Toronto Hippo Tours I Went On A Bus - In The Water…….
June 27, 2008 on 2:16 am | In Travel Insurance | No Comments
Some time ago I noticed these odd shaped colourful bus-type vehicles in the streets of Toronto, and I was wondering what they were. I caught a second glimpse and I saw “Toronto Hippo Tours“, and I realized that these buses carry sightseeing passengers not just on the streets of Toronto, but also in the waters of Lake Ontario. Considering that this form of intermodal transportation is definitely unconventional, it just recently came to me that I should do an interview with this company and go on one of the vehicles myself.
They are definitely funny looking vehicles with a rounded snout, bright painting saying “Ride the Hippo”, and an entry at the rear where you board walking up a set of retractable metal stairs.
Today I met with Drew O’Gilvie who is the Director of Sales and Marketing for Toronto Hippo Tours. Drew used to be a Director of Sales for Delta Hotels and obviously has a lot of tourism-related marketing experience.
1. Please tell us who came up with the idea of creating a company with a bus that floats? How long has the company been in business?
Geoffrey Lind founded Toronto Hippo Tours 5 years ago since he wanted to bring the “duck concept”, the famous amphibian vehicle tours in Boston, to Toronto. Last year the company had 25,000 passengers and we expect to far surpass that number this year. Rather than calling ourselves a sightseeing company, we consider ourselves an “urban safari”, a true urban adventure.
2. How many Hippos are there? What makes them special?
We currently have 2 vehicles in operation with a 3rd one that was just recently completed and is just waiting for final licenses, a complicated process that involves federal and provincial authorities and safety checks. The vehicles are Canadian-designed and built, based on a school-bus platform. Contrary to other places, they are not recycled WWII or Korean war amphibian vehicles. They are carefully safety-checked and greased every morning. We affectionately call our 3 amphibian vehicles Harry, Happy and Henrietta, our newest addition.
3. Please tell us about your route and your schedule. Are the tours narrated?
The Hippo tours are 1.5 hours long and spend about 1 hour on land covering the major Toronto sites, all professionally narrated by a tour guide who is also licensed in first-aid. We run tours from the beginning of May to the end of October every hour from 11 am to 6 pm.
4. Please tell us about the prices. Is it possible to book the vehicles for a private outing?
Prices are very reasonable at C$35.00 per adult, or C$30.00 for seniors or students, and C$23.00 for children 12 years and under. The vehicles can also be chartered and are frequently rented for special occasions both by business organizations and private individuals for birthday parties. At C$500.00 per outing, which holds 40 passengers, this can be an extremely affordable special event.
5. Please comment on the special training that your captains and tour guides receive.
Our guides are certified in St. John’s Ambulance and CPR, and are all restricted engineers. They undergo strict testing with government authorities as marine captains and they have to obtain licenses to become school-bus drivers for operating the vessel on land.
After interviewing Drew, I had a chance to actually sample the Hippo experience myself and I got on board, plunking myself down right behind the Captain, who in this case was a sporty-looking lady by the name of Catherine. We had another tour guide who competently and entertainingly mentioned the major sights along the way and cracked some dry jokes in between. Another guide by the name of Dan also accompanied us. He is just finishing up his road licensing and has already completed the marine portion of the licensing process.
The vehicle passes through the streets of Toronto at a very leisurely pace. Our route included major sites such as the Royal York Hotel, Union Station, Yonge Street with the Bay, the Eaton Centre and Dundas Square. We then headed over on Elm Street and down on Bay Street past Old and New City Hall. I particularly enjoyed the gargoyle story about Old Toronto City Hall, where a famous architect took revenge on Toronto city counsellors who criticized him for his cost overruns by depicting their likenesses as ugly gargoyles. We then headed up University Avenue past Queens Park (the provincial government buildings) and on to the University of Toronto campus.
From there we snaked our way down through the Garment District, admiring all of Toronto’s loft conversions and condo developments past the CNE grounds (the Canadian National Exhibition grounds) to a ramp near Ontario Place, where we were getting ready for THE BIG SPLASH - the Hippo’s entry into the water.
It sure was a weird feeling, being on a bus whose windshield is all of a sudden fully submerged by water. But the vehicle straightened itself out pretty quickly and we started chugging slowly into the waters surrounding Ontario Place. “Happy the Hippo’s” top speed is about 5 knots, and the vehicle has a single engine that propels the bus’ transmission on land as well as the propeller in the water. At 20 tons it’s a pretty heavy vehicle and a special ramp had to be built to give it access to Lake Ontario.
We took a little spin over off the west end of the Exhibition Grounds where we had a good look at Toronto’s only wind turbine (we are finally making baby-steps towards greener energy production….) where we turned around and headed back towards Ontario place.
While Dan was driving during the water portion of the trip, Catherine, the other captain, and I stood at the back of the vessel and had a great conversation. Catherine is a former insurance sales expert and after being laid off she went into a completely new career - first as a Hippo tour guide, and she has also become a fully certified and licensed Hippo captain. Catherine also knows lots about fixing the vehicle and doesn’t mind getting her fingers greasy when she performs maintenance duties on the bus on a daily basis. In her off -months from November to April Catherine does some cool things, such as volunteering her services to an animal conservation area to protect sloths in Costa Rica, or travelling extensively to Cuba. As a matter of fact, Catherine is a pretty cool and interesting individual herself and I will be doing a follow-up intereview with her in the near future.
Back on land we passed by Harbourfront and headed back up towards the famous Royal York hotel. Shortly after we made a quick turn left and headed back to the Hippo Tours parking spot at 151 Front Street, just a tiny bit east of the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre (formerly called the Skydome), Toronto’s multi-purpose stadium with the retractable roof.
Catherine and I had a chance to catch up for about 10 minutes after the tour was over, and we briefly talked about doing a language study trip to Cuba, something that Catherine was interested in. I shared some information with her since I have had the opportunity to study Spanish at the University of Havana earlier this year.
It seems to me that Catherine is a bit of an adventurer and I am really looking forward to catching up with her to find out more about her new, unconventional lifestyle that went from corporate sales to being a road/lake captain for 6 months of the year, and doing some other cool stuff in the months between..
Thanks again to Drew and the whole crew at Toronto Hippo Tours for spending their time with me and for giving me the opportunity to explore Toronto on a bus - on land and on the water…….
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions(http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.
Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest(http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.
“Life is a Journey
Tags: adventure travel, eco tourism, family travel, hippo travel, Toronto, travel, women travelSecond Interview Coming Up Karla Darocas!
June 20, 2008 on 1:50 am | In Travel Insurance | No Comments
My Second Interview: Karla Darocas - Expatriate Canuck in Spain!
As you will probably know by now, I have a real fascination for everything Spanish (my article on Hispanophilia will attest to that), so I headed over to Spain twice last year. On my second trip where I visited places such as Barcelona, Tarragona, Valencia, Montserrat and Ibiza, I also spent a couple of days on the Costa Blanca, the most easterly part of Spain that sticks out into the Mediterranean.
My friend and Internet mentor David had linked me up with one of his close friends, a very interesting woman from Canada who had moved to Spain a few years earlier. Karla Darocas was very gracious and invited me to stay with her for a night or two and I had a chance to get a brief glimpse into the life of an expatriate Canuck on the Spanish Costa Blanca.
Karla, her Scottish friend Rhonda and I went on a day trip on the local train to Benidorm, the largest tourist resort town along the entire Costa Blanca. We talked about life in Spain, about the culture and in particular about the humongous influx of Northern Europeans, particularly retirees, who are settling along the Spanish coastline. If I remember correctly, Spain is expecting something like 4 million Northern Europeans to settle in Spain over the next few years.
As a result there has been huge real estate development along the entire coastline and in some places like Marbella literally every square inch of available space has been paved over. For anybody with any kind of love for nature, what has happened along the coasts of Southern Spain is really quite painful to see. Development has progressed with very few limits and as a result Spain is facing serious water shortages and environmental issues due to overdevelopment, overcrowding of coastal areas as well as the building of golf courses. The tremendous increase in prices along the coast has made it virtually impossible for the locals to be able to afford a house there.
However, despite all these excesses, there are still many beautiful places, and particularly the area where Karla lives is an extremely scenic part of Spain. Karla is a very interesting individual who is an artist, but is also involved in a variety of business and non-profit endeavours. Again she is one of those people who manage to combine the artistic with the entrepreneurial. I found her to be a very generous host and I appreciated the opportunity to spend a day and half with a person who could give me local insight into the area.
Her interview will provide unique insight into a culture that fascinates many of us in one of the most beautiful and diverse countries around. Karla’s frank comments describe Spanish society and the life of a North American expatriate and provide an inside look into a beguiling and contradictory culture.
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.
Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.
“Life is a Journey
Tags: adventure travel, eco tourism, family travel, hippo travel, Toronto, travel, women travelCappadocia, Turkey - Land of Wonders
June 12, 2008 on 1:23 am | In Travel Insurance | No CommentsHumans first set foot in the region about 10,000 years ago. Then, from 3,500 to 1,200 BC Cappadocia was a part of a powerful Hittite state. Phrygians took over the administration in the 8th century BC. Five hundred years later they were replaced by Persians. Alexander the Great occupied the territory in 333 BC. Cappadocia’s past history includes being a Roman state, a part of the Byzantine Empire, a place where many early Christian saints including St.Paul found a shelter, where they lived and taught. Finally, Cappadocia has become a noticable region of modern Turkey with predominant importance of agriculture and tourism.
WHAT TO SEE AND WHERE: Fairy Chimneys were created as a result of wind and water erosion when small harder pieces of rock remained on top of larger and softer rock columns. This out-of-this-world landscape impressed George Lucas so much that his original plan was to shoot some Star Wars’ episodes in this area. Located in a spectacular valley between towns of Nevseshir and Urgup there are very different, interesting fairy chimneys. UNESCO declared the area a World Heritage Site. Some of the fairy chimneys have been inhabited for many years, with rooms, windows and staircases being laboriously curved inside creating up to 5-storey structures inside. Today some of these are also providing services to tourism as pensions. The largest of 36 underground cities in the area is at Derinkuyu. It is at a distance of 29 km from Nevsehir, the provincial center of 7,000 people. Derinkuyu underground city is located under a hill, was found by chance and opened to the public in 1965. It covers a 4 square km area and was calculated as able to shelter 2,000 households on 7 floors beneath the surface, reaching a depth of 70 to 85 meters.
Archeologists tend to believe that the Hittites were the starters of the underground communities which in the 6th and 7th were expanded by early Christians into a very extensive complexes with air shafts, kitchens, living quarters, churches, water wells, horse stables and wine cellars. These elaborate subterranean systems were used by the people who had accepted Christianity against their enemies both as a shelter and as a safe place to carry out their worship. Next largest underground city is at Kaymakly, 20 km from Nevsehir. Despite of the fact that only four underground levels have been excavated, there are speculations that there can be as many as 11 in total. There is also a tunnel that connects the underground cities of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu (9 km long!) that has a width of of over 2 meters, but unfortunatley it is not opened to the public as parts of the tunnel have collapsed.
Among other significant underground communities in the region we should mention the underground monastery of Ozkonak and the Tatlarin underground city with existing Christian frescoes. Rock cut Christian churches. It is estimated that over 400 Christian churches, chapels and monasteries were built in Cappadocia during the Byzantine period until the 13th century. Most of them were hollowed out in fairy chimneys, hills and in underground caves. The Tokali church is the largest one in the region, it was built in the beginning of the 10th century. Decorated with a cycle containing the life of Jesus, it is located right in the town of Goreme. The Karanlik church, also located in Goreme is among best preserved in Cappadocia with lively paintings depicting the consecration of Jesus, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the apostles. The Eskigumus rock cut monastery (close to the town of Nigde) is the only one where you can see a frescoe with smiling Virgin Mary.
Recent discovery of the monastery in 1963 allowed it to escape vandalism to which many of the Cappadocian churches and monasteries were subjected. Well-preserved wall paintings decorate the spacious main church are known to be one of the best examples of the Byzantine art in all of Cappadocia.
Other attractions in the area include but not limited to:
- museums in Aksaray, Nevsehir, Goreme, Nigde, Kayseri;
- fortress of Ortahisar, the spectacular Devrent Valley;
- Seljuk history relics such as Karatay Madrasah, many mosques and caravansaries in Konya;
- hot springs in Nar-Golu and Guzelyurt where also one of the oldest existing churches in the area- Kizil Kilise (Red Church) is located, a 6th century artifact;
- mountain climbing and mountain skiing at the Erciyes Dagi mountain (3916m above sea level);
- hot air ballooning.
WHEN TO GO: Cappadocia has a steppe climate, there is a great temperature difference between day and night. The average temperature is +23 deg.C (73 F) in summer and -2 deg.C (28 F) in winter. It is cooler and drier than in the popular tourist areas of the Mediterranean and the Aegean coasts. April to middle of June and September-October are the best months to visit.
GETTING THERE: Ankara, the Turkey’s capital city is only 350km away. You will find all necessary local contact phone numbers, price quotes and dining recommendations by following these links: Goreme - Nevsehir. Tours to Cappadocia are offered by almost all travel agencies in Turkey, although they are all too short allowing you just enough time for brief sightseeing. Tour guides tend to spend too much of your time at local pottery and carpet shops. We recommend you to rent a car in Ankara (usually $ 75-100 USD/day) and drive to Cappadocia on your own, or put together a little group and hire a minivan together with a local driver/travel guide (a car and driver would cost you $85- 135 USD/day).
TRAVEL TIPS: Local travel books, information booklets are available on the spot in Cappadocia’s towns. If travelling on your own, a detailed road map would definitely be a must to buy before leaving home. Modest clothes are suggested for women. The rural Turkey’s culture is conservative and immodest clothing (short skirts, shorts, tight clothing) can invite unwanted attention. Do not forget a sun hat, sun protecting lotion, comfortable shoes. Plan ahead to spend at least two full days in the area.
We wish you a nice and safe trip!
For more travel guides, other travel data, online trip reservations visit us: http://www.travelmake.com - one of leading discount travel agencies, a source of useful travel information.
Tags: adventure travel, cappadocia travel, family vacation, travel destination, turkey travelCopyright 2007 Travel Insurance Worldwide Center. All rights reserved.