Canada - Day One – Friday 4th October

The flight to Vancouver from Heathrow is at 1730, so I decided to drive. The M25 on a Friday afternoon can make the journey anything from an hour and a half to four hours, but today was a good day and it took only two hours. The trouble with leaving at a sensible mid morning time just doesn’t give any urgency to packing, but even though I didn’t really start it until 9.30am I still left at just gone 11.00am. This got me to Heathrow Terminal 5 at just gone 1pm, an hour before we were supposed to meet. I had a meet and greet parking option, so drove into the short term car park and handed over the car. Easy. This is a “familiarisation” trip – which means we get to try out hotels and experiences to make our knowledge that much better to recommend to our customers. Hard life! I met the rest of the group, and went to check in. My boarding pass was a “standby” ticket, so this could have been the shortest trip ever. It was soon converted to confirmed – and in business class, so all the better. We made our way to the Business Class Lounge, where we had a couple of drinks and a bite to eat before the flight left. This is such a lovely way to start your holiday – we at Travel Stop can book customers into lounges at most airports throughout the world. We boarded the flight, where the champagne flowed and the food was good. After a short delay, we took off and had a smooth journey. The flight was absolutely packed. The flight of just over nine hours went relatively quickly, and we were soon getting ready to land the other side of the Atlantic. With watches being moved back eight hours, we landed at 7.30pm. It took around an hour to clear immigration, get the bags and go through customs. The journey to the hotel was about 40 minutes, so when we checked in my body clock was at around 5am. A bit like doing a nightshift. We were staying at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel. Our journey to the hotel took us through Gas Town, and down onto the Harbour. It is only a five minute walk from the Fairmont Waterfront, where I stayed last time I was in Vancouver. The room was on the 17th floor, and had an amazing view over Coal Harbour and Stanley Park – although it was hard to make out the park in the dark. The hotel is very contemporary – there was live music playing in a very vibrant lobby, and the rooms are very high tech. The curtains are opened and closed by pressing a button – or on the ipad provided. Hmm – now there’s a challenge I can set Paul for when I get home! There is a screen in the mirror in the bathroom with the weather channel playing, so I can decide what to wear for the day whilst cleaning my teeth. Amazing! The coffee maker makes good coffee – and after that I was just about ready to drop into the most comfortable bed in the world.