand new way.  Most of my vacations in the past have focused on family and relaxation. The vacations described in the book, The 100 Best Vacations to Enrich Your Life, focus on improving yourself and the world.  Author Pam Grout describes arts & crafts getaways, volunteer vacations, learning retreats and wellness escapes designed to give you an expanded perspective on life. 

If you’re looking to become more creative, you could paint at Georgia O’Keeffe’s ranch, make a film in New York City, or design your dream home in Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio.  These are just a small sampling of the creative opportunities listed in the book.

For volunteer vacations, you could pick orchids or harvest coffee beans at an organic farm in Hawaii, protect loggerhead sea turtles on Georgia’s sea coast, or help unearth history at Mount Vernon.

For an educational retreat, you could learn about marine science and bird life at a remote research island in Maine, learn Spanish in a quaint village in Mexico, or choose from over 1200 summer seminars at an idyllic New York learning institution.

There are several options listed in the wellness escapes section – yoga retreat destinations and historic spas being among them.

According to Pam, most people want “to contribute, to create and to grow”.  If that’s true for you, this book will give you a wealth of ideas for your next vacation.

Amazon link

I just ran across a travel tool that I think is extremely cool.  You know when you’re exploring a new city - maybe shopping or visiting a museum – and your travel group decides they want to grab some Mexican food?  Or maybe during dinner you decide to catch a current movie and you want to know what’s playing nearby along with show times.

Now you can find nearby restaurants, movies and much more with just your cell phone.

Here’s how it works.  First you send a text message to 466453 (GOOGLE on most phones) and in the message body include what you want to find out.  Google will send you a text message back for free with the information you asked for. 

Examples:

For the complete list of message phrases, see the Google Mobile page.

Send a message and give it a try!
 

A trip to Florida conjures up images of crowded beaches and jam-packed highways. If you want to see what Florida was like when your grandmother was young, visit Amelia Island. The main road through this seaside paradise seems built more for horse and carriage than automobiles. 

Located 30 minutes from Jacksonville, Amelia Island offers plenty of outdoor activities with its miles of beaches, winding trails for bike riding, natural marshlands with boardwalks, golf, tennis and shopping. 

During our visit, we took a Segway tour given by Amelia’s Wheels. It took a few minutes for us to learn to navigate since we’d never used a Segway before, but with the help of our guide, we ended up like regular pros exploring the scenic island with all its moss-covered oak trees and exclusive homes. 

Walking along Centre Street in Fernandina Beach’s small downtown is also a fun activity. Centre Street is part of a 50 block historic district with Victorian style architecture.

There’s a whole range of lodging options on the island.  If you don’t mind splurging, stay at the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge, a beautiful Nantucket style B&B located right on the beach.  But, if you’re looking for a resort, stay at the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island or the Amelia Inn & Beach Club.  To see the whole range of lodging choices including condos within the plantation, check out the island’s detailed list.

See also: Amelia Island  |  Amelia’s Wheels  |  Island Events

I’ve always found the best way to explore a city is by foot. You can’t really experience the same thing in a car or tour bus. Most of the major cities offer walking tours.  Usually the tours are priced well below a comparable bus tour and they provide an intimate perspective you aren’t going to get sitting in a vinyl seat.  London’s Original London Walks tops my list for variety of tours and expertise of the guides.  Many of the walking tour guides in London have a vast knowledge of British history and you never know what you’ll learn on one of these trips.  I took the walking Pub Tour in London and discovered the history of Viking attacks on the city of London that shaped much of the way the city was designed.
 
If you don’t find a walking tour that interests you, you can always go self-guided.  There are several sources of self-guided tour books.  One of them is City Walks: 50 Adventures on Foot - a collection of suggested short walking tours for a specific city.   Each collection comes in what looks like a large pack of cards. Each card has a walking map on one side and on the opposite, points of interest, suggested stops and other insider information.  It’s a fun way to explore small sections of a city.  Make a game of it. Close your eyes, pick a card and you’re off on a new adventure.  You can order City Walks on Amazon.com.  Here are the current cities covered:

• City Walks: New York: 50 Adventures on Foot 
• City Walks: San Francisco: 50 Adventures on Foot   
• City Walks: Amsterdam: 50 Adventures on Foot 
• City Walks: Boston: 50 Adventures on Foot
• City Walks: Washington, D.C.: 50 Adventures on Foot  
• City Walks: Paris: 50 Adventures on Foot 
• City Walks: London: 50 Adventures on Foot
• City Walks: Rome: 50 Adventures on Foot (City Walks Deck)

Coming soon

• City Walks Deck: Chicago: 50 Adventures On Foot 
• City Walks: Vancouver: 50 Adventures on Foot 
• City Walks Deck: Los Angeles

I just spent a few days in Los Angeles with my sister and thought I’d share the highlights of our girl trip.  We spent most of our time in the West Hollywood area – a great neighborhood with lots of restaurants, shops, and beautiful homes within walking distance. Speaking of walking…I think I wore out a pair of shoes, but it was a nice change from driving everywhere. 

Here are some of the places we went in West Hollywood that you may want to try:

- Urth Caffé on Melrose Ave (see past article).   This is one of my favorite places anywhere -  My lunch (chicken curry sandwich and banana cream pie) was delicious (everything is delicious here) and a great place for people watching. 

 - Shopping on Wilshire - very up scale clothes and furniture shops in a nice neighborhood setting.  Don’t be surprised to see Rodeo Drive like prices.  It’s fun to shop even if you can’t afford to buy a $350 white cotton blouse or a $1000 cashmere sweater.

- Tour architect Schindler’s home on Kings Road - This small 1922 home is surprisingly current in its design.

 - Dessert at Sweet Lady Jane on Melrose Ave.  This bakery/café has wonderful cakes that look as good as they taste.  We enjoyed a slice of seven layer cake and a berry filled English trifle with French press coffee.  While we were there, a steady stream of custom cakes were being picked up for private events.

 - Visit the Farmer’s Market on a Sunday morning – flowers, wonderful fruits, vegetables and rustic bread - just around the corner from Urth Caffe and a fun place to visit on a cool Sunday morning. 

- Stroll around the neighborhood to see homes with beautifully landscaped courtyards and gated entries.

Just a note to you single girls - you’ll find many attractive males in West Hollywood. However a large portion of them are interested in other guys, not girls.

We did venture outside West Hollywood to Hollywood Blvd and on impulse took a guided tour of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Rodeo Drive.  The tour was really interesting (i.e. – we saw Bruce Willis’ house which is a few feet from Demi Moore’s house) and pointed out several celebrity homes and homes used in well-known movies like Gone with the Wind and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan. 

After the tour we shopped on Rodeo Drive, which was closed to motorized traffic for an evening event.  As we wandered from store to store, we saw an army of event planners – most dressed in black — prepare a stage on Rodeo Drive, set-up catering and arranged outdoor displays of shoes for the “Walk of Style” in honor of shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo. Unfortunately, we had to leave just as the celebs were arriving, but we did catch a glimpse of Tim Robbins.

On our last day, we toured the Getty Villa which is located off the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.  Although much smaller than the Getty Center, the Villa is modeled after a famous Roman villa and has some wonderful gardens and mosaics.   If you plan to go, be sure to get tickets online (free) in advance.  They offer several free tours each day – we got a lot out of the Architecture and Gardens tour.

Tour Info: All Star Showbiz Tours van across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater