Great Canadian Trails

Your Well Being is our Priority

We are closely monitoring the rapidly changing situation. With the easing of some travel restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic, our travellers are looking forward to hitting the trails. At present, our Canada-USA border remains closed to non-essential travel up until July 21st, 2020, and inter-provincial travel is still limited. We are reviewing our trips six weeks before the scheduled departure, and we will contact all of our affected travellers. For trips beyond that period, we recommend that our Canadian travellers hold off on making a decision at this time. We invite our international travellers to contact their travel consultant if you would like to postpone your 2020 tour due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The ongoing safety of our travellers is our top priority. Our style of travel is naturally already adhering to social distancing guidelines. However, new measures are being adopted by our accommodation providers, transfer services and government policies regarding public transport. Individual provinces and territories, in conjunction with health authorities, have set policies based on ensuring everyone’s safety. Our partners will be strictly adhering to these policies and, in many instances going beyond to provide hygienic and safe environments.  

Examples of what our travellers may expect when joining a cycling or walking holiday in the coming weeks (subject to change without notice depending on current health advice):

Joining the trip:

Completion of a health declaration form prior to joining a trip. 

a. Where it is not possible to maintain a 2 metres distance between people, we ask that you wear a mask. Some will require you and the crew to wear a mask in common areas except when seated for dining. 

b. You will be encouraged to regularly handwash / sanitize throughout your stay. 

c. High touch areas will be cleaned / disinfected regularly through the day with a log kept. 

d. Rooms will be thoroughly sanitized between guests. Unless you request it, your room will not be cleaned every day. For longer stays when staff enter your room, they will wear a mask and take all precautions to maintain strict hygiene practices. This includes the disposal of cleaning wipes and gloves after each room has been cleaned, hand sanitizing between cleans etc. to avoid cross contamination. 

e. Standing areas in bars will not be available. 

f. Drinks and snacks will be individual and not shared. 

a. These will be served to you and not provided as a buffet. 

b. Two sittings may be required in the dining room in order to ensure social distancing is maintained. 

c. There will be no shared items such as table spices or butter pots. 

 a. All bikes will be provided with disinfected seats and handles. 

 b. Staff handing over bikes will wear face masks and gloves. 

a. Many provinces & territories and cities are requiring people to wear face masks on public and private transports. 

b. As capacity may be limited on buses and trains you will need to allow plenty of time to travel to your destination. 

c. Bookings are required on longer journeys (outside urban areas). 

a. Most tourist sites will require advance purchase tickets for a set date and time. 

b. As numbers are limited it is advisable to book well in advance.

a. Seating will be limited in order to comply with local social distancing guidelines

The above information represents examples of what procedures are likely to be in place for your trip while the virus remains. These will be dependent on the region of travel, local health authority advice and current conditions and may be adapted and changed over the weeks depending on these factors. You will receive additional information specific to your trip before your departure.

As a traveller, we recommend you also take your own precautions at this time, including using a face mask when social distancing is difficult, regular handwashing of at least 20 seconds, avoiding touching your face and ensuring that you respect social distancing requirements. Such precautions are likely familiar already if you are out and about in your neighbourhood, visiting shopping centres and/or taking public transport.

We appreciate that some of these new procedures may seem overwhelming; however, it is important to remember that for the majority of the time, as you are walking or cycling during the day, the pleasures of active travel and exploring will not be compromised. There will also be some silver linings, including reduced crowding of tourist sites and genuine warmth from locals happy to see travellers returning.