Toronto to Kitchener-Waterloo by chauffeur: the tech corridor, the universities, St. Jacobs

Kitchener-Waterloo, the corridor

Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge - the Region of Waterloo, a hundred and ten kilometres west of Toronto on the 401 - are Canada's second technology cluster after Toronto itself, and the Toronto-Waterloo corridor is a phrase the two cities' economic development offices use with a straight face. Toronto goes west for the tech companies and the venture firms, for the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier, for St. Jacobs' farmers' market and the Mennonite farm country north of Waterloo, for Oktoberfest in October, and for the manufacturing along the 401 at Cambridge. There is a GO train, slow, and no flight; the drive is an hour and twenty off-peak and the chauffeured version puts the executive in the back of an S-Class from Bay Street to a Communitech meeting room door to door. A Toronto-to-KW booking is a one-way flat fare or a six- to eight-hour hourly day, and the city-to-city page explains when each is the better number; the crossover for a return day is about three hours of waiting.

The drive

The 401 west through Mississauga and Milton to Highway 8 at Kitchener, or the Conestoga Parkway (the 7/8 and the 85) north through Kitchener to Waterloo and beyond to St. Jacobs: an hour and twenty off-peak to downtown Kitchener, an hour and thirty-five to the University of Waterloo, two hours on a Friday afternoon past Milton's construction. Cambridge's Galt is off the 401 at Hespeler Road or Highway 8, an hour and ten. No tolls unless the 407 is chosen from the east or north of the city, which from Markham is worth twenty minutes. Ontario 511 for the 401 at Milton, which is under construction for the foreseeable future.

The tech corridor's business day

Communitech's hub in the Tannery on Charles Street, the University of Waterloo's David Johnston Research + Technology Park, the Perimeter Institute, the Shopify, Google, OpenText and BlackBerry buildings in Waterloo and Kitchener's innovation district, the venture firms on King Street, and Cambridge's manufacturing plants: a Toronto executive's day is a one-way at 7:30, the hourly block for a day of three or four meetings across the two cities with the chauffeur waiting, and a one-way home - or, for a day of six stops, an as-directed block from the Toronto door and back, seven to nine hours. On the corporate account; the as-directed page describes the day and the roadshow page the version with a schedule. A Toronto venture partner doing a day of portfolio visits in the SUV with the analyst is the most common KW booking the desk takes.

The universities

The University of Waterloo's main campus on University Avenue and its residences; Wilfrid Laurier on King Street a kilometre south; Conestoga College's Doon campus in Kitchener and its Cambridge campus: move-in in early September, convocation in June and October at UW's Physical Activities Complex and Laurier's Athletic Complex, open houses in the autumn, and co-op students moving between terms. The SUV with the student's things as a one-way flat fare to the residence loading zone - the Kingston page has the routine that is the same at every campus - and the Sprinter for the family at convocation. UWaterloo's calendar sets the dates.

St. Jacobs and the Mennonite countryside

The St. Jacobs Farmers' Market on Weber Street north of Waterloo - Thursday, Saturday and, in summer, Tuesday - is the largest year-round farmers' market in Canada, with the Old Order Mennonite farm stands, the summer sausage, the apple fritters and the outlet mall beside it; the village of St. Jacobs a kilometre north has the shops and the Mennonite Story interpretive centre; and the country roads through the townships of Woolwich and Wellesley - Elmira, Hawkesville, Wallenstein, the covered bridge at West Montrose - are the drive where the horse-and-buggy signs are real and the chauffeur slows down. A St. Jacobs Saturday is a six- to eight-hour hourly day from Toronto with the SUV's boot filling at the market; the shopping page has the Toronto version and the market's site the hours.

Oktoberfest

Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest, the nine days in October that make it the largest Bavarian festival outside Munich: the festhallen - the Concordia Club, the Schwaben Club, the Transylvania Club, Bingemans - the Thanksgiving Day parade, and a Toronto group in a Sprinter with the evening's hall in the notes and the chauffeur as the responsible party. A ten-hour evening booking, no alcohol in the vehicle, everyone home at 1 am at the same hourly rate as 4 pm; the Sprinter page prices it per vehicle and the festival sells the hall tickets in September.

Cambridge, and Langdon Hall

Cambridge's Galt, the limestone mill town on the Grand River where half of Hollywood's period dramas are shot, is an hour and ten from Toronto and the reason for a dinner at Langdon Hall, the Relais & Châteaux country house on the hill above Blair - the most-booked KW evening after Oktoberfest, as a seven-hour hourly block with the S-Class waiting on the drive and the chauffeur driving the 401 home in the dark. The Stratford page is forty minutes further west for the Festival.

Region of Waterloo airport

The airport at Breslau between Kitchener and Guelph has Flair and WestJet flights to the west and the sun, and a Toronto-to-YKF one-way is on the engine for a traveller from the west of the GTA; more often the airport is the Pearson page's territory and the drive from KW to Pearson at 5 am is the booking - an hour, the 401 empty, on the corporate account.

A KW day, timed (book 8)

7:15 Bay Street, the S-Class, a venture partner and an analyst. 8:40 Communitech, the Tannery, the car on Charles Street. 10:15 a portfolio company in the UW research park. 12:00 lunch at the Bauer Kitchen. 1:30 a second company on King Street in Waterloo. 3:00 a plant visit in Cambridge, the 8 and Hespeler Road. 4:30 the 401. 5:50 Bay Street. Eight hours and thirty-five minutes; nine billed; the deal memo written in the back seat on the way home.

The car

The Mercedes S-Class for the executive's day; the Executive Sedan for the same at the lower rate; the Luxury SUV for a move-in, a St. Jacobs Saturday with the boot full, and the 401 in winter; the Executive Sprinter for Oktoberfest, a convocation party or a bank's recruiting team at UW. The fleet page has capacities.

What it costs

A flat fare by route and class each way, or the class hourly rate times the hours, plus HST and the gratuity you set; the 407 only if chosen; St. Jacobs' and the campuses' lots are the chauffeur's. The rates page explains the hourly number; the crossover rule - under three hours of waiting, hourly; over, two flat fares - decides most KW business days, and the engine prices both.

Kitchener-Waterloo, in a table

Booking Kitchener-Waterloo

Route for a one-way business trip, a move-in or Oktoberfest, with the address or the hall in the notes; By the hour, six to nine hours, for St. Jacobs, a day of meetings with the car waiting, or Langdon Hall. Move-in, convocation and Oktoberfest book weeks ahead; a Tuesday business day, the day before.

Where the car waits, in a table

The Grand River, and the country between the cities

The Grand runs through Elora, Fergus, West Montrose, Kitchener, Cambridge, Paris and Brantford, and the drive along it is the scenic version of the 401: Elora's gorge and its quarry swimming hole, the Elora Mill's restaurant, Fergus's Scottish festival in August, the covered bridge at West Montrose, Paris's forks and Brantford's Wayne Gretzky Parkway. A day that goes out on the 401 and comes home down the Grand from Elora through Cambridge is ten hours and the Grand River Conservation Authority site has the parks and the swimming.

Convocation, in detail

UWaterloo's convocations run over a week in June and again in October at the Physical Activities Complex, several ceremonies a day by faculty; Laurier's at the Athletic Complex; a family of six to ten from Toronto in the Sprinter, the ceremony, the photographs by the campus's Dana Porter library, lunch at the Bauer Kitchen or in Uptown Waterloo booked weeks ahead, and home by evening is a ten-hour day. Co-op term changes in September, January and May bring the student's things east and west in the SUV as one-ways.

Booking, in one line

Route for a one-way business trip, a move-in or Oktoberfest, with the address or the hall in the notes; By the hour, six to nine hours, for St. Jacobs, a day of meetings with the car waiting, or Langdon Hall; weeks ahead for move-in, convocation and Oktoberfest.

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