Between sun, sand, and high design, Comporta pairs barefoot luxury with just-caught seafood and pastel de natas.

The name began appearing in travel pieces, architectural magazines, style columns, and gossip websites a few years ago: Comporta, Comporta, Comporta. Everyone was suddenly talking about this exceptionally beautiful region about an hour south of Lisbon (Portugal) along its western coast. The name-dropping was impressive: the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Megan, were rumored to have bought property there; shoe designer Christian Louboutin opened a jaw-droppingly beautiful boutique hotel (The Vermelho Melides); Madonna was spotted on horseback on the 42-kilometer unspoiled beach; and actors George Clooney and Sharon Stone were rumored to be future neighbors in the exclusive Costa Terra Golf and Ocean (wishful thinking he has since denied). For a lusophile like myself, this sounded like a corner of Portugal I had to investigate—and so I did.

Is it my imagination or is everyone talking about Lisbon these days? It seems that just overnight that this Portuguese capital is the one destination that is suddenly on everyone’s travel list. In fact, Lisbon was voted “best city destination” by TRAVELBOOK in  2022 partly based on sustainability, cleanliness, and safety beating out such heavyweights as New York City, Barcelona, Singapore, and Dubai. A quick tour through some of the trends driving this surging popularity will surely pique your interest as well.

Pop quiz. When you think of Toronto what quickly comes to mind?

The CN Tower? Drake? Snow? Hockey?

While all of these images are certainly accurate, Toronto has become much more than a sum of its clichés. In fact, not only is Toronto Canada’s economic epicentre with a current yet growing population of 6.3 million, it is also becoming a hospitality juggernaut with the sector on a meteoric tear

This week I was looking for a creative, delicious, fast lunch spot on a fine summer’s day and decided to head to the Atwater Market’s outdoor food court located in the market’s northwest quadrant.

Normally I would make a beeline to the Satay Brother’s stall which is always buzzing with laughing patrons and blasting with tunes but this time I elected to try the ribs at Aylwin Barbecue and man, am I glad I did!!!