Blog

We were flying with Air Canada from Dubai back to Toronto in business class and just recently, Air Canada secured a strategic partnership with Emirates to depart from Terminal 3. This means that Air Canada business class passengers gain entry into the coveted Emirates Business Class Lounge. So that is exactly what we did! DXB…

Don’t get us wrong, we absolutely loved Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), but the airport is completely another story. When we arrived, we had to wait in line for immigration, no problem. Except, you choose a line and hope that it is a quick one as they don’t have a central line and you go to…

As this is our home airline, we have flown the 787-9 many times from domestic flights to Europe and even the Middle East. However, we have been underwhelmed lately with the catering on the flights. Will this one be any different? Air Canada 787-9 – The Seat The seat is a familiar one to us…

After visiting the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, we decided to head over and do more lounge hoping to the Lufthansa Business Lounge and see how this lounge compares. Lufthansa Business Lounge Frankfurt Airport (FRA) – Entrance The entrance to this lounge wasn’t clearly evident as it was in the middle of a circular area…

We had an late afternoon flight so we had breakfast around town, headed back to The Westin Grand Frankfurt and checked out. We got to the airport early so that we can try out the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, one of the few Maple Leaf Lounges outside of Canada. We also wanted to try…

We did our research on the hotels in Frankfurt and knew that this hotel was recently renovated. We were also thinking of the JW Marriott Hotel Frankfurt which we also reviewed but thought that the renovated Westin Grand Frankfurt would be a good choice. The Westin Grand Frankfurt – Entrance Upon arriving at the hotel,…

Last time we took the A350-900 we had really mixed feelings about the seat. This time, we thought we were going to be on an A330-300 but as we rolled up to the plane to board, we could see that it was a newer aircraft and as we sat down, the safety pamphlet showed it…

Before we booked this hotel we must have researched and watched 30 videos of hotels in Istanbul. We decided that after watching the architects of this hotel and their design process we would go with this one. Would it live up to the high standards that they described on the video? Read on to find…

From the Eternal City to the City of the World’s Desire. We couldn’t be more excited to hop on this flight to a city that we have been wanting to visit for years. We have done a layover in Istanbul before but never got out of the airport, only to enjoy the wonderful Turkish Airlines…

We were flying out of Rome heading off to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines Business Class. We got complimentary access with our business class seats to the Plaza Premium Lounge located on the second level. To get from The St. Regis Rome to FCO it is a flat rate from the taxis at 50 Euros, in…

We only had one night in Rome after our Sun Princess Cruise and had originally booked The Regency in Rome. However, my better half saw The St. Regis Rome for an unbeatable points value, so we cancelled The Regency. Upon arriving at The St. Regis Rome, we couldn’t believe how close it was to a…

We were pleasantly surprised to find the new Starbucks Mug Discovery Series in Niagara Falls. It is a new series developed by Starbucks and is making its way into cities across the world with the USA getting the most. Discovery Series – Niagara Falls Starbucks Information According to Starbucks press release on 2024April09: This spring,…

After a 7 hour layover in Zurich Airport, we boarded on a single aisle Airbus A321 plane on SWISS International Air Lines. We knew that this wasn’t a lie flat seat! However, the seat did look kind of sad. There were three seats across but in typical European fashion, the middle seat is “blocked”. And…

We love coming back to Barcelona, it’s probably been our forth time here. The city is a major port of call for cruise ships which is the reason why we came here to spend a couple of nights before embarking on the Sun Princess. The hotel is located just off the main street of Pg….

After spending several hours in the SWISS Business Lounge E, we took the Skymetro which is the underground train connecting the airport terminals. We went to Terminal A and walked around a bit, it was definitely a busier terminal than E with more shops and eateries. The SWISS Business Lounge A is located on the…

On our way to Barcelona from Toronto, we had a pretty long 7 hour layover but we thought we could take this opportunity to check out a couple of lounges in Zurich Airport. Our plane arrived at the E Gates and the lounge was not far from our gate. You can take the stairs or…

In an unusual trip for us, we decided on heading to Europe in March, we usually would go when the weather was much warmer. However, off we went to enjoy a few weeks in Barcelona, then on the brand new Sun Princess (read review upcoming soon!), five nights in Istanbul, two more nights in Frankfurt…

Suffice it to say, we were thoroughly enjoying our time at The St. Regis, The Palm in Dubai and we haven’t even begun to talk about the food! There are two restaurants in the hotel on the 3rd floor, Ruya and Cordelia. Ruya serves Mediterranean cuisine while Cordelia is the main restaurant for the breakfast…

As the last hotel we would be staying of our 6 week trip, we wanted it to be as relaxing as possible. We contemplated about staying at the JW Marriott Marquis for two nights and then here at the St. Regis but decided not to as we didn’t feel like changing hotels midway. We certainly…

We haven’t been on Emirates for quite some time so we couldn’t wait to try it out again. We were on a Boeing 777-300ER which makes up the backbone of their fleet at 123 aircraft. Emirates is in the middle of huge retrofit which will see many of these aircraft get premium economy seats. The…

We did some research for our trip to Ho Chi Minh and saw this amazing new hotel called Vinpearl Landmark 81. We could immediately see the resemblance to a cut-down version of the Burj Khalifa. Developed by Vietnam’s largest real estate developer, Vinhomes, it holds the title of the tallest building in Vietnam. Entrance –…

As we often fly out of Canada, we go to this lounge to eat, drink and relax before the flight. The lounge is not hard to find as once you go through security, you walk (movate) straight to the gates. Before you head down the escalators, you will see the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge…

We have been to Pudong International Airport over ten times but this is the first time we got to go to the Air China Business Class Lounge. We have to say, we were pretty impressed! The lounge entrance is a bit strange though as you enter and immediately to the right are lockers to store…

The last time we stayed in Singapore we stayed at The Westin Singapore near the Marina Bay area. We have to say, The St. Regis Singapore wins hands down. The St. Regis Singapore is situated near Orchard Road with an abundance of restaurants, malls and definitely no shortage of Starbucks near by. There was even…

We landed into Istanbul International Airport from Athens and had a 5 hour layover. Knowing we had some time to spend, we walked around the massive airport which could easily take you 15 minutes of straight beeline walking at a brisk pace to reach end-to-end. We actually did this to reach the two Starbucks on…

We booked a quick flight from Athens to get to Istanbul on an older 777-300ER. Just like Top Gun Maverick, “It’s so old”, the plane really did look and feel old. However, the crew were young and energetic and even with the turbulence for the first 30 minutes, they were able to complete a full…

We were super excited to try out the Turkish Airlines premier product of the A350-900. From what we have seen on many videos, the pods looked absolutely beautiful. However, as we settled in and tried to get comfortable, we found many flaws. Read on. The A350-900 is Turkish Airlines latest aircraft to feature these pods,…

Let’s get one thing straight, the room did not have a view, heck, even on the roof top Art Lounge you could barely see the Acropolis, however, the hotel itself was absolutely top notch. Three words: Location, Location, Location. The New Hotel Athens’ best attribute is the location because it is situated on an easily…

At last! We finally get to try this amazing feat of engineering from Airbus! It’s been a long wait to get to one of the major airlines that still fly this incredible aircraft. With the numbers dwindling by the day and news of Qantas, Air France and now China Southern retiring the aircraft, it will…

We weren’t looking for this particular Starbucks but it was one of the closer ones to our hotel at The Westin Paris Vendome. It was also along the way to the Hard Rock Café in hopes we can find some pins for our collection. Upon entering the Starbucks, we couldn’t believe how large it was…

We were a bit torn about reserving this hotel as the rating wasn’t that high at 3.7 and we were comparing it to a brand new hotel, Le Dokhan’s, Arc de Triomphe, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel which had a very high rating of 4.5 at the time. We ultimately decided on The Westin Paris Vendome…

This is one of the first times we have stayed at a hotel outside of the Marriott umbrella. We had a credit from AMEX Platinum that we wanted to use and the Marriott hotels in Lyon were slim pickings and not that close to the city center. The Radisson Blu wasn’t quite close to the…

We can’t tell you how long we’ve been wanting to visit Geneva and stay at this hotel. When the Laver Cup with Roger Federer was going to be playing there, we were so close to booking the trip and going. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work and we had to change plans. Many years later, we…

We were super excited to hit the Starbucks Reserve Roastery because we visited Milan a few years ago and no Starbucks were in the city yet. There are currently 6 Roastery’s in the world: Seattle, Shanghai, Milan, New York City, Tokyo and Chicago. We have been to the Shanghai one many times and will be…

This was our second time in Milan but first at The Westin Palace, Milan. The first time we stayed at The Palazzo Matteotti Autograph Collection Milan, however, since this review, the Palazzo Matteotti is no longer under the Marriott umbrella. We took the train from Venice where we stayed at The St. Regis Venice. We…

We had wanted to do a staycation to experience a hotel in Ontario. We did some checking as to where to stay, should we go up North to the Blue Mountain area? Should we stay in town and spend a couple of nights in downtown Toronto? We then came across a brand new hotel called…

We were so excited to get our trip started by flying business class from Toronto to Venice. After a visit to the Maple Leaf Lounge, we got to our gate and not long afterwards, boarded the plane. We were in 7D and 7G which are the two center seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. The mattress…

Starting our trip at The St. Regis, Venice, we were wondering if we were setting up ourselves for disappointment. I mean, how can it possibly get better after this? Well, we’ll worry about that later but for now, we’ll focus on this beautiful property. It took a bit of finding to get to this property…

The main You Are Here mug of Disneyland Paris. We love the colours and the especially the X-Wing Fighter! The well is a beautiful blue which plays off well with the main colours of pink, blue and gold. Starting off, you have the X-Wing Fighter for the Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain, Sleeping Beauty Castle, at…

Like the Disneyland Paris 30th Anniversary and the Disneyland Paris mugs, we secured this third one at the same Starbucks. As mentioned, we were very lucky to get them all as they are often out of stock. We didn’t go into Disneyland so we don’t know what else we may have missed but we were…

We got very lucky as we took a train all the way to Disneyland Paris just to look for the mugs. The train station has a Starbucks but not many mugs. We were able to find a gentleman that happened to know the manager at the Starbucks in Disneyland Paris. Now, you don’t need a…

We were lucky to find the new Pin Drop Collection of the Niagara-On-The-Lake. This beautiful Been There Series mug features a dark blue-grey colour scheme. The box is orange compared to the regular blue of the Across The Globe Collection of the Been There Series that you normally see. As the Niagara region is well-known…

After getting off the ship, we started hoofing it to find the Starbucks on the map. We only had about 6 hours so it was pretty tight to get around to all the areas that we wanted but we think we did a pretty good job. There were lot’s of sites and buildings to see…

After the Regal Princess ship docked, we had a short bus ride to the drop off point to begin our adventure in Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn is quite hilly but it certainly has character. It was quite lively and the weather was perfect. You could see people really enjoying their time here and relaxing over a…

We boarded our ship, the Regal Princess, in Copenhagen and the first stop on our 12 night Baltic Sea cruise was Oslo, Norway. It was a cloudy day and not too warm but we walked around the city as much as possible. The docks were actually not too far away from the city, we didn’t…

We landed in Denmark direct from Toronto and couldn’t wait to see what the city had in store for us. We were staying at the AC Hotel and were really looking forward to it because we saw it on a TV show called Covert Affairs. We will cover this hotel in a separate blog. It…

After Phuket we took a flight to Bangkok and then a cab to the W Hotel Bangkok. The lobby was huge with large black marble adorning the walls with music blaring in the background. It’s not your normal hotel, much more lively and different, even from the other W Hotels that we’ve been to in…

We landed into Dublin after taking a red-eye flight from Toronto. We took a taxi to our hotel and then we hit the ground running. We explored a lot of the city right away and walked almost the entire downtown core in the first day. We knew that Dublin was a green city but this…

We flew into Phuket at night and had arranged for a transfer as we didn’t really know how else to get to The Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa. Luckily we did, it was pretty far away and went through so many winding and secluded roads. However, once there, we were greeted by the very…

New York is about a 12 hour drive for us to get there so once we got in, we got to our hotel, the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel. We even got free t-shirts from the hotel commemorating the US Open. Our tickets were for the grounds and access to Louis Armstrong Stadium in which we…

We had to book our tickets months in advance for this tournament. We were at home on our laptops waiting at 3am to click on the website to buy tickets upon opening. Luckily, we scored and got our tickets for Philippe Chatrier Court. We hopped on the Metro to get to the closest station to…

We didn’t even know if it would be possible to see Wimbledon but we planned our trip to London, nevertheless. Early in the morning, sitting in our hotel room, we were on our computers and trying to buy tickets that get released. Somehow, we hit the jackpot! We were able to buy tickets and even…

We did some research about Edinburgh and found that this was one of the sought after places to have dinner. It was said that it was the most Romantic Restaurants by Baron Andrew Lloyd Webber. In saying that, we booked this restaurant and had a meal to remember. Every detail was looked upon including signature…

We were really excited about trying a different hotel in a different area of Shanghai. This is super close to the West Nanjing Road area which is very lively and surrounded with great shops, the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and a high-end shopping mall. The room was absolutely immaculate, with the bathroom being half the size…

We’ve now been to this restaurant 4 times in the past year, each time was super awesome!  The first time we ordered a 12 pounds of lobster that was cooked three ways.  This happened to be our least favourite, looking back now.  The next three times, we learned what to order and that was the…

We had to drop by Vancouver so before that, we decided to make the trip worthwhile and go on an Alaska cruise.    Our itinerary was: We had to make arrangements to get from Anchorage to Whittier, the port of call specific for Princess Cruises.  It was about a 50 minute drive, but other than the drive…

We drove into Miami late at night after coming from Orlando and visiting a couple of malls along the way.  The location is convenient and easy to find, just basically follow the way to the airport and you’ll get there.  The parking is gated so once you enter, you’re going to end up paying for…

Since we were going to go on a cruise ship the next day, we thought we would have some Asian food before 7 straight days of predominantly Caucasian food.  We haven’t been to P.F. Chang’s for years as the one we had in Toronto shut down quite some time ago.  It’s normally not too bad,…

With less than a thousand population in Skagway, you’re not going to expect a big town.  It was pretty small but it has its own charms.  There is one main street called State St. with a handful of other main streets.  A cruise ship that docks there brings the population up about 300%! It is…

The hotel staff at Four Points by Sheraton Orlando International Drive told us about the Disney Springs area.  We didn’t know much about it but thought we should drive down there and take a look.  We wanted to try something else for dinner and not the usual things like Cheesecake Factory or P.F. Chang’s (although…

We contemplated hard on whether to make the 12 hour stop in Warnemunde, Germany and spend it getting to Berlin and back.  Berlin would have been a 3 hour trip there, 6 hours to walk around and then 3 hours back.  We decided to stay in Warnemunde and we found it to be a charming…

It has been about 18 months since we last visited Shanghai.  We stayed at the Renaissance Zhongshan Park Hotel many times, so we knew what to expect.  Last time we stayed 2 weeks, so we got to know a lot more of the staff.  We wrote the Director of Rooms, Mr. Jeffrey Liu that we…

A couple of years ago we tried to drive down to Key West, after 2 hours of driving, we made it only to Key Largo, I really should have looked more on Google Maps to know how far it really was.  Seeing the bridges on True Lies and Mission Impossible 3, I thought it would…

We knew getting into Grand Cayman our cruise ship would have to tender but what we didn’t expect is that there would be 6 other cruise ships there already!  Among those was the Regal Princess which we’ve been on twice, it was nice to see her again. Once on land, we walked around and found…

The staff at our Four Points by Sheraton Orlando hotel told us about Disney Springs.  They gave us a map and it looked pretty with a couple of Starbucks there.  So we had some hope that we might find something unique to add to our collection.  Hoping to really get the four coveted You Are…

We were Athens, Greece last year and spent 3 days here.  We loved it so much that we had to come back again a year later.  We only stayed one night this time before we took a short flight to stay in Santorini for 5 nights.   Athens was still the same as we remembered, albeit,…

We flew into Lisbon and hopped in a taxi to our Sheraton Lisboa Hotel & Spa.  It was pretty close by and the taxi only cost us 10 Euros which is probably the cheapest taxi ride we ever had in Europe from airport to hotel.  The hotel is located near a Metro but we ended…

This was the last port of call on our cruise so we got off the ship to do some exploring.  The town was a decent size and had a good variety of shops from souvenirs, taxidermy, carved ivory woolly mammoth tusks, chocolate fudge to even Russian nesting dolls.  It was a pretty rainy day so…

We heard of this new restaurant from a friend of ours and decided to give it a try.  It opened 3 weeks ago so everything is still brand new.  The service was great and they had lot’s of staff on hand to make sure that customers were taken care of. My wife ordered the Lobster…

We arrived in Helsinki and once off the ship, we had a short bus ride that took us near the city center.  We had a nice walk through the Esplanadi Park and then quickly found the Market Square, where they sell everything from fruits, veggies, stuffed toys, fried fish and a rice dish that looks similar…

This was the first time we’ve been to Costa Maya, Mexico and it ended up being our favourite for this trip.  Once off the ship, you walk a bit along the dock and get into the port area.  Unlike other ports where you start to see all the same types of shops like Diamonds International,…

We heard good things about Celebrity Cruises from people we met from other cruises.  We knew it would be a little more expensive than Royal Caribbean or Princess but we were excited to give it a try.  Our itinerary was: The trip didn’t start off the best as we got to the port and had to line…

After getting off the ship, we got in line and shared a taxi to the airport with another couple who happened to also be from Toronto.  It was a pretty quick procedure off the ship and to the airport so we had time to kill.  We checked our App and found the Avianca VIP Lounge…

We left Vienna early in the morning by train to get to Budapest.  We loved the train as it was so new and even had free wifi!  However, that didn’t last long as the train stopped and we were all asked to get off.  We were pretty confused as to what was happening but luckily…

From Toronto, we flew to Vancouver, BC and then had a couple of hours before we flew to Anchorage, Alaska.  Once landed we grabbed a taxi and got to our hotel, The Sheraton Anchorage Hotel & Spa.  It was a bit of a rainy day so we hoofed it to the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall which…

After getting off the Celebrity Constellation cruise ship we hopped on a bus which took about 30 minutes to get to the outer edge of the downtown core of Valencia. Overcast skies but decent weather, luckily no rain. As you follow the crowds in, you will see open areas which you gravitate towards. Before we…

We couldn’t wait to get to Dubrovnik, Croatia to see the main setting of King’s Landing in Game of Thrones. As pretty big fans of the show, we got off our Celebrity Constellation cruise ship and hopped on the bus to take us directly to Old Town. The walls are the first thing you see…

We were lucky enough to find a 5 day block to book this hotel. As only 1 of 2 hotels on the island of Santorini through Marriott, we knew that staying here would be a great choice. We took a short flight from Athens to Santorini (about 50 minutes) in the evening. By the time…

We were extremely honoured to be invited to the Canada Goose exclusive presentation of Bare Existence, a raw, emotional documentary about the work of scientists working to save wild polar bears and their habitat before it’s too late. This was such an eye opening experience as we learned about the effects of global warming on…

We landed in St. Petersburg early in the morning and had booked our tour with Okla Tours through Viator.  After all the members of the group made it through customs we boarded the bus to begin our tour.  We had the best tour guide as her English was perfect.  Izabella lived in the UK and spent…

We don’t usually go to restaurants in hotels in our home city but we heard good things about Draco and decided to give it a try.  Parking was easy as we parked in the above ground parking garage on the second level.  A short elevator ride down and you’re just outside the Marriott Hotel with…

We’ve been to Shanghai many times, but we never get tired of this amazing city!  The size, population, sites to see, restaurants to go, shopping, etc. is top notch.  You can eat for cheap or you can go expensive, we did a bit of both. We stayed at the Renaissance Shanghai Zhongshan Park which is…

After getting off the ship and taking a bus ride from the port into the city we walked across a park and instantly found the Starbucks!  We talked to the employees there and they were awesome!  We asked them to hold 6 mugs for us so they stored it in one of their rooms until…

We’re regulars to this great Italian restaurant.  As picky eaters, we like to go to places that we know we’ll enjoy and not have an unpleasant experience.  Needless to say, we do try other restaurants or else how will you know? We go often so we had a coupon for a free appetizer so we…

We got off our ship and hopped on the bus to take us to the town drop-off spot.  We were right along the water so it was a great view.  As we headed towards the town center and then decided (albeit a bit late) to head to Pompeii.  We got tickets although it was a…

It’s not the easiest place to reach but was near our hotel which made it more convenient. From The Acropolis, you can see Mount Lycabettus clearly: A lift can take you up for 5 Euros. Round trip costs 7.5 Euros. The views are, in my opinion, the best you will get of the entire city…

We flew into Milan in the third week of August from Athens, Greece.  It was still hot, but not like Athens, so about 30-32 degrees Celsius.  Milan was absolutely beautiful, the Duomo is the main attraction and when you see it in person, you can see why.  It was absolutely stunning and huge.  We’ve been…

We didn’t know what to expect from this town but once we got into the heart of it, we didn’t want to leave!  We found a Starbucks right away, unfortunately, they didn’t have any new mugs that we didn’t already have so at least we didn’t have to walk around all day with a bag…

This is about the fourth time we’ve been to Tapagria.  Needless to say, we like this restaurant a lot.  We’ve gone before with groups of 4 and ordered the 4-5 person set menu but today we had a group of 9 and went with the 7-8 person menu.   We made a reservation through Open Table…

In Milan, we choose to stay at The Palazzo Matteotti, The Dedica Athology, Autograph Collection. An absolutely beautiful 5 star luxury hotel. From the moment we walked in, the doorman greeted us and took care of our belongings. We were checked in quickly and with no fuss at all. Up we went to the room…

What a venue!  My personal favourite grand slam place out of them all!  Huge grounds with a top notch stadium.  We watched some great matches in Rod Laver Arena the first day.  Yes, the sun was hot but not burning crazy.  We sat next to a couple from New Zealand, we guess they were used…

As we have the BMO MasterCard World Elite credit card we collect points for travel and we receive 4 vouchers for Lounge Access across hundreds of airports. We used the passes to visit the Club S.E.A – Sala Pergolesi, Malpensa Airport, Terminal 1 lounge. It was a bit of a walk to get to from…

After arriving in Rome after a 10 hour flight from Toronto and taking the Leonardo Express train to the Termini we were starving! Big mistake! We ate and were so stuffed we couldn’t eat dinner until 10pm that night! We’ve eaten at the larger Eataly in Rome before so we know that the quality of…

We had a wonderful day being treated to the Roger’s Cup in Toronto! We were invited to the Rolex Box where we met great people, were fed all day and had some of the best seats in the house! Of the matches, we got to see: Caroline Wozniacki finished as the winner of her match…

We stayed in this absolutely beautiful hotel in Rome, Italy. The Palazzo Naiadi, The Dedica Anthology, Autograph Collection Hotel is top notch from the moment you step in the doors. The staff were professional and assist you instantly. Once we checked in we went to our room and it was stunning. From the detailed wainscoting…

We woke up early at 6am to see the cruise ship sail in to the fjords but it wasn’t early enough! We already arrived and were in the middle of two mountains with a view that cannot be described. Being on a huge 113 ton cruise ship you would think you’re one of the largest…