Toronto Ultimate Travel Show

by Candace Derickx

My husband and I are in the process of planning a getaway this spring and we are all over the map in our planning. Do we take the kids? Leave them at home? Do we want a quiet week relaxing or an adventure filled escape? Do we want hot weather or does the weather really matter? Do we want Europe? Thailand? China? Maybe something familiar? ACK! It’s really, really hard when you want to go everywhere and do everything!

This weekend we decided to have a short weekend escape without the children and we headed to Toronto for the Ultimate Travel Show.

I can’t say that attending the show helped us narrow down our decision — if anything, it’s made it harder. That being said, am I ever glad we went. We came home armed with a ton of information and possibilities we didn’t know existed. Here are a few of the highlights for us:

I feel kind of silly admitting that I’d never heard of Tauck before, considering this travel company has been around for 88 years. But my eyes are open now. Reading through the brochures and watching the video I brought home, you can see that Tauck is committed to making sure you have the vacation of a lifetime wherever you may roam. I’m most intrigued though by their Tauck Bridges program which focuses on family travel. The idea of having someone remove every aspect of stress around planning a family vacation is most appealing. Sounds heavenly to me.

Thinking about getting away without the children, my husband was drawn to this trip in Tunisia from Exotik Tours. I’m on the fence about it, but there is certainly something about it that appeals to the Indiana Jones in me.

And is it just me, or does this trip to Bali seem like a really, really good deal? Even with a flight added in to Vancouver for us, this would still come in at under $2000? Plus 5 tours are included? You can be sure I’ll be looking into this a little more today too.

I also had the opportunity to stop and chat with Dennis Kambeitz, founder of Paradise Hunter and Ryan Van Duzer the lucky duck who won the host search for the new Paradise Hunter show now filming. I can’t wait to start watching Ryan’s adventures.

Finally, I’ll admit that I’m not normally a seeker of vacations that include cold climates but I found myself returning to my brochure from The Great Canadian Travel Company. Not only do they offer Polar Bear tours, but this trip to Iceland to explore glaciers and volcanoes is calling to me.

Special thanks to the Renaissance Toronto Downtown  for making our weekend in Toronto so perfect. Your staff was magic and our room was a slice of heaven.