Frequently Asked Questions

All of our adventures leave from and return to Canada Place in downtown Vancouver, about a 5-minute walk from the Waterfront SkyTrain station. Please approach any Discover Canada Tours staff and we will check you in to start your tour. We dress in bright green, so don’t worry, you won’t miss us!

Our ‘Discover’ Day Tours also depart from the Sheraton Wall Centre, located on 1000 Burrard Street, in addition to Canada Place. If you are going on a ‘Discover’ single-day adventure with us, you can choose to meet us at the departure point of your choice. Departure times for each pick-up point are shown in the corresponding individual tour pages.

Please ensure to plan your route to the departure point well in advance. If you are planning to take public transportation, please make sure to check TransLink’s website and look up your best route. If public transportation is unavailable in your area or at your time of departure, you can consider other forms of transportation, such as taxis or car-sharing services (f.e. Uber or Lyft).

At the moment we don’t offer hotel pick-ups, which helps us ensure the most competitive rates in the market on all of our tours. We depart from and return to Canada Place in downtown Vancouver, which is easily accessible with public transportation, taxi or car-sharing services such as Uber or Lyft.

On our Discover Day Tours, we do offer an additional pick-up and drop-off at the Sheraton Wall Centre. Check our Departure Information page to learn more.

All of our tours are conducted in English. For a Custom or Private Tour booked, we will try to ensure that either the Tour Guide or a guiding assistant is a native speaker of your language to assist with translation for the tour and the hotels and activities.

Our tours are limited by the coach size for that adventure. Our tours range from 20 people on tour up to 54, depending on the adventure you are on. On each tour page, you will see the number of passengers per trip at the top of the page.

We use charters and mini-coaches for all of our tours. For consideration of our other guests, the minimum age to join our Multi-day Tours is six. Also, some tours include wine, cider or beer tastings that are limited to guests aged 19 or older.

There is no age limit on our Day Tours. Toddlers aged 0-2 travel for free, but are expected to sit on the parents or tutors’ lap, as car seats are not included.

Guests age 6+ are welcome on all of our overnight tours, and we may get small teen groups joining from time to time in the following tours and under these conditions:

• For all West Trek tours, the maximum teen group size to join a scheduled tour is 20 plus 2 chaperones. For the DCT Rockies Classic Tour, the maximum size for a teen group is 15 plus 2 chaperones. Private tours can be arranged for larger groups.
• Teen groups can not share rooms with other tour passengers, and they need to pay for any applicable room upgrade charges.
• We can offer a complimentary trip for chaperone with 15 paying students, based on having their own bed in a room with three. They can upgrade to a private room for an additional fee.
• The chaperone for teen groups are 1:15 students, so if they have 16 up to 20 they would need 2 chaperones but only one would be complimentary.
• Chaperones are responsible for the conduct and behaviour of their teen group while on tour.

Our policies for individual minors joining ours tour are as follows:

• Guests 15 years of age or younger can not join our tour on their own, they need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
• Guests between the ages of 16-18 can join our tour on their own but only with the written consent of their parent or legal guardian.
• Guests 17 years of age or younger need to pay for applicable room upgrade charges, as they can not be placed in a room with other adult guests that are not part of their group.

Unfortunately, at this time, we do not allow children under 6 years old on our Multi-day Tours for the consideration of our other guests, especially during the bus rides.

We do allow children under 6 years old on all of our Day Tours. Infants and toddlers ages 0-2 travel for free on our Day Tours, but are expected to sit on the paying adult’s lap, as car seats are not included.

Please contact our office at 1-855-689-8128 or at info@westtrek.com and we will be able to assist you with the pet policy, as it changes depending on the hotel/s your tour group will be staying at.

All of our tours are guided on coaches ranging from 20 to 54 seaters.

None of our small group buses have washrooms on board, but we do make regular stops for breaks where you will be able to use the washroom. On our larger group tours, we use full-size coaches which do have washrooms on board, but they are for emergencies only. As in all of our tours, there will be regular stops for washroom breaks.

We currently don’t offer WiFi on our buses, as we want to encourage our guests to unplug from the outside world during your tour to make the most of the adventure. However, there is WiFi in all the hotels you will be staying at and most of the service stations you will be stopping at. You can also always count on your Tour Guide to help you if there is any emergency.

Yes, you can book the seats in the front rows of our bus on all of our Multi-day Tours at an additional cost, but not on our Day Tours. You will see the option at checkout when booking online, or you can contact us directly to add it on at the time of booking or later, based on availability. The price for the front row seats are as follows:

• First row: $50/person for the full duration of the Multi-day Tour. 
• Second & Third rows: $25/person for the full duration of the Multi-day Tour.

Unfortunately, our buses are not wheelchair accessible. We can take foldable wheelchairs, but you will need to be able to board the bus on your own or with your group. Not all of the activities offered in our tours are wheelchair accessible, but you can contact us at 1-855-689-8128 or via email at info@westtrek.com and we will be able to provide you with more information on specific tours.

All of our tours vary in the traveler type according to our Travel Styles. We have segmented our adventures by the brand that operates them. These are just guidelines for more detailed information:

• Tours operated by Discover Canada Tours welcome students, adults, families, couples, seniors and solo travelers of all ages and diverse interests. The Extraordinary Experiences are for the more mature and experienced travelers, couples, seniors and special occasions.
• Our West Trek Tours are focused on adventurous young adults and young at heart travelers, usually ranging from 19-40 years old, although there isn’t an maximum age limit.
• The Destination Snow adventures focus on winter sports enthusiasts, groups and individuals of all ages and fitness levels.
• DC Student Adventures operates school trips for local and international elementary and high school students around the world.
• You can also book your Self-Guided Experiences and Private & Custom Tours with the companions of your choice by contacting us .

All Multi-day Tours have a minimum age of 6 years old, and for the rest of the tours, there are just age limitations for certain activities, such as wine tasting.

We have several rooming configurations. We currently offer Single, Double, Triple and Quad room fares. You can choose to share a room and/or a bed, which will reduce the cost of your tour, or you can choose to have your own individual room in all or some of the hotels you will be staying at, at an additional cost.

If you choose to have your own room, then you will be charged a supplement. We do allow you to share with other guests that are traveling alone in either a double, triple or quad room on certain tours. Please refer to the tour page to see what packages are offered.

You can see the cities you will stay at and where the hotels are generally located in each tour’s page. Each tour has slightly different hotels based on availability, season and departure date. If you would like to know the hotels for a specific departure date, please email info@westtrek.com, and we will provide them to you.

Please notify us in advance about your dietary requirements. We will do our best to accommodate, but can not guarantee vegan options or special requests.  

Depending on the season and destination you are traveling to, your clothing choices will be different. For all our Summer adventures, we suggest that you pack light clothing, as the days can get reasonably warm. Be sure to bring your swimsuit as there are a few opportunities to take a dip in some of Canada’s beautiful lakes! There are also hot tubs and hot springs at a few of the hotels you will be staying at in both Summer and Winter. Remember to bring along a sweater as well, as sometimes the night time temperatures can drop. And as always, bring your trusty rain jacket – British Columbia is famous for its rain!

In Winter, we suggest that you pack warm clothes. It can get icy in the Rocky Mountains. A good pair of waterproof shoes, an insulated, waterproof jacket and pants are also a good idea. Remember your toque (beanie), scarf and gloves as well. We do rent out snow clothing if you don’t have your own.

Sunglasses are never a bad idea to protect your eyes from the sun. There are certain areas where sunglasses are a huge positive like the lakes, where there can be severe reflections of the sun off the glaciers and the water.

If you are traveling to see the Northern Lights, it is recommended that you bring arctic clothing with you. It is not unheard of for the temperatures to drop below -40C in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. No need to worry! Arctic clothing rentals are included on our Northern Lights packages if you don’t have your own.

Lastly, remember to bring all your prescription medication. We always say you need three things when traveling; passport, credit card and medication; everything else can be purchased along the way as we move through towns every day.

We currently only allow for one (1) piece of luggage and a small backpack or handbag per guest, due to space constraints. You will need something that you can easily manage to maneuver. If you have excess baggage, we do offer the storage of your additional bags in Vancouver. Contact us for more information.

We offer baggage storage for the extra bags you may have. The fee is $15 per day and will be held in a secure locker. Please remember that we can only cater for one (1) large item of luggage and a small backpack or handbag per person on tour.

It is possible, but due to the nature of our scheduled tours, the price of the tour will remain the same if you join the tour late or leave early. You will also need to arrange your own transportation to join late or leave early.

We strongly advise against booking your departing flight on the return day of our tours, as there can be unforeseen circumstances that can cause delays.

We do not currently assist in organizing your travel visa. The confirmation email that you receive from us is enough for the embassy to accept your application. If you have any questions, please email us at info@westtrek.com, and we can assist further.

None of our tours include international airfares. We do have a travel arm of our company that can assist you with airfares if you like. Please contact our travel consultant specialist, Sepideh Sajjadi, at sepideh@uniglobespecialty.com.

Airport transfers are not included. There is public transportation available through TransLink, Metro Vancouver’s transportation network, and there are several taxi and car-sharing options, including Uber and Lyft, from YVR into downtown Vancouver.

We can also arrange private transportation for small groups with our fleet of mini-coaches and vans at vancouverbuscharters.com.

We can most definitely assist you with your travel arrangements outside of our tours. You can contact our travel consultant specialist, Sepideh Sajjadi, at sepideh@uniglobespecialty.com, and she will put together some quotes for you based on your budget.

During our years of experience, we have built strong partnerships with all of our suppliers. These relationships help ensure that we give you the best prices in the market for all our tours, and discounted prices on all of our included activities.

Tips are not included in the cost of your tour. We suggest that you tip the guides based on their level of service that they provided for you on tour. Our guides can accept cash tips in CAD and USD.

The price includes all transportation, accommodation and some activities and meals as indicated. Details can be found on the right column of each of the specific tour pages. There are a number of optional activities available on each tour which we highly recommend booking in advance. The optional activities will also be explained on each tour page.

All tours are quoted in Canadian Dollars (CAD).

You may cancel your tour at any time by notifying Discover Canada Tours at 1-855-689-8128 or via email at info@westtrek.com.

Make sure you read our cancellation policies to check if you’re entitled to a refund within the cancellation deadlines. The Yukon tours or any tour with flights included are 100% non-refundable once a booking has been made.

For all tour cancellations by Discover Canada Tours, the company reserves the right to cancel any trip in its sole discretion. If a tour is canceled, Discover Canada Tours shall have no responsibility beyond the refund of all monies paid by the passenger, which shall be deemed to constitute full settlement. Discover Canada Tours cannot guarantee weather conditions, nor can it be responsible for any shutdowns, whether wholly or partially, of the operations of any services in connection with the trip whether they are caused by weather or for any reason or cause.

As soon as your request has come in, we will process the refund internally. Once we have processed the refund, it can take between 5-7 days to reflect in your account.

Please note that since this is a natural phenomenon, we cannot guarantee that you will see the Northern Lights. We will ensure that your trip remains a bucket list experience, even if you are not fortunate enough to see the Aurora Borealis!

Western Canada is great to visit in any season, and summer is probably the most popular time. In the Rockies, this is the best time to see the lakes, as they are at their most blue. We also have our tours running to Tofino, a quaint beachside town on Vancouver Island.

 In winter, you will be greeted with snow… lots of it! The Rockies become a winter wonderland playground with ice skating on the lakes and visiting some of the most famous winter sports resorts in the world. We also run our winter ski and board tours to all of the top mountains in the area, including Whistler Blackcomb. 

Our spring and fall have their charms. A few activities that we offer are closed, but this is remedied by the magical landscapes you will encounter, as well as less crowds. In short, there is no wrong time to come to Western Canada; it all depends on what you want to see.

We make bucket-list travel dreams come true. We are experts in providing the best sightseeing and travel experiences in Western Canada through continuously developing innovative year-round tours. With an unparalleled focus on adventurers of all ages, we commit to provide our guests with unforgettable, authentic travel and sightseeing experiences for the best value. Our guests are always our top priority!