QuickTripTo

Air Canada’s new flights between Vancouver and Bangkok are the only non-stop service between North America and Thailand. Norpeo happily allows me to slather her with handful after handful of silky-smooth river mud. And she doesn’t mind when I follow her into the crystal-clear waters of the River Kwai to splash and scrub the mud off with a big kitchen broom.

Yoga, the full moon and mangrove cycling anchor a new-agey vacay. As soon as I stretch up into my first sun salutation, the regret melts away. You see, this is sunrise yoga and when the alarm first jangled in the dark, I seriously considered jamming out of this early-morning exercise. After all, my wife, Kerry, and I are on vacation at the Hilton Tulum All-Inclusive Resort and the holiday tendency is to sleep in and kick start the day with a mimosa.

The Florida Keys were largely unscathed by Hurricane Ian in September 2022. The Overseas Highway and all tourism operations are open and welcoming visitors By Steve MacNaull It’s as if we’re weightless. As we glide along the Overseas Highway in a rented cherry-red Mustang convertible the rest of the world melts away and we are truly living in the moment. All we can see on either side is endless blue-green water and wispy horizon.

The island of fire and ice is chock full of natural wonders You can sense it. There’s something supernatural at play as we snorkel the Silfra fissure between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in Iceland’s Thingvellir National Park. “Sure, it has some special energy,” says our guide Gretar Thorlaks with a laugh. “How can it not?

Find out on a pubs-and-castles romp around the Emerald Isle Normally, I never accept rides from strangers. Yet, here I am in the passenger seat of Tracy’s car, a woman who I met only a few moments ago. My wife, Kerry, is in the back seat. “Honestly, it’s no trouble, no trouble at all. I’m happy to do it,” says Tracy in her Irish brogue. You see, we’d stopped Tracy on a Dublin street to ask directions to The Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Ireland dating back to 1198.

Somewhere between Emerald Bay and Seal Rock we achieve ocean-kayaking nirvana. The sun is burning off the morning marine mist and we’re slicing through the smooth Pacific, at one with nature, counting ourselves lucky to be in this surreal Southern California setting. My son, Alex, and I are on La Vida Laguna’s two-hour Ocean Kayak Eco Tour just off the coast of Laguna Beach.

Is Hydra famous for its donkeys? Or, are the donkeys famous because they’re on Hydra? Essentially, the answer is moot, as this Greek island (pronounced: EE-dra) has notoriously never succumbed to motorized vehicles. So, the only ways to get around this 64-square-kilometre paradise in the Aegean Sea is on your own two feet or the back of a donkey, which is actually just as likely to be a mule or a small horse. Therefore, my wife, Kerry, and I’s interactions with these beasts of burden is ubiquitous.

By Steve MacNaull I’m no star quarterback like Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams. But, let me on the football field of the Ram’s SoFi Stadium and I can triumphantly complete a five-yard pass. You see, my wife, Kerry, and I are on the SoFi Stadium Tour (US$30). The highlight is actually running through the players’ tunnel to music-pumping adulation and pom-pom-shaking cheerleaders and onto the field to throw the football and run its 100-yard length.

Hunting for conch, and making ceviche out of it, is a highlight of a trip to this Caribbean paradise. By: Steve MacNaull Captain Calson ‘Rice’ Williams jokes that he’ll have to kill me if he tells me what the secret ingredient is. And then, on my prompting and at risk of death, he reveals it’s Sprite. Yes, a couple of liberal lashings of the soft drink is what makes the captain’s conch ceviche salad legendary on the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Harbor seals certainly know how to make an entrance. This particular playful, silver-and-black mottled marine mammal unexpectedly pops up to say hello just a flipper length away from the left side of my kayak. Harbor seals are a friendly and curious sort and love to gracefully follow paddlers and have some fun gawking at our awkwardness on the water. My daughter, Grace, and I are on a two-and-a-half-hour, Ocean River Adventures’ Harbour Kayak Tour in Victoria ($79, OceanRiver.com).