Great Canadian Adventurers

My family and I have used the Great Canadian Travel Group to book a number of trips over the years including a trip to Churchill to see the polar bears, a trip to Greenland to see some icebergs, a self-driving trip around Iceland and most recently, a circumnavigation cruise around Iceland. Their product managers/travel agents are highly skilled professionals in processing monthly credit card payments, assisting with cabin selection (in this case, making sure we had a stateroom on the port side of the ship), arranging transfers to and from the airport near Reykjavik, compiling a personalized itinerary, providing luggage tags and otherwise handling details and making logistical arrangements that make for many fond memories and a trip of a lifetime. Iceland is an incredibly beautiful country with friendly people, rugged shorelines, majestic waterfalls, jagged lava fields, breathtaking fjords and unique volcanic mountain ranges. We are truly grateful to the quintessential professionals at the Great Canadian Travel Group for their attention to detail and personalized, friendly service which made our visit to Iceland an absolute pleasure.

My recent trip to Yellowknife and Blachford Lake Lodge was beyond incredible.  I am so thankful to Allison for suggesting this trip!  The 3 nights that I spent at Blachford Lake Lodge were magical.  Fabulous scenery, wonderful people, scrumptious food, and amazing auroras.   The last night in Yellowknife with the Northern Lights was a perfect finale!   Most surprising was that upon returning home and going back to work the euphoria lasted twice as long as the trip itself!!   Often when I return back to work after a vacation I feel stressed by the end of the first day, but I felt super joyful and stress-free for 1-1/2 weeks after this trip.  WOW!!!  That is unheard of 🙂    Thank you for the much needed magical and transformative Aurora Escape!

OMG can I go around again?  The Scenic Rail around St Kitts, the exhilarating ATV excursion to the  Caves of Washikemba Reserve  (only saw one bat) in Bonaire and clear bottom kayaking in St Georges, Grenada was one of the most enjoyable and relaxing cruises to date and in fact we are already planning next winter’s get away. Read More >

Thank you so much for helping me to book this for my Grandfather and I!

This trip was the most amazing thing I could have ever experience with my Pepere! He has been talking about seeing Polar Bears for as long as I can remember and to be gifted this trip on his 85^th Birthday was so special, the look on his face is one I will never forget. This tour was the best thing I have ever been able to do with him, and one that I will cherish forever. Thank you. Read More >

We have just returned from a trip to the Northern Isles and The Faroes.  This complicated trip was organized by Allison Silvaggio using three different service providers and offering three different experiences:  a small group Walking Tour in the Orkneys;  a self-directed tour of The Shetlands, and a Self-Drive tour of the Faroes.   Getting to each of the islands required flights to and from Scotland and Iceland,  but the whole trip went extremely smoothly,  and Allison was on top of a flight change mid-trip.  We have taken several trips to the North,  organized by Allison through GCTC and they have all provided us with access to the beauty of the places and interaction with local people.  This recent trip was no exception.  We had time to enjoy nature ( flora and fauna),  the food and interact with the  inhabitants of the three very different islands. Read More >

We just returned from a truly wonderful 2 week holiday visiting Iceland, Stockholm and Finland. When we heard that the Winnipeg Jets would be playing a couple of games in Helsinki, Finland, we thought it would be a perfect time to also visit some friends that live there. Shauna Cook planned a great itinerary for us! Read More >

My trip with The Great Canadian Travel Group. My first contact was with Andrea, who was so helpful in getting all of my papers in order. Then Margot and Amelia Bearheart met us at the airport with a plethora of flyers for many adventures in Winnipeg.  My niece Stephanie and I really enjoyed our day at the Zoo where the elk and polar bears were very actively frolicking in the falling snow. Read More >

We had a wonderful trip. We were very pleased…the two land trips…both the drivers were wonderful. They had so much knowledge and experiences with the area. We did get to see 4 polar bears on the trip, so that was a real plus. We were not disappointed in the trip (we probably saw 1,000 whales) and would definitely do it again.  Thank you for doing such a great job for us.

Our long planned trip to Iceland and Greenland was perfectly laid out to our wishes by the Great Canadian Travel Group.  We had a week in each country with excursions almost every day.  The lava tube exploring and glacier hiking in Iceland exhilarating, and seeing the beautiful waterfalls in the green, green countryside so lovely, plus riding Iceland horses, etc. – all so well planned and fit our days perfectly with plenty of time to explore Reykjavik on our own.

The only drawback was that we never saw the sun in Iceland, this summer being the worst in many years, clouds hung low every day with some misty rain at times, but it never stopped us from enjoying our time there.

Flying on to Ilulissat, Greenland the sun came out and we had the most glorious arrival flying in over the iceberg covered fjord.  Staying at the Hotel Arctic could not have been better, with views of town and Disko Bay and icebergs as far as the eye could see.  A midnight cruise among the bergs, hitting some at times with the triple decked hull of the 8 passenger boat, was a great adventure.  The colors of the ice and the sky, which never got dark, hard to describe, it was all just magical!

Other fjord trips to small settlements and hiking along a coast met by water and ice, with fellow travelers who just happened to be on the same excursion that day, was always fun and interesting. As was the 2 day ferry trip along Greenlands west coast to the capital Nuuk, with a few stop along the way where we walked through and explored other small towns.

In Nuuk the Hans Egede Hotel was also great, with an abundance of delicious food at the breakfasts.  A beautiful fjord trip with fishing along the way, and exploring the old Danish part of town, kids kayak races at the harbor, museums, etc., all kept us busy for 3 days. The highlight in Nuuk though, was visiting a small church where guests were arriving for a christening, and many of them dressed in the traditional national costumes, the men in pure white cotton anoraks and the women with colorful beaded tops over their sealskin trousers, and wearing decorated sealskin boots.

It was a dream come true for me to experience all this in Greenland and my husband, who was a bit skeptical about this whole adventure, was just as delighted about our whole trip. It was Shauna Cook at Great Canadian Travel who set up the schedule and the excursion companies for us,  and we could not have been happier.

We had never been on a serious ship before. We knew we wanted to take in the scenery of Norway, and in comparing various cruises available, and with the advice of GCTC we settled on the Hurtigruten. We’re so glad we did. We can’t say enough positive things about the shipboard experience and the wonderful Norwegian scenery. Read More >

It was with a great deal of sadness and nostalgia that I hung up my trusty life preserver and kicked off my sturdy rubber boots for the last time. We had reached Reykjavik and my two Adventure Canada expeditions on The Ocean Endeavour had come to an end. And what expeditions they were !!!  Read More >

Many thanks to Great Canadian Travel for helping us have a wonderful trip to Nunavut. The locations we went to were truly breathtaking, and everything such as air travel and hotels ran as smoothly as it could have. We didn’t encounter any issues on our trip and Inukpak outfitters in Iqaluit was a very good choice for us. The people at the parks office in Pangnirtung were very helpful when it came to finding information about park entry, what outfitters to talk to about excursions, and what local hikes to do in the area. Some of the best hikes we took were the hikes along the Ukama trail that followed the river that runs through Pangnirtung, the hike up Mount Duval, and the hike we took to a mountain further out in the bay. The views from all of the hikes were amazing, because of the vast differences in terrain along with the waterfalls, overlooks, and ice flows we were able to see. Thank you to Great Canadian Travel for making a great trip so great.

I went on a tour billed as the “Food, Wine and Culture Tour of Georgia” and did it live up to its billing. We travelled with a group of interesting people across much of the country seeing everything from the capital city to small family vineyards. We travelled with very knowledgeable tour guides. Read More >

We woke up at 11pm on our 6^th day of trekking and slipped out of our sleeping bags fully clothed with our cold weather layers, ready for the -12 degrees that was awaiting us outside our tents.  We sipped on hot water, clutching the cups to warm our hands and nibbled on biscuits.  Read More >

We had a great trip!  All the details worked and we were very pleased.  The Rocky Mountaineer was everything as advertised.  The accommodations in Kamloops were just wonderful. The Listel Hotel staff provided absolutely first class service.  They were helpful with our tours, gave us complimentary tickets to the Bill Reid Museum, provided a french press coffee for us when we had to get up early to go to the airport.  All the staff we met were focused on customer service.  It was a joy to stay there. Very nice selection! Read More >