Jetsettersblog

TORONTO — Golf Town - Canada’s largest golf retailer with unequaled selection and competitive prices at 47 locations coast to coast - announces it has partnered with the Royal Canadian Golf Association to become an official vendor of tickets for the 2009 RBC Canadian Open.

In celebration of the 100th Canadian Open, and as part of the season-long GT-10 campaign commemorating its own 10th anniversary, Golf Town is currently selling tickets to the event at 12 Toronto-area locations. Hosted by Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, ON, the PGA Tour’s second-oldest tournament will take place July 20-26, and ticket options include weekly badges for $110 or “Anyday Passes” for $55.

“As the centre of the Canadian golf community, Golf Town continues to help players of all ages develop a lifelong connection to the game,” says Stephen Bebis, President and CEO.

“The RBC Canadian Open is the country’s premier golfing event, and we’re proud to offer our customers a great opportunity for front-row seats to the game’s top performers.”
Available while supplies last, tickets can be purchased at the following Toronto- area Golf Town locations:

• Aurora
• Downtown Toronto
• Etobicoke
• Hamilton
• Markham
• Markham East
• Kitchener
• Mississauga Heartland
• Mississauga
• Scarborough
• Whitby
• Woodbridge

Part of the FedExCup, the 2009 RBC Canadian Open offers a purse of $5.1 million. Contenders will include defending champion Chez Reavie, along with marquee players like Stephen Ames, Mark Calcavecchia, Fred Couples, Luke Donald, Trevor Immelman, Anthony Kim, Camillo Villegas and Mike Weir, among others.

Golf Town offers an unbeatable selection of clubs, bags, balls, apparel, footwear, accessories, gifts, logo merchandise, promotional services and more.

This includes the world’s leading golf brands, such as Adams, Ashworth, Bridgestone, Callaway Golf, Cleveland Golf, Cobra, Dunning, ECCO, FootJoy, Founders Club, Gordon Cooper, Greg Norman, Honma, Hugo Boss, LaCoste, Liz Claiborne, LIJA, Mizuno, Never Compromise, Nike Golf, Odyssey, Ogio, Paradise, Ping, Srixon, Sun Mountain, TaylorMade adidas Golf, Titleist and Wilson.

For more information, please visit www.golftown.com

About Golf Town

Canada’s largest golf retailer, Golf Town was founded in 1999 and has grown from one location in Scarborough, ON, to 47 superstores coast to coast.

At an average size of nearly 18,000 square feet, these retail centres feature all the major name-brand products at the best price, ensuring customers find what they want, when they want it.

A centre of the Canadian golf community for individuals and organizations, Golf Town locations serve as sanctuaries where players of all ages and abilities try, buy, learn about and improve their games.

The largest employer of CPGA professionals, Golf Town offers on-site lessons tailored to an individual’s needs through its In-Store Academy.

The retailer has also established Canada’s leading customer advantage initiative via its Leaderboard Membership Privileges Program. Benefits of this free membership include the chance to win a $500 gift card in a national monthly drawing; timely e-newsletters; members-only special offers on equipment, accessories, golf lessons, in-store events; and more.

Golf Town was acquired by OMERS Private Equity, the entity responsible for private equity investments of the OMERS pension fund, in September 2007.

For more information: www.omerscapital.com

Already a leader in logo products for golf events and other programs, Golf Town purchased Accolade Reaction Promotion Group, Inc., in May 2008 and has created a one-stop-shop for the promotional needs of businesses, meeting planners, sales and marketing executives, and human resource professionals.

Named a 2008 Top 40 Distributor by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), ARPG is the first Canadian corporate merchandise services firm to achieve ASI Top 40 Status.

For more information: www.arpg.ca

Air Canada has begun daily non-stop flights between Montréal and Rome. During this summer’s peak travel season, this service will link on a daily basis the Italian capital with Air Canada’s extensive Québec and Atlantic Canada network, as well as major cities on the Eastern U.S. seaboard. Starting Oct. 27, Air Canada will offer year-round Montréal-Rome flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, with same-plane service continuing on to/from Toronto.

For greater convenience and travel choice, this service is timed to offer connecting flights to popular destinations in Italy, including Bari, Lamezia, Milan, Palermo and Venice. As well, Air Canada’s Star Alliance partners Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines offer service from Montréal to Munich and Zurich respectively, further increasing connections and travel options.

Insight Vacations unveiled a new Hot Deals savings promotion through which it will release on the first and 15th of every month a list of guaranteed departures that are priced at least 10 percent lower than the brochure rate.

Initially the promotion applied only to select European departures. On Monday, Insight released 10 new discounted Europe departures as well as 10 U.S., Canada and Mexico departures that offer a savings of at least 10 percent.

Here are some example departures: Treasures of Mexico, departing July 11, brochure price, $2,475, discounted price, $2,225, savings per couple, $500;  and Enchanting Canyonlands, departing July 11, brochure price, $1,650, discounted price, $1,485, savings per couple, $330.

The Hot Deals program includes: Book any of the departures listed on the Hot Deals flyer posted on www.insightvacations.com  and clients will save a minimum of 10 percent off the brochure land rate; must be deposited within seven days of booking; bookings that are made 45 days within departure must pay in full at time of booking; offer applies to new bookings only; and every other week beginning June 1 a new list of departures will be posted on www.insightvacations.com

Insight pays a minimum of 10 percent commission on land.

For more information, call 800-582-8380 or visit www.insightvacations.com

With downtown Vancouver hotels nearly completely booked for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Newwest Special Projects LP, an entrepreneurial travel company, chartered Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Star for the duration of the games.

The ship will be docked in North Vancouver from Feb. 10 through March 2, adding 10 percent capacity (1,119 rooms and suites) to the city’s downtown hotel inventory of 12,000 rooms.

The Norwegian Star will arrive in Vancouver after a four-day sailing from Los Angeles. On March 2, the ship will head south, arriving back in Los Angeles on March 6. A variety of packages are available in either three- or four-night durations during the games.

Nightly stateroom rates start at $350 per person, double, and include meals, airport transfers, daily transfers between the ship and North Vancouver’s Sea Bus Terminal, and a city tour of Vancouver.

Since the ship is a private charter, custom packages can be arranged that could include private coach transfers, multilingual guides, private meals and onboard functions for up to 1,000 guests.

For more information, call 800-661-7281

or visit www.vancouver2010cruiseship.com

Air China Limited announced that it is extending its toll-free telephone customer service throughout Canada from its North American regional headquarters in Los Angeles. Services provided by the North American call center include booking, ticketing, frequent flyer program, flight status inquiries and customer relations.

The center serves bilingually in English and Chinese. The toll-free number is 800-882-8122.

JUNEAU, Alaska— Jetaway to Juneau, Alaska for a long weekend this summer and enjoy all of the legendary glaciers, wildlife and wilderness experiences that distinguish Alaska.

Just a quick 2-hour flight from Seattle on Alaska Airlines, transports you to the middle of the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest and just beneath the 1500-square-mile Juneau Icefield, which creates an environment unparalleled in beauty and adventure.

The 38 glaciers of the Juneau Icefield drape themselves over the coastal mountains just behind the city, giving Juneau the most accessible glaciers in the state.

Alaska’s capital is also a humpback whale haven with over 700 whales inhabiting the region.

Enjoy hiking, biking or ziplining through the forest or kayaking in the quiet inlets along scenic Lynn Canal.

And the best part of any trip to Juneau is that everything you want to do and see is close by –

no long drives or day-long cruises are needed to find the Alaska you’ve always wanted to experience.

www.traveljuneau.com

Water may well be the essence of Canada. We’ve got it, in oodles. Here’s a list of top water fun around the country this summer.

Alberta

As soon as you pull away from these marinas, you won’t see a latte shop, just wild shorelines, stuck together by forests of pine and spires of rock that twist upward of 2,438 m (8,000 ft).

Take a pleasure cruise on Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, around the historic waters of Minnewanka in Banff National Park or down to the US border on Waterton Lake. You’ll spot more glacier-scoured valleys, Rocky Mountain sheep and bears than people.

British Columbia

Take a province with more than 27,000 km (16,777 mi) of coastline and a few hundred thousand snowboarders itching for summer, and you get BC’s surf scene. Tofino, a sleepy town of 1,655 on Vancouver Island’s Pacific side, explodes into a mini-metropolis every summer as surfers descend, hungry for beginner and intermediate breaks.

Manitoba

Snorkel, canoe or kayak—there are umpteen ways to get nose to nose with a beluga whale near the northern town of Churchill. Besides gaining ground with wildlife, get closer to your inner self with a Northern Soul Yoga Canoe Weekend.

New Brunswick

Let Road to Sea Guided Tours show you all the Bay of Fundy area has to offer, including Hopewell Rocks and Cape Enrage. Here you’ll find the world’s highest tidal shifts, so best bone up on your charts in advance.

Newfoundland and Labrador

When the Vikings bumped into Newfoundland 1,000 years ago, they had no idea their arrival would spark so many firsts. It was here that Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal; that Lindbergh began his solo flight to Paris.

Make your own “first” on a Viking Trail bike tour with Pedal and Sea Adventures. Or, dodge mountains of ice on a boat tour up Iceberg Alley or on an eco-tour along the “Minke Way.”

Nova Scotia

Riddled with dead-end coves of higgledy-piggledy fishing shacks, there’s no better way to see Nova Scotia than by boat. Learn to sail with Discovery Sailing and a week later you’ll know the difference between a bowline and a reef knot, as well as the location of every crab shack along this puckered coastline.

Ontario

The very magnitude of five million cubic feet of water tumbling over its rocky lip, every minute of the day, is mind blowing.

And deafening. Glide under the roar of Niagara Falls on the Maid of the Mist, where you’ll learn more staggering facts from the skipper.

Other germane gems can be gathered on a houseboat float down the lazy Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site, a 386-km (240-mi) manmade lift-lock system that connects Georgian Bay with Lake Ontario.

Prince Edward Island

Nestled on the Northumberland Strait, the West Point Lighthouse has winked its maritime codes out to seadogs since 1876. Now you can bunk down in this renovated lighthouse-inn and spend lazy days cycling or clamming and beachcombing amongst the dunes.

Quebec

Have time to experience only a sliver of Quebec’s four historic maritime regions? Consider a cycling-and-cruise combo with CTMA Group, a pokey meander along the St. Lawrence River, through the Îles de la Madeleine archipelago, the Gaspésie Peninsula and Percé Rock, ending in enchanting, 400-year-old Québec City.

Saskatchewan

Grey Owl may have been an imposter, but he was no wimp.

There isn’t a single road to Grey Owl’s cabin, but there is a whopping lake, Kingsmere, to cross and a spindly portage to hike—key ingredients for a do-it-yourself canoe trip.

Visit the transplanted Englishman’s spartan cabin that was built on water; see how his beloved beavers were able to dip under the frame and swim up inside, right next to his bunk bed. A journal lies open on his desk, the water laps the bed frame, a loon wobbles his trilly sound somewhere far off—I thought it worth every stroke to get here.

Yukon

Feel the collective free-spiritedness of the Yukon in the hurly burly bars of Dawson City, then flee “civilization” for a fly-fishing holiday on Tincup LakeTincup Wilderness Lodge. The prize here is Arctic grayling, and even novice anglers can catch (and release) a half dozen of these acrobatic fish in an hour.

The cedar cabins at , not to mention the gourmet grub and wood-heated sauna, were good enough for Martha Stewart, who visited in 2000.

Air Canada has begun year-round non-stop service between Montreal and Geneva (first flight departs Geneva June 2, 2009), with same-plane service continuing on to/from Toronto.

The carrier’s Star Alliance partner, Swiss International Air Lines, will offer seats on a code-share basis on the new route.

“The introduction of the only non-stop service between Montreal and Geneva is great news for customers traveling on business, including international organizations, as well as for leisure travelers providing easy access to major tourist locations in Switzerland and France,” said Ben Smith, Air Canada’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer.

“Air Canada’s new non-stop Geneva service, offered in cooperation with our Star Alliance partner, Swiss, will provide more choice for convenient international travel via our Montreal hub.”

Great River Journey, Inc.
www.greatriverjourney.com

WHITEHORSE, Yukon, Canada—The Great River Journey is a unique world-class geotour, unfolding over eight days and 600 kilometers of wilderness in Yukon Gold Rush territory.

It combines the adventure of a wilderness river safari with a journey of personal discovery – there is no other product like it in North America. And now YOU can experience this incredible adventure with an unbelievable offer this summer – Great River Journey’s “2 or 1″ Special!

On all Friday departures through June and July of 2009, a second traveler comes on the journey FREE with the first paid traveler.

This limited time offer must be booked by June 15. And, all other 2009 departures are being offered at $1,000 savings!

Each step in the Great River Journey takes visitors further back in time and deeper into the wilderness, history and culture of the Yukon. Fine cuisine featuring local ingredients and traditional foods is served throughout the journey.

The lodge accommodation at each overnight stop becomes more rustic, closer to nature and themed in the time period being explored.

The Great River Journey passes through the traditional lands of four First Nations whose people will be among those hosting, guiding and caring for guests.

The Great River Journey is owned and operated by the First Nations and a group of experienced tour operators, and has been developed as a responsible tourism product, with respect for the environment and First Nations culture as its cornerstone values.

For more information or to book, go to www.greatriverjourney.com

Canyon Calling Adventures for Women
Cheryl Fleet
928-282-0916
funtrips@canyoncalling.com
www.canyoncalling.com

SEDONA, Ariz.—The grandeur of the Canadian Rockies stuns even the well traveled. Against this majestic backdrop of soaring snowcapped peaks, women have the opportunity to participate in an adventure designed especially for them. It includes a variety of fun-filled activities such as hiking, canoeing, walking a glacier, white water rafting and soaking in hot pools.

Best of all, women don’t have to go to the gym to prepare for vacation, as these trips are suited to all moderately-fit women.

The trip provides challenging yet attainable activities, and the fun, enrichment and support of women in the outdoors.

New Zealand outdoorswoman Cheryl Fleet founded Canyon Calling based on her own experience as an outdoors guide discovering that extraordinary things happen when women travel together.

They form quick bonds, thrive on learning new outdoor skills and really appreciate the non-competitive environment.

“I wanted to offer a product where all women, not just the fit ones, could enjoy the outdoors,” says Fleet. 80% of participants are solo travelers, and with matched roommates, no one pays single supplements.

No experience is required for any of the activities, and travel is at a leisurely pace.

Canyon Calling was the first in the world to offer multi-activity adventure trips for women.

“There are many ways to travel, but journeying with a group of adventurous women is just the best,” says Fleet.

“When women vacation together in the outdoors, their confidence and self esteem gets a boost, little quirks are easily forgiven and they laugh - a lot! We compromise and play all sorts of roles in our everyday lives. On vacation, at least, we deserve to be ourselves.”

The Canadian Rockies trip adventures through Banff, Jasper and Yoho National Parks.

“Of all the places I’ve traveled” says Fleet, “the Canadian Rockies has the most stunning scenery. I tell everyone that no matter when you go or who you travel with, promise me you’ll see the Rockies before you die!” Bears, eagles, elk, mountain goats and big horn sheep call this patch of heaven home, and are often spotted.

Canyon Calling provides a chance for women to experience a fun outdoors adventure together, and to discover why the Canadian Rockies truly are a World Heritage Site.

Dates: July 25-31, 2009. Cost: $2495 all-inclusive plus one international flight. For more information about Canyon Calling Adventures for Women, visit the website or contact Cheryl Fleet at 928-282-0916.