My favourite destinations and spots in Canada. Part II, The Cities

When it comes to cities in Canada there aren't many cities to choose from. While Canada is thesecond largest country in the world in square kilometers with almost 10 million sq kms of surface area (you could practically fit all of Europe within Canada), it is a medium to small country in population with only about 34.5 million people living here (less than the 37 million who live in California). Most of us live in urban areas (an urban area is defined - by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada - as an area with a population of at least 1,000 and with no fewer than 400 persons per square kilometre). 35 % to 40% of Canadians live in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. So naturally these are the biggest cities in the country where you will find the most "city life." I personally love these three cities, but for different reasons since the three are quite unique and different from each other.

Vancouver - on a sunny day, Vancouver is without a doubt the most beautiful city in Canada and one of the most beautiful in the world. The combination of mountains, a striking skyline of wonderful architecture and the Pacific Ocean is very hard to beat. Add to that Stanley Park with its 4 million square metres (about 1.5 square miles) and Vancouver stands out as a proxy for the best Canada has to offer, namely incredible nature and diverse, cosmopolitan, cool cities. Ah, but then there's the rain. I don't like rain. Winter in Vancouver is rain, rain and more rain. Vancouverites are so used to it that many of them walk around without umbrellas! Fortunately there is Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver and Whistler an hour and half away for those who prefer their winters with snow. Favourite spots in Van:

• Stanley Park
• Coal Harbour
• Grouse Mountain
• Commercial Drive (Italian espressos)
• Robson Square and Robson Street (touristy though)
• UBC (particularly the Rose Garden overlooking the ocean)
• Wreck beach (if you like nude beaches)
• Burnaby mountain (especially the view from Horizon's restaurant)
• Granville Island and Granville market (touristy, but still very cool)

Restaurants - Joe Forte's near Robso

n St

Note: to learn more about Vancouver from insiders check out the blog www.beyondrobson.com

Montreal - Ah, Montreal. I've always said that if my French had been up to par, I would have settled in Montreal when I immigrated to Canada over 20 years ago. My consolation is that I have more or less visited Montreal at least once a year since. Montreal is my favourite city to visit in Canada (mostly for its atmosphere and in summer). It is a very unique city in the world because it is the only one where North America meets Europe. While it is a multicultural city (between 13% and 15% of its population is foreign born), the fact is that French dominates, as it should. But it is the strange but pleasant feeling that one is in North America, where English is the main language, but somehow, at the same time, it feels like you are also in France or perhaps Belgium (especially in certain areas of the city like Vieux Montreal). Then there is the Culture in the city. Quebeckers are very different from English Canadians (except when it comes to the love and passion for Hockey). They are definitely closer in temperament to Latin people than to Anglos. This is neither better or worse, just different. But for me as a Latin Canadian the attraction is natural (but nope, I didn't marry a Quebeçoise). Montreal has great culinary culture, wonderful cafés and exciting nightlife. Favourite spots in Montreal:

• Ice skating rink in Old Montreal by the Bonsecours market (winter only, of course)
• Plateau Mont-Royal, La Main (Boulevard Saint-Laurent)
• Plateau Mont-Royal, the neighbourhood
• Park Mont-Royal (great place to jog, relax, read, see a great view of the city)
• Old Montreal (very touristy, but a must see, especially in the summer or during the Festival Montreal en Lumiere in the winter)
• Sainte Catherine Street (love its busyness, often crowded, especially on weekends - some parts seem a little seedy, but it gives it character)
• Boulevard McGill College (from Ste Catherine St to McGill University)
• Place des Arts (always great shows at this complex - and I love the architecture of the place - find a spot on the Esplanade and relax)

Restaurants - Alexandre et Fils, Schwartz Delicatessen, Au Pied de Cochon

Note: to learn more about Montreal from cool insiders, check out Tamy Emma Pepin twitter.com/tamyemmapepin or the blog www.midnightpoutine.ca

Toronto - much larger city than Montreal or Vancouver so naturally it will have manymore spots to visit and many more available activities (e.g. sports, concerts, special events). I do live here so I know Toronto much, much better than the two other cities. What I like most about Toronto is that you can find spots where you might feel you are in another part of Canada or the world for that matter. For example, if you go to the Il Bunji restaurant in Little Korea you could easily imagine that you are eating somewhere in Korea. If you to Kensington Market's El Trompo you might think you are somewhere in Mexico. This fact is most tangible during some of Toronto's festivals like Caribana and Salsa on St. Clair. Not that Toronto is always buzzing like say New York City. The Winter is rather quiet, but Spring, Summer and Fall can be fantastic for visitors and residents alike. The most successful film festival in the world from a film goers perspective is the Toronto International Film Festival which takes place every September.

Toronto has more sports and entertainment offerings than probably all other cities and Canada combined. From amateur to pro-sports and from indie artists to global superstars in all genres, you can spend a lot of time and money enjoying Toronto's sports and music scene (Canadian Music Week, North by Northeast, the Bluejays, the Maple leafs, the Raptors, etc). Toronto has a decent Opera Company (COC), the National Ballet, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and a myriad of international visiting artists. Favourite spots in Toronto:

• Harbourfront (anytime)
• Kensington Market (Spring and Summer)
• Eglinton Ave West of Yonge St.
• High Park
• Yorkville Ave and Cumberland Ave in Yorkville (in the Summer)
• The Rogers Centre (formerly The Skydome)
• The ACC (for concerts)
• Massey Hall (great acoustics for music)
• Queen St. from Yonge St to Bathurst
• The Annex neighbourhood
• The Bell Lightbox (cinemas and TIFF headquarters)
• The Atrium at the Brookfield Place (formerly BCE Place) designed by famed architect Santiago Calatrava
• The AGO (redesigned by Frank Ghery)
• Woodbine Beach (Ashbridges Bay) and Sunnyside Beach (summer of course)

Restaurants: Auberge du Pommier (expensive but worth it), Didier's (also French somewhat expensive, but also very much worth it), Joso's (my favourite restaurant in Canada), El Trompo (when I want the taste of Mexico), Via Allegro (not easy to get to without a car, but worth it - excellent Italian cuisine - also somewhat expensive), Il Fornello (at Harbourfront)

Note: to learn more about Toronto check out these blogs - torontoist.com and www.blogto.com

And there you have it, Canada's three largest cities are my favourites, but for different kinds of vacations I also love Quebec City (best with a significant other any time of the year - the most romantic city in Canada, perhaps in North America), Calgary (if I can ever get to visit during the Stampede) and Halifax (love its boardwalk in the summer - great seafood restaurants).

Happy travels. Add your favourite spots in Canada in the comments below, if you wish to share.

Jaime

Looking to get away from Toronto this week or weekend? Away from the G8 and G20 Summits?

This week Toronto's downtown around the Entertainment District and surrounding the Convention Centre is looking like a two ton gorilla with braces. Everyone who can work from home or take vacation days this week will do just that. Many businesses near and around the area will close for a few days including the Rogers Centre (the Blue Jays will play their home games away from home in Philadelphia) and the Mirvish organization's theatres will be dark. All in all not the weekend to enjoy Toronto's usually bustling downtown. I will definitely be nowhere near the core as we get close to the weekend and during the weekends itself. If you live in Toronto or were planning to visit Toronto during the Summits, may I suggest the best alternative: Montreal (of course, there's always New York as well, but NYC may be pricey and there's always the hassle of crossing borders or airport security). Montreal is awesome. The Festival International de Jazz de Montreal starts this coming Friday (check hotel availability before you decide to follow my recommendation).

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If you live in Toronto and have never been to Montreal, what are you waiting for? Montreal is a Canadian city, a North American city, but with one big difference from all other cities in the continent. It has a distinct international feel that is neither European nor North American. It's a hybrid of both. Great ambiance, fantastic restaurants, awesome festivals, quaint neighbourhoods, beautiful parks and even more beautiful people. If you've never seen it, check out Tourisme Montreal's website. Get some insider/local info and secrets from TM's bloggers, especially Tamy and Christophe.

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But just in case you think I only recommend the official tourism board (I just happen to believe that Montreal Tourism is actually doing a great job promoting their destination with a more entrepreneurial and less bureaucratic approach to tourism promotion than many traditional tourism boards) - here are some of my faves in Montreal:

Schwartz's Delicatessen (smoked meat sandwiches)

Old Montreal (not necessarily to eat, but to take a stroll, absorb the ambiance, maybe take a cruise on the St Lawrence

Place des Arts and whatever's going on there

Mont-Royal (one of my favourite places in Canada to go for a jog)

Boulevard Saint Laurent or "La Main" as it's locally known

Also check out this website: Made in Montreal

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Bon voyage,

Jaime

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #3 Twenty interesting things

Some key phrases and thoughts from Canada-e-Connect 2010

1. Conversational Capital - Rituals, initiation, icons, relevant sensory oddity, exclusive product (service, experience) offering, over delivery, tribalism, endorsement, continuity. "the medium is the message" McLuhan "the consumer is the message" Cesvet
2. From Claude Benard of Hotelitour to Hoteliers. (paraphrasing) "Use the OTA's for search. Maximize all your channels of distribution, but most importantly maximize your own direct channel (your chain's or hotel's booking engine and website)
3. From Philip Wolf, President CEO PhoCusWright: "Strategically correct yes, politically correct, no"
4. From Philip Wolf, President CEO PhoCusWright: "Brand matters"
5. From Philip Wolf, President CEO PhoCusWright: "Premature ROI analysis stifles opportunity before it has a chance to develop"
6. From Kim Mance, founder GoGalavanting and the Travel Bloggers Exchange community: "You need to be louder" (after my question about why aren't Americans coming to Canada, what are we doing wrong or not doing?)
7. From Cajun Mama, Shannon Hurst Lane, founder TravelingMamas.com, ShannonLane.com: (paraphrasing) many people market to the coasts (of the US) "they think that's where everybody is and they forget that there is this huge country between those two coasts. (after my question about why aren't Americans coming to Canada, what are we doing wrong or not doing?)
8. From Patrick Payne of Quickmobile: Mobile's 7 P's Presentation, Presence, Proximity, Personalization, Privacy, Payments, Push (also contender for the most tweeted tweet)
9. From Philippe Fabri of Atout France: 100 mini-sites. being specific in promoting destinations
10. From Maria Ziv of VisitSweden: Digital Embassies as opposed to one huge website. Focus on images (everyone has ADD these days)
11. From Jens Thraenhart, DragonTrail.com: (paraphrasing) "China is a huge opportunity...there are more bloggers in China than in the United States"
12. From Philippe Fabri of Atout France: eTourism as cloud
13. From Vicky Brock of Highland Business Research, Scotland: "Strategy without metrics is merely wishes. Metrics without a strategy are meaningless." (perhaps the phrase most tweeted at the conference)
14. From Carroll Rheem of PhoCusWright: The Long Tail of OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) is getting fatter.
15. From Walid Salem, Exec Dir eBusiness, Canadian Tourism Commission: "Take advantage of the millions of dollars in free advertising and PR that the Olympics will provide"
16. From Ken Lambert, VP Sales & Marketing, Delta Hotels and Resorts: "For us, Twitter is more important than Facebook."
17. From Jaime Horwitz, Cactus Rock, Digital Marketer and Strategist, Co-Chair CeC: "It's Tasty" after tasting Poutine with Fois Gras for the first time (at the Restaurant au Pied de Cochon in Montreal)
18. From Jaime Horwitz, Cactus Rock, Digital Marketer and Strategist, Co-Chair CeC: "To increase destination fans be specific: fans of poutine, fans of Grand Prix du Canada, fans of Tamy Emma Pepin (not just fans of Quebec)"
19. From Joe Buhler, BuhlerWorks, PhoCusWright, Marketing in the Smart Web: "data roaming charge is the elephant in the room" (at the Mobile issues and opportunities session)
20. From Wendy Perrin, The Perrin Post, Traveler Magazine: "I love talking to travelers, I love helping them with their travel..."

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Digital Marketer and Strategist

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Member of TIAC since 1999

Spotlight on Kim Mance - Canada-e-Connect 2010 Travel Bloggers

I met Kim virtually when I joined the Travel Bloggers Exchange community, a worldwide community of travel bloggers, journalists, writers and travel professionals who meet annually and which she founded. Kim is a travel writer, editor, and new media broadcast personality based in Chicago, IL. Kim hosts the lively web travel series Galavanting, is editor-in-chief of the online women's travel magazine, GoGalavanting.com, and writes about travel for outlets like MarieClaire's Travel Diaries, Indie Travel Podcast magazine, and The Huffington Post. She is currently writing the first Insiders' Guide to Chicago for Globe Pequot Press.

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I am delighted that Kim will be one of the panelists at this year's Canada-e-Connect 2010 Travel Bloggers (and Twitterers) session which will take place this coming Friday, bright and early (8am) at the Delta Centre Ville.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Spotlight on Claude Benard owner of HoteliTour - panelist Hoteliers 2.0 at Canada-e-Connect 2010

Claude Benard is an eTourism and eTravel expert in France who happens to blog in English. Claude started his career in tourism as a technical sales manager for a tour operator in Marseille (France) and worked with the network of travel agencies in the south of France. He spent 6 years as sales executive at the Envergure / Louvre Hotels group, especially for the 3 stars brand “Bleu Marine." After his work with the Louvre Hotels Group, Claude became the sales and marketing manager for a regional hotel booking engine managed by the Marseille Chamber of Commerce.

Since then he has spent many years as an independant consultant for the hotel and tourism industry with a dedicated focus on french DMO’s, independant hotels, emarketing, Travel 2.0 and travel social media. Claude managed the popular blog Les Explorers for 3 years and started his new blog (in English) www.hotelitour.com in march 2008. Claude is a member of the Tourism T-List, the international community of eTourism bloggers, and very active in the major eTourism and technology conferences like PhoCusWright at ITB (where we met a couple of years ago) and all the eTourism conferences in France. Recently, Claude joined Kevin May's TNOOZ, a digital portal and publication that covers tourism and technology issues and news (based in the UK).

I look forward to Claude's contributions and discussion at the Canada-e-Connect Hoteliers 2.0 panel on Friday, January 29 at 2 pm. This panel will deal with the issues, challenges and opportunities that hoteliers face in the new world of Social Media where digital channels are king and the traveler is in control. His fellow panelists will be Ken Lambert, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Delta Hotels and Dimitri Antonopoulos, Vice-Président, Marketing et Développement Hôtels & Restaurants for Old Montreal Hotels, a small group of high-end boutique hotels. The session will be moderated by Bill Brown, Executive Vice-President, Hotel Association of Greater Montreal.

Canada-e-Connect 2010 is almost full. You have a few days left to register if you want to attend this year's edition of the premier eTourism Strategy Conference in Canada. Go to www.canadaeconnect.com and register.

A bientôt,

Jaime Horwitz Rodriguez MBA

Chair Canada-e-Connect 2009

Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2010 in Montréal

There will be official announcements soon, but if you read this blog you will be one of the first to know that the Tourism Industry Association of Canada has selected the cosmopolitan, international, romantic and exciting city of Montréal to host Canada-e-Connect 2010. I am very honoured that the Advisory Committee has re-elected me to continue as Chair of the conference, but we have all determined that it will make the event even better if we also have a Co-Chair from the host city.

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So it gives me great pleasure to inform you that Carmen Ciotola, Carmen Ciotola, Vice-President, Communications-Marketing, Tourisme Montréal will be my Co-Chair for CeC 2010. In her 15 years with Tourisme Montreal, Carmen Ciotola has led numerous multimedia campaigns for the Canadian, American, European and Asian markets. She also negotiates strategic business partnerships, defines orientations for technological development and oversees the return on capital investment. Carmen’s leadership is characterized by an uncompromising focus on satisfying customer needs and expectations. She was awarded the prestigious Marketing Personality of the Year award for 2005 from the Marketing Association of Montreal.

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Dates for Canada-e-Connect as well as details of the program will be announced later in the year. Stay tuned.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Co-Chair Canada-e-Connect 2010

President

Cactus Rock New Media Ltd.

Fabulous, scrumptious lunch in Montreal with Tourisme Montreal

Yesterday, after a very productive meeting, I had the pleasure of having lunch with my friends from Tourisme Montreal. Carmen Ciotola and Emmanuelle Legault took me to Alexandre et Fils on Rue Peel. Strange that in all my years of visiting Montreal I had never heard of Alexandre's. I was very pleased with the service, which reminded of restaurants of old (with professional Maitre’D and servers). The ambiance and concept are French all throughout. I had a small salade verte to start with, which was fine. But then I had a salmon tartare appetizer and things got more interesting and enjoyable. The tartare was fabulous. For my main course I chose the chef's special of the day, Canard (duck). I don't usually eat duck (hard to find chefs who truly know how to prepare duck, but also I feel a bit like I shouldn't eat duck, like eating a loon, national symbol and too cute, like bunnies). But duck I ate, and it was absolutely scrumptious (my apologies to my beloved Muskoka loons). Perfectly cooked, melted in the mouth.

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All of this brings me to a canadian (or fill in the nationality of your choice) tourism business point. Many people want to know how to get the attention of bloggers. One way is to hire one (or many) to blog about your business; another is to pay for a blog post on a particular blog - not things quite encouraged by some blogging purists - in the age of transparency - but more readily accepted if the blogger discloses the realtionship). More importantly, in my opinion one of three things must be present for bloggers (b - as in blogger - to c) to be interested: Either a very bad experience, an excellent experience or a very creative event. Run of the mill average mediocrity is not really conducive to writing about. As I replied to Carmen and Emmanuelle when they asked me how the duck was, I said "excellent, definitely bloggable." Of course, you might say that Alexandre et Fils got lucky (in the case of my blogs) because someone took me there for lunch. And you would be right. Most bloggers don't make a living blogging. They blog because they are passionate about the medium and want to express themselves. For some lucky ones, blogging may lead to a consulting gigs, a higher profile in their industry, decent advertising revenue or a big buyout; but this is rare. If you want a blogger to blog about your business try and contact him or her and ask what would it take for them to do it. It may be as simple as inviting them for lunch.

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Salut,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

www.blogdecanada.com

www.canadamigos.com

Tourisme Montreal making waves in the blogosphere with its 100% digital marketing budget.

Gasps and wow's were heard during last month's Canada-e-Connect conference when Emanuelle Legault, Directrice, Communications et Publicité, mentioned during her presentation that Tourism Montreal's marketing budget was going digital 100%. Since then, the blogosphere has been abuzz with comments (mostly very positive) about this bold move. I myself am in awe that a Canadian destination has become the (as far as we know) first destination in the world to put its money where most of the worlds' travellers are today, that is in the digital space (whether accessed via a computer or a mobile device). If you can read German see what the TourismusZukunft blog had to say about it. Otherwise read the excellent article by Vicky Brock in her Tracking Tourism: The Tourism Research Blog. The also German Cofree blog blogged about this today. Canada's Marketing Magazine has also featured news about this strategy.

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I am confident that Tourism Montreal's strategy will pay off, especially in this challenging yearmuch success, and I wish them . If at all possible, we hope to see an update presentation by Tourism Montreal at Canada-e-Connect 2010.
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Jaime Horwitz MBA
www.montrealenespanol.com

The battle of the DMO's at Canada-e-Connect 2009 (well not quite)

One of the sessions we'll have at Canada-e-Connect is "CTC/PMOs/DMO’s view of e-Tourism Strategy." Come hear what the leaders of some of Canada's biggest destinations have to say about eTourism strategies. Our panel will include Walid Salem, Executive Director, E-Marketing/ Directeur exécutif, Marketing électronique for the Canadian Tourism Commission, Joel Peters, Senior Vice President Chief Marketing Officer Tourism Toronto (SeeTorontoNow) and Emmanuelle Legault, Directrice, Communications et Publicité Director, Communications and Advertising for Tourism Montreal. I will have the pleasure of moderating this panel and I'm already preparing some good questions (if you have a question for the panel, leave a comment here and we'll keep it in mind). Among the topics we'll cover is an update on these DMO's eStrategies. We'll also discuss whether they see eStrategy and eMarketing as separate from Strategy and Marketing. What threats and opportunities they see vis à vis other destinations' digital initiatives. What challenges do they face when trying to implement a digital project?

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Canada-e-Connect 2009. Registration is open.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA

Chair Advisory Board, Canada-e-C0nnect 2009

Planning a summer vacation in Quebec

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My wife and I take turns in deciding where to go on our family's summer vacation. One year I choose, the next year she chooses. This year is my turn so many months ago I decided we would go to Quebec in order to spend a few days in Quebec City celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the founding of that beautiful French Canadian town. Once we decided on the dates I went to work on our itinerary. I decided we would spend the weekend of July 4th in Quebec City in order to enjoy the beginning of the Quebec Summer Festival and the special events from the 400th Anniversary. There will be a Commemorative Show in front of the Place de l'Assemblée-Nationale (Parliament Building) with Samuel Champlain himself (the founder of Quebec City). “Québec plein la rue” series will bring the biggest international street performance companies to Quebec city on that weekend.

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Quebec City is the trip's anchor so-to-speak. I also chose to drive instead of flying this time in order to do the Chemin du Roy, the historical route from Montreal to Quebec City that you pretty much can only see if you drive. It's supposed to be a very picturesque trip visiting towns that go back to the days of New France when the Saint Lawrence river was the main means of communication. We will leave Toronto on July 3d, stop in Montreal for the night (approximately a 6 hour drive), and continue on to the Chemin du Roy on July 4th arriving in Quebec City in the afternoon. On July 7 we leave Quebec City and drive to La Malbaie in the region of Charlevoix where we will stay for two nights and make it our centre of operations to explore the area. On the 8th we will be driving to Tadoussac, one of the oldest villages in Canada - a former fur trading centre from the 17th Century - to catch a whale watching and fjord boat tour. After the tour we will explore Tadoussac and then head back to La Malbaie. On July 9th we will leave Charlevoix and drive back to Montreal or the Montreal area (I haven't decided yet if we stay one night in the Cantons de l'Est - a beautiful area a bit East of Montreal). All in all I will be driving about 2,000 kms on the trip, but we're prepared with a lot of music for the road (including my favourite chanteuse Quebecoise - Isabelle Boulay -to get in the French mood).

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Once I had the dates the next step was booking a hotel in Quebec City (the other stops could wait). When I need to book hotels I use mostly two websites, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts and Expedia. On this occassion I found a modestly priced hotel in the area of Ste Foy in Quebec City called the Gourverneur Hotel. I had heard of the brand because my tour operator client in Mexico sells packages that include Gouverneur hotels. I chose it because we wanted to be away from the old city so that we can have more of a quiet time at night after a day of exploring and celebrating. And also because this hotel has a swimming pool, an amenity hard to find in the old city. My family and I like access to swimming pools (or lakes) in the summer.

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Because of the 400th Anniversary Celebrations, I booked the hotel in Quebec City months ago. But we also need accommodations in the other spots we will visit. For the first night in Montreal I chose one of the Holiday Inn Hotels in the area, the Holiday Inn Select Montreal-Ctr Vle-Dwtn Conv Ctr very close to Old Montreal. I am very familiar with Holiday Inn hotels and all the IHG hotels in Canada because my Canada en Espanol sites are IHG affiliates. Charlevoix was a bit tricky because I am not familiar with the area as I am with Montreal and Quebec City. But I knew I wanted to go to Tadoussac to see the town and go on a whale watching tour. At first I conisdered staying in Tadoussac proper and did a Google search for accommodations. The search took me to BonjourQuebec.com and Tadoussac.com. I found some hotel options in Tadoussac, but I wasn't convinced we should stay there. I remembered that the Fairmonts have a hotel in Charlevoix, the Manoir Richelieu. Having experienced several Fairmont hotels in Canada I liked the idea of staying at the Manoir, but I needed to know how far from Tadoussac the hotel is. So I went to Google Maps, in my opinion one of the best travel planning tools on the Web. I use Google maps on my websites and for my own trips (like my March trip to Berlin and our New Year's trip to New York this year). I went to my Quebec Map and looked for directions from La Malbaie to Tadoussac and found out that Tadoussac is only about one hour and a half from the Manoir. That did it. I called Fairmont and booked the room (I called instead of booking online because I had questions about offers I got in the mail and to make sure the room had an extra bed or pullout sofa for our daughter).

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Now we have accommodations for Montreal, Quebec and La Malbaie. I just need to book one more night for July 9th. As for the rest of the trip I continue to study our route on Google Maps and also the site for the Chemin du Roy. As for other aspects of the trip, I checked out what was going on in Montreal on the 3d and lucked out because it just so happens that the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal is taking place then and I found tickets to one of the concerts - a pair of virtuosi guitar players originally from Mexico but who became famous in Europe - Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero who went from street buskers to jazz stages everywhere. I think I know which whale watching tour I want us to take, the Whales and Fjords - but I hope to talk to my friend Isabelle Longpré at AML Croisierès in Tadoussac for her recommendation before I book one of the tours.

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As for the driving, I know gas is very expensive these days, but not enough to stay home, at least not for us. We'll probably log 2,100 kms on our trip. We'll be using our new car which gives us 100 kms per 10.6 litres of gas. That should be about 222 litres. Assuming $1.45 per litre our gas expense will be around $325 give or take. Not bad, considering the price of airfares.

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ciao and bon voyage,

Jaime

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