Amazing Race Canada - Season 1 airports recap

With Season 2 upon us, we thought we would recap the airports that the Amazing Race Canada teams visited in Season 1.

We started with our Amazing Race Canada - Season 1 Airport Quiz. Did you try it out? How did you do? If not, take the quiz now and check your memory!.

In Season 1, The Amazing Race Canada's visited 12 Canadian airports (the links below go to our transportation guides for each):

Air Canada is The Amazing Race Canada's lead sponsor

• Calgary International Airport (YYC)
• Edmonton International Airport (YEG)
• Halifax International Airport (YHZ)
• Iqaluit Airport (YFB)
• Kelowna International Airport (YLW)
• Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
• Quebec City Jean Lasage International Airport (YQB)
• Regina Airport (YQR)
• Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
• Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
• Whitehorse International Airport (YXY)
• Yellowknife Airport (YZF)

As Season 1 unfolded, we blogged about the visits, and a bit more about the airports themselves. If you'd like to read up, here's a link to all our Amazing Race Canada Season 1 blog posts.

We also did a little feature on Toronto Billy Bishop City Centre Airport (YTZ) as, while the teams didn't visit the airport, they did visit the Toronto Islands, in the city centre, where YTZ is located (read it here).

We hope you will follow along as we blog about the airports visited on Season 2 of The Amazing Race Canada. We'll even tell you about the best ways to get to/from each, in case you are inspired to visit!

Related resources:

• 5 Busiest Airports in Canada 
• Canada's Story - Airport Councils International
• End of Days - YYZ to discontinue bus service 
• Do we really hate taxis?

Amazing Race Canada - Week 2: YLW, YVR

Another exciting episode of The Amazing Race Canada last night!

We're pleased a few people found our "clues" to Week 2 and tried our poll. Once again, here are the clues, along with the % of guesses for each, and the correct answer highlighted:

• A pair of sticks. An enormous tail. A dull edge. (0%)
• A green hat. An enormous head. A sharp edge. (20%) - CORRECT
• A pointy head. An enormous elastic. An uneven edge. (0%)
• A head on a stick. An enormous song. A jagged edge. (0%)
• A fishy stick. An enormous rope. A smooth edge. (0%)
• A pair of dimes. An enormous bone. A bumpy edge. (0%)
• A red jacket. An enormous beast. A razor edge. (80%)

A green hat:

The green roof atop the Vancouver Convention Centre West

Building, The Amazing Race Canada Week 2 pitstop 

(source: BierDoctor on flickr, creative commons licence)

This green "living roof" atop the new West building of the Vancouver Convention Centre. Wasn't that a marvelous pit stop for the end of Week 2? So glorious, so green, and with vistas of Vancouver's core all around! The glimpses of the roof in the Week 2 previews caused us to call it a green hat. Even to Vancouverites, this was special, as we are not aware of an event "up top" on the green space being televised before. The West building, sporting the living roof, was built for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games as the media centre, prior to its legacy purpose as an expansion of the Vancouver Convention Centre. The roof is not open to the public.
What is a Living Roof?
What is the Vancouver Convention Centre?
Vancouver Convention Centre Official Website
West Building Image and Video Gallery
West Building Public Tours
Living Roof Video and Bees Video
Living Roof Specifications on Greenroofs.com

An enormous head:

Dragon dance costume similar to those in The Amazing Race Canada

(source: rumpleteaser on flickr, creative commons licence)

We thought this was an obvious clue, as one of the glorious - and huge - dragon heads was shown in the Week 2 preview. We wish more teams had chosen to do the dragon dance during their visit to Chinatown, if only to see the ceremonial chomp of the lettuce repeated!
What is the dragon dance?
Vancouver Chinatown Photo Gallery

A sharp edge:

The Richmond Olympic Oval when The Amazing Race Canada teams
went long track "speed' skating (source: Wikimedia commons)

Ah, yes, the slip, sliding and falling at the Richmond Oval - ouch! While Twitter was alive last night with people joking about skating being used as a challenge for Canadians, we did see lots of non-skaters giving it a go. And suspect there was plenty of black and blue appearing in the days that followed! It was also nice to see the magnificent long track speed skating facility from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics transformed into it's legacy purpose.
What is the Richmond Olympic Oval?
Richmond Olympic Oval Official Website

On the aviation side of things, both airports featured in Week 2 were return visits that we wrote about in Amazing Race Canada - Week 1 - Niagara Falls, YYZ, YVR, YLW.

• Kelowna International Airport (YLW)
• Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

BTW, we are resisting the temptation to comment on the two taxi drivers who dropped teams off in the wrong spots...

If you missed the episode, you can watch it on the official website above.

Amazing Race Canada - Week 1 - Niagara Falls, YYZ, YVR, YLW

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada (source: Wikicommons)

We're a Canadian company, so we are understandably excited to watch The Amazing Race Canada unfold on our televisions, hosted by our very own Canadian Olympian, Jon Montgomery (he won gold in 2010 in skeleton... to call that race amazing would be an understatement!).

Being airport geeks (after all, we are the best people-powered world-wide airport ground transportation information service), we are especially interested in the airports the teams on The Amazing Race Canada will visit during the race.

Needless to say, we loved the Week 1 kick-off show, featuring Niagara Falls, Ontario (aka "the Canadian side") - along with its sister city over the border in Niagara Falls, New York, U.S.A. is the self-proclaimed "Honeymoon Capital of the World." The grandeur of the Falls of the Niagara River attracts millions of tourists every year, there to enjoy everything from the mist of the falls and the sometimes cheesy attractions, to the all natural beauty and hiking opportunities. We certainly saw the beauty last night!

Toronto Pearson International Airport (source: Wikicommons)

Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) - serving just under 35 million passengers a year, Pearson was the world's 35th busiest airport in 2012 (how's that for a numerical co-incidence?), and Canada's busiest. By the way, for those that know the airport, if you haven't heard the good news, construction is underway on a rail connection to downtown Toronto, due to open in 2015.

Vancouver International Airport (source: double_feature on flickr)

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) - Canada's 2nd busiest airport served 17.6 million passengers in 2012, the same year it earned the Skytrax award of Best Airport in North America - for the 4th time in a row! Since the lead-up to the 2010 Olympics, YVR has been connected to downtown Vancouver via the Canada Line Skytrain. Next week's race preview showed the teams back here...

Kelowna International Airport (YLW) - serving under 2 million passengers a year, Kelowna's airport is growing by leaps and bounds with numerous innovations. It earned its "international" status when flights to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and several holiday destinations in Mexico were added to it's flight roster. The innovations? YLW's duty free shop features Okanagan wines, ski hosts meet winter flights to help skiers get to the right mountain shuttles, and, in 2013, hosted Canada's first Elections Canada Polling Place in an airport. And, oh, what a gateway to all the Okanagan has to offer, as we saw last night.

We've included links to our transportation guides for these destinations, in case you were so dazzled by the show that you want to visit!!

PS - if you missed the episode, you can watch it online at the official website above.