The other day, someone asked me, “If you were flat broke and could never travel again, would you be happy?” I could sense his curious frustration with my constant sighs of travel nostalgia. At times, he would notice that my gaze was distant and forlorn. I fidgeted with a loose string [...]

There is always an element of danger associated with travel. That’s why we do it. Whether it’s the rush of adrenaline from hiking foreign terrain, the thrill of adapting to a different culture, or the induced nausea from testing your palate, we seek adventure when we go abroad. We want to [...]

Growing up in the Ottawa Valley was not especially interesting. It was not as adventurous as Toronto. It was not laid back like Vancouver. It was, however, an hour or so from Montréal, the city that boasts bagels, poutine and dépanneurs with beer-stocked fridges. Being young, penniless and car-free, I [...]

The only problem with mass public transit is the immediacy of arrival. Although I find trains romantic, planes quick and comfortable, buses affordable, you do see a lot more when you travel by car. Such was Jon Faine’s experience on his road trip. He and his son, Jack, made a [...]

Vehicles — whether plane, train or bus — move your body to a new place. You hop on board, you take your seat, you watch the world move from your window. You arrive, either excited or exhausted (or both), and you sense a change. You have been transported. That was [...]

The youth are starting to change. Walking through the streets of cities of the world and talking with locals, I have found discrepancies between my own (not-too-long-ago) childhood, and that of the “kids” today. As a young hooligan myself, I remember playing in my front yard until the street lamps [...]

Traveling solo can be daunting and, often times, exhausting. It pushes you mentally, emotionally and physically. Not only can you have a cerebral malfunction due to a cultural overload, but you have to learn to do things by yourself. However, it is through traveling alone that one can experience a [...]

This morning I sat in solace, not loneliness, over a cup of coffee clicking through e-mails, enticed by Facebook statuses and reading the worldwide news of travel. The quietness was a welcome change. The past few days have whirled by in a frantic haze. Trying to organize life’s simplest tasks [...]

You may or may not remember the landscape and the architecture, but you will never forget a face — even if they are only in pictures. Last month’s photo theme, “Faces in Places,” has left an impression. There is something fascinating about a picture of a face. It makes the [...]

With accessibility to the internet and traveling becoming a hobby, travel writers are not few and far between. Just the other day, someone asked, “Why do people want to write about travel? Travel writers are everywhere. Why don’t they do something different, something edgy?” Truthfully, the question was humbling, and [...]