Best For Last Even though I’d never been to Atlantic Canada before, the moment our flight touched down in Halifax I felt like I was home. The milk cartons were bilingual, the five cent coins were embossed with beavers, every shared plate in sight still had a single French fry left on it — thank […]
Author: Heather McManus
Eurotrippin’ Part 2: Travellers vs. Tourists
In Defense of Tours You often hear people talk about the difference between travellers and tourists. In my mind, the distinction tends to be a little pretentious with those calling themselves travellers seeing their presence in a destination as somehow elevated because they’re not just checking off a list of touristy experiences, they’re there to […]
Eurotrippin’ Part 1: Grit & Charm
Old World Charm When I first started working in the cruise industry, I had to write about Europe all the time and the go-to descriptor for what you’d experience on every European cruise was always “Old World Charm”. Having never been to Europe myself, I’d throw that into a subject line or on the back […]
Exploring the Other Side of Mexico
VIBRANT — you hear that word used a lot when people describe Mexico. For me it generally brings to mind bright colours (which you’ll find no shortage of in Mexico’s food, flowers and fabrics), but it also means “full of energy and enthusiasm” making it truly the perfect adjective for a country with so much […]
Bonus Stops & Slight Detours
One of the greatest benefits of having a whole year to travel, is that we have the flexibility to fly on the cheapest dates and can take the opportunity to spend a few days in cities that would normally just be quick airport layovers en route to our final destination. There’s been a few of […]
Van Life: Our Month-Long Roadtrip in New Zealand
Ahhhh New Zealand. Where to begin? It’s a small country with big heart. It’s home to a plethora of crazy looking birds and the greenest lakes I have ever seen. It’s a country where the hospitality is warm and the “ice creams” are always pluralized. It’s a place where sheep outnumber humans (7 to 1!) […]
Adventures in Vietnam – Part 2
During our last day in Vietnam, I was walking down the street in Dong Hoi to mail some post cards before heading to the airport, feeling a little sad that these were my final hours in a country I’d grown to love. As I was walking by a school, a little girl on the sidewalk asked […]
Adventures in Vietnam – Part 1
Vietnam was one of the only destinations we knew for sure we wanted to visit when we started to plan our our itinerary. After living in what could be considered Vancouver’s “Little Vietnam”, we were mostly drawn to the food (which I’ve since discovered is so much more than phở and bánh mìs) and […]
Japan Highlights and the Benefits of Slow Travel
When I think about the three weeks we spent in Japan, it’s hard to say I got a sense of what Japan is really like. That may in part be because the three islands we visited (Okinawa, Hokkaido and Honshu) are so vastly different, but more likely it’s because we just didn’t have enough time […]
Reflecting on Korea
It’s hard to write about what Korea is like beyond my first impressions without getting into the tricky stuff. I almost don’t want to attempt it because really, what the heck do I know about the complexities of Korean culture after visiting the country for a total of six weeks. So as a preface to […]