Limo service in Hamilton

The city between the airports

Hamilton's chauffeur bookings are shaped by two airports and one bridge. Its own airport, John C. Munro Hamilton International at Mount Hope, is fifteen kilometres south of downtown and the base for the low-cost carriers and the cargo flights; Toronto Pearson is sixty-five kilometres east along the QEW and the 403, and it is where most Hamiltonians fly from. Between the city and both of them lies the Burlington Skyway, which is the reason a fixed fare and a flight-tracked pickup matter here more than in most cities: a Pearson transfer that is forty-five minutes at 6 am is ninety at 5 pm, and a chauffeur who books the pickup time from the flight rather than from the clock is the product. We run the full service across Hamilton, Burlington, Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Dundas and Grimsby: the airport transfers to both fields, the corporate account for the steel companies, the hospitals and McMaster, the weddings on the escarpment, and the wine tours to Niagara that start from here rather than from Toronto.

Two airports, and which to use

Hamilton (YHM) at Mount Hope is a twenty-minute drive from downtown up the mountain and out Highway 6, a single terminal with a short walk from any gate to the curb, and the pre-arranged pickup is at the arrivals doors; the chauffeur texts the plate and waits, and thirty minutes of waiting are included on a domestic arrival and sixty on the sun-destination flights that return from Cuba and Mexico. It is the airport for Swoop, Flair and the charter operators, and for the Hamilton family that would rather not drive to Pearson.

Pearson (YYZ) is the airport for everyone else: sixty-five kilometres on the QEW and the 403 or the 407, forty-five minutes off-peak and ninety in the evening rush over the Skyway. The Pearson page covers the terminals and the pre-arranged curbs; the Hamilton-specific point is the pickup time, which the engine works back from the flight with the Skyway's hour built in. The 407 from Burlington is the chauffeur's escape at rush hour and its toll is shown at booking.

The escarpment, the mountain and the neighbourhoods

Hamilton is a city split by the Niagara Escarpment - 'the mountain' - and its addresses are above or below it: downtown, the harbourfront and the North End below; the residential mountain above, reached by the accesses that close in an ice storm. Westdale and McMaster to the west; Dundas and Ancaster in the valley and on the hill beyond, where the escarpment weddings and the executives' homes are; Stoney Creek and Winona to the east on the way to Grimsby and the wine country; Burlington across the bay, the lakeshore commuter city with its own downtown and its own hotels. Every address prices on the engine, and the Ontario page covers the province beyond.

The corporate city, reinvented

Steel is still here - the mills along the harbour and the companies that supply them - but the corporate accounts now book for the hospitals as much as the mills: Hamilton Health Sciences' sites across the city, St. Joseph's, and McMaster's medical school and its research park, which bring visiting specialists through Pearson every week. McMaster University itself books the September move-in and the convocations; the innovation park on the old Westinghouse site books the tech visitors; the port books the shipping companies. The hourly chauffeur for a day across the hospitals and the university is the corporate booking the city is known for.

Tim Hortons Field, FirstOntario Centre and the venues

Tim Hortons Field in the east end for the Tiger-Cats and the Forge, with a neighbourhood grid that closes on game day and a pre-arranged pickup the chauffeurs know; FirstOntario Centre downtown for the Bulldogs, the concerts and the Grey Cup years; FirstOntario Concert Hall beside it for the symphony; the Hamilton Convention Centre for the conferences; Theatre Aquarius for the plays. The Labour Day Classic against the Argonauts is the city's biggest game day, and the sporting events page covers the pickup arrangement. Supercrawl on James Street North in September and the Festival of Friends in August close the downtown streets.

Wine country from Hamilton

Hamilton is closer to Niagara's wineries than Toronto is: Grimsby and Beamsville's Twenty Valley are thirty minutes east on the QEW, Jordan and Vineland forty, Niagara-on-the-Lake an hour. An hourly chauffeur for the wine day - four wineries, a lunch, the SUV bringing the cases home - is the Saturday booking the city makes most, and the Niagara Falls day with the Niagara page's stops is the same drive extended. The Bruce Trail's waterfalls - Webster's, Tews, Albion - are the other side of the escarpment and the other kind of day out.

Traffic, weather and the honest drive times

The QEW over the Skyway is the city's artery and its bottleneck; the 403 through the city and up the mountain is slow at both rush hours; the Lincoln Alexander and the Red Hill parkways connect the mountain to the QEW and close in ice. The escarpment makes its own weather: the mountain accesses ice before the lower city does, and the Skyway closes in high wind. Ontario 511 is what dispatch reads, and the engine's suggested pickup for a Pearson departure knows the Skyway's hour. The honest figures: downtown to YHM in twenty minutes; downtown to Pearson in forty-five at 6 am and ninety at 5 pm.

Hotels and the drop-off

The Sheraton Hamilton over the convention centre, the Staybridge and the Homewood downtown, the Ancaster Mill for the wedding weekend, the Waterfront Hotel in Burlington, and the hotel cluster at the airport on Mount Hope: the chauffeurs know each forecourt, and the travel desk books the room.

What a limo costs in Hamilton

Fixed by the addresses and the vehicle class, shown before you book. Downtown to Pearson in an Executive Sedan is the most-booked transfer and the fare reflects the sixty-five kilometres honestly; YHM is a short fare; the wine day is priced by the hour with a minimum. The 407 toll is added where the route uses it and shown at booking. No surge on Labour Day, no meter, no gratuity added. The fleet page has the capacities.

Weddings, proms and the stretch season

The escarpment is wedding country: the Ancaster Mill, Dundurn Castle, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Whistle Bear and the vineyard estates in Grimsby and Beamsville, and the banquet halls on the mountain. The Saturday stretch limousines go by March for a June or September wedding, and the wedding page covers the plan. Prom season is the last Saturdays of June across the Hamilton-Wentworth boards; the prom page sets out the rules.

Cross-border and the corridor

Buffalo's airport is ninety minutes east on the QEW via the Peace Bridge - and for Hamiltonians chasing US fares it is barely further than Pearson - and the Bills' stadium is the same trip; the cross-border page covers the documents. Toronto is an hour east, Kitchener-Waterloo an hour north-west on the 403 and the 401, London two hours west, all city-to-city fixed fares with the return built in.

A Pearson departure from the mountain, worked through

A Tuesday 7 am departure from Terminal 1 for a family of four on the mountain. The engine, given the flight, suggests a 4:15 pickup: fifteen minutes down the Jolley Cut to the 403, the Skyway at 4:40 before the trucks, the 427 by 5:05, Terminal 1's departures curb at 5:15, two hours before the flight as the airline asks. The Luxury SUV takes the four cases, the chauffeur has the car warm on a February morning, and the fare is the one on the confirmation. The same family's return on Sunday at 9 pm books with the flight number; the chauffeur reads the arrival, waits the included thirty minutes on the domestic bag, and has them back on the mountain by 10:45. Both legs were on one reservation.

Burlington, in its own right

Burlington across the bay is a city of two hundred thousand with its own downtown on the lake, its own hotels and its own corporate park along the QEW, and its chauffeur bookings are the Pearson transfer - forty minutes without the Skyway to cross - and the Toronto corridor. The Royal Botanical Gardens on the Hamilton-Burlington line is the wedding venue the two cities share; Spencer Smith Park and the Brant Street pier the photograph run; Mapleview and the QEW corridor the offices. Tourism Hamilton and Tourism Burlington publish the calendars; the desk has the Saturdays.

McMaster, the hospitals and the medical day

McMaster's campus in Westdale and its medical school bring visiting faculty and specialists through Pearson every week on the corporate account, and the September move-in and the spring convocations fill the prom and graduation page's bookings. The hospitals - Hamilton General in the North End, the Juravinski on the mountain, St. Joseph's downtown, McMaster Children's - are spread across the escarpment, and a patient's day of appointments between them is the hourly chauffeur booking families make for a parent who should not be driving the mountain accesses in winter.

The Bruce Trail and the waterfalls

Hamilton calls itself the waterfall capital and the escarpment's hundred-odd falls - Webster's and Tews in Dundas, Albion on the mountain, Tiffany on the west end - are an hourly chauffeur's autumn afternoon with the car waiting at each trailhead. Dundas Peak in October is the region's best view and its worst parking. The Ontario page covers the province beyond.

Two questions Hamiltonians ask the desk

Pearson or Hamilton airport for a Florida flight? If the fare and the schedule are similar, Hamilton: the transfer is twenty minutes instead of ninety, the terminal is a five-minute walk end to end, and the sun-destination charters that use it are what it was built for. Can the chauffeur wait at Tim Hortons Field through a Labour Day Classic that goes to overtime? Yes; waiting beyond the included fifteen minutes is charged at the class rate and shown on the receipt, and the pre-arranged pickup is inside the neighbourhood closures that the taxis cannot reach. A third, asked every June: the stretch limousines for a Saturday wedding at the Ancaster Mill are gone by March, and the Sprinter for the guests by April.

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