Banff Jasper Collection by Pursuit

I would like to offer our sincere thanks to Noland and the team at Brewster/Pursuit for our experience today. Our local minor hockey team was presented with a distant road game on short notice and inquired about hiring a bus to take us there and back.
Brewster/Pursuit had no trouble supplying us with a beautiful, modern & spotless motorcoach, along with a professional and courteous driver, and the piece of mind knowing that our players parents and coaches could focus on the game ahead and not the lengthy travel there and back.
The bus arrived for pickup early and got us to our destination exactly at the scheduled time. Our return trip was equally stress free and Noland even pointed out the northern lights for us which our sleepy players would have missed otherwise.
Suffice to say, our trip was top notch and the bar has been set very high for team travel providers. We will not look elsewhere for our next trip. This outfit is best in class.
Thank you again to driver Noland and Brewster/Pursuit.
Sincerely,
Canmore Eagles U18 Rep Hockey Team
Nov 5th, 2023

The entire trip was amazing from start to finish. The icefields experience maybe a bit overrated but the guide Rocco informed us of the history including indigenous (Stoney) which made it a memorable experience

Due to construction, the way to one attraction was 3 1/2 hours longer than normal (road work from 18 to 28 September), but this was nowhere said on the part of Pursuit. We then bought passes for about $500. When we wrote to the support for a refund or exchange to other (cheaper) tickets, there was no answer until today. Since we were unfortunately only two days in Jasper / Banff we have paid the money unfortunately too much. Greetings from Germany.

Interesting experience with Pursuit for sure. First, we made the mistake of assuming that all of the venues were reasonably local to Banff, which is where we were staying. After realizing that we would have to drive 4.5 hours to get to one we immediately tried calling to get a refund and couldn't reach anyone. So, we stopped into the office in Banff and were told that there was really nothing they could do to help us. We weren't allowed to book earlier than 3: 30 because of the pass we bought, and it didn't matter that the only spots available were on the same day but hours apart, and it was impossible to actually get to both during the time provided. At one point the representative offered us an 11: 00 spot, apparently not realizing that she just told us many times that we had to book after 3: 30 or she had to get manager approval for a change, but never offered to actually speak to a manager. Customer service was pretty bad, but whatever, it was our mistake for not checking out locations first.

Because she booked us at 11: 00 we figured out that they don't really have systems to track most of what happens with their passes so we went ahead and rescheduled as soon as we arrived on-site, every time. They had people showing up on the wrong days and that still didn't matter - they just re-booked and put them in a group to go to the activity.

The activities are really meant for the very old, very inexperienced, or children, so if you are looking to do something with 200 of your best friends for a 15 minute block of time, then this pass is a good option. We aren't that type of travelers so everything was pretty underwhelming.

We wish that we would have rented kayaks for each of the lakes, walked to the glacier, and skipped everything else. The gondola was interesting, but again, there are a ton of people up there with you at all times. Same with the sky bridge, which was actually so crowded that you couldn't even stand out there and enjoy the view.

The lake tours were really just rides out to the middle of the lake while being entertained by a guide, and then you ride back. It is pleasant for sure, but you don't learn much and near Spirit Isle they allot 15 minutes for picture taking before you get back on the boat for your ride back. You can kayak that trip in 3 hours and have peace and quiet, which would have been a much better way to engage with the back country.

As for the views at the gondola and elsewhere, make sure you check the smoke map before you book anything. We didn't even end up going to Golden because the smoke was so bad, and when I asked various Pursuit employees and others about how often there is an issue with smoke they all laughed and said that this is really an annual thing and you should expect to have impaired views during the summer depending on the wind that day.

In summary, I would do the lake tours again when I am 95 years old and not looking to have much adventure in my life, but would pass on the rest. Until then I will just stick to hiking any of the hundreds of awesome trails in the national parks and use an app as a tour guide.

The packages are Great and worthy. You got to buy one and visit the counters at your convenient time. Don't worry about the time if you already picked one. They will try accommodating with the earliest time available. The staff is fantastic with great sense of humor. They will make sure you have fun!
One thing to note is that, it may be hard to reach them on Phone. But, you get all the help once you reach one of their office/counters.

Glacier tour is a waste of money. You can walk on the toe of the Glacier and get the same experience. They only allow you 30 min on the Glacier and don't even drive up to the icefield. And they don't let you do thr Glacier by itself. You HAVE to do the lame skywalk.don't waste $100 on this.

ALERT: DO NOT TRUST YOUR LIFE WITH THESE HIGHLY INCOMPETENT PEOPLE!

On Monday August 7th, more than 300 people were stranded at the top of Sulphur Mountain waiting for the gondola to be fixed. The whole handling of the situation was one complete mess. I have never seen such incompetent people who are responsible for so many lives.

Due to power outage, Banff Gondola stopped working sometime around 8: 30pm. Hundreds of people were waiting on the lines with infants, young kids and elderly spread all over. There were so many things wrong about this whole thing that I don’t think I can fit all that into a single post. But some of the critical ones. Let me also say this, I am not to dramatize the incident but just try to write my perspective as unbiased as possible.

*No Evacuation Plan: These people have no idea how to handle a crisis and evacuate the facility in case of an emergency. Now, this wasn’t a life threatening emergency for most people except some who needed critical medications. But as 300+ people were just waiting for an answer for hours, there wasn’t a single supervisor or a person with authority to provide a clear answer as to how all these people would go down. All we heard was “we don’t know, we are working on it”. Having no clear answer from anyone and not seeing a single supervisor to explain what is going on was absolutely unbelievable. We were first told it was the gondola, then gondola was fixed but it was the weather and after the weather cleared it was the gondola again. So much unclarity mixed with lies and the answer changed depending on who you asked.

*RESCUE TEAM: Little before the midnight a team of rescue operators came up. If you think you are safe
when you see people with full gear, think again. These guys were even more incompetent. For 2-3 hours, all they did was to walk around and try to calm people down. They had no plan and no actual idea how to handle the situation. Around 2 am they said able people who want to hike down can hike with them. And most astonishingly, they told us they didn’t even have bear sprays and we would go at our own risk. I asked them what if this was a fire, what would be the rescue plan and they said they didn’t know! Just mind-boggling!

So we hiked down at 2: 30 am with a group of ~100 people for 2 hours (3.5 miles) relying each other rather than officials in complete darkness holding each other, kids etc.

*CARELESS MANAGEMENT: Now you would think that in a situation like this there would be at least some emergency vehicles waiting at the ground level. There was absolutely no one! No police, no ambulance, no one from the operating company’s management. I guess 300+ people weren’t enough to grant some officials would get out of their warm bed.

I will end the post here to give you a picture of how much these people care about their guests!

I love Banff, hiked the Sulphur Mountain before. It is a breathtaking place but rely on yourself and plan to hike rather than spending hundreds of dollars on the gondola and risk your life.

I did the giant canyon swing at Golden and the staff were incredible! Caitlin helped us get into the harness and she was amazing! Caitlin is one of the best staff they have and she made this experience memorable! Thank you! Highly recommend doing the giant canyon swing!

Great tour with knowledgeable coach driver John and guide Josh. It’s great to get the history behind all the locations. The cruise along lake mallawanka was awesome. Lunch was amazing. Definitely recommend this tour

I purchased 4 Rockies passes on July 2nd. We are travelling to Banff this weekend. Although my credit card was charged immediately 1222 dollars, I have yet to receive the passes. I have called their 800 number, their local office number, and tried their chat option, 3 times each, with no response from them. I guess I will have to go to their local office in Banff and take my chances. This is beyond bad service. This is the first time I have given a bad review like this (being Canadian and all). My advice, try another service!

Shoutout to Nat and Jordan (our host and Captain respectively) on the Maligne lake cruise. It was a great experience and the staff was friendly. Also, one of the best experiences my family and I had during our trip to Jasper:)

Big shout out to Robin Aitken. Had customers from New Delhi.boat ride was 2 pm and they were late leaving hotel.momma bear was very upset and wasn't going anywhere but a boat ride.long story short I hooked up with Robin and she worked her magic like never before and got these 3 people on board 1 hr later.this woman needs to be crowned Queen of Lake Mini.instead of us being at a burial site they were on a boat. Thanx again Robin.you are the bestest

They're really bad company to work for, they make the staff to work 10 hours with no break without food. It's worst than slavery and their Nicknames are BLACK Hall ️. Please stay away this group if you can.

We had booked this company for tickets for the Columbia ice fields. We had to cancel because of road conditions at 35 plus cm of snow. Extremely difficult people to get in touch with. Over 2 hours wait time. We put in our phone numbers so that they could call us back. Someone did call us back after an hour or so. The cancelation policy was seamless and the staff were very friendly. The reason I gave 4 stars is the sheer length of time on the phone and the difficulty trying to get through.

We just did the Maligne lake cruise with captain Cam and Jess as the host. She said it was just her second cruise and she did an excellent job, very knowledgable and entertaining. We also did the glacier tour and the skywalk, which we would definitely recommend.

We just went tonight for the 6pm ride with Captain Ben and Jordan! My first boat ride and I gotta say it was beautiful, I also really loved the indigenous origin of Lake Minnewanka; it reminded us about our stories of the Beginning and we enjoyed his enthusiasm when telling it. Thank you VERY much Jordan and Ben for a wonderful end to our long weekend trip here in Banff.
We will be back, and we will be taking it again and again:)

Had an excellent Athabaskan Glacier icefield tour with Rocco yesterday! Great to meet a fellow Ontarian! He was so knowledgeable, answered all questions and he was such a natural guide. However, Parking signage at this location in jasper NEEDS WORK, very confusing to find parking upon arrival. Dress warm, very windy on glacier and bring water bottle to collect glacier water!

I would say that the employee did not listened to our company needs. I felt pushed into spending a lot of money because there were a lot of ''restrictions'' (need to buy this to have that and so on). I finally decided to cancel my reservation and go somewhere else.