'Tis the season to be jolly, no doubt, but 'tis also the season for 2018 lookaheads: Bands to watch, TV to binge-watch, teams to wager on, presidents to impeach, you know the drill.

For my part, I've already contributed an MSN travel lookahead based on big-name events, globetrotter buzz, recent recognition and so on. But based on personal experience, here are my Top 18 recommendations for 2018: 

FONTEVRAUD L’HÔTEL, LOIRE VALLEY, FRANCE: I can think of no better place to savour the pungent aromas of a ridiculous cheese tray than this re-purposed abbey building. Read more here.

PARK CITY, UTAH: The ski area runs right into its historic namesake town, with a ski run and chairlift carrying schussers straight to Main Street. Down a side street there's some Plexiglas-covered Banksy graffiti, one of three works that appeared alongside the 2010 Sundance Film Fest premiere of the British street artist's compelling Exit Through the Gift Shop documentary. Read more here.

SEA TO SKY GONDOLA, B.C.: From the enormous sunset-facing patio, one of three panoramic viewing platforms, I gaze up at Sky Pilot Mountain’s horn-shaped peak as it tears clouds to shreds, while Howe Sound glitters in the forested fjord nearly a kilometre below. Read more here.

PALAFITOS AT EL DORADO MAROMA, PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO: Exhausted from celebrating a huge lottery win? These over-ocean glass-floored bungalows should do the trick. Read more here.

POWDER HIGHWAY, B.C.: Some of the best skiing on Earth meets jaw-dropping scenery, innovative food an drink, and welcoming mountain towns where the apres-ski scene eschews noisy Nickelback and Coors Light. Read more here and here.

LUANG PRABANG, LAOS: Standing on the balcony of the guesthouse, we watch as a line of Buddhist monks, dressed in orange robes, walk from house to house, collecting their sustenance for the day. With the sun rising above the hills and bird calls piercing the chilly air, it's an indelible image that clears our minds and fortifies our spirits. Read more here.

KINGSTON, ONT.: The dazzling Lumina Borealis multimedia installation in the Fort Henry National Historic Site celebrates the magic of winter, while tours of Kingston Penitentiary reveal beauty amid brutality. Read more here and here.

WICKER PARK AND BUCKTOWN, CHICAGO: These adjacent neighbourhoods already offered just about every urban amenity one could want – from vintage fashion boutiques and record shops to taco stands, cocktail bars and even a landscaped rail path – years before the Robey and Hollander hotels opened in late 2016. Read more here.

MOUNT NORQUAY VIA FERRATA, BANFF: From where I'm hanging, on a sheer cliff face some 700 metres above the Bow Valley floor, it's clear that my scaling skills are about to be tested like never before. Read more here.

NICOYA PENINSULA, COSTA RICA: Watch sea turtles lay hundreds of glistening eggs, high five Bruce Willis, it's all good. Read more here and here.

OLD MONTREAL: I grab a Moscow Mule from the buzzing bar and make my way out onto the enormous glass-walled outdoor patio to conclude the evening with head-spinning views of the glittering Montreal skyline. Then, in my mind’s ear, I hear it... Read more here.

NIMMO BAY, B.C.: Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” reverberates through my headset as our soundtrack-equipped helicopter soars over the bluest lake I've ever seen. At that moment, the lips in question belong to the awestruck passenger next to me. But it’s easy to see what she’s saying: “Wow!”​ Read more here.

COL DE LA JOUX VERTE, FRANCE: So this is what a 14-per-cent gradient feels like on a bike. Oh dear. If I can just focus on that pretty waterfall up ahead I’ll make it up this climb and…WHAT!?! That was the first of what I fear will be several switchbacks. And they’re getting steeper. Do they have Uber up here? Read more here.

SPORTFISHING IN LAKE ONTARIO: Lulls in the action are few and far between — we throw back more than we keep — and just as the sun is setting spectacularly behind the distant CN Tower we reach our 15-fish limit. Read more here.

THOMPSON-SHUSWAP WINERIES, B.C.: Having just arrived from winter-weary Toronto, I pull an abrupt double-take when three sleeveless Kamloopsians stroll into view in early April. They too seem surprised, but not by my woolly sweater. It’s my ride – Tastefull Excursions’ new wine-touring van – that turns their heads. Read more here.

VAGABOND HOTEL, MIAMI: I must have set some kind of land-speed record for hotel tours while researching my Globe Travel story on Miami Beach. Thing is, my personal favourite of the lot isn't actually in Miami Beach. Read more here.

PROVIDENTIALES, TURKS & CAICOS: There are few places on Earth where the "beach gravity" - the allure of sand and sea - is as inexorable as it is on Grace Bay. Read more here.

BIG WHITE SKI RESORT, B.C.: A decade after embarking on the first of umpteen family ski trips, arranging the "Door-to-Ski Shuttle Service" represents the pinnacle of my vacation-planning powers. Read more here.

​Travel elicits many emotions, from awe to anger and from upgrade ecstasy to gift-shop remorse. But over the course of my Canadian wanderings there’s something more: Pride. That's what this daily series is all about: Sharing my proud perspective on the places and experiences that make my country the greatest on Earth. Some of my selections are world-famous, others are little-known, a few are acquired tastes, and this one celebrates the ski resort where I grew up — and learned to duck the rope.

“Trapper” Jerry Kernen, the 93-year-old local legend who’s been skiing Sunshine Village for the past three decades, simply tips his alligator-tooth cowboy hat and heads downhill when he’s hailed near the bottom of the Banff resort’s revamped Strawberry chairlift.

Behind him, the soaring windows of the Sunshine Mountain Lodge’s new west wing reflect the brilliant remnants of the afternoon.

This moment of contrast encapsulates the changes at Sunshine, as well as at Marmot Basin in Jasper, during the 2011 ski season. Together, the two Rocky Mountain resorts have seen more than $50 million in new development in the last decade, all while complying with strict Parks Canada regulations that favour conservation over expansion.

Indeed, Sunshine’s limited on-hill accommodations prevent what spokesman Doug Firby calls “mountain sprawl.” Most of Canada’s large ski areas — Whistler, Big White, Mont Tremblant and the like — are located outside of protected areas and have been able to grow aggressively, adding condos, hotels, shopping plazas and other amenities.

Sunshine, however, offers just one large day lodge, the aforementioned 84-room boutique hotel, and a single saloon — Mad Trapper’s, named after Kernen — once skiers step off the 4.3-kilometre-long gondola ride that connects the parking area to the resort’s nine chairlifts and 3,000-plus acres of skiable terrain. Fact is, for overnight guests seeking rows of souvenir shops and non-stop nightlife, Sunshine won’t fit the bill.

It’s the “Champagne powder” and jaw-dropping national park scenery that keeps Kernen and millions of other skiers and snowboarders coming back, Firby says. “There’s nowhere in the world that has this snow, these views, and we don’t make you wait in lift lines. It’s not a sea of condos up here, so it never gets too crowded.”

From the top of Mount Standish, the smallest of Sunshine’s three peaks, the panorama seems little touched by the hands of man. To the west, beyond a sea of alpine meadows, looms 3,620-metre Mount Assiniboine, which straddles the Great Divide separating North America’s continental watersheds. To the east, the valley cradling the resort winds toward Goat’s Eye Mountain, which nearly doubled Sunshine’s size when it opened to skiers in 1995. Lookout Mountain soars into the clear northern sky, providing access to the legendary Delirium Dive extreme-skiing area and a 15-acre terrain park.

Read the rest of the story in the Toronto Star

WHERE TO STAY
With its full-service Grotto Spa and locally-sourced Evergreen Restaurant – both of which can be enjoyed for free with enough Marriott Rewards points – the luxurious Delta Hotels Banff Royal Canadian Lodge is the ideal place to ease tired muscles and refuel after a day at Sunshine Village.

Travel elicits many emotions, from awe to anger and from upgrade ecstasy to gift-shop remorse. But over the course of my Canadian wanderings there’s something more: Pride. That's what this daily series is all about: Sharing my proud perspective on the 30 places and experiences that make my country the greatest on Earth. Some of my selections are world-famous, others are little-known, a few are acquired tastes, and this one, well, acrophobes should probably stop reading right now...

From where I’m hanging, on a sheer cliff face some 700 metres above the town of Banff, Alta., it’s clear that my scaling skills are about to be tested like never before.

Conquering Mount Norquay’s three-year-old via ferrata “is like climbing a series of ladders,” the ski resort’s website says. But I’m not scaling the brick walls of my Toronto semi here. Alongside an alpine guide and two other guests, I am making my way up and across 260 vertical metres of Rocky Mountain limestone – that’s half the height of the CN Tower – while tethered to a novice-friendly network of steel cables.

The first and only via ferrata in a Canadian national park is the centrepiece of Norquay’s revamped summer operations. These resumed in 2014 after a 25-year hiatus, with a double chairlift carrying sightseers, diners and climbers to the Cliffhouse Bistro, a Mad Men-era eatery with glorious panoramic windows, a menu of locally sourced cuisine and an avalanche-proof roof.
It may have been delicious, but my charcuterie platter is forgotten as soon as Memorial Slab looms into view. After our thirtysomething guide, Erica Roles, delivers a short tutorial on the carabiner-equipped “leashes” tethering us to the via ferrata – that’s “iron road” in Italian – we trek around the Cliffhouse and apply our new skills to the first of three cliff faces on the four-hour Ridgewalker Route.

“If you’ve made it this far, you know you can do this,” Roles says as I step onto a rocky outcrop on the far side of the precipice…

Read the rest of the story in The Globe and Mail.

WHERE TO STAY
With its full-service Grotto Spa and locally-sourced Evergreen Restaurant – both of which can be enjoyed for free with enough Marriott Rewards points – the luxurious Delta Hotels Banff Royal Canadian Lodge is the ideal place to ease tired muscles and refuel after an afternoon of via ferrata-ing.

Not even Rob Ford can match the Canadian dollar when it comes to getting hammered these days, and according to just about everyone this is bad news for Canadian travellers.
But before you bail on your winter getaway plans, I've got some good news: There's one destination that offers a wealth of superb winter vacation options and accepts Canadian currency at par. You don't need a passport, visa or travel insurance to visit, and you may not even need to catch a flight to get there.
Where is this tourism wonderland, you ask? Sorry for the disingenuousness, but I get frustrated when Canucks assume that their home and native land can't satisfy their vacation needs. As a travel writer I've covered the Great White North more than any other country, and besides loving Canada as my homeland I also love it as a place to explore, relax, admire, ski, traumatize spa attendants...you get the idea.
Here, then, are a dozen travel stories I've written over the past 15 years that feature scores of prime Canadian winter vacation options. (For those of you who rightly point out that none of them feature a warm, sandy, watery destination with umbrella drinks, just wait until next week, when I'll be blogging about my family's upcoming trip to the Great Wolf Lodge indoor waterpark in Niagara Falls.)

1. The Toronto Star: Powder Highway's laid-back resorts, mountain towns

2. The Globe and Mail: A whole new way to see Niagara Falls

3. Mostly Amazing: The Great Canadian Travel Draft: Round 1 -- Rounds 2 and 3 -- Round 4

4. The Star: Sunshine basks in powder and glory in the Rockies

5. The Globe: Eight great Canadian winter breaks

6. Mostly Amazing: I think that I shall never see, a room as lovely as a tree sphere

7. The Globe: Sea to Sky Gondola climbs Sky Pilot massif in spectacular fashion
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8. The Globe: A winery fit for Game of Thrones: The Thompson-Shuswap vintners

9. The Star: From skiing to dogsledding, Ontario offers winter escapes

10. The Globe: White nights at Blue Mountain

11. Mostly Amazing: Think snow tubing is lame? Think again...

12. The Globe: One peak leads to another at Whistler