Anderson Vacations - Calgary, Alberta

Douglas James

We took the Anderson Vacations Vancouver/Whitehorse Tour.
Two nights in each City with an Air North Flight to Whitehorse.
The Rosedale on Robson Hotel in Vancouver surpassed our expectations, it had all our needs, pool, laundry, close to down town. With very comfortable beds and kitchenette. Our Vancouver prearranged tours were excellent. Flight to Whitehorse was comfortable, free shuttle from the YXY Airport was a nice surprise and our accommodation, Edgewater Hotel was great. Our tours in Whitehorse were top notch, the Aurora viewing was nice. But the Eclipse Spa and Wilderness Preserve tour was a definite highlight.
The only negative was that we regret that we didn’t extend our trip as we tried to fit the above all in four days (which was our choice, not a reflection on Anderson).
Want to thank Krysti for help in bringing our trip together.

Buddy Morrison

My Wife and I were blown away by the trip Anderson put together for us. They provided the complete itinerary and recommendations for us that were spot on in value and memorable location and moments. This was a bucket-list trip for us, and we plan to rebook with Anderson again for our future travel back to Newfoundland.

Tiffany was excellent and worked through all of our travel plans and flights to ensure that everything went well. They managed others who had longer trips. We met while touring the two weeks, and they all agreed that Anderson did a fantastic job.

Heather Nichols

Our trip to Yellowknife was fantastic. We recommend Bucket List City Tour, dog sledding with North of 60, snowmobiling with Carlos and the Bucket List Aurora adventure. B.Dene Aurora experience was phenomenal and to experience the culture of the natives was exceptional! Shout out to Anderson Vacations for planning this package and making all the reservations go smoothly!

Vanessa Boggs

We went on a last minute planned vacation to the Maritimes. Anderson Vacations (Krysti) did an awesome job planning our itinerary, booking rental car, accommodations and some of our tours. They gave us ideas of things to do along the way and we couldn’t of been happier. Our thirteen day stay was filled with things to do and places to see but at the same time seemed relaxing.
We will definitely use their services again.

Angela

It took my husband and I 4 attempts to get to Yellowknife because of the pandemic. We are working on our bucket list and Anderson provided us an amazing unforgettable experience. While our itinerary changed slightly from the original plans , our excursions were fun and memorable. Our lead guides Zack and Jesse did an amazing job organizing our excursions and the local guides were equally impressive.

Pam de Montmorency

Our group of 8 just returned from Yellowknife with Anderson and it was a ‘bucket list’ trip of a lifetime. We were welcomed into private Lodges and Cabins and had the pleasure to spend time with some incredible people. The tour was incredibly well organized and our tour guides, Zack and Jessie, were patient, kind and professional. This is a trip for adventurous souls seeking a unique experience in a remote location. We were thrilled with our accommodation and the food was great! We met incredible people who welcomed us into their homes and gratuitously shared their stories and expertise about life ‘north of 60’. As the location is remote you need to go into this experience with an open mind and a willingness to roll with the punches. You will need to check your 5 star expectations at the door and understand that you are a guest in a wild and wonderful small town filled with larger than life personalities. Personally we found everything to be top notch and we were very well taken care of. If you seek an adventure this tour is for you. We loved every single second of this trip and Anderson did a phenomenal job from start to finish. I highly recommend this trip to any one looking for an ‘out of the box’ experience. 5 stars. Highly recommend.

Tom Knapko

Amazing, 'experiential' trip. Anderson Vacations takes great care of their guests from comfortable accommodations (The Explorer Hotel), warm rental clothes, awesome guide in Jessie Loucks, terrific day and evening guides. We loved the small group (14), the pace of each day was perfect: we had rest periods each day. We saw and learned so much. Highly recommend this tour and Anderson Vacations.

Peter Agar

Recently completed 2 self drive tours of the Maritime Provinces, planned by Anderson Vacations. Assistance & quick response from Krysti, although one of her colleagues was rather tardy, especially during the planning stages & did not respond with accurate bookings that matched my requests. I even had to follow up about my final payment for my solo NS, NB, PEI tour. Many initial bookings he made were at highly overpriced hotels & I found that some better value packages were not available to me, because I had booked through an agency, rather than direct. Also, some better value properties were not available "because we don't deal with them".
I felt that both tours were quite overpriced, in what is an expensive country to travel.
The trip notes for both my tours were copious but rather scrambled, with some information being repeated & out of sequence. Some information was also out of season & reflected things that were no longer to be seen.
My friend & my NF tour visited the main points of interest but did not reflect the change of travel season or what we were likely to see. For example, we arrived in Twillingate to be told by our accommodation manager, that the boat tour season had ended & the last icebergs had melted one month prior. Very disappointing. We had to email Andersons to tell them the boat tours in the region (we tried to find others as replacement for the one we were due to take) had ceased & only then were we told they had been advised the tours had stopped. Too late! We were then left to find local activities to replace the boat tour.
At least, a quick refund was processed for that cancelled tour, as well as another, that was cancelled by the operator on the morning of the tour, due to rough seas (understandable).
Re my NS, NB & PEI tour, St John on a Sunday is basically shut down & Fredericton, on a week day, wasn't much better & these cities could have easily been left off the itinerary.
While the accommodation in Middle Brook NF, was nice & the hosts friendly, Middle Brook is tiny, with almost no options for meals (very expensive in the lodge). The food in the area was dismal & reflected the general isolation of many NF communities. I could have cooked far tastier meals than those served to us at some restaurants in NF. At the lodge, the total conversation in the accommodation with other guest, revolved around moose hunting & what animals had been killed with which weapon - totally boring & quite revolting to listen to these "trophy hunters" bragging about their kills, especially coming from a country with very strong anti-gun laws. It probably would have been better if we had been lodged in St Anthony, which at least had some nearby points of interest.
In summary, all the accommodation bookings were accurate & most of the tours went ahead a scheduled (notable exception being the Twillingate boat tour). The trip notes were copious but jumbled & the street by street directions would have been dangerous for a solo driver like me to follow. Fortunately, I had my personal GPS to guide me. The region was very interesting & I learned a lot from my trip. However, the tour, as booked, was very expensive, especially the NS, NB, PEI part, where I travelled solo.
That seems to be the down side of solo travel - there is little or no deduction for single occupancy. Being able to share the cost in NF made a huge difference, basically halving the cost.