For photos of our pre-Congress tour options, please click here.

Pre-congress tour option 1 -

British Columbia - the province on the Pacific

Dates: September 9-11, 2011
Cost: $725 CAD double occupancy; $1115 CAD single occupancy

Includes:
• bus transportation from Vancouver, BC
• meals & snacks
• four nights accommodation September 8-11

British Columbia offers some of the greatest diversity in geography and agriculture of any province in Canada.  Starting in Vancouver, this tour will take you through three distinct agricultural regions, including the intensive agriculture of the Fraser Valley, the orchards and vineyards of the Okanagan Valley, and the ranchlands of the Thomson region.

Thursday, September 8, 2011:

• Arrive in British Columbia, Canada.
• Reservations will be made at the Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel (www.deltaairport.ivancouver.com) near the airport in Richmond.  A shuttle service is available from the airport, as well as a community shuttle that will take visitors to see the sites of Richmond.  The City of Vancouver is easily accessible by public transit (SkyTrain).

Friday, September 9, 2011:

•  Day 1: Departing from Richmond, the first half of the day will focus on agriculture in the Lower Mainland, including dairy, poultry, berries, greenhouse and field vegetable production. 
• Enjoy a late-afternoon drive through Manning Provincial Park on our way to the Nk’Mip winery and cultural centre in Osoyoos. Nk’Mip Cellars is North America’s first aboriginal-owned and operated winery (http://www.nkmip.com/).
• Overnight at Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort & Spa (TBC).

Saturday, September 10, 2011:

• Day 2: Sip and savour the local specialties of the Okanagan Valley, one of the great wine and fruit producing regions of Canada (http://www.hellobc.com/en-CA/RegionsCities/ThompsonOkanagan.htm).  Transition from the land of orchards and vineyards into the ranchlands of the Thomson region, a landscape filled with more than 200 lakes, hills dressed in sage, vast rolling grasslands, tumbleweeds, looming mountains, alpine valleys, roaring rivers and crashing creeks.
• Overnight at Douglas Lake Ranch (http://www.douglaslake.com/) (TBC).

Sunday, September 11, 2011:

• Day 3: Start the day with a morning drive through the glaciers and mountain peaks of the Coast Mountains.  Lunch stop and farm visits in the Pemberton Valley (http://www.tourismpembertonbc.com/).  Designated a Seed Potato Control area in 1947, the protected, narrow valley keeps many potato viruses out of the area thus enabling growers to produce and ship high quality seed for potato farms all over North America. 
• Wander the scenic streets of Whistler Village, host site of the 2010 Winter Olympics (http://www.whistler.com/). 
• Enjoy a sunset drive to Vancouver down the breath-taking Sea to Sky Highway. 
• The bus will return to the Delta Vancouver Airport Hotel in Richmond.  Rooms will be booked for visitors flying to the Congress on September 12.

Exclusions and travel information: Participants will be responsible for flight costs between Vancouver, British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario for the start of the IFAJ congress.  When booking flights to Canada, participants should fly into Vancouver, British Columbia and then home from Toronto, Ontario.

For more information contact: Tamara Leigh, British Columbia Farm Writers' Association, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 
Pre-congress tour option 2 - Alberta - pay as you go tour

 We regret that due to lower than expected interest in the Alberta pre-tour we will no longer be offering this tour as originally planned.

 However, a few of the dedicated committee members involved in planning the Alberta tour would very much like to share their corner of Alberta with you. If you have registered for the Alberta tour and are still interested in seeing some of our province, please contact us directly and we will work through a tour that is designed around your interests. (Your payment for the original tour would be refunded).

Anything that was offered in our original itinerary would be available, including a visit to Banff, and if there is something else of interest to you, let us know and we will do our best to accommodate it. Additionally the length of your tour is flexible so we can reduce the number of days prior to your flight to Guelph if you wish. We will work through the costs for accommodation and meals with you as well as these would be paid on an individual basis – and can tailor these for any budget.

We had a great tour planned and were looking forward to sharing Alberta with you but in light of the rising costs to travel this year, we do understand that the extra expense has been a factor. We hope you will join us in Alberta for a personalized tour.

 If you have questions about what this option could include, you can contact either Annemarie Pedersen ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Janet Kanters ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) directly.