I’ve just returned from an action-packed trip to Toronto, where I learned to make hats, decorate cupcakes, and mix cocktails; where I tasted locally-brewed sake and oysters from all over the world, where I took a curator’s tour of one of my favorite museums anywhere — The Bata Shoe Museum — and even got to poke around in their artifact room! I attended something called a Literary Death Match, and then lost a great deal of unneeded dry skin during a sublime scrubbed with local herbs at the Ritz-Carlton spa, which is also where I stayed.

And I did it all for you.

This was part of a project with Canadian Tourism, American Express and Travel+Leisure , in which three bloggers helped to design dream itineraries to serve as a prize in a sweepstakes. The sweepstakes winner gets the itinerary, all expenses paid.

So there’s me, in Toronto, getting my cultcha (and cupcakes) on, there’s Mike Richard of Vagabondish in the national parks of Québec, and there’s Matt Armendariz of Matt Bites eating his way through Vancouver.

I’ll have more to say about my trip in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, enjoy a few images from the trip you too might take, and enter to win.

Great Journeys, a new Lonely Planet book due for release at the beginning of October, covers more than 70 of the world’s most amazing and spectacular routes and will have even the most dedicated ‘armchair’ travelers scrambling to get out on the road.

And to celebrate the release of Great Journeys, Lonely Planet wants to help at least one lucky person get going.

Together with Railbookers, Lonely Planet is giving away a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia.

To enter, visit lonelyplanet.com/greatjourneys (which should be live sometime this week) for details on how to enter.

The contest ends on October 7^th at 11:59 GMT

Once you’ve entered and are waiting to find out it you are the chosen one, you can get a taste of what it would feel like to take a trip along one of the world’s longest and most fascinating rail journey with this virtual trip put together by Google map and Russian Railways.

It’s an armchair traveler’s dream come true.

Traveling from Moscow to Valdivostok, peering out the virtual window onto the Russian landscape with the sound of wheels on the track, Russian radio in the background, lulling you into a false sense of actually being on the train – it’s a brilliant collaboration of technology that’s almost, but not quite, as good as being there.

The latest issue of Perceptive Travel webzine provides, yet again, great travel stories from around the world.

New Zealander Graham Reid takes The Track Less Traveled in Far North Queensland, Australia and along the way discovers an outback pub in the middle of nowhere.

In Tranquilandia Transformed in Colombia, Richard McColl heads well off the beaten path in Colombia and discovers that a region that once served as jungle prison camp and a center of coke production now makes a great adventure destination.

And in Voices & Choices When a Human Flies, Lisa TE Stone finds a hang gliding school in Chattanooga, Tennessee and overcomes fear to take to the skies.

This month’s World Music Reviews travels from Egypt to Ethiopia to Brooklyn barrio while the Travel Book Reviews focuses on Persian culture, historic travel, and dark tourism.

As for giveaways, this month it’s a multi-functional Timex WS4, a watch that clips onto your bag rather than your wrist.

It not only tells time – it also gives altitude readings, weather conditions and compass headings at a glance.

To win, you’ll have to watch your inbox for the PT newsletter or follow us on Facebook.

If you’re not on the Perceptive Travel monthly e-mail newsletter list, sign up by clicking here.

If you’ve ever dreamed of taking a trip into outer space but can’t afford the price tag – seats on the Virgin Galactic, after all, cost $200,000 – Seattle’s Space Needle might be able to help.

Next year, the iconic Space Needle turns 50. And to celebrate this momentous anniversary, they are planning on sending one lucky (and adventurous) person into outer space.

Partnering with Space Adventures, a private spaceflight company, they have created the multi-tiered Space Race 2012 contest.

Tier one involves keen space tourists entering the online sweepstakes at the Space Needle website by November 30^th.

Then, in early December, a random draw of 1000 people will take place. The chosen 1000 will be asked to submit one-minute videos promoting why they should be the winning space traveler.

Public voting will then narrow down the number of entrants and from there, a panel will choose the winner.

If you are looking for great travel writing, then the Perceptive Travel webzine is your kind of place. Each month, editor Tim Leffel comes up with three inspiring feature stories that draw the reader into adventures and travels around the world.

And this month’s edition is no exception.

In Nome and the Speed of Sound Through Materials,  travel writer Edward Readicker-Henderson explores the northern finger of Alaska, searching for ghosts and instead finds a reindeer named Velvet protected by a a dog named Stinger.

On the other side of the world, Michael Buckley is Paddling the Islands of Palau, discovering strange birds while heading for the place where ‘the good ship Antelope was smashed to smithereens.’

And in The Great Divide of China Megan Eaves examines the gap between rich and poor in China’s unheated classrooms.

The monthly world music review features four new albums reviewed by Graham Reid while the monthly travel book review has William Caverlee  covering three new travel books.

And this month’s giveaway is the very cute but handy  Nantucket Laptop Tote from Overland Equipment.

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