CANADA IS TURNING 150!

By Terry Dale, President and CEO, USTOA

 

As our neighbors to the north celebrate their nation’s sesquicentennial anniversary, there’s no better way to join the festivities than a trip to see Canada’s inspiring landscapes, vibrant cities, native cultures and much more. To honor this historic milestone, the members of USTOA are offering new Canadian itineraries and special savings throughout 2017.

From a thrilling Ice Explorer ride on the 1,000-foot-deep Columbia Icefield to whale watching in New Brunswick, below are a sample of itineraries from USTOA tour operator members in celebration of Canada’s anniversary. Find your dream vacation now.

Go Ahead honors Canada’s 150th anniversary with $250 off any Go Ahead tour through Canada departing in 2017 with promo code CA2017. From a journey on the Rocky Mountaineer railway to exploring the natural wonders of Canada’s epic national parks, Go Ahead Canadian itineraries give clients the chance to choose the best Canadian trip for them. Available from February, 1-March 31, this offer cannot be combined with other offers or group discounts. www.goaheadtours.com

Travelers looking for Canadian adventure can find it on Tauck’s Bugaboos Adventure Featuring Heli-Exploring. Invented in the Canadian Rockies by Arthur Tauck Jr., Heli-Exploring brings guests by helicopter to Bugaboo Lodge, high in the Purcell Mountains in British Columbia to participate in daily helicopter-assisted hiking excursions. Passengers also will discover the town of Banff and Lake Louise in Alberta. Departures are available in July and August 2017 from $5,990 per person based on double occupancy plus airfare. www.tauck.com

Canada's 150th - Tauck

Guests on Travcoa’s Uncharted Canada itinerary can celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary by private air discovering eight Canadian cities across four provinces. Travelers help create their ideal trip with flexible daily options like the search for artic wildlife in Churchill, Manitoba, horseback riding or a thrilling river-rafting adventure in Lake Louise, Alberta, and a journey up the Orford River in British Columbia lead by a First Nations guide. This luxurious 15-day trip is available August 11-25, 2017 from $59,950 per person based on double occupancy. www.tcsworldtravel.com

smarTours’ 11-day Canadian Rockies & Badlands itinerary visits some of Canada’s famed natural wonders including two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Canadian Badlands, and Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta. Travelers will celebrate the adventurous side of Canada with a journey aboard the snow coach to explore the Columbia Icefields also in Banff. This Canadian journey begins at $2,399 per person and is available May-September 2017. www.smartours.com

Guests journey 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle on Quark Expeditions’ Artic Watch Wilderness Lodge expedition. Book before April 30, 2017 and receive a savings of $1,000 on eight-day trips, and $1,500 on 10-day trips for departures from June 2018 to September 2018. With 24 hours of daylight, travelers have abundant time to spot artic wildlife like musk ox, polar bears and beluga whales. Available from June 30, 2017 to August 3, 2018. www.quarkexpeditions.com

Canada's 150th - Quark Expeditions

Adventures by Disney invites active travelers to uncover adventure during its Montana and Alberta, Canada itinerary. This seven-day trip includes canoeing at Moraine Lake, biking along the Bow River, Banff Gondola visit and a Glacier Skywalk excursion. Departures dates from June 26 to August 9, 2017 start at $4,509 for adults and $4,289 for children. www.AdventuresbyDisney.com

Canada's 150th - Adventures by Disney

Discover the Canadian Rockies during Insight Luxury Gold Vacations’ Majesty of the Rockies with Alaskan Cruise. Travelers have a choice of 14 or 21 days of relaxation along Western Canada and Alaska, by road, rail and sea. Guests will cruise through glacial waters and embark on one of the world’s most romantic train journeys on the Rocky Mountaineer. Prices from $4,875 per person, and is available in May 2017 and September 2017. www.luxurygoldvacations.com

In honor of Canada’s milestone, Country Walkers has launched a new guided walking experience, New Brunswick: Bay of Fundy & Campobello Island. Travelers participate in a private whale watch, explore the summer home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and enjoy a walking route beside the village of St. Martins determined by the tides. This new itinerary is available in June, July and September 2017 from $3,298 per person. www.countrywalkers.com

Pleasant Holidays is celebrating with savings on stays at The Westin Bayshore in Vancouver. Guests can visit this diverse metropolis and save up to $100 off a five-night stay, up to $75 off a four-night stay, and up to $50 off a two to three-night stay. To save, travelers can book by March 26, 2017 for travel through July 31, 2017. www.pleasantholidays.com

Travelers can hike, bike, paddle and dine their way through Whistler, British Columbia on Austin Adventures’ six-day British Columbia-Whistler itinerary. Throughout this active trip, guests can participate in their own Biathlon at the site of the 2010 Olympic Games, shooting at Olympic targets, swim at the base of Matier Glacier and more. This western Canadian adventure is available June and September 2017 starting at $2,898 per person. www.austinadventures.com

Guests on Alexander + Roberts’ Canada by Land, Water + Rail: The Pacific to the Rockies itinerary begin their journey in the Pacific port of Prince Rupert before boarding the VIA Rail Canada for a two-day all daylight trip into the Canadian Rockies. Travelers then uncover the wildlife of Banff, Jasper and Yoho National Parks. This nine-day trip is available in July and August 2017 from $4,799 per person. www.alexanderroberts.com

Canada's - Alexander+Roberts

Travelers can discover the natural and historic wonders of Quebec on Collette’s Charming French Canada itinerary. Guests will stay at the luxurious European style hotels Fairmont Chateau Frontenac and Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu in the Charlevoix region and tour Montreal by coach. Also included in this French-Canadian adventure is a trip to a local sugar shack to see how maple syrup is made and a ferry ride to a 19th century mill on an island in the St. Lawrence River. Available June-August 2017 from $2,499 per person. www.gocollette.com

Cosmos invites travelers to sit back and enjoy the view on its nine-day Via Rail and the Canadian Rockies trip. Highlights from this scenic itinerary include stops at Lake Louise, the Columbia Icefield, and the Butchart Gardens, which features 55 acres of floral displays. This western Canada tour is available on various dates May-September 2017 starting at $1,986 per person. www.Cosmos.com

Globus is offering travelers a 5% savings on all Canada Vacations until April 25th, 2017* including the 13-day Great Canadian Rail Journey from Toronto to Vancouver. Guests will travel across Canada on the historic railroad stopping to enjoy excursions to Niagara Falls, Maligne Lake, a cruise to Spirit Island and more. This expansive journey through Canada starts at $4,051 per person (land only) and is available various dates in June, July, August and September. *Some restrictions apply, see website for more details. http://www.globusjourneys.com

Canada 150 - Globus

ACIS America together with Visit Canada have created a new line of educational travel options in time for Canada’s 150th anniversary including three- and four-day trips to Toronto and Niagara Falls, Quebec City and Montreal. ACIS America is also offering a free trip for two teachers when a minimum of 20 students sign up, and for every additional ten students, one teacher will receive a free trip. www.acis.com/america

What are you waiting for? Click here and plan your dream vacation now!

 

Editor’s Note: Information was correct at time of writing. All tours/packages subject to availability. Prices may vary from time of writing, based on currency fluctuations.

Confessions of a Tour Skeptic

By John Newton, AFAR Ambassador

I want to come clean about something, even at the risk of making USTOA somewhat uncomfortable. When AFAR first contacted me to find out if I would be interested in traveling to the Canadian Rockies on a tour with Collette, part of me was enthusiastic. I’d have the chance to see a province I’d never visited, Alberta, and its world-famous and UNESCO-recognized parks: Jasper and Banff. Another part of me thought, “huh, a tour?” I had images of being shepherded around with a group of camera-toting tourists and seeing the grandeur of the Rockies only from behind the windows of a bus. My experience traveling with tours has been limited to occasional day trips or walking tours except for one trip to Morocco almost two decades ago. Until this winter, and my Collette trip, I thought of tours as being only for people incapable of deciphering bus schedules and finding the best local restaurants on their own. A tour was, I dismissively believed, not for “real” travelers.

Collette's Canada Winter Wonderland

The Collette Winter Wonderland trip began to shake my preconceptions on the first morning. Our exploration of Edmonton, Alberta’s capital, began with a visit to the provincial legislature. It wasn’t open to visitors that morning, but Daniel, our guide, was able to use his connections to get us in for a private tour. The exclusive access was an obvious perk of traveling with Collette, but the tour itself was a surprise. On my own, I would have admired the chandeliers and regimental flags in the grandiose early 20th-century building, but with Collette, I found that my fellow travelers were seriously interested in discussing the history of the Alberta Social Credit Party (look it up on Wikipedia) and why most U.S. states have bicameral legislatures while most Canadian provinces have unicameral ones. If I needed more evidence that I was traveling with a bunch of fellow nerds, I also met Charlotte that morning. This German-born professor of nuclear physics from the University of Ohio would later that day be able to explain the uncertainty principle to me in a way that I finally understood it and its significance—a bonus of this trip that was not mentioned in any of the Collette descriptions of the itinerary.

Provincial Legislature Collette's Canada's Winter Wonderland

The provincial legislature was only the first of a number of activities on the Collette trip that I would not have experienced had I been traveling solo. Yes, theoretically individual travelers can sign up to go snow-shoeing and dog-sledding, locating outfitters and making arrangements, but I know that if I had been traveling on my own, I’d first have to figure out how to get from Edmonton to Jasper and then on to Lake Louise, Banff, and finally Calgary. Before searching out activities and sights, I’d need to plan where to sleep each night and eat each meal. And there were cultural highlights I would never have even known to ask about, like a talk by a jeweler about ammolite, a gemstone unique to the Canadian Rockies that I had never heard of before this trip.

Ammolite Collette's Canada Winter Wonderland

Charlotte was not the only person in our group who made this trip surprisingly rewarding for me. Without getting into my politics, Barbara, a Methodist minister also from Ohio, and I bonded over our similar views while snow-shoeing, while Ben, a farmer from southern Georgia, and I got into a sometimes heated but always friendly discussion, while savoring Alberta bison at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. (This trip fell over the week that included the inauguration and march on Washington, so politics were hard to avoid.) It’s frequent these days to bemoan how isolated many of us are in our bubbles, and Collette drew me out of mine for a week. I knew that I would come back having seen a part of the world, Alberta, that I had never been to before. I didn’t realize I would also become friends with other Americans from places in the country far from my home in Brooklyn. Now not only are other guided tours on my must-do list, but places from Sandusky, Ohio to Hiram, Georgia and new friends in those places are on my must-visit list too.

John Newton and friends on Ammolite Collette's Canada Winter Wonderland

Interested in learning more about John’s journey? Read more about it on AFAR.com, the USTOA blog and check out Collette’s Canada’s Winter Wonderland itinerary.

John has almost 20 years’ experience in travel, both on staff at Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure and writing for other magazines, newspapers, and websites. He is AFAR’s Branded Content Advisor and the founder of Signal Custom Content, a travel branded content consulting company. His 2016 plans include Ireland, Manitoba, Japan, Netherlands, and California.