Channeling our inner oligarch, we stride up the red carpet and step aboard the super yacht Stardom. This four-storey, 42-metre-long floating beauty is all gleaming white fibreglass, polished teak, glittering chrome and cushy sectional couches. Captain Prithviraj Chandran welcomes us with a smile and gestures for us to ascend three levels to the Sky...

Red sand sprays off the SUV's front grill and tires as we accelerate. We pitch forward, pop back up and gain some air before hitting the sand again, slightly askew. All the while, the five of us in the SUV, squeal in delight. After all, it's our first time dune bashing – the exhilarating sport of careening through the desert in a 4x4. There are no ...

A stay at the Hotel de la Ville. It works! My wife, Kerry, and I each tossed a coin over our left shoulder into the famed Trevi Fountain in Rome when we were there in 2014. Myth has it, if you do so, you are guaranteed to return to The Eternal City to huck yet another coin into the water of the ornate Trevi. Be it magic, fate, self-fulfilling proph...

The fastest-growing sport in North America is a hit on a cruise ship Mike and Marga Kidd wipe the floor with us. Or, more precisely, they wipe the pickleball court with my wife, Kerry, and I, giving us an 11-2 drubbing. We're so unevenly matched that Kerry and I cheered each of the two points we scored as if we won the world championship. You see, ...

This is the most envy-worthy way to see the Portuguese capital Like a World War II machine gunner, I hunker down in the sidecar of the motorcycle. You see, during the war in Europe, the Americans retrofitted motorcycle sidecars with machine guns so the soldier passenger could exchange fire with the enemy. Motorcycle sidecars were also used in the w...

A multi-generational trip to Scotland hits all the highlights. Swing. Thwack! And my mom's first tee shot at the Devenick course at the Paul Lawrie Golf Centre in Aberdeen, Scotland gets nice air and distance to land – plonk – on the green 10 metres from the hole. A two putt in and my mom, Anne MacNaull, is on par. Me, my son, Alex, and my dad, Bob...