February 7th, 2010
Like birthdays and anniversaries, Olympics tend to be the kind of thing that sneaks up on you. Next Friday, the 21st installment of the Olympic Winter Games kicks off in Vancouver. Now, I live here. For at least the last five years, it’s been just about all anyone has talked about. But I know that the rest of the world has had more pressing things to worry about than crowning the next Nancy Kerrigan. The good news is that if you still want to come, there are plenty of flights, beds and tickets available (For a price, of course). I broke it all down for The Washington Post.
Vancouver Snapshot: Last-minute travelers’ sprint is a quadrennial Olympic event
By Remy Scalza, Special to The Washington Post
So between slogging your way through the Great Recession and following the inaugural season of “Jersey Shore,” you haven’t had much time to think about the Olympic Winter Games starting in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday. But now, all of a sudden, those Morgan Freeman commercials for Visa — the ones with the slow-mo shots of Olympic glories past — have you in the spirit. You want in, front-row center, as the next generation of Apolo Ohnos is crowned.
Is it too late? Maybe not.
Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.
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Tags: Accommodation, Fan-to-Fan, Flights, Hotels, Last-Minute, Olympics, Remy Scalza, Tickets, Vacation Rentals, Vancouver
Posted in Published Articles, Vancouver | No Comments »
January 31st, 2010
Maybe Ben Franklin had it right. Turkey booster until the bitter end, Franklin railed against the choice of bald eagle as America’s symbol. “He is a bird of bad moral character,” Franklin wrote. “He does not get his living honestly.” Up close, it definitely looked that way. I had a chance to visit Brackendale, B.C., the world’s self-proclaimed bald eagle capital, while researching a story for The Washington Post. A few eagles kind of looked like the majestic bird on the back of the quarter, but most were busy tearing into rotten salmon, which end up floating in the rivers after spawning is over. One local lady called them nothing but big seagulls. Still, it was pretty impressive to see dozens all in one place.
Vancouver snapshot: Bald eagles find a home in Canada
By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post
The highway turnoff is easy to miss. On the rugged stretch of mountain road that connects Olympic cities Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., just past the midway point, is a small, handmade sign. Look hard and you’ll see a bald eagle in profile, beak painted a brilliant yellow, beady eye aglow.
Next stop: Brackendale, self-proclaimed World Eagle Capital.
“One year, we counted 3,769 bald eagles in one day,” says 40-year resident and avian enthusiast Thor Froslev. “You practically had to have a hard hat on to go outside.”
Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.
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Tags: Brackendale, eagle watching, eagles, Olympics, Remy Scalza, Vancouver
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January 24th, 2010
There was a time, not too long ago, when the closest thing to Japanese food you could find outside Japan was Benihana. Then the came the sushi craze, introducing North America to the wonders of the California roll. Now Vancouver – long a pioneer when it comes to Asian cusine – finds itself in the midst of another culinary wave from Japan: the izakaya invasion. A sort of Japanese pub, izakayas are rowdier and more debauched than any sushi joint. I had a chance to check a few out for this article for The Washington Post.
Vancouver snapshot: Japanese cuisine beyond sushi
Welcome to the dark side of Japanese dining: izakayas. Greasier and louder than a sushi joint, these Japanese pubs have invaded Vancouver, B.C.
Izakayas have reportedly been around for a few hundred years in Japan. Their patrons, mostly men, congregate after work to drink and snack on deep-fried tofu, chicken and savory salads — the buffalo wings and nachos of a parallel universe — before heading home, often roundly soused. But like the hibachi and sushi before it, izakaya cuisine has found a global following, and Vancouver, with its strong ties to Japan, is at the forefront of the izakaya explosion.
Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.
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Tags: Guu, izakaya, Japanese cuisine, Remy Scalza, Vancouver, yoshoku
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January 1st, 2010
The guys who make ice wine are kind of like the Ice Road Truckers or Ice Pilots of winemaking. They don’t harvest their grapes until the dead of winter, when temperatures dip to 15 degrees below freezing. Usually, they work at night, when it’s so cold that the clusters shatter off the vine and the grapes themselves are frozen solid. From their sacrifice, we get the heavenly stuff known as ice wine – sweet, potent and addictive, like wine but superconcentrated, purified by the cold. I got the chance to explore British Columbia’s ice wine country in an article for The Washington Post.
December is harvest time for ice wine in the Okanagan region of Western Canada
By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post
For the grapes, it must be agony.
High above Okanagan Lake, in a frozen corner of western Canada, the wind is whipping through the vineyards in icy blasts. Long after first frost, deep into winter, the grapes here have waited, shivering on the vine. Now, in late December with the temperature falling fast, their polar purgatory is nearly over. It’s harvest time in ice wine country.
Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.
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November 15th, 2009
If you’ve never experienced the build-up to an Olympics first-hand, imagine all the hype surrounding the Super Bowl, but stretched out for years and years instead of just a few weeks. In Vancouver, which is hosting the 2010 Winter Games in February, the Olympics have been front-page news since about 2003. Officials have spent $1.6 billion on, among other things, the snazziest curling rink the world has ever seen. One thing they may have neglected, however, is a place to put all the people expected to show up. I wrote about the city’s Olympic accommodation crunch in an article for Sunday’s Washington Post travel section.
Vancouver’s hotel shortage sets off an Olympic scramble
By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post
It doesn’t take a gold medal in arithmetic to see that the numbers didn’t add up.
About 250,000 spectators are expected to pour into Vancouver, B.C., for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in February. Yet according to the city’s Olympic committee, only a paltry 10,000 hotel rooms were available to them. With three months to go before the Opening Ceremonies, the pool of rooms at hotels in and around Vancouver — from highway HoJos to the Four Seasons — has essentially dried up.
Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.
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Tags: 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Olympic accommodation, Olympic accommodation shortage, Olympic housing, Olympic rentals, Remy Scalza, Vancouver, Vancouver hostels, Vancouver Olympic hostels
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October 31st, 2009
Around Vancouver, several Indian bands are rewriting the book on Aboriginal tourism in the lead-up to the Olympic Games, moving away from tepee villages and kitschy gift shops and embracing more authentic and sophisticated experiences. I checked out a few of the new Aboriginal offerings in an article for The Washington Post:
As hosts of the Vancouver Olympics, First Nations are ready to welcome the world
By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post
It’s an Olympic first that has drawn few headlines. When the 2010 Winter Games open in Vancouver, B.C., in February, four Canadian Indian nations will be on hand — not as window dressing but as full-fledged hosts. “This isn’t just get out the drums and feathers for the Opening Ceremonies,” says Alex Rose, communications director for the Four Host First Nations, the society representing the four groups of Canada’s indigenous people who will host the Games. “Those days are gone.”
Largely gone, too, are the tepees, totem poles and tchotchkes that once defined aboriginal tourism in Canada. In their place has sprung up a new generation of indigenous travel experiences — from urban powwows to luxe native-owned wineries — aimed at courting the more than 250,000 visitors expected at the Games.
Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.
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Tags: 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Aboriginal Tourism, Canada, NK'Mip, Pow-wow, Remy Scalza, Squamish, Vancouver
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October 3rd, 2009
I’ve always had a thing against cruises. Who wants to spend a week penned up on a floating tub when you can actually go somewhere and experience the real people, culture and food? But did I have it all wrong? I wrote about my first time for this Sunday’s issue of Washington Post Travel.
Afraid to Commit? Try Microcruising
By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post
Among certain travelers, few subjects arouse as much vitriol as that seemingly innocent holiday rite, the cruise. I know. I’m one of them.
Mention cruises and I think of floating islands chugging along in a daze of buffets and umbrella drinks. I think of Hawaiian-shirted armies swarming into foreign ports to gawk at overpriced ethnic bric-a-brac. And I think of cheesy excursions that reduce local culture to banana boat rides and tequila factory tours.
But am I being fair? We’re talking about a vacation, after all: What’s wrong with having a little fun?
Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.
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July 27th, 2009
Anyone who likes sushi – or Canadians – might be interested in this article I wrote, which appeared in Sunday’s Washington Post.
Rolling Through Vancouver’s Olympic-Size Sushi Scene
By Remy Scalza; Special to The Washington Post
It’s hard to say what was going through the minds of Vancouver’s Olympic planners when they came up with the mascots for next year’s Winter Games. To serve as one of Canada’s ambassadors to the world, they picked an earmuffs-wearing Big Foot that looks like Chewbacca. The city’s Olympic brain trust could have saved themselves a lot of trouble by recognizing a real symbol of Vancouver: a big piece of sashimi.
Click here for the full article on The Washington Post site.
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Tags: 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Organic Ocean, Remy Scalza, Spot Prawns, sushi, The Washington Post, Tojo's, Toshi Sushi, Vancouver
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July 16th, 2009
Urban pow-wows, like this one outside of Vancouver, welcome bands from across Canada for days of traditional music and dancing.
Editor’s Note: This entry originally appeared as a guest post on Inside Vancouver, the Tourism Vancouver blog.
The Olympic torch – symbol of international unity and harbinger of weeks of tape-delay sports coverage – has had some pretty memorable moments over the years. It’s been ski-jumped into Lillehammer, shot over Barcelona and levitated right up to the rim of Beijing’s Bird’s Nest. But its most significant journey may be yet to come.
As Canada gears up for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in February, the torch will pass through Indian reservations and communities throughout the country. This is no token nod to multiculturalism. In an Olympic first, four of Canada’s Aboriginal groups are official hosts of the Games.
“This isn’t just get out the feathers and drums for the opening ceremonies,” says Alex Rose, who directs communications for the Four Host First Nations, the Aboriginal groups hosting the Games. “Those days are gone.”
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Aboriginal Tourism, pow-wows, Remy Scalza, Vancouver
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June 18th, 2009
Host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver has some of North America's highest alcohol prices.
Vancouver is ranked world’s most livable city for good reason. The international throngs set to descend in February for the Winter Olympics will no doubt be awed by the city’s setting, between snow-capped mountains and the green-gray waters of the Pacific. They’ll marvel at its sleek, modern architecture and efficient public transport. And they’ll probably warm right up to that earnest Canadian charm. But sooner or later, Olympic fans are going to get thirsty and discover Vancouver’s dirty little secret: exorbitant alcohol prices. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: 2010 Olympics, alcohol, British Columbia, Vancouver, Vancouver beer
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