Condé Nast has released the June 2009 edition of Condé Nast Traveler Magazine! Featured in this issue are articles on travelling to several Canadian cities: Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, and Calgary. Also featured are additional articles on travel to Istanbul, Bogotá, Naples, Mexico City, Jakarta, Johannesburg, and New Orleans.
Montreal: The Art of Gluttony
Destinations: Montréal
Does this city have the greatest selection of raw-milk cheeses outside Paris? Mais oui! But what about the best deli sandwich you’ll taste in North…
Why is the food so good in Montreal? Certainly it’s not because the locals speak French. After all, the French lost control of Quebec in 1759, and a visit to rural Quebec proves that not all French speakers are raging epicureans. But there’s something different about Montreal. Can you think of another North American city where it’s so easy to buy fresh goose and duck foie gras?
Quebec City: Ancien Régime
Destinations: Québec City
Where can you walk through a medieval town abuzz with locals speaking French? No, silly, not in France—in Quebec City, where the ancien…
Do you want to get lost in the past as you wander the cobblestoned streets of a 500-year-old city—a city hand-hewn out of stone half a millennium ago—only to snap back into the present when you enter some delightful little sandwich shop, where the girl behind the counter speaks only French (one tip: Here, always say yes to more cheese). If so, then welcome to Quebec City, a one-hour flight north of New York City.
Toronto: Architecture City
Destinations: Toronto
It’s long been known as one of the safest metropolises in the world—(but its thrilling new architecture, by the best of today’s big names,…
Peter Ustinov once quipped that Toronto is New York run by the Swiss. It was meant as a compliment, but Canada’s largest city seems to be on a mission to shrug off its staid reputation by giving itself an architectural makeover.
Vancouver: West Coast Bliss
Destinations: Vancouver
When it comes to talk about healthy outdoor living, Vancouver walks the walk (in hiking boots, no less). Here’s how and where to bliss out, West…
When the world’s best winter athletes converge on Vancouver in February, their biggest challenge will be resisting the temptation to kick back and chill out. This is a place where even a conservative nine-to-fiver in a pinstripe suit can tell you his favorite yoga position or the best brand of soy milk. Serene, green, and cupped by mountains, Vancouver is a land of fresh seafood plucked out of the ice-cold Pacific and parks where the trees are taller than the surrounding buildings. What better place, in other words, to Zen out, detox, and let your worries slip away?
Calgary: The Great Outdoors
Where can you go rafting, biking, and paragliding all in the same day, watch the sun set behind a limestone peak, and still make that dinner…
Don’t let the endless swath of prairie out the airplane window fool you. Calgary may be flat, but it’s situated a mere 60 miles from the Rocky Mountains, making it an adventurer’s playground masquerading as a city. Less than an hour and a half from Calgary by car, Banff National Park (see right) is the most famous in Canada—and that’s saying something: In terms of jaw-dropping, life-changing scenery, it’s right up there with Yellowstone and Yosemite. In Banff’s case, Mother Nature has supplied her version of a scenic monorail: the Bow River.
Halifax: Old School Sounds
For the best of old-school sounds—and we mean old-school—set sail for Halifax, where Celtic music is being given a brand-new life and pop…
Is it really surprising that this port town a two-day sail north of Boston has one of the most thriving music scenes on the East Coast? After all, the only thing sailors like more than a punch-up is a sing-along. If this sounds like your cup of ale, then head to the Old Triangle Irish Ale House, where Tuesday nights are open session.
Istanbul’s Lush Life
Destinations: Istanbul
It’s modern and Muslim, European and Asian, cutting-edge and conservative—and though at least two millennia old, thrillingly hip. Joan Juliet…
Eleven-forty on a hot July night in the Dervis Café on the top of the first hill of Istanbul, halfway between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Melon and apricots in front of me, espresso at my elbow, and a strange fragrance from the tables behind me, where men suck on water pipes, narghiles. A server circulates with a brazier, handing out pieces of burning charcoal with little tongs to stoke the pipes. Every now and then the nearest narghile emits a tranquil gurgling of bubbles, its user a contented exhalation. Squeaking toddlers waddle and crash around the tables. This is Sultanahmet, the Muslim Montmartre, on top of ancient Byzantium. Couples walk past the café, women in head scarves and long coats. A group of young girls flash by giggling, heads covered, their T-shirts bearing the name metallica.
Ultimate European Cruise
Destinations: Croatia, Dubrovnik, Greece, Venice
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Adam Platt boarded what may be the world’s most luxurious passenger ship in Venice, bound for Athens by way of Dubrovnik,…
Fontainebleau Miami Beach
Road Rules
Timeless travel insights from Condé Nast Traveler
Yes We Can! Eight Great Trips That Give Back
Destinations: Cambodia, Costa Rica, Kenya
You don’t have to wear a hair shirt and dig a well to give back when you travel. Here are 8 great trips that connect you with the world
Ombudsman: Run for the Money
Problems arise when a couple try to get repaid after canceling a hotel booking
Paul Theroux: The Lesson of My Life
In 1963, Paul Theroux joined the Peace Corps, shaping both its future and his view of the world: Cue President Obama’s new appeal to public service…
Summer Sale Finder
Great deals on hotels and air travel are heating up—but only in certain places. Here’s where to find the best travel values in years.
If you think we’ve seen a buyers’ market for travel lately, wait till summer. What with the economic crisis that has devastated business travel, airline overcapacity forcing carriers to cut fares, the low price of oil (which allows airlines to drop fares even more), the epidemic of empty hotel rooms (made worse by a glut of brand-new hotels), and the strength of the U.S. dollar, experts say that we’re looking at a onetime confluence of events that will spell much greater bargains than we’ve seen in the past few summers. But travel won’t be discounted to the same degree everywhere. There will be pockets of opportunity—certain destinations and methods of booking that will yield the greatest value for your dollar. Carpe diem.
Bogotá
Bad Reputation, Great Destination: This walkable metropolis of seven million is once again reclaiming its role as Latin America’s intellectual and…
For well over a decade, few cities in the Americas inspired as much bad press as Bogotá, Colombia. More than the capital of a country, it was a capital of crime, murder, kidnapping, and bombs; a place where the cartels dispatched their drugs, paramilitaries trafficked weapons, and leftist rebels set their sights. The guerrillas welcomed current president Álvaro Uribe with a series of homemade mortar attacks on his inauguration in 2002, leaving 21 people dead in a slum near the palace.
Cruising Europe: Places and Prices
Destinations: Croatia, Dubrovnik
Like pods of migrating whales, the world’s cruise ships swap the warm confines of the Caribbean for the coastal waters of Europe during the late spring and the summer. The two “yachts” operated by SeaDream Yacht Club are more intimate than those of luxury lines like Crystal, Seabourne, and Seven Seas, but the prices are comparable: Staterooms start at $4,000 per week.
Turkish Delights: Istanbul’s Places & Prices
Destinations: Istanbul
Joan Juliet Buck and Esin Göknar pick and choose among Istanbul’s cornucopia of treasures. Istanbul is a sprawling city of 18 million, with a patchwork of neighborhoods bisected by the Bosphorus into the European and Asian sides. The up-and-coming Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosphorus on the European side, was settled by Jews, Armenians, and Greek Orthodox during tolerant Ottoman times. This revitalized area and the luxurious waterfront of the Bosphorus—plus the rising star of the Asian region—have added to Istanbul’s charms in recent years.
Naples
Bad Reputation, Great Destination: Though this historic seaside gem is awash in character, its gritty image keeps many visitors away.
The Italian port city of Naples found a trashy way (to be in the news last year: City landfills overflowed, garbage piled up in the streets, and even the region’s famed mozzarella was suspected of turning toxic. The prime minister finally waded (in and forced the opening of new landfills, but Naples’s image—already tainted by mob-related crime—was left in the gutter.
Mexico City
Destinations: Mexico City
Bad Reputation, Great Destination: This Latin American megalopolis has been a thriving center of arts, commerce, and culture for more than 700 years
Violence in Mexico took center stage in late February when the U.S. State Department issued an alert that murders by drug cartels were on the rise and that dozens of American citizens had been kidnapped there in recent years. Although most of the trouble is centered along the U.S./Mexican border, Mexico City has seen its share.
Jakarta
Bad Reputation, Great Destination: Indonesia’s vibrant capital offers some of the best shopping, dining, and nightlife in Southeast Asia
Terrorist bombings at the Marriott Hotel in 2003 and the Australian embassy in 2004 frightened visitors away, and the city’s epic traffic and smog have made it difficult for Jakarta to rehabilitate its image.
Johannesburg
Bad Reputation, Great Destination: This city of 2.5 million is a burgeoning cultural capital emerging from the dark days of apartheid on the strength…
From its volatile nineteenth-century beginnings as a gold-mining shantytown through the turbulent years of apartheid and beyond, Southern Africa’s largest city has grown accustomed to being portrayed in the media as an impoverished and lawless place more associated with carjackings than culture.
New Orleans
Destinations: New Orleans
Bad Reputation, Great Destination: This city on the Mississippi has taken its knocks, but for three centuries the music—and the party—have… Bad press hardly matters when you’ve been around for 300 years, but even the cheeriest boosters agree that most New Orleans headlines and television images make the city look like a mess: drunken coeds stripping for Mardi Gras trinkets; bouncers beating Bourbon Street patrons; murders; and crumbling homes in flood-ravaged neighborhoods. If the hurricanes don’t get you, the long hot summers will.
Road Rules
Timeless travel insights from Condé Nast Traveler
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