Charlene Rooke

LAYOVER ALERT: OPUS VERSANTE Opus was one of the early boutique hotels, opening in Vancouver’s Yaletown in 2002. Next year it will open a sister property, Opus Hotel Versante, at Richmond’s International Trade Centre at Versante, a new business hub close to the airport and Bridgeport station—just down the Canada Line...

FIRST MOVERS “Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in B.C., and a key economic driver,” says Brenda Baptiste, chair of Indigenous Tourism BC (ITBC). In 2017, it contributed more to provincial GDP than any other primary industry, according to Destination BC. A three-year ITBC study showed 33-percent growth in the number...

Sometimes a free glass of wine in the airline lounge just doesn’t cut it: you need a nap to really recharge and relax on that long layover. Reserve a stay at Minute Suites or Sleepbox, airport-based sleep stations based on...

Passing through Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) a few years ago left me agog at the retail therapy I’d been missing: an outlet of cheap-chic Dutch department store HEMA, a Suitsupply custom-tailoring shop and the Gall & Gall liquor store, where I...

SPARE NO EXPENSE “Buying the log-splitter” should join the business lexicon as a jump-the-shark-style buzzword for inflating expense reports, thanks to the provincial legislature fracas. Claims are a thorn in many sides: in a 2018 poll by U.S. travel and expense...

GREENER AIR Carbon offsets for air travel keep your conscience and your carbon footprint cleaner. Air Canada partners with Toronto-based Less Emissions, making it easy to tack the cost on to your flight purchase: $30-$40, for instance, for Vancouver-Toronto return. Organizations...

PUT THE “EH” IN SUITCASE Your travels may be global, but you can pack Canadian. Mississauga-based Heys International makes some of the world’s lightest hard-shell suitcases. The funky colours and fabrics of Vancouver-designed Herschel Supply Co. luggage complement its bags and...

Justus Parmar is the Vancouver-based managing director of Fortuna Investments, a venture capital firm that has raised more than $300 million for 125 early-stage companies. With a home in Los Angeles, offices from Toronto to Barbados and business in far-flung...

Fitness Entrepreneur Nathan Morris, who kicked a career in finance to start Burnaby’s Driftwood Athletics gym, has invented a made in- B.C. workout with Club Row. At the studio on Vancouver’s east side, “rhythm row” group workouts are set to...

As if crowded transportation hubs, inclement weather and family gatherings aren’t anxiety causing enough, there are less obvious holiday travel headaches. Here’s how to avoid a few of them. At an airport, whatever you pack might be inspected, even in checked bags.

Breakfast meetings, working lunches and business dinners are more important to work travel than you think. Just ask Oxford psychology professor Charles Spence, author of Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating (like Freakonomics for the foodie set), which examines how...

Think outside the typical sun vacation this winter to go farther south—as in the Southern Hemisphere, where you’ll find balmy summer conditions. “We have had clients who were in Sydney for business add on a trip to the Whitsundays or...