From the Bluenose Marathon, to opening our new Sightseeing booth location – we’ve been keeping busy!   Read on for updates on what we’re up to…        

New Sightseeing Kiosk Location:         

You may notice our little trolley is missing from its usual spot in front of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic this summer. Don’t worry, we’re still offering our fantastic sightseeing tours - only now we providing these tours from our fabulous new center along the waterfront!       

 As you can see on the map below, the new kiosk is located along the boardwalk behind the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (right across from the yummy Beaver Tails location!). The kiosk opened today for our sightseeing season, and will be opening their doors from 7:30-4:30 daily to provide tours to the public! Even if you’ve lived in Halifax all your life I highly recommend these tours – I would be willing to bet you’ll learn something new about your city!         

 

Interested in some of our sightseeing tours? Check out our website: Halifax City Tours, Peggy’s Cove tour, & Lunenburg and Mahone Bay Tour        

     

Bluenose Marathon:       

Andrea and Jeff proudly showing off their medals after the race!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every Spring since 2004, Halifax hosts the Scotiabank Bluenose Marathon- and every year, you can find us running the marathon in our kilts! This year, Ambassatours Gray Line ran to support the Phoenix House in Halifax and we (some from the sidelines!) proudly cheered on the following runners:  

 

21 k half-marathon:    

• Yvette Gagnon

10 k:    

•  Dennis Campbell
• Sean Buckland
• Madeliene Endres
• Mario Gagnon
• David Greenwood

5 K:  

•  Andrea Gray
• Jeff Gray
• Darlene Trenholm

Kid’s Run:  

•  William Trenholm

Well done to all our runners! You made us proud!        

 

Idle-Free Campaign:  

 

Our Idle-free bus at the "Idle-free Mall" launch!

 Ambassatours Gray Line is proud to be the first motorcoach company to join in Canada’s IDLE-FREE campaign with the Children’s Clean Air Network - working to make the environment a better place for our children.        

We’ve been doing our best to keep the envirnment clean by keeping bus idle-time under 5 minutes, reducing speeds, and advertising the IDLE-FREE Campaign on our buses! It has been estimated that we’ve saved up to 50 tonnes of Greenhouse Gases since launching our campaign in the Spring of 2009!   

Joining the Children’s Clean Air Network IDLE-FREE Campaign as Canada’s first IDLE-FREE Mall is Dartmouth’s MicMacMall! On May 29, 2010 the mall celebrated its official launch to do their parts for a better environment including IDLE-FREE signage around the parking lots and mall, and signing the first 1000 shoppers to IDLE-FREE pledges !      

Welcome to the Campaign!      

           

    

     

       

      

      

   

    

     

 

 

It’s a big, scary technological world out there, so we’re taking things one step at a time!

Want to keep track of what’s going on at all times?

Follow us on Twitter – @Ambassatours

Become a Fan of our page on Facebook – search “Ambassatours Gray Line”

What’s next? Who knows – The technological world is our oyster! What would you suggest?

You’re almost done…

A few more weeks, a few more exams, then the fun starts – Graduation, summer, and best of all Prom!

Why not arrive to your festivities in style to show your classmates who the top of the class really is?  We’ve got a large fleet of buses in all shapes and sizes from our mini-coaches to our colorful antique double deckers or super-luxurious business or executive class buses. Gather some of your friends, give us a call, we’ll pick you up and chauffeur you to your celebrations!

Interested in a charter? Give us a call at 1-800-565-7173 (option one) or request a quote.

We have quite the collection of authentic antique double deckers!

Extreme Luxury!

And for the teachers - Why not treat your graduating class (or any other class) to a little something special for all their hard work?

We will gladly work with you to create the class trip of a life-time!

Congratulations to the Class of 2010!

From those of us at Ambassatours Gray Line

Why pink?

Here at Ambassatours Gray Line, we are doing what we can to help fight Breast Cancer, and this is just another way of doing so! For every passenger that rides our pink double decker, a donation will be made to the Breast Cancer Foundation.

Bright and early tomorrow morning (7:00am!), a convoy of 5 pink double decker buses will be leaving our office on King Street, escorted by our local RCMP, to make their way to their summer home in Saint John, NB where they will be used to offer Hop on Hop off services to cruise ship passengers.

This is a new venture for Ambassatours Gray Line, and we are very excited to extend our services across the border to our provincial neighbours!

If you’re around New Brunswick this week, please join us in some of our celebrations:

• Media event hosted by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation at the Salisbury Big Stop in New Brunswick at 1:00pm on May 11.
• Ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the Pugsley Pavillion at 11:00am on May 13. Cake will be served!
• An open-house weekend for the residents of Saint John on May 29 & 30. For a small $5 fee ($10 for families) from 10-3, you can try out the Hop on Hop off services for yourself! All proceeds will, of course, go towards the local Breast Cancer Association.

So, if you’re on your way to work tomorrow and see our big pink convoy, give us a wave and a smile ~ our double-deckers only go 70 km/h, so it’s going to be a long drive!

Even though it was short lived, and I had to dig out my freshly packed-away winter jacket to get to work this morning, it was still nice to be reminded that Spring is just around the corner!

Parliment Building amongst the Tulips

For me, the first sign of Spring has always been the tulips. I had a little tulip garden in our backyard growing up and when the first bud peeked up through the dirt, I knew that sunshine and warm weather were soon to follow!

This year, Ambassatours is offering a tour for my fellow tulip-lovers (and anyone else who wants to celebrate Spring by getting away for a little vacation) to Ottawa for the world-famous Canadian Tulip Festival in May!

Did you know that the Canadian Tulip Festival is a celebration of Canada’s role in freeing the Dutch people during World War II? The celebration symbolizes the gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs presented to Ottawa by the Netherlands in 1945. Now, at the festival, you can see over 3 million tulips of all different colors!

Our tour will allow you to spend two full days in Ottawa during the festival before traveling to both Montreal and Quebec City – and as much as I love Quebec City in the winter, it’s just as beautiful and lively in the Spring!

Quebec City

As an added bonus, the first 20 people to book will receive $50 per person off their tour – don’t miss out on this opportunity!

As always, you can visit our website for detailed information on the tour: Springtime in Ottawa & Quebec City

Olympic Rings in Vancouver

Did you see us there? Our company’s Vice President, Gary Powell, along with 32 of our wonderful drivers traveled to Vancouver with 13 of our vehicles to chauffeur some of the most talented athletes in the world… including Canada’s gold-winning male and female hockey teams!

Ambassatours Bus at the Olympics

With our help, these athletes were able to make it to practices, games, and social events in comfort and in style!

But that’s not why we feel just the tiniest bit responsible for our Country’s amazing show at the olympics…

I’ll let you in on a little secret…

Hidden Lucky Loonie

… Before leaving for Vancouver, Gary hid a lucky Olympic Loonie under the floormat of all the Ambassatours buses.

Did it help? We can’t be sure… as I mentioned before, we’re not all that superstitious.

What we do know for sure is that we watched as Canada’s athletes amazed us time and time again over those two weeks:

We cheered loud and proud when Alexandre Bilodeau won our first gold medal on Canadian soil, we cried as Joannie Rochette competed and won bronze even after a personal tragedy, and we erupted in celebration from coast to coast when Nova Scotia’s “Sid the Kid” scored the overtime winning goal to not only win us gold in Men’s Hockey, but to set a world record in gold medals won during the Winter Olympics!

Our Athlete’s won 26 medals: 14 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze and for two weeks we, as Canadians, celebrated together – from coast to coast across the second largest land mass in the world.

…so, hey, if you are superstitious… you’re welcome

I’d love to hear some feedback from our readers: what were the highlights of the Olympics for you? Were you lucky enough to be there, or were you a “living-room spectator”? Let’s here from you!

Bonhomme Carnaval and I!

That’s right, Quebec City in the middle of their world-famous Carnaval de Quebec!

I really thought that this entry would be easy. Traveling up to Quebec for their winter carnival has been the highlight of my winters the past few years, so it should be easy enough to write about what there is to see and do, right?

Wrong. The problem is, it’s hard to put into words the music, the laughter, the sights. It doesn’t matter how old you are- as soon as you walk into the carnival grounds and see the endless stretch of snow-scuptures, the giant ice castle, and the strange costumed creatures on stilts – you can’t help but grin and you find yourself always keeping an eye out for the elusive Bonhomme Carnaval!

There are two highlights for my annual trip… no, make that three (I love it all!):

Snow sculptures as far as the eye can see!

The first is the snow sculptures – there are endless sculptures to see from artists around the world. If you’re lucky, you can watch them in action as they turn a block of snow into a work of art!

Night Parade

The second is the night parade. I grew up in small town Nova Scotia where a parade usually happens in the middle of the afternoon and consists of a few decorated truck beds. Even the Halifax parades didn’t prepare me for the Carnaval de Quebec! I found myself up front and center and just as excited as the ‘under 10′ crowd… The floats are amazing, the participants are very interactive and the music makes you forget just how cold it really is outside!

The main lobby of the Ice Hotel

My third highlight isn’t actually part of the Carnival but is a must-see if you are in the area: the Hotel de Glace (Ice Hotel). It is just outside the city, and if the Carnival itself is hard to describe, this is pretty near impossible. It is proof that looks can be deceiving: from the outside, it looks like a giant igloo but the inside is a stunning masterpiece made entirely of ice! Each suite is decorated with a different theme, and each year, the hotel is different (it melts every spring!). Pictures can’t even start to do it justice because again, pictures don’t properly show the colors and the music!

I know I didn’t do a great job at describing the Carnaval de Quebec but really, you just have to live it yourself! It’s done for this year, but start thinking early and plan to visit next year – we can help you out with that, of course, with our 2011 Carnaval de Quebec tour!

Taking the world by storm, the staycation has become a global phenomena in today’s economy. It simply involves taking a vacation at home, or around your local area!

I recently took a pause from real-life by way of a staycation to the Cambridge Suites in downtown Halifax.

*Just as an FYI, the Cambridge Suites Hotel is what we use for our Halifax hotel on our Atlantic Canada Tours.*

From check-in to check-out, my staycation was wonderful. The hotel is located right in the middle of downtown so you are central to both the boardwalk area, and the busier Spring Garden Road area. Added bonuses for this hotel? All rooms are suites and newly renovated, your reservation includes a buffet breakfast and check out is not until 1:00pm!

So what do you say -

Fancy yourself a Staycation?

How about a staycation which has the potential to win you big bucks?

Our Casino Stay and Play Packages are offered through 10 different hotels in the downtown area (including the Cambridge Suites!) and include a Casino coupon package for each person staying!

“If I can make it there,
I’ll make it anywhere,
It’s up to you,
New York, New York!”

It’s up to you…

That’s what this tour is all about. We provide you with transportation to and from New York City, 6 nights accommodation (4 nights in the heart of Manhattan) and a wonderful guided tour of the Big Apple to get your bearings. The rest, as Mr. Sinatra sings, is up to you.

We’ve scheduled this tour during Nova Scotia’s March Break so that you can take your family down to enjoy all there is to see in New York! As always, for more information: Winter Break in New York

So, faithful readers, let’s hear from you – have you taken a bite of the Big Apple? What are your tips and must-sees for New York City?

My New York Tips:
1. Bring a comfortable pair of walking shoes
2. When you arrive in the city, purchase a 7-day unlimited ride MetroCard ($27) for buses and subways and explore, explore, explore!
3. Visit the TKTS booths (TKTS), every day for amazing deals on Broadway and Off-Broadway shows

My New York must-sees:
1. If you love fine art, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is a definite must-see. Even better, there’s an exhibit showcasing the weird and wonderful world of Tim Burton while you’re visiting (director/writer of such films as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and 9).
2. Canal Street – home of the “as good as real” brands of Rolex, Louis Vuitton and more! Bring some cash, and get ready to barter (never accept the first price!)
3. Bodies – The Exhibition (Bodies). Not for the weak stomach, take a very close and fascinating look into the human body.