A Canadian travel advisor plans your entire trip around your unique travel style, interests, and budget. With Entrée Destinations, every package to Canada and Alaska is designed from the ground up and refined with your feedback as many times as it takes for you to say, “THIS is my perfect trip!”
And the support doesn’t stop there. Pre-departure, Entrée manages logistics big and small – from confirming bookings to monitoring the weather – then provides around-the-clock support while you’re enjoying the holiday of a lifetime. If anything unexpected happens along the way (we’re looking at you, delayed flight), Entrée can jump in to help troubleshoot.
Here’s how it works, from that first conversation to the boring-but-necessary bits about deposits and final payments, and finally into the very real possibility of plans changing along the way.
Credit: Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge
1. How does a Canadian travel advisor plan a customized trip?
Just as no two travellers are alike, no two Entrée Destinations trips are the same. The planning process starts by getting to know you – not just where you want to go, but how you prefer to travel and why you’re taking the trip in the first place.
A parent introducing their child to the wilderness may need a very different itinerary from a couple celebrating their golden anniversary. That’s where customization begins.
What happens during the initial consultation?
During the initial consultation, an Entrée Destinations travel specialist chats with you – or your travel advisor – about the type of trip you’re looking for. Where do you want to go? What do you want to see? How much do you want to spend?
Now is the time to let your imagination roam free. Have you always wanted to kayak past a massive, glowing glacier? Do you dream of the moment your teen puts down their tablet to gape at a polar bear plodding across the tundra?
This first conversation always ends with the same question: What must happen for this trip to be a success?
The answer can be extremely personal. For one person, it might be seeing a grizzly bear in the wild. For another, it could mean taking their first trip as a widow.
Entrée Destinations takes all this information away and designs a first draft of your itinerary. Think of it as a living document: it can be changed as many times as needed until the trip feels perfect for you.
How much input do I have in designing my trip?
How much – or how little – input you have in designing your trip is completely up to you.
Some travellers stride through Entrée Destinations’ doors with an exquisitely detailed bucket list. Others arrive with a vague idea of what they want to see in Canada or Alaska, but rely on expert recommendations for the specifics. Entrée Destinations works with both types of travellers.
When do I get my final itinerary?
Three weeks before your trip, Entrée Destinations will send your final itinerary and documents digitally.
By this point, all the pieces have come together. Your itinerary (frequently referred to as “a lifeline,” “The Document,” and “don’t lose this!”) covers the details you’ll need for every stage of your trip, including confirmation numbers, onsite contacts, and a packing list – so when departure day (finally!) arrives, all you have to do is get up and go.
How does a Canadian travel advisor choose hotels, lodges, and experiences?
A travel advisor chooses hotels, lodges, and experiences by matching them to the traveller’s budget, interests, travel style, and individual needs.
Entrée Destinations works with a vast network of hotels, wilderness lodges, guides, and other travel partners throughout Canada and Alaska. Many considerations influence the places and experiences recommended to the traveller: budget is one, but so are traveller personality and interests, mobility or dietary requirements, and the ages of everyone in the group.
The goal isn’t to create the most luxurious, epic trip the world has ever seen. After all, a skilled and charismatic heli-ski guide could be wasted on a traveller whose idea of adventure is ordering a third martini.
The trick is knowing when to splurge and which people and places will click with a particular traveller. Success isn’t you thinking, “This is the most lavish trip I’ve ever taken!” It’s you saying, “This trip was absolutely perfect for me.”
How far in advance should I plan a luxury trip to Canada or Alaska?
For high-demand wilderness lodges, wildlife viewing, and popular summer destinations, it’s best to start planning your trip several months to a year in advance.
Some remote lodges have extremely limited capacity and short operating seasons. And some wildlife experiences are only available during a narrow window – for example, polar bear viewing is tied to a few short months in the fall. Popular destinations in the Canadian Rockies – especially Banff, Jasper, and Lake Louise – can likewise have limited availability during peak summer months.
As so often in life, flexibility helps. If your travel dates aren’t fixed, Entrée Destinations can build an itinerary around the best remaining availability. But if a particular lodge or wildlife experience is crucial to the success of your trip, booking earlier is always better.
What does a travel advisor handle for me?
A travel advisor manages the many moving parts of your customized trip, including accommodations, private guided experiences, and ground transportation.
This can be particularly useful on a complex trip through Canada or Alaska. Your itinerary might involve a luxury inn on the furthest reaches of the Atlantic Ocean, or a heli-hiking tour that needs to leave right at daybreak. These experiences sound incredible in theory – until you remember that you actually have to get there.
For a closer look at what a travel specialist handles for you, see “Should You Book Canada Through a Tour Operator, a Travel Advisor, or Directly with the Lodge?”
2. How do pricing, deposits, and payments work?
The cost of a fully tailored luxury trip to Canada or Alaska varies widely depending on the destination, season, trip length, accommodation choice, ground transportation, and included experiences.
An off-grid wilderness lodge accessible only by floatplane or helicopter comes with a very different price tag than a hotel-based itinerary in Vancouver.
For a more detailed look at pricing, see “How much does a luxury trip to Canada cost?”
Does Entrée Destinations charge a trip-planning fee?
Entrée Destinations does not typically charge a trip-planning fee.
In exceptional circumstances, a fee might apply – for example, if your itinerary is unusually complex or involves extensive specialized requirements – but it’s not standard for most trips.
How much is the deposit and when is the final payment due?
Entrée Destinations requires a deposit anywhere between 25 percent and 50 percent to confirm your customized trip. The final payment for a trip to Canada is due 45 to 90 days before departure. For a trip to Alaska, final payment is due 90 days before departure. You can pay via credit card or wire transfer – whatever works for you.
While it’s tempting to skip the small print, take a few extra minutes to read the payment and cancellation terms in your trip proposal so there are no surprises.
What’s included in the cost of a customized trip?
A customized Entrée Destinations trip can include accommodations, guided experiences, ground transportation, and specified meals. Take a scan of your proposal so you know exactly what’s included.
You should also budget for additional expenses, such as:
- Airfare not specified in your itinerary
- Travel insurance
- Meals or drinks not included in your itinerary
- Gratuities
- Souvenirs
- Other incidentals
To see how these costs come together, read “What Does a Private Week in the Canadian Rockies Cost?”
3. What happens if my travel plans change?
If your travel plans change, a travel specialist can help determine what can be moved, cancelled, or rebooked. What’s possible depends on how far in advance you cancel and the cancellation policies of the lodges, transportation companies, and other suppliers.
Dealing with changes to your travel plans is a major benefit of working with a travel advisor – particularly when you’re visiting the remote wilds of Canada and Alaska, where weather, wildfires, and flight delays can be part of the territory.
Can I change my itinerary after I’ve booked?
In many cases, you can change your itinerary after you’ve booked. Entrée Destinations will try to accommodate reasonable changes after booking, subject to availability and the terms of the affected suppliers.
What happens if I need to postpone or cancel my trip?
Whether your trip can be postponed or cancelled depends on when you cancel and the itinerary terms.
This is particularly true for remote wilderness lodges. Many operate for only a short season and have limited capacity, so cancellation policies can be strict.
Entrée Destinations reviews individual circumstances and works with its travel partners where possible, but not every cost can be recovered. For that reason, travel insurance – including trip cancellation and interruption coverage – is strongly recommended.
What happens if weather, wildfires, or flight disruptions affect my trip?
If weather, wildfires, or flight disruptions affect your trip, Entrée Destinations will assess the available alternatives and coordinate changes with the travel partners involved.
The Entrée team will do their best to set you up for success by monitoring weather conditions in the lead-up to your trip and providing ongoing support while you’re travelling. If a road closes due to wildfire, or a family of bears wandering across a road makes you late for your boat tour, Entrée’s team will work with local partners to see what alternatives are possible.
At the end of the day, nature doesn’t care what time your floatplane tour is. This is where travel insurance can be very handy.
How are wildlife experiences planned when sightings can’t be guaranteed?
Wildlife sightings are never 100 percent guaranteed – nature always gets the final say.
Take bear-viewing in British Columbia. In early fall, bears often patrol rivers and streams when salmon return to spawn, making this a critical viewing period. But environmental conditions can change the story: low water levels affect salmon movement, which in turn influences where bears go.
Entrée Destinations uses more than 30 years of experience planning customized travel in Canada and Alaska to choose the seasons, destinations, and guides that give you the best chance of glimpsing local wildlife. But part of travelling into wild places is, well, they can’t be tamed. Entrée puts the pieces in place, and then lets nature do what nature does.
How do I start planning a customized trip to Canada or Alaska?
Start by thinking about what would make the trip a success for you: where you want to go, what you want to see, your budget, and your preferred travel dates.
Then share what you land on through Entrée Destinations’ Plan Your Trip page.
