Mother's Day is just around the corner. And this mother wants…a girlfriend's getaway. Oh yes, and I want those sweet homemade cards from my little ones too. But there's nothing like travel with your friends. So impossible to arrange with all our busy lives, but so impossible to forget too. 

In this story for WestJet magazine, I round up four places that are ideal for girlfriends' getaways from the fields and horse paddocks of Ontario's Ste. Anne's Spa to the trails and rivers of Banff, Alta, above. 

Often I interview successful types who make me feel a bit like a slacker that the most I get done beyond my work day is the dishes. Take California surfer Rob Machado. Besides a dozen World Championship Tour victories and an induction into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame, he's involved in so much more: film making, surf board shaping and charity work focusing on children and the environment. Here, in this Insider for The Globe and Mail, he plays tour guide, sharing five places he'd send a traveller on his home turf of San Diego. And doesn't surfing sound like a nice change from snow about now?

So there we were: four women casually climbing the stairs to our East Village rental like real New Yorkers. The Airbnb apartment, up four flights of stairs, was basic with a strong Ikea vibe. But it was a bargain and we planned to use our savings on important things such as Uniqlo sweaters and champagne and fried chicken.

"Oh, they lit candles to welcome us," I thought as we looked around and saw the burning votives.
Then we noticed the smell. Was it the kitchen trash? Had it been hurriedly taken out before our arrival? But the unpleasant and awful scent stretched beyond the small kitchen and spread throughout the apartment.
"I think something died in the walls," said my savvy friend Kira. "I think it's a dead rat."
By now, the scent of the heavily perfumed candles was starting to make us feel nauseated as well. 

To see if absence would make the smell grow weaker we headed out for our dinner reservations. When we returned, however, it was as bad as ever. It also created a feeling that made you wonder: What else was here? Bed bugs? Cockroaches? More rats? 

Sometimes it's the lowlights on a trip that you remember -- and laugh about most when it's all over. And while this trip to New York had so many highlights -- seeing Alan Cumming in Cabaret, squeezing into a table at  Prune, encountering a character of a saleswoman at Bergdorf Goodman, touring the Tenement Museum -- I know we won't soon forget the Dead Rat Incident. Because travel contains so much more than the brochure dream. And that's one reason I started this travel blog. To share tips about destinations, my passion for outdoors, cultural and family travel, but also share stories about the trip itself. It's about the journey right? 

In the end, it all sorted out. We contacted our Airbnb hosts, who immediately (and we must assume guiltily) offered half-price that night or a full refund. And we found, thanks to online searches, a pleasant hotel in Tribeca. We didn't feel the slightest bit like real New Yorkers pulling our suitcases into the lobby and riding the elevator to our plushly carpeted room. But boy, did it ever smell good. 

You know when you're wandering a new city and find yourself hungry and tired and somehow eating at a tourist joint? That won't happen at Amsterdam's De Hallen. 

The 19th century tram repair station has been converted into a hub for fashion, crafts and food. It's one of those renovations that gives hope to old buildings. And its Foodhallen brings together the best of the city under one roof offering everything from Dutch bitterballen to Thai fish soup. This is my story in The Globe and Mail on Amsterdam's first indoor food market.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my job? I get to interview chefs, bartenders and musicians about their favourite spots in their own backyards. Recently I spoke with Matt Peters, the lead singer behind Winnipeg's Juno-nominated Royal Canoe, about the town he calls home. 

You can catch them on the road -- currently on tour for Today We're Believers -- or follow Peters' guide to  Winnipeg's urban essentials. And for a bonus 'Peg fix, check out the band's video for Exodus of the Year, a grainy, black-and-white homage to workaday Winnipeg. My own favourite Winnipeg sign, Nutty Club, makes a cameo!

Happy hour sounds so cruise-ship, but, in Montreal, it’s just part of the bon vivant lifestyle. The city’s “5 à 7” is less about cheap drinks and more about starting the night out right. 

In this story for up! magazine, and armed with a shortlist of 17 recommendations (a shortlist!), I tackled the tough assignment of finding five local favourites where the party starts early -- and sometimes just carries on. Santé!

Spanish sommelier Ferran Centelles can still recall the first aroma he recognized in a glass of wine – rose petals in a bottle of Muscat from Penedes. Since then, he’s gone on to identify and recommend many more, as a sommelier at the famed elBulli, and now as a teacher and Spanish wine specialist.

In my new Insider in The Globe and Mail, Centelles shares his favourite wine-and-food stops in Barcelona.

What makes Rome such a great culinary destination is that it is a working, living and eating city, says Elizabeth Minchilli, a food writer whose latest book, Eating Rome is making its way to presses.
Which means that despite its huge popularity among travellers, you can still stumble upon places favourited by locals. 
In my new Globe Insider, Minchilli recommends a Roman neighbourhood packed with culinary flavour. 

Hobbits, golden rings, sheep. Yes, New Zealand is all that. But what do locals love best?

Here in my Globe and Mail Insider, rugby star Tim Bateman (captain of the Maori All Blacks and midfield back for the Hurricanes) reveals his favourites stops in Wellington. 

The photo there looks so... (gorgeous, tempting, beautiful) Hawaii. But what about a slice of 800-degree-cooked pizza or a neighbourhood of murals or a late-night noodle bar? 

Honolulu mixologist Dave Newman from gastropub Pint + Jigger reveals those local stops in my new Insider in The Globe and Mail. And he also mounts a strong defence for the classic mai tai. Cheers!