The TravelRight Dispatch

POSTCARD FROM QUEBEC
​We skipped town for Quebec City recently with my family for some hearty food, a history lesson or two and some interesting beers. We also hopped in a van for a few days of touring through Charlevoix, taking the gondola up to Montmorency Falls and buying chocolate on îles d'Orléans en route. Both Baie-Saint-Paul and La Malbaie delivered quaintness and comfort, and duck, while we headed along the Flavour Trail and sunk into a few hot tubs. I came home with a suitcase full of smoked sturgeon, paté, cassis-onion confit, honey and cider vinegar, none of which will last very long. C'est la vie!

THE DISH
Buvette Gentille, Baie-Saint-Paul, Charlevoix​
We saw the staff tacking their new red Michelin sign to the front of the building in the afternoon, so we couldn't help stopping in at Buvette Gentille that night. This is a tiny wine and snack bar with an open kitchen, sort of a hipster place on Baie-Saint-Paul's St. Jean Baptiste tourist strip. We sat down to locally sourced everything dished out in sharing plates: foie gras au torchon, saucy scallops, the best green salad I've ever had and, interesting, a baloney sandwich. Let them pair the wine for you. Perfect service moves right along, attentive and smart. Bring a sweet tooth.

EXCERPT
Celtic Comfort: A Welsh Escape
​I love Wales to death—if I'm honest, more than Scotland. Driving around the north ticked all my boxes: culinary, luxury, sporty, history, seaside. How often do you get to stay in a hotel with an honest-to-god garden maze? This story appeared in Cruise & Travel Lifestyles Magazine.

Now that "off the beaten track" is a holiday requisite, the true traveller’s essential, it’s nice to find a place where I don’t have to veer too far off to get what I’m after – namely, friendly folk, farm-to-table meals, endorphins, fresh air and big-sky scenery. Happily, I find all of this in North Wales, the United Kingdom’s under-appreciated pastoral paradise.

INTEL
Holiday Pizzaz (this word has pizza in it)
​Here are a few more checklist items of vacation elements to cover off, for a richer experience. Give yourself the holiday you deserve. Meet people, learn their history, find their passions, eat something weird!

1. Slow—Sorry to use this adjective, but people want immersive holidays, with longer stays and fewer stops. Whirlwind tours are fun, but slowing down is more insightful and engaging, and may teach you something about yourself in the process.

2. Hyperlocal—When I visit a new city, I find someone who is more familiar with it and ask a ton of questions. This always works. After a few touristy things, I want to know where the cool neighbourhoods are and where I should go to buy, shoes, coffee, records, street food. Better yet, I want a tour guide with insider info to show me around personally.

3. Luxury redefined—A cruise ship executive I know recently said that luxury is not about fancy meat and potatoes in the middle of the Indian Ocean, it’s about eating tinned fish with a toothpick in a tuck shop in a small village on the Algarve. Meaningful indulgences vs. flashy excess is the message here.

4. Work-from-anywhere—Workcations, extended stays, digital nomadity (quite sure I’m making that word up) are all the rage. People are snowbirding younger. Tim is retiring in less than a year, so this trend is really part of my wheelhouse now.

Does Travel Planning Suck?
​Perhaps you don't yet have a copy of my travel-advice ebook How to Plan a Vacation? What's with the foot-dragging? Buy it now on Kindle (paperback, too), Kobo, Google and Apple.

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