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Tags: Porter Airlines / Airline News / Lounges / Airport Lounges / → All Tags

Porter Airlines Expands The Free Lounge Party To Ottawa

Things are continuing to go well for Porter Airlines. Their new route to Boston seems like a hit, and they’ve begun to spread their signature service beyond their home base of Toronto City Centre Airport. Earlier this month they cut the ribbon on a new lounge for passengers traveling to and from Ottawa International Airport. The lounge is open to all passengers holding a ticket—there’s no annual fee or other sneaky membership requirements.

They got things right in Toronto, so the airline didn't stray from its modern and comfortable design when moving to Ottawa. There’s computer workstations, a conference room, and obviously complimentary WiFi access. If you build up a slight appetite by doing too much work there’s also free snacks and espresso in heated cups—perfect for those cold Canadian winters. Just remember to save your appetite for your flight, because the snacks, wine, and beer are free up in the sky.

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Tags: 2009-Halloween-Theme-Park-Map / 2009 Halloween Theme Park Scare Guide / Halloween Travel / Scary Travel / Theme Parks / Canada Travel / Roller Coasters / → All Tags

2009 Halloween Theme Park Scare Guide: Canada's Halloween Haunt

Our neighbors to the north love to celebrate Halloween as well, even if their spooky day is after Thanksgiving. For those in and around the Toronto area, the best place to get some thrills is at Canada’s Wonderland. Cedar Fair owns the place, the same theme park experts responsible for HalloWeekends at Cedar Point. It might not be as crazy spooky as things in Ohio, but they definitely get the job done.

Halloween Haunt at Canada’s Wonderland dares visitors to explore their way through the park while attempting to avoid possessed woodland creatures and vampires. All the major rides will be running, but it’s up to you to make your way to the coasters without being frightened out of the park.

Mazes are the big thing here, and there’s plenty of returning favorites as well as some new ones. The park seems especially excited about Club Blood. Visitors are led to believe that it is just a nightclub to celebrate the season, but unfortunately vampires run it. Just try to avoid being invited back into the VIP lounge; that’s where the vampires do their thing.

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Tags: Porter Airlines / Airline News / New Routes / Toronto Travel / Air Canada Jazz / → All Tags

Porter Airlines Preparing To Battle It Out With Air Canada Jazz

Throughout the economic downturn, Porter Airlines has been doing everything right. They’ve impressed travelers with their service, expanded to new routes, and have served Toronto City Centre Airport without too much competition. Well that’s about to end as another airline wants to get a chunk of the air traffic from the city’s smaller airport. After all, the airport is a little more convenient to all that downtown business.

Air Canada Jazz is looking to return to end Porter’s dominance over the airport’s commercial traffic. Jazz used to come and go from the downtown airport until early in 2006 when they suspended their service, claiming they had been evicted by a firm that was in cahoots with the CEO at Porter Airlines. However, the exclusivity agreement between Porter Airlines and the airport ends early next year, and Jazz is ready to once again roll down the runway.

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Tags: Film Festival Travel / Toronto Film Festival / Celeb Travel / George Clooney / Jane Fonda / → All Tags

Toronto Film Fest Welcomes Double the Clooney And A Jane Fonda Controversy

George Clooney is the unofficial King of the festival circuit this season. Last week we reported on the salt-and-pepper haired actor gracing Venice with his presence with new girlfriend in tow, and he recently hopped back over the Atlantic to attend the Toronto Film Festival and promote not one, but two movies.

The first is the curiously titled The Men Who Stare at Goats, and the second is Up in the Air, a new film from Juno director Jason Reitman where he plays a very Jaunted-friendly character. Per CinemaBlend, Clooney stars as "a corporate downsizer who is obsessed with collecting frequent flier miles." Definitely our kind of movie.

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Tags: Vanity Fair / Toronto / Toronto Travel / Museums / Museum Travel / → All Tags

Vanity Fair To Shower Toronto With Celebrity Glitz

Hilary Swank as photographed by Norman Jean Roy

From a nude and pregnant Demi Moore to Tom Ford cozying up next to Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley (also nude, naturally), Vanity Fair is well-known for reflecting what's hot—and, apparently, clothes-free—in pop culture since the early 20th Century. In our celebrity-centric culture, Vanity Fair is bar none when it comes to showcasing the mythological glitz of Hollywood life, consistently attracting the curiosity of readers with photo spreads that are sometimes sexy, but always elegant.

With such a storied past, a retrospective seems like a natural way to commemorate 95 years of the magazine's glamorous perspective. Labeled a "smash" after its European tour (because Annie Leibovitz is the Bono of photographers), Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 is a collection of iconic images from the magazine's history. The exhibit will make a stop at Toronto's Institute for Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum from September 26th of this year through January 3, 2010, the first North American destination. Amelia Earheart, Charlie Chaplin, and Madonna are just some of the marquee names—and images—being used to draw crowds in Canada's capital city.

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Tags: Food Festivals / Food Travel / Festivals / Events / Canada Travel / Summer Festivals / → All Tags

Bring The Beano For A Canadian Baked Bean Festival

About two hours outside of Detroit and within a stones throw of Lake Huron sits the town of Zurich, Ontario. If you haven’t already had more than your share of baked beans this season, then you may want to head north to Zurich in a couple weeks to take in their 44th Annual Bean Festival on Saturday, August 22.

Any festival that has been going strong for this long has got to be a good one, and the Zurich festival is no exception—especially with a such a unique food focus. Friday night kicks things off with a classic car cruise and ends with a blast of fireworks in the night sky. They’ll park the cars so you can see them over the weekend, and there are a lot of them too; it’s one of the largest car shows in Ontario.

The big day is when the “bean meal” is consumed. Over a ton of raw beans are turned into their top secret recipe and are served along smoked pork, coleslaw and applesauce. However, if the aftershocks of all that bean consumption hasn't cleared the area by dark on Saturday night, there'll even be a "bean dance" to wrap up the festivities.

Related Stories:
· Zurich Bean Festival [Official Site]
· There's Nothing Corny About Iowa's 'Shuckfest 2009' [Jaunted]
· Festivals coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Mattsip]

Tags: Best-Jewish-Delis-Map / Delis / Food Travel / Restaurants / → All Tags

Best Jewish Delis in the World: Pancer's in Toronto

You might not guess it, but those Canadians sure know how to do Jewish delis. Our neighbor to the north has not one, but two legendary Jewish joints that rival the greats in New York and LA.

In addition to Schwartz's Deli in Montreal, there's also Moe Pancer's in Toronto, a North York legend that's been turning out homemade corned beef and pastrami since 1957. The deli, now being operated by the third generation of the same family, claims to have served Toronto some 6 million sandwiches over the past half-century, and it seems just about every order has earned rave reviews.

The original Moe Pancer famously said that he was a "five meat kind of guy," and served a limited, back-to-basics menu. His eponymous deli has expanded since then, and you can now order all the standards, from latkas and borscht to baby beef and chopped liver. But we still side with the old man—you can't beat a hot pastrami sandwich done right, and at $7 Canadian ($6 U.S.), you can't beat the prices here, either. (But you'll want to shell out an extra buck for a side or sour dills.)

Related Stories:
· Moe Pancer's [Official Site]
· Springtime in Montreal: Schwartz' Deli on Saint Laurent [Jaunted]
· The Best Jewish Delis in the World:: Chicago's Ashkenaz [Jaunted]

[Photo: Pancer's]

Tags: Street Art / Museums / Art / → All Tags

Graffiti For Humanity In Toronto

The eternal question surrounding graffiti is whether you consider it art or vandalism, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto is coming down on the side of art. ROM recently opened Housepaint, Phase 2: Shelter, the first exhibition on the subject of street art in a major Canadian museum. The exhibit features 10 canvas houses of different sizes painted by 10 of Canada’s leading street artists. The pieces are meant to draw attention to the social problems of poverty and homelessness in Canada and around the world.

One of the featured artists, Patrick Thompson, aka Evoke, is a hometown boy who has been part of the Canadian street art scene for more than 15 years. His work has been seen throughout Toronto and Ottawa, where he has also been active in the community. Thompson has become a heavyweight in the graffiti world for the distinctive "freestyle" tags he leaves on city streets and freight trains. He recently told the Town Crier he is glad his chosen profession has been debated with such vigor:

I don’t think graffiti art should get a good rap, it’s good to talk about things ... agitate people in a way most things don’t agitate them.

The houses will be on display at ROM until Sunday, July 5, when they will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity.

Related Stories:
· Royal Ontario Museum [Official Site]
· Beautiful Art, or Wanton Destruction? [Town Crier]
· The Tao of Thompson [Ottawa XPress]

[Photo: Town Crier]

Tags: Street Art / Art / Urban Travel / → All Tags

Bringing The Streets Indoors

Canadian street artists Fauxreel and Specter have renovated an old warehouse into a dilapidated fake urban wonderland.

Called "A City Renewal Project," it's a secret world hidden behind a fake storefront in Toronto. Inside the seedy store is what looks like the workspace of an artist, filled with wood, construction materials and lots of Bell telephones. A back door will transport you into a long warehouse space that looks like an indoor facsimile of a real city street. Life-size black and white reproductions of closed and derelict stores line the walls of the warehouse. Further adding to the reality of the installation are real bus shelters, billboards, garbage cans--and real garbage. And of course, everything is covered in graffiti and tags.

The artists fear that the practice of tearing down old buildings and putting up brand-new condos is destroying their city's cultural history. Even the building the show is housed in is scheduled to be knocked down to make way for new apartments. A City Renewal Project is up until November 23, at inconsistent hours, so check the website for details.

Related Stories:
· A City Renewal Project [Official Site]
· Outside In [Torontoist]
· Toronto Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: A City Renewal Project]

Tags: Ferris-Wheels-of-the-World / Ferris Wheels / Niagara Falls / Tourist Attractions / Videos / → All Tags

Ferris Wheel Travel: Flying Over Niagara Falls

Even with the warmer weather on the way out, Niagara Falls is still a great place to take in some of nature's beauty in cooler temperatures--especially within heated "pods."

The Niagara SkyWheel, situated on the Canadian side of the falls within Clifton Hill, rises more than 175 feet into the air as it slowly rotates to give riders a view of the falls.

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Tags: Maps / Travel Websites / Travel Blogs / Blogs / → All Tags

Toronto Travel: Mapping Where the Cool Kids Are

Online mapping programs have made traveling foolproof--for the most part. But there's always a time or two when you wish you could just type in a particular neighborhood instead of a specific venue. If you're planning a trip to Toronto anytime soon, you're all set.

BlogTO has gone the extra mile and offers maps and tips that offer directions as well as the vibe of the city's many neighborhoods. Available at hotels and other local establishments, the maps can also be ordered online and be shipped direct to you as long as you chip in for a small shipping cost.

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Tags: Culture Travel / Bollywood / Aishwarya Rai / Movie Travel / → All Tags

Singing, Dancing Travel: Beef up on Bollywood

Fans of big-screen musicals like "Hairspray," "Sweeney Todd" and the forthcoming "Mamma Mia!" may be both delighted with and frustrated by the Bollywood style of movie-making. The films native to India, which produces more movies each year than Hollywood, often top three hours and feature extended musical numbers and singers unknown outside of Asia. But India plans to show off its innovations with a Bollywood world tour led by two of its biggest actors.

Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan may not be household names Stateside but they are giant stars--say, Martin and Charlie Sheen without the divorce drama--in their native India. Son Abhishek is married to former Miss World Aishwarya Rai, whom Westerners may have seen in the Jane Austen-meets-Bollywood flick "Bride and Prejudice." (She'll also be appearing in next year's "Pink Panther" sequel with Steve Martin.)

The trio, along with several other Bollywood stars, will hit Trinidad, Atlantic City, London and more with "The Unforgettable Tour," which kicks off July 18 in Toronto.

Related Stories:
· The Unforgettable Tour [Official Site]
· Movie Travel coverage [Jaunted]