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Lois Farley, CTC | Product Manager

Who is Lois:
Lois is currently Product Manager. She joined the Great Canadian Travel team in March 2000, starting out as an airfare specialist, then represented Icelandair in Canada, handled Sales & Marketing as well as specializing in Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Norway and expedition cruises in the Arctic and Antarctic.

She grew up on a farm near Forrest, MB and moved to Winnipeg to attend university pursuing a phys-ed degree, then obtained a travel diploma from Angus College. Since graduating she worked in the industry as a travel consultant, a reservations agent/fares specialist for Canadian Airlines and in the sales/ticketing office for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

Lois married Yianni in 1993 and they have two daughters, Lea and Giorgia and a lovely rescue-dog named Peter. They live in Winnipeg and travel frequently to Greece to visit family and friends there. She and her daughters are ardent Winnipeg Jets fans and cheer on the Toronto Blue Jays, Winnipeg Goldeyes, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Canada’s men’s and women’s volleyball teams and Canadian tennis players.  Recently, during Euro 2016, Lois became a big fan of the Icelandic soccer team – Afram Island!

What are Lois’ TOP 5 travel experiences:

  • Climbing Ayers Rock (now called Uluru) at dawn, and looking out over the ancient lands of the Aboriginals of central Australia. Much to the disappointment of one of the people on our group, there was no Coke machine at the top.
  • Sailing into the fjords of Torngat National Park in northern Labrador. I had no idea there was anywhere like that in Canada – stunning!
  • Visiting the monasteries of Meteora in central Greece, the cliff-side villages of Santorini, the ancient sites of Knossos in Crete, Mycenae and Olympia in the Peloponnese, skiing on Mt. Parnassos in the morning and having lunch in the afternoon beside the sea.  Greece is amazing.
  • Hiking the Samaria Gorge in Crete and the Milford Track in New Zealand – completely different, but both incredible experiences.
  • Backpacking through Europe for almost a year; from Greece in the south to the northern tip of Scotland, Bergen Norway to the beaches of the Algarve in Portugal. A better education than any classroom could ever give!

What is Lois’ closing comment:
“In the short term, it would make me happy to go play outside. In the long term, it would make me happier to do well at school and become successful. But, in the VERY long term, I know which will make better memories”.
– Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes: It’s a Magical World

So, go outside and play whenever you can! Life is too short to regret what you could have, would have, should have done!

New from Lois Farley, CTC

What’s New

March 18, 2019 | Lois Farley

Adventure Canada is offering a fabulous Ireland Circumnavigation cruise starting in Dublin on June 9th, 2019. You can save up to 15% off your cabin cost for bookings made by April 15th. Details about the cruise can be seen on the webpage.

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There are some great Promos & Specials in the marketplace right now. We send out an e-mailer outlining some of them every couple of weeks. If you want to be kept in the loop on these saving offers just sign up from our website, at the bottom of each page in the red “footer” or email us to be added to the list to receive updates from us. You can always unsubscribe at any time!

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Our Winnipeg office is moving! Effective November 30th our new address will be 1349 Portage Avenue. We’ll be on the north side of Portage Avenue between Valour Rd and Ashburn St. Our phone number, fax number and email addresses will all stay the same. We’ll be having a Grand Opening once we’re all settled in our new digs, so watch this space for updates.
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Top 60 Canadian Travel Blogger sites: Great Canadian Travel was just named as one of the top 60 travel blog sites in Canada by Feedspot.com. Blog sites are judged by their search engine ranking, social media influence, social media buzz, Alexa ranking (a division of Amazon that measures web searches and visitors), post frequency and quality scores. We try hard to keep providing interesting and relevant content and it’s nice to see that our effort is being noticed. So, if we keep blogging, will you keep reading?
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And the Michelin Stars keep coming to our favourite places! Dill has been named the best Icelandic restaurant on numerous occasions and can now boast a Michelin Star, the first every awarded in Iceland – way to go, Dill!  “Dill builds on Icelandic traditions and Icelandic and Nordic ideology, and we use only the best and purest of Icelandic ingredients in our cooking,” said Head Chef of Dill, Ragnar Eiríksson. “It’s an enormous honor for all of my fantastic coworkers.” Dill is a small restaurant that sits between 20-30 people, so book your reservation today before the rest of the world hears about one of Iceland’s (and the world’s) best restaurants!
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Congratulations to KOKS restaurant, Kirkjubøur, Faroe Islands on winning your first Michelin star, the first restaurant in the Faroe Islands to do so!  Makes the short drive to this stunning seaside town even more worthwhile (like we needed another reason)!  Run by 26 year-old Faroese chef Poul Andrias Ziska, the young avant-garde team at KOKS use Faroese produce, focusing on innovative, but at the same time, traditional cuisine.  The menu is determined by the season and what they have to offer, transforming the food by using ancient culinary traditions such as drying, fermenting, salting and smoking, into modern delicacies.  Way to go, Poul and your fabulous team at KOKS!

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Company news:

2016 marks the 35th anniversary of The Great Canadian Travel Company! And to celebrate this milestone of helping you fulfill your travel dreams, we will be rewarding you, our valued clients, with opportunities to win prizes throughout the year. Be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter by email for celebration announcements and activities!

We can take you anywhere in the world.  We arrange flights from any gateway, rail journeys, expedition cruises, escorted touring, independent travel and custom tour planning. This year we have spent considerably more time exploring the opportunities for travellers in Arctic Canada, Iceland, Africa and unique cruise options. Please browse through the sample selection of a variety of programming we have featured on our website and contact one of our experienced Travel Consultants with any questions you may have.  We would be happy to assist you in making reservations on any of these tours or the numerous other options we can source for you.  We look forward to helping plan your next great adventure!