Heart of the Canadian Rockies Reviews

A great tour through the Canadian Rockies where we were able to see such wildlife as grizzlie and black bears, moose, elk, deer and bald eagles all from the comfort of our coach seat. The accommodation arranged for the tour was excellent. The optional tours available are something I urge anyone on the tour to consider as i felt they made the trip more ...read more memorable. The two people who really helped make the trip a success were our tour guide Elaine and coach driver Kong. Their organisation and approachable manner, their knowledge of the regions and humour kept our group amused throughout the trip.

May was the perfect time of year to travel and I loved that this tour took me to see all the scenic places in the Rockies, yet gave me the freedom to choose where I dined and the excursions that interested me.

Our 10 day Rockies trip was brilliant, well organised and accommodation was good with a couple of really flash hotels! Our Tour Director, Mark Love, a native of Alberta, was well informed and fun, and our bus driver, Norm, was friendly, helpful and flexible. September was a good time to travel, not too cold, fewer tourists (although we were surprised ...read more as to how many there were), fresh snow on the peaks and beautiful autumn colours. Our coach was a good mix of people, mainly older, but from Canada, Australia, USA and the UK. We thoroughly enjoyed it all.

Wonderful highlights - Banff, saw bear cubs running across the road. Lake Louise and Columbia Icefields - awesome. Each day became more awesome. Maligne Lake and Athabasca Glacier, spectacular! Day 6 and 7 are extremely long days on the coach, but we did love the visit to the town of Hope where Slyvester Stallone made Rambo First Blood. Would have ...read more loved to stay and seen all the sites. We even saw the Rocky Mountaineer running beside us in certain spots along the way.

Global Journeys have made an interesting holiday at a reasonable price. It is a shame that no breakfasts are supplied as some of us need something to get us moving in the mornings. The accommodation in places was excellent in most places. Wonderful trip with great memories.

The Cosmos tour was excellent. Good hotels in good locations. Excellent beds making for sound sleep. The tour was well planned and executed. Our tour director Mark Love made each day effortless. He provided very useful and interesting information about the history and geography of the areas we were seeing. The scenery was fantastic. This particular ...read more tour takes you on a different approach to the Rockies and we would highly recommend it. There are 2 days that are long, so be prepared and read the itinerary. If your up for it then you will be rewarded with spectacular sights and vistas.

Very well organised from the start with Georgie Walpole at Global Journeys always on hand to answer questions, as this was our first coach tour. Our tour director Sharon was excellent, knowledgeable and kept the tour going smoothly. She went out of her way to be helpful. The driver, Janusz was also fantastic. The tour was paced well, with enough free ...read more time to do our own thing. We saw so many beautiful sights and felt it was well worth the cost.

I thoroughly enjoyed my fourth tour with Cosmos around the Canadian Rockies. Our tour guide, Sibylle, was very knowledgeable as well as personable. One of the highlights was spending longer in the most scenic areas which meant that the pace was slower and gave us more time to explore. My fellow travellers were from Australia, England, US, New Zealand ...read more and India and were all very friendly. The hotels were very good and well placed for easy access to food.

We were lucky to have very good weather for most of our 10 day holiday through the Canadian Rockies. I think this, combined with the magnificent scenery and the lovely people on our bus tour meant that we thoroughly enjoyed our holiday.
We were happy with most of the accommodation, which was usually central and of a reasonable standard. As we were ...read more aware that this tour did not include meals, the lack of breakfast being included didn't bother us but most of the other people on the bus tour felt that it should have been included, especially as we had a few early morning departures. Our main complaint was the tipping at the end of the tour. As Australians we are not used to tipping, however we were aware that in Canada we would have to tip waitresses, taxi drivers etc and a few dollars here and there didn't' bother us. But Cosmos asked us each to tip the tour guide and driver $5-7 US a day. My husband and I had to pay out hundreds of dollars in tips at the end of our trip (when money was getting tight). I agree with another reviewer that this tipping seemed outrageous and I wished I had been aware before the tour how much money we were expected to pay out in tips to the tour guide and coach driver. (GJ: Thanks for your feedback Liv & Stan. With regards to tipping, some Operators include it in the price of the tour, others - like Cosmos - allow you to pay it at the end of your trip, or prepay it before you leave. I know it's not really tipping when you are expected to pay, or feel bad if you don't, but everyone is different. Ask your GJ Consultant to include it in your quote if you'd prefer next time - we hope!)

We really enjoyed the pace of this tour with 3 two night stops, allowing us time to explore on our own. The hotels were great with the usual one dud at Calgary South, due to a poor location on a busy highway with industrial views. At the other end of the scale, the Royal Scot Suites at Victoria were magnificent and more than made up for it. The tour ...read more director Vedrana was world class and acted as a personal concierge to the 54 guests. She was a gifted storyteller and never lost her enthusiasm for Western Canada. The driver was very good. The included sightseeing was exceptional and the optional excursions we did were well worth it. Overall it was a wonderful introduction to the beautiful land and people of Western Canada.

It was very good tour and we are intending to use the Cosmos and your services in the future.

From our arrival in Seattle to our tour ending in Vancouver we were extremely well looked after by our Tour Guide/Leader. Elaine was both knowledgeable about the sites visited and well organised in maintaining the itinerary. Our driver was very professional and helpful. The accommodations were more than adequate, clean, comfortable and conveniently ...read more located. We had a great time.

I did the tour for the ease of having transport and accommodation taken care of so it met that benchmark. Didn't really like being in the group so much but fortunately it was only a 10-day tour and there were only five days when we were on the bus. Tipping expectations are totally outrageous - we were advised to tip both the guide and driver $7 per ...read more day (ie. a total of $70 each, which needless to say, most people ignored) when we didn't even see them on half the days.