Vaughan to Guelph: the Royal City, the university and the basilica on the hill

Guelph, an hour west

Guelph was laid out in 1827 by John Galt of the Canada Company with a plan of radiating streets from the Speed River and a hill that he reserved for a church — the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate, the twin-spired limestone cathedral that took forty years to build and still commands the city from every approach. Below it the downtown is limestone too — the market square, the old city hall, the Bookshelf's cinema and café, the Sleeman brewery on the city's edge — and around it are the university on the south side with its Arboretum, Riverside Park on the north with its carousel and its river, and the Speed and Eramosa rivers' trails through the middle. For Vaughan it is the university city first: the University of Guelph takes a share of every Vaughan high school's graduates, and its move-in is one of the Sprinter bookings this site was built for.

The move-in

The University of Guelph's residences move in over the Labour Day weekend with assigned windows, and a family from Thornhill with a first-year student books the Executive Sprinter for it: the bins, the fridge, the bicycle, the winter coat and the family in one vehicle, the 407 and 401 to Highway 6 and the campus's Gordon Street entrance, the residence's unloading zone at the window, the load up, and the parents home by early afternoon or after a Guelph dinner. It is an hour each way, which is the reason a family with a car does it twice with a rented van and a family with a Sprinter does it once; move-out in April reverses it, and the corporate account keeps eight runs on one invoice. Parents' weekend and the fall's Homecoming are lighter loads and a Luxury SUV.

The Basilica and the downtown

The Basilica is the city's photograph and its hour: the nave, the stained glass, the hill's view over the downtown to the university, and the Church of Our Lady's Sunday masses that Vaughan's Catholic families attend when they visit a student. Below it, the downtown's Saturday market at the market square is the morning, the Bookshelf's café and cinema the afternoon, and the Guelph Civic Museum in the old convent beside the Basilica the rainy day. The chauffeur drops at the Basilica's steps and the downtown's garages are the vehicle's.

Riverside Park and the Arboretum

Riverside Park on the Speed River's north bank is the family afternoon — the 1930s carousel and the miniature train that run in summer, the paddleboats and the splash pad, the trails along the river — and the University of Guelph Arboretum on the campus's east side is four hundred acres of collections, trails and gardens with a nature centre, free to walk and at its best in the October colour and the May bloom. A family from Maple in an SUV does the market in the morning, Riverside at noon and the Arboretum at three; the chauffeur moves the vehicle between them.

Sleeman and the brewery afternoon

Sleeman Breweries on the city's north-east edge runs tours and a retail store, and a group of Vaughan friends books a Sprinter for a Guelph brewery afternoon — Sleeman, Wellington Brewery and the smaller craft rooms downtown — with the chauffeur as the driver; the same group's evening is the River Run Centre's concert or the Guelph Storm at the Sleeman Centre, with the party bus the vehicle for a hockey night out.

The corporate run

Guelph's employers — the agri-food firms around the university, the manufacturers on the city's industrial ring, the technology firms that spread from Waterloo — bring Vaughan's businesses to the city for meetings, and the black car page covers the point-to-point run with the vehicle waiting; a delegation to a plant or a conference at the River Run is a Sprinter on the corporate account.

The route

The 407 west to the 401, the 401 west to Highway 6 north at the Guelph exit, Highway 6 and the Hanlon Expressway to the city's south end and the university, or Wellington Street to the downtown — an hour from Woodbridge or Kleinburg, an hour and ten from Thornhill; or Highway 7 west through Georgetown and Acton, the no-toll country road that arrives at the city's east side in the same time. The routing estimate's hour twenty is the no-toll version; the fare includes the 407.

Which vehicle

A Sprinter for the move-in; an SUV for the family day with boosters at $25 each; a Premium Sedan for the corporate visit and the Basilica's Sunday; a party bus for the Storm night. The Sprinter's bay takes a residence load or a group's market haul; the chauffeur knows the campus's residence roads.

What the chauffeur replaces

The move-in's second car and rented van; the market's Saturday parking; the brewery afternoon's driver; and the corporate visit's rental. The fare is one number in the booking engine, and for the move-in it undercuts a car and a van without argument; for a family day it is a comfort purchase that the site prices plainly.

Seasons

The Labour Day weekend and April for the campus; Saturdays all year for the market; summer for Riverside's carousel and train; October and May for the Arboretum; the Guelph Jazz Festival in September and Hillside Festival at Guelph Lake in July for the concerts; the Storm's season from September to March. A December Saturday is the downtown's lights and the Basilica's Advent.

Pairing it

Guelph pairs with Elora twenty minutes north for the gorge, with Cambridge twenty minutes south, with the St. Jacobs market for a Waterloo Region Saturday, and with the African Lion Safari for a children's day that starts at Riverside.

The move-in, in order

A first-year student from Concord to a South Residence room on the Labour Day weekend: the Sprinter at 7:30 with the family of four and the bay holding six bins, a fridge, a bicycle and a desk chair; the 407 and 401 to Highway 6 and the Hanlon; the Gordon Street entrance at 8:45 in the assigned window, the move-in marshals directing the vehicle to the residence's unloading zone; the load up in twenty-five minutes with the orientation volunteers carrying; the Sprinter to a lot; the family's campus walk, the parents' orientation session, lunch at the University Centre; the Sprinter at the residence at 2:30 and the parents home by 3:45 — or, the weekend version, a downtown hotel and the Basilica's Sunday before the drive home. One fare, shown in the booking engine before booking; the four years' runs on a corporate-style account.

The family day, in order

A family of five from Woodbridge on a June Saturday: the Luxury SUV at 8:30 with boosters; Highway 7 west through Georgetown and Acton — the country road — to Guelph's east side by 9:45; the market square's Saturday market until 10:45 with the bakery and the honey; the Basilica's hill at eleven for the nave and the view; lunch on Wyndham Street at 12:15; Riverside Park at 1:30 for the carousel, the miniature train and the splash pad until 3:30; the Arboretum's trails at four for an hour in the shade; home by six. Nine and a half hours of hourly hire, and the SUV moved four times without a downtown garage in the family's day.

The river trails and Guelph Lake

The Speed and Eramosa rivers' trails run through the city's centre — the Royal Recreation Trail along the Speed from the downtown's covered bridge to Riverside, the Eramosa's trail east to the Guelph Lake Conservation Area, the reservoir on the city's north-east edge with its beach, its boat rentals and, in July, the Hillside Festival's three days of music on the island. A family that has done Riverside books the lake's beach as the afternoon; the Grand River Conservation Authority's site has the day-use fee and the Hillside's dates.

The arena and the River Run

The Sleeman Centre downtown is the Guelph Storm's rink — the OHL's Friday nights that a Vaughan hockey family books in an SUV — and the River Run Centre on the Speed is the city's concert hall, with the Guelph Jazz Festival's September programme and the year's touring calendar. A group's Storm playoff night from Thornhill is the party bus with a birthday attached; the chauffeur drops at the arena's Woolwich Street doors.

Pickup notes

The 407 and 401 from every Vaughan community, or Highway 7 west from Woodbridge and Kleinburg — the country road that arrives at the city's east side; a Thornhill pickup joins the 407 at Bathurst. Give us the residence window and the loads, the market and the park, the seats, the Storm's game or the River Run's concert, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

What the run costs, in shape

The move-in in a Sprinter is one number in the booking engine against a car and a rented van and a second trip — the arithmetic every Vaughan family with a residence student does once and then stops doing; the family day is a comfort purchase for a city an hour away, and the site says so; the corporate visit is an invoice line against a rental car and a day's parking downtown. A Thornhill pickup and a Kleinburg one differ by the 407's on-ramp and ten minutes, and the fare, quoted from the exact address, reflects it.

Convocation in June

Western-style, the University of Guelph's spring convocation fills the campus's War Memorial Hall and the city's restaurants with families over a week in June, and the Sprinter with the grandparents, the graduate and the lunch reservation is the booking — the campus's ceremony lots are the reason the drop at the hall's door matters, and the graduate's residence load home is the bay's afternoon.

Booking it

Book a Sprinter for the move-in with the residence window, an hourly day from your Vaughan address for the family or the breweries, or a black car for the corporate visit; tell us the seats and the loads, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Guelph run