Making perfect chocolate truffles is only one of the many learning experience offered in Fredericton, New Brunswick’s lively and art-filled capital city. Creating beautiful and tasty things is a way of life in Fredericton, which has Canada’s highest concentration of working craftsmen.

The addition of the Seaport Hotel to South Boston’s skyline was what the largely vacant area around the Seaport World Trade Center needed to bring it to life. Inspired by the success of the hotel’s own restaurant, Aura, other high-taste restaurants have followed.

Fresh from my chocolate wrap at the Wave spa, I reposed upstairs to my suite at the corner of the 9th-floor of the Seaport Hotel to admire the late afternoon sun on the sailboats and white ferries darting around Boston Harbor.

We’re aboard the MS Nordnorge, with all the comforts and none of the pomp of a cruise ship. Once the only route between Norway´s northern coastal towns, they now carry tourists like us to see Norway’s fabulous fjords.

Just the right blend of rustic and luxurious, the collection of log cabins overlooking the lake contrast with the two grand resort hotels at Banff Springs and Lake Louise that form Alberta’s famous Canadian Pacific trio.

Willow Stream is the signature spa brand of a few select Fairmont Hotels, purpose-built to new standards of luxury. The Willow Stream Spa at Banff Springs, a resort long known for its natural hot-springs, brings that historic Canadian Rockies grand hotel into the 21st century of healing springs.

The paintings of the Blue Rider School reflect the vivid colors of the Bavarian landscape, scenes travelers can enjoy today from the comfort of Alpenhof Murnau

High above the St. Lawrence River, the steep green roof and tall brick tower of the Chateau Frontenac has become the symbol of Quebec City, and the favorite lodging of kings and queens.

The decline in customer service among airlines is so widespread that a genuine show of interest and concern is a rare luxury. We just got a reminder of what a luxury it can be.

Hikers, kayakers, environmentalists and those who love fine dining and world-class wines will find their own personal Nirvana in New Zealand’s fabled National Park.