TRAVEL

otels offer packages for
unusual yuletide festivities

CHRISTMAS COMES early in the hofel world, so if you
want to have professionals arrange your festive celebra-

tions, plan now,

* Canadian Pacific Hotcls have a
number of tantalizing holiday
packages at their Alberta and B.C.
properties,

The Banff Springs Hotel’s
“Festival of Christmas’ runs
from Nov, 13 to Jan. 1, 1994, and
features a St. Nicholas Bazaar and
a musical Christmas review.

There are also dogsled tours,
outdoor skating parties, and hay
rides.

Christmas Day at the 105-
year-old hotel is rich in tradition,
including a boar’s-head parade
and the lighting of the yule log.

Package price, including
breakfast and pre-Christmas ac-
tivities, is $56 per person per night
on weekends from Nov. 13 to
Dec. 20.

The per-person rate to Dec. 30,
including dinner and Christmas
events, is $167 per night (children
under 18 stay free).

_ The Lodge at Kananaskis, on
the Alberta side of the B.C.-
Alberta border, is set in a winter
wonderland ideal for downhill and
cross-country skiers.

The lodge’s three-night holiday
package begins Dec, 23 and covers
accommodation, dinner on
Christmas Eve and brunch on
Christmas Day, plus outdoor

_ Skating and the chance to ride a
_ horse-drawn sleigh.

The price is $237 per person,

Closer to home, Victoria’s Em-
press Hotel fills with traditional
pageantry for its “‘Old English
Yuletide Celebration.”

On Christmas morning, guests
wake up to music as carolers stroll
the hallways.

Starting Dec. 24, the four-

‘night, five-day package includes

First signs

nis court) are blamed on the in-
surgence of Overtowners. greedily
. .gobbling up. North Shore real
estate as they flee urban madness.
' Youth gang ‘activity’ on the
. North Shore is obviously the fault
_ Of ‘carloads of armed youth brav-
ing the rickety bridges to wreak
havoc on the lives of our innocent
-youth on their way to choir prac-
tice. :
The two thin strips of concrete
that anchor the North Shore to
the rest ‘of .civilization, to many,
represent the conduits of ‘evil that
is the modern world.
.**Knock down them bridges,
and to hell with ’em,’’ barked an
elderly gentieman I encountered
one sunny day on the seawall.
“Nothin’ but drug pushers, crimi-
nals, and welfare cheats over
there.”
‘He stomped off to cash his
pension cheque, and then a
“quick nip’’ Junch at Peppi’s with

Find cut who’s in the
SPOTLIGHT
every Wednesday in the
North Shore News

THE ASTUTE TRAVELLER

some meals and ga’ events.

The cost is $730

Ai the Chat’: whistler, there’s
a three-day pre-Christmas ski
package from Nov. 25 to Dec. 17
for $320 per person.

On Dec. 23, kids get to create
their own gingerbread house.

And finally, the Hotel Van-
couver holds its traditional
Dickens Buffet from Dec. 3 to 24
in the Roof Restaurant.

The price is $33 for adults,
$16.50 for children under eight
years,

For reservations at CP Hotels
call toll-free 1-800-441-1414,

seo
The most unusual holiday for the
intrepid traveller may well be
Finland's “Journey Through the
Ice.”’

Aboard the icebreaker Sampo
(it has comfortable lounges and
restaurants complete with brass
trim), guests experience a vast

of malady

some old buddies.
What’s worse, the
seems to be contagious.
First signs of the malady seep-
ing into my own daring life are
becoming more frequent.
The sight of pinstripe cowboys

disorder

en masse outside a coffee bar, .

preferring to chat to their invisible
phone companions ‘than _ their
doubles, once brought thoughts of
pity and fear.

Now, when [| see their dry-

world of white as they crunch
through the northern part of the
Gulf of Botnia, Europe's largest
cortinuous ice field.

As well a5 offering the chance
ta view arctic navigating from the
bridge of a 3.5-million-kilogram
icebreaker, there are opportunities
to snowmobile, take a reindeer
safari, cross-country ski, and the
piece de resistance, go ice swim-
ming.

Snug in dry suits, feeling like
the Michelin man, dauntless
adventurers bob around in the
chilly gulf among the icebergs.
Definitely a photo op,

The three-day tours run Jan. §
to April 29, 1994, and begin with
a Finaair flight from Helsinki to
Kemi; cost is $545.

For more information: Finnish
Tourist Board, PO Box 244, Sta-
tion Q, Toronto, Ontario, M4T
2M1, Tel: 1-416-964-9159, or
toll-free: 1-800-346-4636. Fax
1-416-964-1524,

ote
Barbados’ English roots are evi-
denced by the island’s Victorian-
style buildings, and by
Bridgetown’s Trafalgar Square,
but the beaches on its western
shore are pure Caribbean:
crystalline water, warm and
wonderful.

There’s a mix of posh resorts
and sleepy villages that help make
it a perfect vacation-land.

Westerners will have zn easier
time of reaching Barbados come
Dec. 16 when Air Canada starts a
weekly service from Toronto
timed to connect with a Van-
couver-Toronto flight. The return
Vancouver-Toronto-Barbados
rate is about $930.

- For more information: Bar-
bades Board of Tourism, 5160
Yonge St., Ste. 1800, North York,
Ontario, M2N 6L9. Call toll-free
1-800-268-9122,

. e 6
cleaned stance, it is still fear, but
a fear like that of one’s first ex-
perience of seeing a wild animal in
its wild environment.

Oh, take me back
Dundarave.

Yesterday, I caught myself
making a lame excuse to beg out
of a dinner in Kitsilano.

“That bridge at night is scary,
isn’t it?” L rhetorically asked as |
thumbed through the North Shore
Yellow Pages.

to south

WHISTLER RESORT

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

GET AWAY TO WHISTLER

Value season ~— 3 night package

From $2115° per person double

Inc.: 3 night studio accom & 3 day lift
Valid until Dec. 18
Easy walk to lift & gondola
Central locations

BLACKCOMp

RESERVATIONS
1-800-667-2855

or
$645 639 ar

MOUNTAINSIDE
S* LODGE “&

RESERVATIONS
1-800-665-7174

or E
on 5043 eermeuenh

Sunday, November 14, 1993 - North Shore News - 43

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