We are thrilled to announce that our tours are back on the road after a six-month hiatus. Since September we have had seven successful tours including: Cruising the Gulf Islands, Waterton Lakes & Cypress Hills, Wells Gray Park, Kootenays Ghost Towns & Hot Springs, Thanksgiving at Tsa-kwa-luten, Thanksgiving on the Island, and Jasper Park Lodge Getaway. We’re so excited to be back on the road and we know you are too. Thank you to all our wonderful customers who have approached their trips with amazing flexibility and a commitment to safety. COVID-19 generally makes everything more difficult these days and travel is no exception. We’ve had a few unexpected changes at the last minute due to factors outside our control, but our Tour Directors and travellers have made the best of every situation.
We continue to monitor local conditions before allowing any tours to depart and so far, we’ve been keeping our tours fairly close to home. We will keep you updated on our tour schedule as regulations and medical advice change.
What to Expect
Our highest priority will always be the safety of our clients, our team members, suppliers, and those that reside in the communities we visit. As such, we have implemented new procedures that will be followed for the duration of your tour experience. Some of the changes you will see on tour include:
- You will need to wear a mask on the coach and when physical distancing is not possible.
- You will be required to hand sanitize every time you board or disembark the coach.
- Our charter coaches will undergo a disinfectant fogging, or deep clean before your tour begins and on each subsequent night of your tour.
- There will be daily assigned seating on the coach and it will be conducted so there is maximum space between travellers.
- For all accommodations we will request a special deep clean of all surfaces, including extra cleaning on handles, light switches, faucets, TV remotes, and thermostats.
- Hotel staff will not enter your room after a cleaning has been completed, including bellmen with luggage. For multi-night stays, we will request that make-up service not be conducted each morning. If you do wish to have make-up service, you can request with the hotel staff during your stay.
- Baggage handling will continue to be offered with appropriate safety measures, barring any limitations from our individual hotels, but you are also welcome to handle your own luggage if you prefer.
- All included meals will either be plated or boxed, as we do not expect buffet services to be available for the foreseeable future.
- We will request private rooms and small tables for meals where possible. If the time is right and the weather cooperates, we may even dine outside!
- You must wear your mask when entering or leaving a restaurant or using the bathroom.
What Tour Directors and Customers Are Saying About Their Recent Tours:
“We had a wonderful time on our trip in the Gulf Islands! We were well taken care of in terms of COVID prevention and every other way. The hotel was beautiful, and the sunsets were magnificent! Our room was cozy and had a lovely view of the marina. The food was incredible! The chef went out of his way to meet our needs as vegetarian and gluten free eaters. The crew for the whale watching and island tours were so knowledgeable and interesting. Both the tour guide and bus driver always had our best in mind and were pleasant to tour with. All in all, we had a great time and would do the same trip again for a little getaway.”
– Eileen in Kelowna
“I was a little leery at first about travelling again with Covid-19 so prevalent. However, I found it was much like being at home – wear masks (steam up the glasses) and practice social distancing on and off the bus. Protocols at all our venues were very good. Masks, social distancing. No more buffets at meals. But that was as much welcome as not. Everyone, from ourselves to our tour manager to our suppliers of services were excellent.”
– Roger in Kamloops
“We are on the road again, and it is exciting! Our operations team has been working extremely hard to put together a tour that is fun, diverse, and above all, safe in these COVID times. I was the tour director on the first tour out, Cruising the Gulf Islands, and we had a marvellous time! Everybody was asked to wear masks the entire time on the coach, and because we want to travel, we wore our masks the entire time on the coach. I have never seen so much hand sanitizer being used, and it made everybody feel safe. We had lots of opportunity to practice flexibility, because every hotel, attraction and restaurant seemed to do things a bit differently. But we complied willingly because we want to travel. The measures we took ensured that we could enjoy the tour to the fullest. We even had a group picture taken with our masks on, and had a good laugh doing it. Now I look forward to my next tour!”
– Marion, Tour Director
“I was fortunate to lead a tour recently to Jasper Park Lodge. It was a great group of pioneers that did their best to follow Wells Gray Tours protocols to stay healthy. It is definitely different now than before Covid, however travel is still a lot of fun. We sanitized numerous times per day, wore masks, and kept our distance from each other wherever possible. We visited some spectacular spots in the Jasper area, ate lots of wonderful food, drank wine, and a great time was had by all.”
– Pat, Tour Director
We’d like to extend a big thank you to our marvellous customers who made these recent tours a success. And thanks to our fantastic staff who made these tours possible despite a lot of challenges. We know not all of you are ready to get back on the road just yet, but when you’re ready to travel we’ll be ready to help you do it safely.
