Not sure what to do? There are lots of fantastic things going on, not to mention the weather is going to be absolutely gorgeous!

Things To Do In Toronto

1.Take A Day Trip To The Toronto Islands (click here to read more)
One of our favourite things to do is to go the the Toronto Islands.

2. Go To The Beach (click here to read more)
The Beach is also a favourite place to be this weekend. Take a stroll on the beach, play some volleyball, watch the seagulls, or enjoy a delicious brunch along Queen Street.

3. Visit The Harboufront Area (click here to read more)
There’s also lots of great things happening at the Harbourfront in general. Read on to find out what to do, where to go, and where the best patio is!

4. Take Part In Caribana (click here to read more)
Of course you’ve probably heard that this weekend is the Caribana weekend – it’s a massive party that consumes a large part of our city to so here’s information on how you can get involved.

Things To Do Outside Of The City

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5. Take A Day Trip To Niagara On The Lake (click here to read more)
Niagara On the Lake is an absolute favourite. Here’s a short post on what do while you’re in Ontario’s favourite wine country.

6. Go To Cottage Country (click here to read more)
Cottage country is gorgeous, and there’s no better weekend to enjoy it than this one! Here’s a link to a last minute cottage rental site…so tempting!

Things To Do Anywhere

7. Host A Fabuous Dinner Party (click here to read more)
It’s going to be gorgeous, so host a fabulous outdoor dinner party with these amazing recipes.

8. Go On A Cheap, Fun & Active Date (click here to read more)
Great suggestions for cheap, active and super fun date activities. If you’re single don’t fret, grab one of your girlfriends and make it a girls date!

9. Go Hiking With Your Girlfriends (click here to read more)
The great outdoors, great girlfriends…well it all sounds pretty great. And it is. Do something totally different this weekend, and go hiking with your ladies. You’ll love it!

10. Day Dream What Your Fantasy Life (click here to read more)
In a relaxed environment, with no pressure or noise, or stress, or anything to disrupt you, let your mind wander…and create a picture of your dream life. It will be the start of great things for you!

Tired of doing the same thing every time you get together with your girlfriends? Have cocktail parties, shopping trips, and coffee shops lost their excitement? Ready for a change?

Try a day hike with your girls! Every year a few of us head out into a nearby nature reserve, or sometimes a bit futher away, and go for a long hike together.

We chat, giggle, take some breaks to enjoy the scenery and get some excercise! It’s an amazing way to spend time together…and best of all, it’s fun that makes you skinnier!

We’ve been to Forks of the Credit, and Webster Falls, but there’s so many great hiking trails in Ontario to visit.

So next time your girlfriends want to plan a day out together, why not do something totally different? You’ll feel amazing if you do!

Who doesn’t love a good boost? Here are some hilarious stories guaranteed to put a smile on your face!

Everyday Funny Things

Holy Vaginas! New Va-Jay-Jay Accessories Are All The Rage
That’s right, detailing your hoo-ha is now a fad. Read on to find out what some women are doing to their “precious ladies”

The Most Annoying Thing Boys Do
If you’ve ever had a dad, brother, boyfriend, or anyone male around you know what this is like!

Men vs. Women: Who Brings The Condoms
A hot topic, what does it say about the girl if she’s bringing the condoms?

Travel Tales

The Essential Guide To Travelling In Italy
Hope you have lots of air miles, because after reading this you are going to want to go to Italy

A Day in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Cambodia is a gorgeous country, and you’ll be surprised by the funny monkeys!

Inspiring Women: Fearless and Fabulous Female Entrepreneurs

Ali De Bold – cofounder of ChickAdvisor
Equipped with a great business idea and loads of hard work she and her husband and business partner, Alex De Bold, started www.ChickAdvisor.com – Canada’s first user generated reviews community for women to share advice on their favourite products and local places. Find out how she did it, and the one thing she would have done differently!

Lisa Ng – founder of HelloDJ
Lisa Ng is a woman that goes after what she wants. She’s never worked in a corporate office, she owns her own DJ company, Hello DJ, and she’s not afraid to take risks. But how did she do it and what’s it like?

It’s Spring, and the travel bug is spreading like crazy! This year Italy is a very hot vacation destination. With loads of airlines having big sales, hotels offering deals, and a huge desire to get away the time is now to plan your summer vacation.

Check out these posts with great tips on what to see, where to go, and what it’s like.

Florence

Tuscany

Rome

Amalfi Coast

Siena

7 Things You Need To Know Before Going To Italy

Shopping In Italy

BBQ is a must do in Argentina!

The lovely ladies over at Hip and Urban Girl asked me to do a restaurant review recently…and when in Argentina the opportunity to review a traditional barbecue restaurant was one we couldn’t pass up.

Find out here what happens at an Argentinean barbecue restaurant…including an interesting experience involving stuffed cows and “interesting” menu items…

While in Argentina the size and activity in Buenos Aires can be a bit much. So why not take a weekend off and go to the renowned beach town Mar del Plata?

A short four hour drive outside of Buenos Aires, you can rent a car, take the bus, or hop on the train to get here. Once you arrive the first thing you want to do is head to the beach! The rocky shore, grassy slopes and soft sand all combine to make a beautiful beach landscape. In Mar del Plata the beaches are all well maintained, and extremely popular, so if you go in peak season prepare to be packed in the sand with 2 million of your closest friends! It will be busy, but it’s worth it – the views are gorgeous, the vibe is cool, and the setup of the area will remind you of beach towns of yesteryear with a gorgeous boardwalk that spans from one side of town to the other.

If you want a more exclusive beach experience you can always go to the private beaches a bit further south. Nikki beach is just by the lighthouse and offers a great beach, parking, and a fancier beach experience.

Whichever beach you chose keep in mind this is the Atlantic Ocean, and you’re pretty far south, so it’s pretty chilly all year round – even in the hot period of January/February. Look what happened when we went in the water!

After strolling on the beach for a few hours it’s time to grab a bit. If you are going to a waterfront restaurant bring your patience along because the queue to get in will be long, and service will take forever! Some of the Mar del Plata institutions include Manolo’s (an Argentinean take on the American diner) and Torreon (a coffee shop designed to look like a monastery). Keep in mind that Argentinean’s eat lightly during the day, and have a large dinner at night, so the lunch options will be on the lighter side.

After lunch it’s time to head downtown and see the city sights and have an afternoon cafe. When downtown Boston Confectionary is a great coffee shop, and the medialunes (half moon pastries that are like croissants but sweeter) are out of this world! After your coffee stop stroll around the pedestrian streets, enjoy the parks, and take your time just strolling around and taking in the local culture. Keep in mind that any touristy areas, like the pedestrian streets, are hotspots for pick pocketing and purse snatching, so keep your possessions close to you.

After some light shopping downtown it’s time to head over to the hotel for an afternoon nap. Our top pick is the Sheraton hotel; it’s clean, new, the service is excellent and it’s a bit removed from the party central downtown. You also have excellent views from pretty much every room and breakfast in the charming La Pampa restaurant is included in the nights stay. The hotel is close to the golf course, and also close to the cool night spots on Alen Street.

After a long afternoon nap it’s tea time. Some light sandwiches a warm drink and lots of water will have you refreshed and ready for evening. When it’s time to head out on the town for dinner – typically around 930pm there are great barbecue offerings, or pasta from La Trattoria. When dining make sure you take in the great night sights of the city. There are many beautiful places to watch the city go by, so make sure you enjoy!

Looking for a little night-time activity? Alen Street is a great pick for bars, cafes, ice cream shops, and watching live music. If you are tempted to go to the casino think again. It’s a dark, dirty and depressing place to spend some time, and with smoking inside and no ventilation it’s hard to see the poker tables through the smoky plumes of the players.

Mar del Plata is a great place to visit, and one of the most charming towns/cities in Argentina. Known as the Vegas of Argentina it’s a bit of a party town, but the natural beauty of the area make it a great place for families and pretty much everyone enjoy!

Last year was a big year for travel, with a big trip to Italy and many smaller trips to Washington, Charleston, Savannah, and all around Ontario.

This year is shaping up to be another big year for travel. So far I’ve been to Mexico (ok, it was to get married…but it still counts!).

And this week I’m in Argentina!

We arrived earlier last week and have been mostly visiting family and taking care of business…until this weekend, when we had the ultimate Argentinian experience.

The Santa Maria Ranch Main House

We went up to the Entre Rios province, about 2.5 hours outside of Buenos Aires, to a ranch! The ranch, called Estancia Santa Maria, offers the Real Gaucho (Cowboy) Experience…and I wanted to see how these Argentinian cowboys do it!

We arrived late Saturday afternoon, and after we settled in our room we were offered tea in the dining room. We had tea, toast with dulce de leche and some little baked goodies.

Of course that was far too exhausting for us, so we retired to our room and napped for 2 hours! The rooms at the ranch are comfortable and clean, and very country cute!

Cute & cosy rooms at the Santa Maria ranch

We had a nice dinner of meat empanadas, and a chicken risotto main course. The ranch offers a set menu for all meals, so if you are a picky eater this is not for you. For us it was amazing, to pay for the hotel and four meals and have everything included (except liquor) and not have to make any decisions. We were there to relax!

After dinner we watched a movie and then spent some time looking up at the stars – the stars are always amazing in the country!

In the morning it was time to go horseback riding with the gaucho. It was a strange (and a bit nerve wracking) experience in the beginning. It’s been years since I’ve been on a horse. But after a few minutes it was more comfortable and it was gorgeous to ride the horses through the pastures, next the sheep, by the cows, and past some very noisy birds. It was nice to just let our thoughts wander as we were riding to the rhythm of the horse. There was no stress, no big decisions, just a nice slow rhythm of the horse.

When we returned to the farm house we were treated with the original asado – Argentinean barbecue. There were blood sausages (not for me, but others seemed to like them), chorizo sausages, potato salad, green salad, and a gorgeous barbecued beef. It was definitely tasty!

The Argentinean wood burning barbecue

After lunch it was time for another nap…which we managed to do for two hours! The great thing about the ranch is that your stay is for 24 hours… so if you arrive at 5pm you can stay until 5pm the next day. It was much better than having to check out of a hotel at noon, like most North American places.

It was a wonderful relaxing weekend out of the city, seeing the countryside, and tasting the local foods from field to table. If you are going to Argentina, a farm experience is not to be missed.

With the Spring temperatures rising this weekend is the perfect time to head to Toronto’s Harbourfront and enjoy all it has to offer! Start off by taking a stroll along the waterfront path. You will pass by all the boats, parks, restaurant patios, and see these great deck bridges that were opened last year.

After you’ve built up an appetite from your walk go to one of the great restaurants for lunch. Il Fornello is a favourite, and they have a large patio right on the water with a great menu and decent wine list too. The Watermark pub is also a good choice for a pub lunch and draught beer. If you’re more in the mood for sushi head to Ichiban Sushi or Oyshi Sushi, both have great menus at reasonable prices.

The Habroufront Second Cup patio is the best in the city!

If dining out is not your thing perhaps a coffee is in order. The Second Cup at Harbourfront has the best patio in the whole city! It’s right on the water, and you can see all the boats coming and going and just sit staring down at the water. This patio gets full sun from approx 10am-3pm, so keep that in mind.

If you are more loyal to Starbucks there is one across the street. Although it doesn’t have the patio of the Second Cup it does have great people watching. If there are no spots on the patio you can also sit next door at the waterfall and watch everyone from there!

If you are a dog lover there is a great dog centre right by Ichiban Sushi and just off the crazy wave bridges. You can bring your pooch and play away for hours at a time!

For art lovers and culture mavens the Harbourfront Centre has cool art shows on a regular basis, and also live theatre which is really popular.

On the ferry to the Toronto Islands

Ready to see more? Consider taking the ferry over to the Islands – here’s a post on what you can do there.

However you chose to spend your Easter long weekend make sure you take some time out, relax and enjoy one of the great things your city has to offer. Get out there and start living!

These are not your get on the big tourbus with the guy making bad jokes selling you expensive and crappy beer kind of tours.

These are the kind of tours where you hire all your own things, like bus, driver, food, drinks etc…and get them to take you where you want to go and completely on your schedule.

I’m thrilled we were still able to tour, and see all the great things the Mayan Riviera has to offer, but we don’t have to get herded here and there, have people trying to sell us time shares, and spend a set amount of time at every place with zero flexibility.

Hello freedom, this is a great and different kind of touring.

Dreaming of la dolce vita in Tuscany

It’s Winter, it’s cold, and every year around this time everyone starts to get a bit blue. Looking for a winter escape? Why not pull out a copy of the novel Under the Tuscan Sun and dream of living la dolce vita in Tuscany?

The book is amazing, and helps take you away to dream land…where love, natural beauty, good food and great wine are a part of everyday life.

So if it’s a cold night and you’re looking for something to do that will warm your heart and soul, open Under the Tuscan Sun, or dream about living your own dolce vita dream life in Tuscany.

Don’t you feel warmer already?