MUSKOKA - A Toronto Star travel editor has named “our friend’s cottages in Muskoka” as his Best Overall Travel Experience in the first annual Toronto Star Travel Awards. An end-of-the-year look at some of Jim Byers most notable travel destinations and experiences from 2011, “The Jimmys” were selected by the editor from his around-the-world travels “from Vancouver to Halifax and from Vietnam to New Zealand.”
“As always, our friend’s cottages in Muskoka. The best place on the planet,” described Byers, for Best Overall Travel Experience in the Tuesday, Jan. 3 listing. The list contained a total of 50 awards in categories of destinations, hotel, food and drink, sports, and miscellaneous. Individual awards ranged from Scariest Drive (New Zealand) to Favourite Hotel Lobby (India) and even Noisiest Dinner, presented due to the chirping tree frogs at Half Moon Resort near Montego Bay.
By awarding The Jimmy for overall travel to Muskoka, Byers was jumping on the bandwagon, following in the footsteps of National Geographic Traveler Magazine editors, who named Muskoka one of the top-20 places in the world to visit in 2012 in its November-December 2011 issue and No. 1 on its list of Ten Best Trips of Summer 2011 in its spring 2011 issue.
Byers also honoured Elements Restaurant at Taboo Resort in Gravenhurst for Best Ostrich Steak: “The lovely dining room at Taboo, just outside Gravenhurst on Lake Muskoka. Very lean and flavourful but not at all gamey.”