Trip Planner 2017-18 Trip Planner For Group Leaders | Page 26

I Want to Go There Canada Bobsledding at WinSport Calgary was the primary location of the 1988 Olympic Winter games, and competitions were held at WinSport, now a year-round recreational and athletic facility. It offers indoor and outdoor activities for both winter and summer, including mountain biking on a 15-mile trail, ziplining from a 90-meter ski jump tower and traveling the downward curves of a luge track. Winter activities range from skiing, snowing, tubing and bobsledding on an Olympic sliding track to ice skating at Calgary’s newest ice complex, which also is the home of Hockey Canada. Travelers can also bungee jump, play mini golf, go headfirst down an 810-foot water slide and watch the sunset from the scenic chairlift. WinSport also houses Canada’s 40,000-square-foot Sports Hall of Fame, which features 12 galleries, a collection of 100,000 artifacts and more than 50 hands-on experiences. Virtual ski jumping and wheelchair racing, talking with Canadian athletes one-on-one, and lessons in being a sports journalist are a few of the interactive experiences. Group tours can be self-guided or led by an expert through the facility that honors the 548 inductees who represent 62 sports. Special services for groups include a scavenger hunt, photos with unique artifacts, exhibits themed around a group’s event and a meeting with an honored member of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. To learn more, contact Nancy Jackson with Tourism Calgary at [email protected] or go to visitcalgary.com. SAINT JOHN SkyWalk Saint John SkyWalk Saint John, which will open this month in Saint John, New Brunswick, will be one of only three skywalks in North America. The attraction is a glass and stainless-steel rooftop observation platform that extends 28 feet over the edge of a 110-foot-tall cliff above the Reversing Rapids. The city has the highest tides on earth, and while overlooking the rushing waters, groups witness the phenomenon below of water running backwards. The rapids are created by the collision of the Bay of Fundy’s high tides and the Saint John River. Twice a day, the Bay of Fundy’s tides rise 28.5 feet, complete a high tide and a low tide cycle and the Saint John River flows backwards, thus creating the Reversing Rapids. Atop SkyWalk Saint John, the only skywalk in North America within a city and directly over water, viewers can also see where 1.2-billion- year-old marble from South America collided with a 515-million-year- old igneous rock from Africa, view the fault line that separates the two, and learn the extensive history on the Cambrian and Precambrian- aged rocks, the terrane contact they’ve formed and their movements. Groups can also visit the Reversing Rapids Visitor Information Centre and enjoy a meal at the Reversing Falls Restaurant, which has floor-to-ceiling windows for optimal views of the water. To find out more, contact Lynn Meehan with New Brunswick Tourism, Heritage and Culture at [email protected] or visit discoversaintjohn.com or tourismnewbrunswick.ca. TOP ATTRACTIONS Heritage Park Historical Village, Calgary Tower, Calgary Zoo, Glenbow Museum, Calgary Food Tours, Calgary Brewery Tours TOP ATTRACTIONS The New Brunswick Museum, Saint John City Market TOP FESTIVALS The Calgary Stampede (July 6–15, 2018), Calgary Folk Music Festival (July 2018), Beakerhead Science and Arts Festival (September 2018) TOP FESTIVALS Fundy Sound–A Choral Festival by the Bay (June 27–July 1, 2018), Sculpture Saint John–International Sculpture Symposium (August–September 2018), Buskers by the Bay (July 2018) 24 NTA Trip Planner for Group Leaders CALGARY