Linda Barnard

Award-winning travel, food and film writer; National Newspaper Awards recipient

Travel Media Association of Canada

Society of American Travel Writers

International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association

Toronto Film Critics Association

Vacay.ca •

At Victoria’s Fairmont Empress Hotel, an Icon Is Reborn

Ten years after last call at The Bengal Lounge in Victoria, the legendary Indian-themed cocktail bar at the Fairmont Empress Hotel is back with a shorter name and a contemporary makeover.
Now called The Bengal, the 1,700-square-foot space opened in December as a breakfast room.
A dinner service is added while Q at the Fairmont Empress bar and restaurant undergoes a makeover. When the renovation is completed this spring, The Bengal will continue as a breakfast venue. In the evening it will be Vic...
The Globe and Mail •

An expedition cruise in the Northwest Passage became more than just a vacation

It takes two words to clear a shipboard dining room: “Polar bear.”

The lunchtime loudspeaker announcement from Adventure Canada expedition leader Julie Bernier had us scrambling for cameras and binoculars and sprinting toward the decks.

The captain slowed the ship. The polar bear was well away from us, ambling along a rocky beach at the foot of 265-metre cliffs on Prince Leopold Island in Nunavut’s Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin) Region. We excitedly watched it toy with a sealskin. It moved along the sho...
World Traveler •

Triple Play in Los Cabos

Variety adds spice to travel life, so make a Los Cabos cape escape a triple play with lively Cabo San Lucas, artsy sister town San José del Cabo and peaceful Todos Santos, one of Mexico’s designated culturally rich Pueblos Mágicos (magical towns).
From Todos Santos to East Cape
Los Cabos — the capes in English — wraps around the southern edge of Baja California Sur, Mexico, the long peninsula that runs down the Pacific coast of the country.
There are lots of “Los Cabos” names he...
Best Side Magazine •

Bermuda: A Quick Getaway with Lasting Appeal

Imagine an island with pale-pink beaches and turquoise water, where the limestone houses come in every colour of the rainbow, the sunsets look like cotton candy and the songs of tiny whistling frogs lull you to sleep.


With direct under-three-hour flights from Toronto via BermudAir and Air Canada, you can be in sub-tropical Bermuda in less time than it takes to drive to Muskoka.

The 55-square-kilometre, fishhook-shaped string of seven main islands linked by bridges isn’t in the Caribbean. It...
Life’s Incredible Journey •

Step into the world of All Creatures Great and Small in North Yorkshire

I steadied myself against the cow’s rump, felt around inside for the calf’s leg and pulled.It looks so easy when TV vet James Herriot does it on the series All Creatures Great and Small. Although the bovine birthing display at the World of James Herriot Museum in Britain’s North Yorkshire was a replica, the mock delivery still took some muscle.
Like millions of viewers in North America and the U.K., I’m a fan of this gentle rural drama about a 1940s veterinary practice in the fictional village o...
ZOOMER Magazine •

A Storm at Sea, From the Cocoon of B.C.’s Latest Spa

I sat on a low curved bench built into the undulating pink-sandstone walls of the faux cave sauna. As expected, sweat began to slide down my face in the 27-degree heat. But this was not a typical hot-box session.
This sauna had a high-definition video screen embedded in the cave wall. Drone footage of the Utah red desert played, creating thrilling sensations of swooping through striped slot canyons and barrelling upwards to towering rock formations. Haunting music played.
Next, I walked down the...
Best Side Magazine •

Chasing Joy in Wales

The Welsh have a word for the rush of happiness that comes from being in a perfectly delightful moment: hwyl. 

It’s pronounced something like “h-oil.” You’ll be forgiven for missing the nuances of the Welsh language, which is big on consonants. Although almost everyone in Wales speaks English, preserving Welsh – the language spoken by about 30 per cent of the country’s 3.2 million people – is a point of pride for the resilient inhabitants of this country on Britain’s west coast. In areas like...
Life’s Incredible Journey •

Liverpool Travel Guide: Beatles, Peaky Blinders and Beyond

The inspiration for John Lennon’s dreamy song about a place where nothing is real is indeed a real place. It’s one of the best things to do in Liverpool, especially if you’re a Beatles fan.
There are many ways to connect with the Fab Four in Britain’s fifth-largest city, but the strongest sense I had that I was in the birthplace of The Beatles was beyond a pair of ornate red gates in a suburban Liverpool neighbourhood.
It’s where the Strawberry Field Salvation Army children’s home once stood and...
Food, Wine & Travel Magazine •

Manchester Britpop Tour: Where Music Legends Were Born - Food, Wine & Travel

Manchester is popping the cork on a Champagne Supernova 2025. Chart-topping Manchester-born band Oasis has done what seemed impossible, reuniting for a five-month international tour.


Battling-brother frontmen Liam and Noel Gallagher called it quits 16 years ago. But sonic magic has a way of happening in this northwest England post-industrial city.


The city’s symbol is the Manchester worker bee. Tough times motivate Mancs, as the locals call themselves. When the cotton industry collapsed in...
Best Side Magazine •

Jasper, Alberta: the spectacular star of the Canadian Rockies

Like most traffic jams, when vehicles get backed up in Jasper National Park, Alberta, expect horns.


But they’re not the kind you think. Wildlife has the right of way in the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, and these horns are on photogenic groups of bighorn sheep. But with the splendour of the snow-capped Canadian Rockies all around, who could be in a hurry?


“This is their road,” our SunDog Tours bus driver explained, as we stopped for a half-dozen ewes a few minutes from the...
Best Side Magazine •

On an island off an island at the Fogo Island Inn

The best amenity at the Fogo Island Inn, the striking, X-shaped hotel on stilts, is the people of Fogo.
Their stories, heritage and labour are tied to everything at the award-winning inn, designed by Newfoundland-born, Norway-based architect Todd Saunders to echo a traditional outport fishing station.
The address is in the community of Joe Batt’s Arm, population 778, but the inn says its location is “on an island, off an island, at one of the four corners of the Earth.”
Food, Wine & Travel Magazine •

In the Great Bear Rainforest, a Wild Visit That’s Gentle on the Land

Snout cresting the water, the sea wolf passed about 20 feet from our 10-passenger boat, swimming strongly for shore from a rock islet in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest.

We had been up before dawn on Maple Leaf Adventures‘ 138-foot expedition catamaran Cascadia, hoping to spot an elusive sea wolf, a rare species whose main diet is seafood. Remarkably, it swims to get it.


We’d had reason to be optimistic. There had been two brief sea wolf sightings the day before while Cascadia’s 18...
The Globe and Mail •

Vienna strikes a high note with Johann Strauss birthday celebrations

Vienna is hosting a year-long 200th birthday party for Johann Strauss II, celebrating the composer who gave the Austrian capital its unofficial theme song with The Blue Danube Waltz.

Vienna’s Waltz King has also been dubbed the world’s first pop star. Strauss was a master self-promoter, whose huge catalogue of lively music created fans across the globe.

From its starring role in the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey to the final moments of the year when...
Life’s Incredible Journey •

New luxury hotel Naturally Pacific Resort Campbell River

Naturally Pacific Resort, a 100-room boutique property located next to the Campbell River Golf Club, could be the “little shining star” that puts Campbell River on the map as a Vancouver Island tourist destination, says general manager Justin Stevens.

The resort opened May 11, in time for the summer travel season.

While outdoor activities have brought visitors to the area for decades, the small Vancouver Island city isn’t the first place that comes to mind for a luxury resort.

“Neither was T
Travelier •

Pop Rock and Pinot Noir: A Transplanted Canadian in Japan

“I think I’ll be living here for the rest of my life,” says Blaise Plant. He’s not talking about his hometown of Ottawa. He’s referring to his adopted home near Sendai, the capital city of Miyagi in Japan’s northern Tohoku region. Plant is part of a growing winemaking industry in this part of the country, proud to be the first officially licensed Canadian farmer in Japan.

This is not his only job: Plant is also a founding member of J-pop/rock band Monkey Majik with his older brother Maynard.
YAM MAGAZINE •

Shaft Cocktail: Uncovering Canada’s Coffee-Infused Icon

When you order a cocktail, you’re probably not checking its birth certificate. But bloodlines matter when it comes to the Shaft.

Victoria and Calgary have been duking it out for more than 25 years over which city launched the legendary quick-sipping coffee drink with a boozy kick.

With cocktail history, there’s a good chance chroniclers have hazy recollections. Dates, names and places can get murky.

Getting to the heart of the Shaft story took time...
InsideHook •

Spanish Road to Hog Heaven: Superstar Pigs and the World’s Best Ham

If you’ve never heard of Extremadura, Spain, you’re not alone. But this home of what connoisseurs call the best cured ham in the world (sorry Parma) is a food-lover’s delight and more. There’s a timeless quality to this uncrowded region of tree-dotted pastures; protected areas for hiking, cycling and birdwatching; Roman ruins; peaceful walled cities and hilltop medieval castles.

And of course, there’s the Jamón
Post Media/National Post •

Step into 'A Complete Unknown' on this tour of New York City

For more than 40 years, Greenwich Village record shop owner John Pita has had a window on Bob Dylan history.

His store, the Record Runner, faces block-long Jones Street, where Dylan and his girlfriend and muse Suze Rotolo were photographed on a snowy February day in 1963.

The photo became the cover of Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin‘ Bob Dylan and a pop culture calling card for one of New York’s most historic and fascinating urban neighbourhoods.

Article content

With James Mangold’s bi...
YAM MAGAZINE •

Where the Sea Wolves Play

Our boats drifted silently in the early-morning gloom of the Great Bear Rainforest. We squinted and raised binoculars and cameras, trying to make out the shapes on the beach.

Was that a sea wolf lying on the white sand? Two sea wolves? Oh boy — pups!

We were up before dawn to board a pair of 10-passenger tenders from Maple Leaf Adventure’s 138-foot expedition catamaran Cascadia. We hoped to spot the sea wolf, a rare marine species unique to the Great Bear Rainforest and certa...
YAM MAGAZINE •

Sweet Sensation: Victoria's viral chocolate bar

Move over, Dubai. Safaa Naeman thinks Victoria deserves its own homegrown take on the viral pistachio chocolate bar. The owner of Syriana Restaurant and Catering started making and selling the lusciously crunchy-gooey bars encased in rich white, milk or dark chocolate shells.

“I decided just to do it because we use kataifi all the time in our place. And I know the recipe for it. So absolutely I can do it,” says Naeman, whose Esquimalt c...
The Globe and Mail •

Screening Britain: Where to visit film and TV sets of your favourite shows

Forget tea with the King. Most visitors to Great Britain say they’re more interested in visiting Harry Potter, Bridget Jones or Bridgerton’s gossip sheet writer, Lady Whistledown.

According to VisitBritain, 90 per cent of potential U.K. visitors said they want to explore places where their favourite movie and TV scenes were set or filmed.

“Globally, we are all devoted to a particular show,” says Lewis Swan, a longtime James Bond fan who started Brit Movie Tours in 2009. He credits social media...
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Vacay.ca •

At Victoria’s Fairmont Empress Hotel, an Icon Is Reborn

Ten years after last call at The Bengal Lounge in Victoria, the legendary Indian-themed cocktail bar at the Fairmont Empress Hotel is back with a shorter name and a contemporary makeover.
Now called The Bengal, the 1,700-square-foot space opened in December as a breakfast room.
A dinner service is added while Q at the Fairmont Empress bar and restaurant undergoes a makeover. When the renovation is completed this spring, The Bengal will continue as a breakfast venue. In the evening it will be Vic...
The Globe and Mail •

An expedition cruise in the Northwest Passage became more than just a vacation

It takes two words to clear a shipboard dining room: “Polar bear.”

The lunchtime loudspeaker announcement from Adventure Canada expedition leader Julie Bernier had us scrambling for cameras and binoculars and sprinting toward the decks.

The captain slowed the ship. The polar bear was well away from us, ambling along a rocky beach at the foot of 265-metre cliffs on Prince Leopold Island in Nunavut’s Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin) Region. We excitedly watched it toy with a sealskin. It moved along the sho...
World Traveler •

Triple Play in Los Cabos

Variety adds spice to travel life, so make a Los Cabos cape escape a triple play with lively Cabo San Lucas, artsy sister town San José del Cabo and peaceful Todos Santos, one of Mexico’s designated culturally rich Pueblos Mágicos (magical towns).
From Todos Santos to East Cape
Los Cabos — the capes in English — wraps around the southern edge of Baja California Sur, Mexico, the long peninsula that runs down the Pacific coast of the country.
There are lots of “Los Cabos” names he...
Life’s Incredible Journey •

Step into the world of All Creatures Great and Small in North Yorkshire

I steadied myself against the cow’s rump, felt around inside for the calf’s leg and pulled.It looks so easy when TV vet James Herriot does it on the series All Creatures Great and Small. Although the bovine birthing display at the World of James Herriot Museum in Britain’s North Yorkshire was a replica, the mock delivery still took some muscle.
Like millions of viewers in North America and the U.K., I’m a fan of this gentle rural drama about a 1940s veterinary practice in the fictional village o...
ZOOMER Magazine •

A Storm at Sea, From the Cocoon of B.C.’s Latest Spa

I sat on a low curved bench built into the undulating pink-sandstone walls of the faux cave sauna. As expected, sweat began to slide down my face in the 27-degree heat. But this was not a typical hot-box session.
This sauna had a high-definition video screen embedded in the cave wall. Drone footage of the Utah red desert played, creating thrilling sensations of swooping through striped slot canyons and barrelling upwards to towering rock formations. Haunting music played.
Next, I walked down the...
Food, Wine & Travel Magazine •

Manchester Britpop Tour: Where Music Legends Were Born - Food, Wine & Travel

Manchester is popping the cork on a Champagne Supernova 2025. Chart-topping Manchester-born band Oasis has done what seemed impossible, reuniting for a five-month international tour.


Battling-brother frontmen Liam and Noel Gallagher called it quits 16 years ago. But sonic magic has a way of happening in this northwest England post-industrial city.


The city’s symbol is the Manchester worker bee. Tough times motivate Mancs, as the locals call themselves. When the cotton industry collapsed in...
Best Side Magazine •

Jasper, Alberta: the spectacular star of the Canadian Rockies

Like most traffic jams, when vehicles get backed up in Jasper National Park, Alberta, expect horns.


But they’re not the kind you think. Wildlife has the right of way in the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, and these horns are on photogenic groups of bighorn sheep. But with the splendour of the snow-capped Canadian Rockies all around, who could be in a hurry?


“This is their road,” our SunDog Tours bus driver explained, as we stopped for a half-dozen ewes a few minutes from the...
Best Side Magazine •

On an island off an island at the Fogo Island Inn

The best amenity at the Fogo Island Inn, the striking, X-shaped hotel on stilts, is the people of Fogo.
Their stories, heritage and labour are tied to everything at the award-winning inn, designed by Newfoundland-born, Norway-based architect Todd Saunders to echo a traditional outport fishing station.
The address is in the community of Joe Batt’s Arm, population 778, but the inn says its location is “on an island, off an island, at one of the four corners of the Earth.”
Food, Wine & Travel Magazine •

In the Great Bear Rainforest, a Wild Visit That’s Gentle on the Land

Snout cresting the water, the sea wolf passed about 20 feet from our 10-passenger boat, swimming strongly for shore from a rock islet in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest.

We had been up before dawn on Maple Leaf Adventures‘ 138-foot expedition catamaran Cascadia, hoping to spot an elusive sea wolf, a rare species whose main diet is seafood. Remarkably, it swims to get it.


We’d had reason to be optimistic. There had been two brief sea wolf sightings the day before while Cascadia’s 18...
The Globe and Mail •

Vienna strikes a high note with Johann Strauss birthday celebrations

Vienna is hosting a year-long 200th birthday party for Johann Strauss II, celebrating the composer who gave the Austrian capital its unofficial theme song with The Blue Danube Waltz.

Vienna’s Waltz King has also been dubbed the world’s first pop star. Strauss was a master self-promoter, whose huge catalogue of lively music created fans across the globe.

From its starring role in the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey to the final moments of the year when...
Life’s Incredible Journey •

New luxury hotel Naturally Pacific Resort Campbell River

Naturally Pacific Resort, a 100-room boutique property located next to the Campbell River Golf Club, could be the “little shining star” that puts Campbell River on the map as a Vancouver Island tourist destination, says general manager Justin Stevens.

The resort opened May 11, in time for the summer travel season.

While outdoor activities have brought visitors to the area for decades, the small Vancouver Island city isn’t the first place that comes to mind for a luxury resort.

“Neither was T
Travelier •

Pop Rock and Pinot Noir: A Transplanted Canadian in Japan

“I think I’ll be living here for the rest of my life,” says Blaise Plant. He’s not talking about his hometown of Ottawa. He’s referring to his adopted home near Sendai, the capital city of Miyagi in Japan’s northern Tohoku region. Plant is part of a growing winemaking industry in this part of the country, proud to be the first officially licensed Canadian farmer in Japan.

This is not his only job: Plant is also a founding member of J-pop/rock band Monkey Majik with his older brother Maynard.
YAM MAGAZINE •

Shaft Cocktail: Uncovering Canada’s Coffee-Infused Icon

When you order a cocktail, you’re probably not checking its birth certificate. But bloodlines matter when it comes to the Shaft.

Victoria and Calgary have been duking it out for more than 25 years over which city launched the legendary quick-sipping coffee drink with a boozy kick.

With cocktail history, there’s a good chance chroniclers have hazy recollections. Dates, names and places can get murky.

Getting to the heart of the Shaft story took time...
InsideHook •

Spanish Road to Hog Heaven: Superstar Pigs and the World’s Best Ham

If you’ve never heard of Extremadura, Spain, you’re not alone. But this home of what connoisseurs call the best cured ham in the world (sorry Parma) is a food-lover’s delight and more. There’s a timeless quality to this uncrowded region of tree-dotted pastures; protected areas for hiking, cycling and birdwatching; Roman ruins; peaceful walled cities and hilltop medieval castles.

And of course, there’s the Jamón
Post Media/National Post •

Step into 'A Complete Unknown' on this tour of New York City

For more than 40 years, Greenwich Village record shop owner John Pita has had a window on Bob Dylan history.

His store, the Record Runner, faces block-long Jones Street, where Dylan and his girlfriend and muse Suze Rotolo were photographed on a snowy February day in 1963.

The photo became the cover of Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin‘ Bob Dylan and a pop culture calling card for one of New York’s most historic and fascinating urban neighbourhoods.

Article content

With James Mangold’s bi...
YAM MAGAZINE •

Where the Sea Wolves Play

Our boats drifted silently in the early-morning gloom of the Great Bear Rainforest. We squinted and raised binoculars and cameras, trying to make out the shapes on the beach.

Was that a sea wolf lying on the white sand? Two sea wolves? Oh boy — pups!

We were up before dawn to board a pair of 10-passenger tenders from Maple Leaf Adventure’s 138-foot expedition catamaran Cascadia. We hoped to spot the sea wolf, a rare marine species unique to the Great Bear Rainforest and certa...
YAM MAGAZINE •

Sweet Sensation: Victoria's viral chocolate bar

Move over, Dubai. Safaa Naeman thinks Victoria deserves its own homegrown take on the viral pistachio chocolate bar. The owner of Syriana Restaurant and Catering started making and selling the lusciously crunchy-gooey bars encased in rich white, milk or dark chocolate shells.

“I decided just to do it because we use kataifi all the time in our place. And I know the recipe for it. So absolutely I can do it,” says Naeman, whose Esquimalt c...
The Globe and Mail •

Screening Britain: Where to visit film and TV sets of your favourite shows

Forget tea with the King. Most visitors to Great Britain say they’re more interested in visiting Harry Potter, Bridget Jones or Bridgerton’s gossip sheet writer, Lady Whistledown.

According to VisitBritain, 90 per cent of potential U.K. visitors said they want to explore places where their favourite movie and TV scenes were set or filmed.

“Globally, we are all devoted to a particular show,” says Lewis Swan, a longtime James Bond fan who started Brit Movie Tours in 2009. He credits social media...
Toronto Star •

John Grisham on Framed, his new book about the wrongfully convicted

Bestselling novelist and former lawyer John Grisham made his name writing tense courtroom thrillers, where the drama turns on legal intrigue and protagonists determined to get to the truth. These themes run through his new non-fiction book, “Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions.”

Grisham, former Democratic member of the House of Representatives for Mississippi, wrote “Framed” with Jim McCloskey, founder of Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey-based non-profit that works to exonerate wrongly convicted prisoners serving life sentences or facing the death penalty.
Vacay.ca •

Healing Caves and Elevated Cuisine Add Lustre to Kingfisher Pacific Resort

Wellness becomes a multi-sensory experience at the new $3.5 million Healing Caves at the oceanfront Kingfisher Pacific Resort & Spa in the Comox Valley of eastern Vancouver Island.
The global feel-good virtual trip begins in the blazing heat of 82 Celsius degrees (180 Fahrenheit) designed to emulate a red rock desert, moves to a steamy El Salvador rainforest, and is followed by the minus-10 Celsius (14 Fahrenheit) chill of British Columbia’s Coast Mountains. And that’s just the first half.
With...
Life’s Incredible Journey •

Ljubljana Slovenia - fairy tale magic of dragons and castles

Here be dragons. With centuries of folklore about mythical, fire-breathing creatures, snow-capped mountains and more than 500 castles, it’s no wonder the landlocked European country of Slovenia is often described in fairy-tale terms.You may not know much about Slovenia, the relatively newly independent nation which broke from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. About the size of New Jersey, Slovenia and photogenic capital Ljubljana (pronounced loo-blyah-nuh) are hidden gems for travellers looking for...
Best Side Magazine •

Germany's Erzgebirge: Where Christmas Comes to Life

From the Middle Ages, people living in the low ranges of Germany’s Ore Mountains — called the Erzgebirge in German — went deep underground to mine silver. By the 16th century, the precious metal had run out and they needed a new way to feed their families. With forests full of free materials around then, miners swapped pickaxes for chisels to make toys, candleholders and figures in a Christmas craft tradition that still delights kids and collectors today.
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