Sitting in St. Elmo Steak House in downtown Indianapolis, I was trying to convince my friend that electricity had something to do with the establishment’s name. “No, no” said my dining companion. “St. Elmo is the patron saint of sailors.” Hummm.

I was expecting a rusting, crime-infested, nowheresville. Instead I found a vibrant, classy city with one of the world’s top orchestras, stunning Victorian-era architecture, acres of parkland, posh hotels such as the Ritz- Carlton and the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, Tiffany stained-glass windows, and a crescent of museums and galleries. Cleveland is no Mistake on the [...]

The verdant, rolling hills were lined with grapevines heavy with fruit. A fierce sun was making me look forward to a bit of shade al fresco where I could savor a cool glass or two of nature’s finest fermented beverage. This wasn’t Tuscany. Not even Bordeaux. I was in Geneva. Ohio, that is. Who knew [...]

When I exited the mayhem and hubbub of Orlando’s theme parks, I was ready for a melt down. Luckily, I found a more soothing alternative. A mere 10-minute drive away was a tranquil oasis where service and attention to detail reign supreme. Occupying a 230-acre site along Shingle Creek, the headwaters of the Florida Everglades, [...]

Sweet, savory, spicy or fruity: Canadian spas have come up with treatments that tease the taste buds, but work from the outside in to heal, polish and nurture your skin: • At Summit Lodge’s Taman Sari Spa in Whistler, B.C., the Royal Javanese combo includes a head-to-toe Javanese massage, Lulur herbal/spice body scrub, scalp massage, [...]

Across Canada spas are dreaming up some of the most divine experiences. Here’s a sampling… • THE DREAMING feels so good you’ll want to pinch yourself to make sure you’re really at Toronto’s Elmwood Spa and not ensconced in the fluffy clouds of dreamland. Based on Australian aboriginal traditions, this whole body treatment starts with [...]

Clarins Canada Skin Spa, which opened a little more than a year ago in Toronto, is a sleek red-and-white emporium where treatments given in luxe comfort can painlessly turn back the clock. Forget those excruciating extractions associated with most facials, the face (and body) treatments here are marked simply by a feathery, light, signature massage, [...]

They don’t really want you moving the furniture around the way the late ex-Beatle did. But you can sleep in and have breakfast amongst snowy, plumped up pillows while munching on the same foods John Lennon and Yoko Ono enjoyed more than 30 years ago. The John Lennon suite in the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel [...]