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)
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NTA Trip Planner for Group Leaders
CALGARY