2 Nations Celebrate Spring

Ottawa Tulips and Rochester Lilacs

Join us on a colorful journey of spring gardens visiting two of North America's most coveted garden festivals, the Ottawa Tulip Festival and the Rochester Lilac Festival.

Day 1 & Day 2

Your luxury motor coach departs New England for Ottawa, Canada's Capitol.  Among the tour highlights in Ottawa you will visit the By-Ward Market, National Gallery of Canada & the Canadian Parliament.  Tour the many tulip beds that grace Ottawa's parks and picturesque canal ways.  A guided city tour takes you through Embassy Row and across to Hull, Quebec where you will visit the Canadian Museum of Civilization and partake in more festival activities.  In addition to the beautiful tulip beds the festival features daily entertainment, exhibits and international foods.

Day 3 & 4

Depart Ottawa on a scenic drive through the 1000 Islands and New York's Seaway Trail.  Drive along Lake Ontario where you will lunch at Sackett's Harbor.  Continue along the Seaway Trail to Rochester, NY site of the Historic Erie Canal, the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film & the newly completed National Museum of Play.  The Rochester Lilac Festival is the largest of it's kind in North America.  The festival is a living rainbow & signals spring with over 1,200 blooming lilac bushes, pansies, azaleas and tulips.  Daily entertainment is featured on the Main Stage, arts and crafts are   displayed and international foods fill the park with delicious aromas.  During your visit you will visit Artisan Works gallery where resident artists offer you a behind the scenes peak at their studios.  Take a dinner-cruise along the Erie Canal.  Partake in the excitement of the evening sound and light display over High Falls, one of North America's highest inner city waterfalls. 

On route home visit Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion in the picturesque Finger Lakes village of Canandaigua.  Now a New York State Historic Park this beautiful estate is one of America's most extensively preserved country estates surviving from the Victorian era.  Before departing Canandaigua you will visit the New York State Wine and Culinary Center for a wine tasting and a taste of their fabulous culinary treats.