Everything we have written, sorted by the trip
Guides to the three kinds of week we plan, and to the advisor who plans them. Written for people leaving from Canada.
All-inclusive
What one price covers, where to sleep inside a resort, and how long to go for.
When to book an all-inclusive, and what each window buys you
The deals are in the autumn. The deals are at the last minute. Both are true, and which one applies to you depends on how movable your dates are and how much of the choosing you want to…
Tipping at an all-inclusive, and how to know what’s expected
Two questions hide inside a tip, not one: whether it's expected, and what's normal if it is. The first is your resort's…
Why a Caribbean all-inclusive feels different from home
By the second or third morning, the differences from home start adding up, from the buffet to the fruit to the crew…
How to read the room categories at an all-inclusive resort
The room screen runs from a plain word up to a grand one, with a photograph of the same bed beside each.…
Cruise
Choosing a cabin, reading a fare, and what a week at sea is like from one morning to the next.
Packing a week’s cruise into one carry-on
A seven-night sailing feels like it needs seven days of clothes. Whether it does comes down to one fact about the ship and one choice about fabric, and both are yours to settle before the bag is even…
What a cruise means by formal, and which sailings still mean it
Dinner dress at sea isn't one rule. It runs from ships that ask almost nothing to ships that hold a standard in…
What happens to your checked bag when you board a cruise
You hand your suitcase to a porter at the pier and then board without it. What you keep on your shoulder for…
A seven-night cruise from Canada isn’t always seven days
The sailing is seven nights. Reaching the pier from your city can add a day before it and a day after, and…
Group travel
Weddings, reunions, and milestone trips. How held space works and who has to hold it.
How to organize excursions a whole group turns up for
The first outings a group commits to set the tone for the whole week, and where they are booked decides who is left holding the loss when one falls through. Both are settled earlier than most organizers expect.
A large resort, a villa, or a ship for a mixed-age group
The lists rank countries. They never mention the choice that shapes a wide-age-range trip most: whether the whole party lands in one…
What a wide age range changes about a family group trip
The instinct is to solve a wide age range by finding the perfect place. Most of what decides the week sits closer…
How to tell if your group is one booking or two
Whether your party is one booking or several isn't a matter of taste. It turns on a line you can't see from…
The advisor's edge
What an advisor does that a booking site cannot, and what to tell one so they can help.
Why an Ontario travel agent asks about insurance before you pay
The card comes out, and the question about travel insurance arrives with it. It reads like an upsell at the worst moment. In Ontario it's something else.
What a travel advisor can do when your trip falls apart, and what nobody can
You're weighing whether an advisor is worth it, and the test is the day something fails. If you've been stranded once, you…
What you have to declare coming home to Canada
Rum from the resort, a carving, a bottle from the airport shop. What goes on the form, who in the family gets…
What to tell a travel advisor about the trip you want
The instinct is to ask for everything, because none of it seems expensive to request. Deciding what the week is about, and…
Rather just ask someone?
Tell us roughly who is going and when. We will come back with what fits, and say so when the thing you are looking at is wrong for you.
Tell us about your trip