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

ZOOMER Magazine •

Keeping a Look Out for ‘Peaky Blinders’

Who would have thought the ruthless, real-life Peaky Blinders gang would become hometown heroes in Birmingham, the U.K. city where they once ran riot? All it took was 100-odd years, the birth of screen-based tourism, and the creativity of Birmingham writer-producer-creator Steven Knight, who spun family stories of his dad’s larcenous bookmaker uncles into a popular Netflix series.

Who would have thought the ruthless, real-life Peaky Blinders gang would become hometown heroes in Birmingham, the...
Post Media/National Post •

Here's where Canadians are travelling this summer

A recent YouGov survey done for Flight Centre Travel Group Canada showed 37 per cent of those polled were prioritizing domestic travel this year. The World Cup is a big domestic summer tourism driver as host cities Toronto and Vancouver welcome some 350,000 fans each.

The event is “an unprecedented opportunity,” Destination BC says, showcasing Vancouver for one of the globe’s most-watched sporting events. Destination BC hopes to entice soccer fans to see places outside the cit...
Post Media/National Post •

Montreal makeup artist Donald Mowat made Emily Blunt look bad — and she loved every minute of it

Montreal-born makeup artist Donald Mowat is happy to swap the glittering Academy Awards ceremony in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles this month for a makeup trailer on a Vancouver hit TV series set. Mowat, a 2021 Oscar nominee for makeup and hairstyling on Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster Dune: Part One, is on location in Vancouver, w...
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....
Food, Wine & Travel Magazine •

Peru on a Plate: Exploring South America's Culinary Capital - Food, Wine & Travel

While Machu Picchu tops Peru’s list of most-visited destinations, for food lovers, some of the most remarkable experiences in this culinary heartland of the Americas come on a plate, not on the Inca Trail.


Start in the capital Lima, a lively, arty, and historic city of more than 11 million people on the Pacific Ocean. From street food to Michelin stars, Lima earns its crown as the country’s capital of gastronomy.


Then move 650 miles inland and south to Peru’s second-biggest city, Arequipa....
Vacay.ca •

A Different Kind of Heated Rivalry: Montreal Challenges NYC in Bagel Battle

In a frosty time for Canada-U.S. relations, Tourisme Montréal brought some good-natured heated rivalry to a travel conference in New York last month.
Emili Bellefleur and Martine Venne of Tourisme Montréal, the city’s destination marketing agency, wore sweatshirts with the slogan: “Montréal bagels are better than New York’s” at IMM, North America’s largest travel industry-media marketplace.
As they hoped, the shirts from Toronto-based leisurewear brand Province of Canada got people talking at th...
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.”
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Post Media/National Post •

Here's where Canadians are travelling this summer

A recent YouGov survey done for Flight Centre Travel Group Canada showed 37 per cent of those polled were prioritizing domestic travel this year. The World Cup is a big domestic summer tourism driver as host cities Toronto and Vancouver welcome some 350,000 fans each.

The event is “an unprecedented opportunity,” Destination BC says, showcasing Vancouver for one of the globe’s most-watched sporting events. Destination BC hopes to entice soccer fans to see places outside the cit...
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....
Food, Wine & Travel Magazine •

Peru on a Plate: Exploring South America's Culinary Capital - Food, Wine & Travel

While Machu Picchu tops Peru’s list of most-visited destinations, for food lovers, some of the most remarkable experiences in this culinary heartland of the Americas come on a plate, not on the Inca Trail.


Start in the capital Lima, a lively, arty, and historic city of more than 11 million people on the Pacific Ocean. From street food to Michelin stars, Lima earns its crown as the country’s capital of gastronomy.


Then move 650 miles inland and south to Peru’s second-biggest city, Arequipa....
Vacay.ca •

A Different Kind of Heated Rivalry: Montreal Challenges NYC in Bagel Battle

In a frosty time for Canada-U.S. relations, Tourisme Montréal brought some good-natured heated rivalry to a travel conference in New York last month.
Emili Bellefleur and Martine Venne of Tourisme Montréal, the city’s destination marketing agency, wore sweatshirts with the slogan: “Montréal bagels are better than New York’s” at IMM, North America’s largest travel industry-media marketplace.
As they hoped, the shirts from Toronto-based leisurewear brand Province of Canada got people talking at th...
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.

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With James Mangold’s bi...
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