Banff Mt. Norquay Sightseeing Chairlift - A lesser known gem in the Canadian Rockies with spectacular views

 Living just a short 60 minutes away from Banff has afforded the Rewards Canada family lots of time in our oldest National Park. Heck I spent many days in the area during my ski racing days of yesteryear but since that time some things have changed. Namely the amount of visitors that the national park gets. Some days it can be hard to find parking in Banff and surrounding attractions and this was before this year's 150th Birthday offer of free access to all of Canada's National Parks. Banff this summer has been insane!

One attraction that gets crazy line ups and can take up a good part of your day, perhaps more than you would like is Banff's Sulphur Mountain Gondola. Yes the terminal at the top has recently been rebuilt and the views are particularly spectacular. That being said I have an alternative for you. A favourite of the Rewards Canada family that also provides spectacular views yet is way less busy and is roughly half the cost. That alternative is the Banff Sightseeing Chairlift at Mt. Norquay and in our minds it provides even better views than the gondola.

Every time we have gone, at least 4 times over the past 2 summers, we have never had to wait to get onto the chairlift! At the base of the lift they have a sign stating how many days it's been since there has been a bear sighting and in most cases it's 0. That's right if you want to see bears from the safety of the air there is a good chance you can do so here! Here are some photos and even videos of some our rides on the Norquay lift:

Our youngest providing Bambi style questioning of the bear!

There are times the chair lift is even featured on Groupon so you can get it for even less than the current rates which are as follows:
Adult (16+)  $29.95
Child (6-15)  $19.95
5 and under free (minimum age 2 years)

Also at Mt. Norquay is the Via Ferrata which is at the top of the chairlift where you can go mountain/rock climbing. They have various options from novice to advanced. We haven't tried it yet as our youngest wasn't old enough but she is now so if time allows we may just do it this summer!

The drive up and down to Mt. Norquay doesn't disappoint either as we have seen Bears, Rocky Mountain Sheep, Deer and more:

For more details on the lift and the mountain climbing visit Banffnorquay.com

New YYC Calgary Transborder Aspire Lounge Review

Transborder Aspire Lounge Entrance - Photo courtesy of Swissport

 To start our latest vacation the Rewards Canada family recently visited the new Transborder Calgary Airport Aspire Lounge. This lounge opened up on October 31, 2016 along with the entire new International terminal at YYC. This is the only transborder lounge in YYC as the old Rocky Mountain Lounge is now closed and is one of four lounges available in Calgary. The other three are the Aspire Lounge International, Chinook Lounge (Domestic) and Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge.

The Lounge
The new lounge has a much more open feel than the old Rocky Mountain lounge with lots of seating in booth areas, bar seats and bench seating. The lounge also has some loungers in semi enclosed areas where you can watch TV. The seats in the booth areas all featured cubbies for small carry on items and more importantly individual plugs for charging all your electronics!

Here are some general photos I took of the lounge:

At the check in desk!

Middle of the lounge seating with bar stools to the back

These are the seats with the cubbies and plug ins to charge your electronics

Food & Drinks
Outside of the peace and quiet of lounges the biggest draw for many to business class lounges are the food and drink options. Previously at the Rocky Mountain lounge (and in the current Chinook lounge) the food options are quite limited, in particular the hot food options which was usually just soup. The good news that the new transborder Aspire lounge has hot food options! When we arrived the options were chicken fingers, grilled tomatoes, fried rice and carrots. The bad news was the food wasn't very good. Later on the tomatoes were replaced with hashbrowns but we didn't try those out. We ended grabbing some food from Burger King (yes, BK - don't judge) to consume in the lounge. Perhaps we were just unlucky with the food that day but if not hopefully it will be something they work on and provide some better hot food options. The drink options were decent with several beers and hard alcohol options available along with wine. For non-alcoholic drinks there were your usual cans of soda, bottles of Juice and water (still & sparkling) on tap. As a reminder then bring an empty water bottle to fill up if you used to be used to taking water bottles out of the old lounge to your plane!

The hot food options

The alcohol options - there is also wine but not in this picture

Access
Entering the lounge was easy as we simply provided our J Class Air Canada boarding passes. Flying AC Business Class you can also choose to go the Maple Leaf lounge first but you'll have to clear security first for that lounge and when coming back for Transborder you'll have to go through U.S. customs and then security again. Kind of a pain hence AC's access to this lounge for their Transborder flights. Had we not been in business class we would have reverted to the other options our family has and those are The Platinum Card from American Express (which provides access for the whole family), Priority Pass (from The Platinum Card) or at the very least our Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard but the last would only have covered 2 of the 5 of us that were travelling. You can pretty much access the lounge with any lounge program as mentioned but also Dragon Pass or you can buy single entries. To find out more about all the different lounge options read and bookmark our Guide to Business Class lounge access

Thoughts
Overall this new transborder lounge is very nice, much better than the old Rocky Mountain Lounge. We look forward to using it lots and also can't wait to try out the International lounge as well. We just hope the hot food options get a working to something better!

Have you visited this lounge? What do you think of it? What do you like and what do you think could be done better?

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For the best access to this lounge no matter what airline you are flying or what fare class and want to have your family get access look no further than The Platinum Card from American Express:

San Diego Highlights: The Baked Bear Custom Ice Cream Sandwiches - Pacific Beach

The Rewards Canada family's last vacation was spent in the San Diego area a few weeks ago and we thought to try something new on the blog outside of the usual hotel reviews, earning and redemptions stories that go along with those vacations and that something new is a restaurant review, this marks our second such review! Although this one is not so much a restaurant but a great place to stop for a treat!

Related: 

• Earning Stories: 10,822 Gold Passport Points on a 5 Night Stay at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay 

• Rewards Canada's upcoming vacation travel - Painting a picture of loyalty programs in action 
  
• San Diego Highlights: Caffe Bella Italia - Pacific Beach  

We love driving along and visiting vary places in the beaches area of San Diego and while heading north to La Jolla to view the seals at La Jolla cove my wife and kids spotted this place and we made a promise to stop there on our way back to the hotel. Now we've all seen various ice creams shops and of course all the frozen yogurt places (Yogurtland still being our favorite but Menchies isn't too far behind) but this was first for us. A place where you can create your own ice cream sandwich! Hello! Stop the press. This must be awesome. And to tell you the truth, it is. I don't know if there are other places that do this, a quick Google search brings up the Baked Bear first and no others in first ten results other than recipes for making your own at home.

The process is easy, you pick which cookie you want to encase your ice cream and they don't have to be same, the top can be one type of cookie and the bottom can be another. Then you pick your filling of ice cream and finally you can top it off with a variety of toppings.

Here are our creations:

The one on the left was the cookie of the month (chocolate chip with some sort of nuts) with chocolate ice cream, the bottom right was chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream, whip cream, caramel sauce and sprinkles, and top right is the very delicious donut sandwich where the cookies are replaced with a hot pressed doughnut covered in glaze with vanilla ice cream and topped with whip cream and hot fudge.

What a great concept that didn't disappoint. We ended up visiting the Pacific Beach location twice during the five days we were in San Diego but don't worry if you can't get to the beaches area as they also have locations in Carlsbad and Petco Park along with another one coming soon in Carmel Valley.


Link: thebakedbear.com

San Diego Highlights: Caffe Bella Italia - Pacific Beach

The Rewards Canada family's last vacation was spent in the San Diego area a few weeks ago and we thought to try something new on the blog outside of the usual hotel reviews, earning and redemptions stories that go along with those vacations and that something new is a restaurant review. Now of course we ate at lots of places, some were great and one was absolutely horrible but the one that probably stood out the most other than our favorite breakfast place called The Mission was our last night of the trip dinner at Caffe Bella Italia in Pacific Beach.

Related: 

• Earning Stories: 10,822 Gold Passport Points on a 5 Night Stay at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay 

• Rewards Canada's upcoming vacation travel - Painting a picture of loyalty programs in action

We were staying at the Hyatt Regency Mission Bay and didn't want to travel too far for an Italian meal and weren't being impressed by any of the restaurants that were showing up on Google, Yelp or Urban Spoon. So I did what I vowed not to do when I travel, ask the hotel concierge. The last time we did it was six years prior at this very hotel and the restaurant recommendation was horrible (and I think the concierge got a kick back) The concierge told us about Caffe Bella Italia and a quick Google search brought up very favorable reviews and a star ranking higher than those I had searched at previously. So what the heck we thought we would give it shot.

The charming little place was a quick 10 minute or so drive from our hotel in the heart of Pacific Beach (not on the beach, but more like downtown PB) and unlike many of the restaurants in that area it has its own parking lot which was nice to have as most of the on-street parking was full.

 The service was second to none and the restaurant went out of its way to make our dining experience great. When my daughter asked if they have Fettuccine Alfredo, they said it wasn't on the menu but they would make it especially for her. Want the Gnocchi with sage butter sauce? No problem they made that as well. All four meals that were ordered, the Fettuccine Alfredo, the Gnocchi with sage butter sauce, the La Nostra ‘Matriciana and the Scaloppine di Pollo  Limone e Vino were all so delicious.

Gnocchi with sage butter sauce

Scaloppine di Pollo  Limone e Vino

Fettuccine Alfredo

La Nostra ‘Matriciana

The desserts were also impeccable, in particular the Panna cotta, which was divine!

Lemon Sorbet

Panna cotta

There it is, a simple review where the photos and the taste of the food speak louder than any words can. Hopefully this may help some of you when in the beaches area of San Diego who may be craving some Italian and want to know of a good place to dine at!


Link: Caffe Bella Italia