3/126 Albert Road, Warragul VIC 3820 Phone: (03) 5623 5151 Fax: (03) 5623 4952 Email us EMERGENCY NUMBER +61 (0)419 213 274
Discovering Eastern USA & Canada
5th May to 5th June 2018 – 31 Days 2018
Personally escorted by Jacquey Turner
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YOUR TOUR ESCORT
Jacquey Turner is a highly-experienced travel agent and tour escort with more than 30 years’ industry experience. Jacquey’s attention to detail and personal care ensure that everyone travelling in her group will have a most enjoyable USA and Canada holiday experience.
TOUR COSTS:
Based on Ocean View Stateroom (Category C) on Cruise:
Please note only limited verandah cabins are available
Payment Details: YOUR TOUR INCLUDES:
COST EXCLUDES:
SPECIAL NOTES
Costs based on exchange rates prevailing
Holland America Line – MS Veendam
Vista Suites 2 lower beds convertible to 1 queen-size bed, whirlpool bath & shower, sitting area, private verandah, mini-bar, refrigerator, floor-to-ceiling windows. Approximately 283 sq. ft. including verandah. Room Amenities Include all the stateroom amenities, plus:
Holland America Line – MS Veendam
Large 2 lower beds convertible to 1 queen-size bed, bathtub, shower. Approximately 174–255 sq. ft. Room Amenities:
This tour is full of contrasts-scenery,
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Tour Itinerary
We shall have a morning departure from Gippsland to Melbourne for our flight to Toronto via Los Angeles. On arrival, we shall be met and transferred to the OMNI KING EDWARD HOTEL, or similar, for the next three nights.
We shall start the day with an orientation tour of cosmopolitan, multi-cultural Toronto, viewing Casa Loma, the massive castle residence built by a Toronto financier during the early 20th century; sprawling Queens Park; the lively entertainment district; stately University Avenue and the Provincial Parliament Buildings. We shall have lunch at the top of the iconic CN Tower. The remainder of the day will be yours to explore this exciting city on your own.
Today we will experience the majesty of one of the world's great natural wonders. After breakfast, we depart our hotel and travel through the lush wine-growing region between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario before arriving at Niagara Falls. Here we will enjoy a panoramic view of the falls before boarding the Hornblower Niagara Cruise for an exhilarating boat ride to the base of spectacular Horseshoe Falls. There is time for shopping and picture taking on the Canadian side of the falls.
We shall visit Niagara-on-the-Lake, often called the loveliest town in Ontario that has a long and distinguished history and was the site of the old Neutral Indian village of Onghiara.
After breakfast, we will check out of our hotel and transfer to the Toronto Airport for our flight to the historic city of Philadelphia, ‘Birthplace of a New Nation’. On arrival, we will transfer and check into to the MONACO HOTEL, or similar, for two nights. Dinner tonight will be at the hotel.
Today on our sightseeing tour, we shall visit Independence Hall, the location of both the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the drafting of the Constitution. We shall view Liberty Bell, visit the National Constitution Centre, enjoy a horse and carriage ride and take a trolley ride through the city. The afternoon is at your leisure.
This morning we leave Philadelphia and on our way visit Longwood Gardens and the Brandywine Museum which showcases the art of Andrew Wyeth, a major American realist painter. His father, N.C. Wyeth was an illustrator of many children’s classics. We drive on to Lancaster County, home of the Amish and Mennonite communities whose religious faiths stress humility, family, community, simple living and separation from the world. We shall have ample opportunity to experience the Amish culture as we shall spend the next two nights at the LANCASTER ARTS HOTEL, or similar.
We visit an Amish family and their farm, where we will learn more about this faith and culture. A local guide will join us and we shall have the chance to visit their barns and the Farmer’s Market, see their miniature horse farm, learn about their homemade quilts and crafts and sample some delicious treats and enjoy lunch hosted by an Amish family.
We say goodbye to our Amish hosts and drive to Gettysburg. Here we shall visit the National Military Park and the most interesting Visitor Centre where exhibits and multimedia presentations tell the poignant story of one the Civil Wars costliest and most significant battles. We continue on to Washington and check into the WILLARD INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL, or similar, for a three-night stay.
On our guided tours over the next two days, we shall see the White House and visit the National Mall, home to such attractions as the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Martin Luther Memorial and several war memorials – including the National World War II Memorial. We shall visit Arlington National Cemetery – a famous military resting place, established during the American Civil War. You will have free time to visit the many treasures of the Smithsonian Museum, such as the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of National History. While in Washington we shall also visit Mount Vernon, the estate of George Washington. This historic plantation offers a chance to understand America’s first hero.
After we check out this morning we shall head to the train station for our train journey to New York City, where we will check into the RENAISSANCE NEW YORK TIMES SQUARE HOTEL, or similar, and spend the next two days exploring this most famous city.
We shall take in the landmarks of New York including bustling Fifth Avenue, Empire State Building, Times Square, Broadways Theatre District, the Lincoln Centre, home to the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Greenwich Village, the former bohemian capital of the city, artistic Soho, and the Financial District including Wall Street. We shall view the Statue of Liberty from a Circle Line cruise, and head up to the Observation Deck at the top of the Rockefeller Centre to take in incredible views of this spectacular city and take some time to reflect at the 9/11 Memorial and Ground Zero. Before we take a horse and carriage ride around the expansive gardens of Central Park, we shall have a back-stage tour of Radio City Music Hall, an entertainment venue located in Rockefeller Center. There will free time to go shopping at the famous department stores, or to wander through New York’s varied neighbourhoods such as Chinatown and Little Italy or maybe enjoy a show on Broadway.
We leave the Big Apple today and drive to Woodstock. On the way we shall stop at the small Quechee Village where we shall have lunch at the Simon Pearce Glass Blowing factory. This site, which is powered hydroelectrically by the Ottauquechee River, and has become a showroom, restaurant, and glass-blowing demonstration facility’. In the afternoon, we will check into the WOODSTOCK INN & RESORT, or similar, for a two-night stay.
Woodstock has been the highly-dignified seat of scenic Windsor County since 1766. Many grand houses surround the oval village green, and four of Woodstock's churches can claim bells cast by Paul Revere. Woodstock is still very beautiful and very wealthy. We will spend some time walking around the green, the town’s central square, surrounded by Federal and Greek Revival homes and public buildings, or along the Ottauquechee River, spanned by three covered bridges. The Rockefellers and the Rothschilds own estates in the surrounding countryside, and the wellto-do come to stay at the grand Woodstock Inn & Resort. About five minutes' drive east of Woodstock, the small Quechee Village is home to Quechee Gorge – Vermont's diminutive answer to the Grand Canyon – as well as some outstanding restaurants.
This morning we drive to Vergennes, overlooking Lake Champlain with views of the Adirondacks and Green Mountains, where we will check into the BASIN HARBOR CLUB, or similar for an overnight stay. The Basin Harbor Club’s lake resort guestrooms are unique, charming and memorable. Built in the 1920s and ’30s, each private lake cottages have its own history. Weather permitting, we shall take a short cruise on Lake Champlain. Tonight, we will have dinner at one of the resort’s restaurants.
Shelburne Heritage Park in Vermont is one of the country's most diverse museums with a unique collection of over 150,000 works including Impressionist paintings, folk art, quilts and textiles, decorative arts, furniture, American paintings, and a dazzling array of 17th-to 20thcentury artefacts. It showcases buildings from around New England and New York, including an 1890 railroad station, a lighthouse, a stagecoach inn, and an Adirondack lodge. We will have a chance to explore the museum before we continue on to Stowe for a two-night stay. During the afternoon, we will check into THE TRAPP FAMILY LODGE, a historic mountain resort built in the European tradition by the Von Trapp family that inspired ‘The Sound of Music’.
Today we will have a chance to explore the historic village of Stowe, home to Vermont's highest peak, Mount Mansfield. In the valley where the West Branch River flows into the Little River and mountains rise to the sky, the Vermont village of Stowe (founded in 1794) bustles quietly. The town's long-standing reputation as one of the East's classiest mountain resorts continues to draw well-heeled urbanites from Boston, New York and beyond. A bounty of inns and eateries lines the thoroughfares leading up to stunning Smuggler's Notch, a narrow rock-walled pass through the Green Mountains just below Mt Mansfield (4393ft). During our time in Stowe we will have time to visit Ben & Jerry's world-renowned ice cream factory.
We leave Stowe this morning, and have a stop in Montpelier, where we will visit a maple syrup and sugar farm before we continue on to Mt Washington. We will spend the next two nights at the WHITE MOUNTAIN HOTEL, or similar.
Mount Washington State Park, a 60.3-acre parcel perched on the summit of the Northeast's highest peak, is surrounded by the extensive 750,000-acre White Mountain National Forest. On a clear day, views from the 6,288-foot summit extend beyond New Hampshire as far as 130 miles to Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Quebec, and the Atlantic Ocean.
This morning we will leave the White Mountains National Forest and head through North Conway to the famous scenic Kancamagus Highway to Lincoln. We then continue on to Boston and on arrival in the early afternoon will check in to THE LENOX HOTEL, or similar, for an overnight stay. This afternoon we shall board our “DUCK”, a W.W.II style amphibious landing vehicle for a sightseeing tour of Boston with a difference. After our tour we shall check in to THE BOSTONIAN HOTEL, or similar, for two-night stay. Time to freshen up before we have dinner at a local restaurant.
After breakfast, we shall take a short walk along the Freedom Trail before transferring to the Port of Boston to embark on our 7-day cruise to Montreal on the ms Veendam. We shall say farewell to Boston in the mid-afternoon.
Please note Holland America shore excursions in Bar Harbour, Halifax or Sydney are not included in the tour cost during the cruise.
For much of the year, sunlight touches the United States first at Cadillac Mountain on the Maine Coast. From the granite-slabbed summit, light tiptoes down across the rest of Mount Desert Isle, Acadia National Park, the town of Bar Harbor and then the rest of the country.
It's big enough to be the economic and cultural capital of eastern Canada, but small enough to be easy going and hospitable. Halifax residents have it good, the city is located on one of the planet's great natural harbors and adorned with landmarks like the Citadel fortress, Pier 21 (Canada's Ellis Island), and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Outside the city, cruise visitors can discover the weather-beaten landscape of Nova Scotia's south shore. See craggy coastlines, the bouldered topography of Peggy's Cove, and the German village of Lunenburg, so meticulously restored it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A hundred thousand Gaelic welcomes await you in Nova Scotia, Latin for "New Scotland." At the northeast end of the province sits Cape Breton Island, whose wild and lovely topography includes Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Bras d'Or Lake, and miles of rugged coastline. Sydney is the gateway to it all. There are highland villages, the scenic Cabot Trail, and the Fortress of Louisbourg – where every barn, barracks and pipe and drum corps appears just as it did when King Louis' troops occupied the site in 1744.
Canada's smallest province is an island that seems to be tethered to New Brunswick by the 8-mile-long Confederation Bridge, Charlottetown's Victorian architecture, abundance of parks, and harborside location make it an idyllic stop. We shall take a memorable city tour of historic downtown Charlottetown, visit the coastal fishing village of North Rustico and we shall have plenty of time to sample homemade island jams, visit the Anne of Green Gables homestead. Our tour will also include a visit to the Anne of Green Gables museum and see the Confederation Bridge which spans 12.9 kilometres and is the world’s largest multi-span bridge over a tidal current waterway. We can relax and enjoy the picturesque landscape on the drive back to the city.
The largest estuary in the world, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence fringes the shores of half the provinces of Canada and is a gateway to the interior of the entire North American continent. Geographically, the Gulf is defined by stunning coast line and beautiful islands, including Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands. Thousands of migratory birds make this area their home during the spring and fall migration period. And be sure to keep an eye out for whale, porpoise and seal sightings.
The singular image of the city is a hotel surrounded by cannons. Built to evoke a mountain castle, Chateau Frontenac sits atop a cape above the St. Lawrence River. The hotel is part of the city's Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and with all the stone buildings and winding streets, you'll think you're in Europe. We shall take a horse and carriage ride through the city centre and then enjoy coffee and cake in a local restaurant.
This morning we will disembark our cruise ship. The cultural capital of Canada, Montreal always seems to show up on "most liveable city" lists and has been named a UNESCO City of Design. Montreal is built around Mont Royal, from where the city received its name. Mont Royal Park, located on the mountain, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the same person who designed New York City's Central Park. No building in Montreal can be taller than the famous Cross found on Mont Royal! We shall have a sightseeing tour of the city before transferring to the airport in the afternoon for our flight to Los Angeles where we shall be transferred to the SOFITEL BEVERLEY HILLS, or similar, for an overnight stay. Included will a be light dinner on our arrival at the Sofitel.
This morning we shall have a sightseeing tour of the city which will include the sights of Hollywood and Rodeo Drive. We will have the use of our hotel rooms until this evening when we transfer to the airport for our flight to Melbourne, so there will be plenty of time for more souvenir shopping.
We arrive in Melbourne in the early morning and shall be transferred back to Gippsland by coach. |
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Gippsland Travel Centre Pty. Ltd.
ABN 70 065 385 337
Shop 3, 126 Albert Road, Warragul, Victoria 3820
Telephone (03) 5623 5151
Fax (03) 5623 4952
Emergency Number: +61 (0)419 213 274
Email: info@gippslandtravel.com.au