From the Editor: The Instant New

It’s a New Year, dear T+E readers! A new … year.

With the celebrations, the fireworks, the champagne, came moments of quiet contemplation this season. Amid the eating, the feasting and wishing, I couldn’t help but wonder about the meaning of “New” itself. What makes something new? What does “new” really mean in a world where everything has been done … again and again.

That’s why I love travel so much. It gives us that dose of ‘instant new’ –  every time. Whether driven by our most primal nomadic instincts, or impelled by an innate curiosity about the world, there’s that little something that happens with each journey, with each act of picking up and taking off – no matter how near or far – that leaves us renewed and reinvigorated.

With each destination comes a new perspective, a new awareness, new wisdom, and sometimes, if you’re really lucky, a complete personal transformation.

We hope you enjoyed our recent series of New Years’ celebration stories from around the world.  From Paris to Rio to Kerala, from Chinese to Thai to Scottish customs and traditions, we brought you a world of New. And did you enjoy our special New Year’s Eve Around the World television event on Dec. 31st? (If you missed it, fret not! T+E is extending the event for another week.)

Online this year at Travel+Escape, we’re bringing you more travel on more levels than ever before. Driven by the explosive success of our launch just a few short weeks ago on Nov. 1st, and delighted by your overwhelming number of visits to our site every day, we’re kicking off the year with renewed resolve to continue to inspire the heck out of you. Get ready for some incredible armchair travel!

In coming weeks, TravelandEscape.ca will be bringing you new web-exclusive videos featuring up-close-and-personal interviews with some of T+E’s hit show hosts, like Gourmet Escapes’ Massimo Capra, and Chefs Run Wild’s Chad, Clayton and Lyndon. We’re also bringing you special monthly Q&As with some of Canada’s most avid travellers, and new monthly destination spotlights that follow your travel instincts through inspiring themes, like Carnival coverage across South America in February, and Global Beat music festival coverage from around the world in July.

But first, we kick off the new year right here at home in Canada, where there’s arguably no better place on earth to celebrate winter. From stunning snowscapes to Icewine and Winterlude festivals, find out what makes Winter Wonderful when it comes to travel.

With warmest wishes from all of us here at T+E, here’s to a 2012 of Instant New.

Gariné Tcholakian
Senior Editor, Travel + Escape