Father-and-son trip to Dallas proves everything's bigger in Texas. In this case, a hot mess is not the condition you left your last girlfriend or boyfriend in upon breakup. It's the signature dish at Dallas' hottest barbecue joint. Pecan Lodge's Hot Mess is the most tender and moist, low-and-slow-cooked brisket shredded atop a baked sweet potato. I...

Ancient tortoises, deserted beaches and travelling by catamaran are the highlights of this island-hopping holiday in the Indian ocean. Tyson stretches his wrinkly, 120-year-old neck as an invitation to stroke it. It feels much like it looks: dry and leathery, yet utterly wonderful. Tyson is a rare Aldabra giant land tortoise and me and my wife, Ker...

Indulge. Repent. Repeat. It will become my wife, Kerry, and I's mantra during a long weekend of self-regulated revelry in West Hollywood. For every drink sipped at the rooftop pool of The London West Hollywood Hotel there will be an hour of cycling in Beverly Hills spying the mansions of the rich and famous. The morning after a wine-paired dinner a...

The full moon is auspicious. Perched at a corner table bordering the wall of windows on the 35th floor of Asiate restaurant with the view spilling out to Columbus Circle and Central Park, my wife and I remark this lunar illumination can only spell good luck. I'd already jogged effortlessly in Central Park, New York City's forested gem, that morning...

Morocco's oasis city of Marrakech is mecca for tourists seeking all kinds of exotic. With a psychedelic pop soundtrack playing in our heads, my wife and I board the train to Marrakech in Casablanca. In three-and-a-half hours we'll see if Morocco's interior oasis city lives up to the melodic promises made famous by Crosby, Stills and Nash in the 196...

Morocco's largest city is newly accessible with an Air Canada year-round, non-stop, seven-hour flight from Montreal. On cue, an hour before sunset, there's an explosion of activity on Lalla Meriem Beach. Surfers catch a distant wave, swimmers amp up their splashing, soccer and volleyball games break out on the wide swath of dark, fine sand. Arabian...