You have to be lucky to have a great holiday. We were lucky to pick this great tour, lucky to travel with a good group and very lucky to have Alex as our guide!This amazing young lady really made the trip - and even altered the itinerary a little so that we would get the best out of every day irrespective of the weather. Although a native french Canadian , she knew everything about Vancouver and chatted animatedly with everyone , answering every question that was sent her way.
There are always things that go a little wrong -our room at Ucluelet was very dark -but she immediately fixed a change with the hotel. She also knew great places to eat and varied it as much as possible.
The highlight of the trip was a day long visit to see grizzly bears feeding on Salmon migrating up the river. On the way we got close to a large humpback whale . With the boat engines stopped we could hear every breath of the whale and managed to get some great pictures - a magical moment.
The zodiac trips to see whales were fun, but our boat skipper kept a very long distance (much greater than the mandatory 100 yards) from the whales even when invited to approach by other boat captains. Considering we had travelled many thousands of miles to see the whales this was disappointing.
The penultimate day was spent in Victoria. We had tasted "beaver tails" -a cinnamon doughnut - in Ottawa many years ago and wanted to repeat the experience. Alex , once again, made it possible and found a local source of this delightful sweet!
As we said our goodbyes to our new friends on the final day, Alex was on hand again to make sure all went well. We hope she continues as a guide - any other have a hard act to follow!
Canadian Rockies Wilderness Walks Generally a nice holiday, in spectacular scenery. The food was varied and very plentiful (although having 10 females in the party of 12, plus 2 male guides might have had a bearing on this). Assorted dietary restrictions were catered for.The sites were fine, with the exception of the "last" one near Waterton Park (Waterton Springs Campground) which, in all honesty, was unacceptable for a holiday costing in excess of 3,000 for 11 days camping. We had a 1km walk to get hot water for anything, the toilet facilities near our tents were basic and only just about acceptable (if you ignore the lack of hot water) and the sinks for washing up in were disgusting. They had a large number (40-50) of RVs on site, all situated next to the office and all facilities. We were put as far away from there as was possible on the site (presumably so that a "noisy" group wouldn't disturb their main source of income - the RVs). There may have been another 5-6 people in tents while we were there. We were unfortunate in that, due to fires, Waterton Park was closed the day after we arrived and then totally evacuated, so I cannot comment on the walks there. This was a shame as I had visited there for 2 days last year and really loved it - there is what looked to be a reasonable site in Waterton Park itself, beautifully situated next to the village, although I can't comment on its facilities as I was in a hotel. In fact, returning there was a major factor in me choosing to go on this holiday. On the plus side, we only stayed at the poor site for one night. The tour company arranged a new site, well away from the fires (a 500km drive in fact), in a much nicer site, at very short notice.
This trip combines the highlights of the Canada’s landscape in particular Vancouver Island with wild life both on land and in the sea. All in all I had a lovely experience with a really nice group of people.
