Archive for the ‘Travel And Leisure’ Category
In order to find good Barrie hotels, one needs a little bit of background about Barrie itself. Barrie is a city in Southern Ontario located on Kempenfelt Bay which leads out to Lake Simcoe. The city offers all the advantages of a bustling urban populace located in a picturesque getaway setting.
The scenic and beautiful Bay lends itself to all kinds of tourist and leisure activities, not to mention events and festivals on the famed Barrie waterfront. Fall is a great time for outdoor recreation and hiking and biking along the shore. Winter brings exciting activities like ice fishing, nordic skiing, snowboarding and snow tubing.
Also, the city is sandwiched between Toronto and Muskoka, so there’s always plenty of commuters and getaway vacationers. All these visitors will likely be looking for cozy and romantic hotels with views of the Bay along Lakeshore Drive. Depending on the season, resort accommodations are also popular at one of the many hotels in resorts like Horseshoe Resort.
Another big reason for the large number of visitors in Barrie is that the 6-lane Highway 400 runs through right through the city. Those staying in Barrie overnight while passing through will want a hotel close to the highway exits. This means hotels near to the Essa Road exit or those in Downtown on Fairview Road which runs alongside the Highway.
The highway also leads straight to Pearson Int’l Airport, about an hour’s drive from Barrie. Pearson is the main airport serving Toronto, so there’s always heavy airport passenger traffic between Barrie and the airport. For these Pearson airport travelers and for travelers from Barrie’s own airport, Barrie hotels offer many conveniences such as rooms for layovers that one usually finds only at airport hotels.
The Barrie waterfront is also an event hotspot. The Kempenfelt arts & crafts festival brings in hundreds of thousands of people every year. The Barrie Waterfront Festival offers live bands, clowns, food and a festive carnival atmosphere. The Waterfront is undergoing a major facelift, but even now there are plenty of hotels which put festive-goers in the thick of all the action.
Barrie also gets many business travelers and groups in town for doing business with the Coca-Cola bottling plant or one of the many other large businesses. These visitors will find plenty of quality Downtown hotels offering executive suites and fully equipped business centers. Many also have meeting rooms and ballrooms for conferences and weddings, and offer catering for these events.
At almost every hotel in Barrie, visitors will find all the usual conveniences. This includes swimming pools, free parking space, room service and high speed internet. Laundry and dry-cleaning services are quite common, and so are fitness centers and ATM machines.
In summary, Barrie hotels are available for many different kinds of travelers and in many different locations all over the city. Which one is more suitable basically depends on the purpose of the visit and the budget, not to mention the season. Whatever the choice, one thing that is sure is that the stay is likely to be enjoyable.
Cycling Clothing & Keeping Fit
Cycling is a brilliant option for anyone looking to get fit and active and cycling clothing is as important as the bike for the cyclist. Not only is biking a full body workout that improves your strength and stamina, but it costs nothing compared to a gym membership and is a great mode of transport. Why pay to sit on an exercise bike when you can get out into the outdoors, get where you need to be and get fit at the same time? Of course, when you’re pushing yourself on your bike, you’re going to get quite hot if you don’t have the right equipment on. Lightweight, breathable items of clothing that expel sweat away from the body, such as cycling shorts, zipped jerseys and vented jackets are invaluable items of cycling clothing that keep your ride comfortable and keep you cool throughout.
A Great Way to Get Around
If you’re simply popping to the shops or to a friends house, you may not need to get fully kitted out, but there are still handy pieces of cycling clothing that help keep you safe from the elements as well as the traffic. The great thing about bikes is you can just get up and go, whenever, wherever. Nothing beats the feeling of riding past a long traffic jam and hassle on the roads can be avoided easily by cycling, especially on shorter journeys and when running errands. As everyone knows, the weather can be unpredictable at any time of year and a simple, brightly coloured, waterproof shell, reflective helmet and a pair of cycling gloves are all you need to stay safe and comfortable on your ride.
A waterproof outer jacket, being single layer thin, can be worn over a normal jacket and provides 100% protection from the rain. Gloves are easily stored and are great for stopping your hands chafing against the handlebar grips, especially in cold weather. These essential pieces of cycling clothing enable you to ride confidently and safely, even if you’re just nipping to town.
Cycling Clothing and the Countryside
There’s no better way to get out and explore the scenic countryside than on a leisure cycle and you’ll certainly feel the benefits of your cycling clothing on long trips out. Cycling the country’s picturesque countryside villages, national parks and forests is a very popular pass time in the summer months and is a great way to get away from work and the city and is perfect for meeting new people along the way too. If you’re spending extended periods of time out on a bike, you’ll want to be kitted out properly to avoid any discomfort spoiling your experience. A pair of cycling glasses keeps the glare out of your eyes when riding into the sun and a decent waterproof cycling jacket is important. You can always bring some bike tights along with you incase you begin to feel the chill as the evening draws in and the cycling clothing you already have on isn’t warm enough.
The flip side of travelers’ diarrhea is constipation. While the old scourge of “tourista” gets most of the publicity, so to speak, constipation is almost as prevalent among travelers… and for some of the same reasons. No, it probably won’t be the water, but it can be the jet lag and the diet that bind you up.
Being tired from not sleeping well on the plane, being dehydrated, the stress of travel… all of these may add to your problem. But wait, you say, I thought those caused diarrhea! Yep, they can cause both, depending on all the other circumstances, and depending on your body. What gives some people the runs, clogs up others.
It may be that you traded off your usual fiber-fortified morning cereal for a fiber-free continental breakfast… Too much refined bread and the cheeses that go with it maybe? My grandmother used to say, “Eat cheese, it’s binding.”
I used to love all those new breads and cheeses to sample for breakfast when we travel, but now I try to eat those “active enzyme yogurts” before we travel, and I look for yogurt and fiber rich foods at the breakfast buffet.
Our bodies are conditioned to the clock, and your body clock is all off if you’ve passed over several time zones….
so for a couple of days, your body (and your bowels) can’t figure out when it’s supposed to work.
When it comes, don’t ignore the urge… you may be walking down the street in a foreign city and think, “Oh no! Not now!” Well, not going will just block things up more later, so do your best to find a toilet. Eventually your body will get on a schedule in your new time zone.
Remember to call it a toilet or WC. Calling it a restroom will only confuse people in many countries. And speaking of the facilities… Sometimes it can even be the strange bathroom facilities that cause travelers’ constipation in some people.
Those facilities may not be as clean as you’re used to… or you could encounter one of those “hole-in-the-ground toilets” instead of “the porcelain throne”. Some people just can’t go when the facilities are so different. I guess you’d better be looking for higher end (so to speak) hotels where things are more apt to be what you’re used to.
When you go on vacation, you probably drink more alcohol than you do at home. Alcohol can dehydrate you, and that can make you more apt to suffer irregularity.
Drink plenty of water and fruit juices. Try to keep meals on a regular schedule, and try to eat plenty of raw fruits and leafy vegetables. Go for the prunes, granola, and yogurt if you get the chance at breakfast. You might want to try taking packets of a fiber supplement like Metamucil along.
And get plenty of exercise…. it’ll help get things moving again.
More Traveling Articles
Responsible travel, eco-travel, sustainable travel – there are slightly different meanings to each of these travel phrases, but they do overlap.
The eco-tourist is concerned about how travel affects the environment. You might buy carbon offsets to compensate for your flight or make sure your hotel offers the chance to reuse towels. If you’re hiking, you stay on trails and “pack it in, pack it out”. You respect wildlife you encounter.
For sustainable travel, you want to make sure that your tour operator gives back to the community… that your travel helps to sustain the local culture, not destroy it. You use local guides, try to eat in locally owned restaurants so that the people in that area profit.
If you want them to protect animals in a national park, for instance, it has to be worth something to them… not just to some international tour operator.
That sounds pretty responsible, doesn’t it? Well, it is responsible.
If you’re really motivated to do good when you travel, you can participate in volunteer vacations and build shelters for people who have suffered natural disasters. You can travel with medical organizations to take health clinics to remote locations that have no medical facilities.
To give you our definition, we think responsible travel means what it says…. you should be responsible for your impact on the environment, and responsible for the way your travel affects local people and their way of life.
We say over and over again that we think everyone can be an ambassador when they travel. You can show the people you visit that you care about their culture, that you understand them…. and by letting them get to know you, they’ll learn something about your country that they can’t learn from TV or newspaper or propaganda. That kind of responsible travel promotes understanding and understanding promotes peace.
When we went to a wedding in Pakistan, years ago, I remember talking with the father of the groom… the groom had gone to live abroad for many years, including several years close to us in the U.S. His parents were worried about the influence that our “foreign culture” might have had on him.
When they met us, they told us that they were so happy because, in spite of all of our differences, we were really just like them… not like some of those TV shows that they saw from the U.S.
Many small acts of responsible travel can add up and eventually, if we all work at it, they can have a positive affect on the way people understand each other… and might even start making the world a more peaceful place.
We rejoice in the differences we find when we visit new places. Responsible travel can infuse money into an economy and help people modernize, but maintain their cultures. We want to travel as gently and responsibly as possible so that the differences remain for the benefit of everyone for a long, long time.
Find More Traveling Articles
Do you dread those trips to the dog kennels?
They can be horrible can’t they? You are looking forward to your holiday but the pet travel is one thing you’d gladly miss out on. Why not use pet travel services in the future? You could ring specialist pet travel companies and experienced handlers will collect and transport your pet to the kennels. The kind and friendly handlers drive a fully equipped van and your precious pet will be perfectly happy as they complete their journey to the kennels. You’re bound to be worried as a doting dog owner but there’s really no need when your pet is in the safe hands of the pet travel team. Ask for your dog to be picked up from your doorstep and they can be taken to the kennels in complete comfort thanks to the pet travel team.
Love your cats?
They still have to go to the cattery at some time. They are crafty creatures; they know how to play on your emotions. Wise up this year and use the services of the pet travel experts. Say goodbye to your cat at the doorstep of your home and hand them over to the pet travel service. Can’t face the heartbreak of the cattery? You don’t have to. Book the pet travel service. Bid farewell at your home address; your cat can be taken and you’ll both feel less stressed. You deserve that holiday; it’s the only one you’ll get this year. Rely on the pet travel service to transport your precious pet back and forward to the cattery for your convenience.
What happens to you pets when your house is sold?
Have you thought about how they’ll feel moving to another home? Who will take them to the new address? Have you the room in your car? It’s certainly a worry. Thankfully the pet travel experts can help you in times of crisis. Pet moves to different addresses are just some of the fabulous services that they provide. They understand it can be stressful moving home, for you and all of your pets. They provide pet travel services to take your animals from your old home to your new one in a relaxed and stress-free manner. Their fully equipped van is perfect for transporting your prized animals. Safety is paramount to the pet travel service and your pets might just enjoy the trip to their new home.