freshtrackscanada.com Reviews 5

I would like to take a moment to recognize Sam C. at Fresh Tracks Canada. Sam listened to my wants and needs. He planned a seamless itinerary involving the Rocky Mountaineer, various visits to different towns, excursions, hotels, transportation the whole thing, concluding with a VIA Rail trip across Canada on the Canadian.
Well done Sam
Much appreciated.
BW

There were some good parts to our trip, and several negatives. How our trip experience was handled by Fresh Tracks certainly did not warrant the cost. This is my second time submitting this review, as I did not see it in any sites when originally submitted.

Good experience on Rocky Mountaineer, but then, that had nothing to do with Fresh Tracks.
First Fresh Tracks shuttle tour in Banff, showed up over an hour late. Shuttle from Banff to Lake Louise was a high-speed trip with a few short stops, and arrived early, so some guests had to wait over an hour for their room to be ready.
View of Lake Louise, and new construction site from our tiny room at Chateau Lake Louise.
Very good shuttle trip from Lake Louise to Jasper. Driver was knowledgeable, informative, and considerate of passengers. This was one of only three real high points on trip. Left on time, arrived on time.
Eight hour delay leaving Jasper on VIA train. Train to Toronto was OK, except for delays. Arrived in Toronto over two hours late, and had to have dinner reservation changed to 9 PM. Hotel room overlooked the empty Blue Jays stadium. Interesting for about 30 seconds, then focus on small room. Would have been nice to have view of city, or even a back alley.
Room in Montreal was small, dated, and appeared to have some construction dust on baseboards, although rest of room was clean. The location was OK, park across the street, and metro stop nearby, but view from room was the wall of the building across the alley. Up, down, side to side, nothing but building.
Hotel in Quebec City was better, but looked out on rooftop of a building, with view of the very top of the Chateau Frontenac off to the left over some trees.
I didn't feel that the location of any of these three hotels was up to the overall fees charged for this trip. Talking to other travelers on the tour, we were certainly not staying in the standard, or location of others. It was also told to us that these were not hotels that Fresh Tracks usually uses, and the person was unaware of why these were chosen for us.
The train to Halifax, was an overnighter, and the cabins in the "newer" VIA train were not as comfortable as the very old cars used on the Vancouver to Toronto run. If you want to take this train, to say that you did, you should, but the comfort level is rather lacking.
We enjoyed Halifax. New hotel, decent sized room, and comfortable. Private tour was enjoyable, and driver ( Raj ) was happy to take into account our time and comfort level.
So, there is the explanation of out trip. Now, I must say that this trip was not worth the money paid. It seems that once we received our final itinerary, we should have spent a lot of time researching, verifying, and questioning the Fresh Tracks decisions. And as far as I am concerned, that is not what we should have to do for a trip of this kind.
If you are considering a trip with Fresh Tracks, I would suggest you continue looking. If you have a trusted travel agent or traveler friend, be willing to look to them for advice. All of the others on our tour, were from outside Canada. I don't know if the Fresh Tracks agents for other countries, would be more influential in their bookings, but I am afraid that regularly hearing "Sorry", and "My apologies" so often doesn't hold much water with me for this sort of tour, at this sort of cost. Fresh Tracks should be ensuring the comfort and convenience of their customers up front, rather than offering apologies after the failure of their efforts.
I would not recommend Fresh Tracks. Please consider looking. elsewhere

Fresh Tracks are advertising trips through Canada starting in April 2021. Have they received confirmation from the Canadian authorities that the Covid pandemic situation will allow these trips at that point in time? Potential customers should check that crucial information. If Fresh Tracks have not received that insurance, how can they sell these trips? If the trips are cancelled, will Fresh Tracks reimburse the customers? Or will Fresh Tracks, as they have systematically done in the Corona pandemic situation, bluntly apply their terms and conditions? A few of them below:
4. NO WARRANTIES- Fresh Tracks provides no warranty regarding the completeness, accuracy, reliability or quality of any information provided with respect to any Travel Services.
6. DEPOSITS, PAYMENTS AND FEES-(ii) Booking Deposit
A non-refundable deposit (“Booking Deposit”) equal to 30% of the total cost of the Travel Services (excluding applicable taxes and fees) will be required at the time you book your trip.
(v) All Deposits, Payment and Fees are non-refundable.
All of the deposits, payments and fees paid in relation to any Travel Services or Insurance are non-refundable
I know what I am talking about: Fresh Tracks refused to reimburse the 7,300 US dollars of our “Booking Deposit” paid on 21.02.2020 for a trip mid-August 2020 that they cancelled on 15 May. Fresh Tracks Canada have a very lucrative business model, no question about it. Potential customers should absolutely read the assessment of the company made by their own employees on glassdorr. ca : this decisive information will assist them in making their final choice.
The experience below illustrates the business model of Fresh Track Canada: cash the customer's money and do not deiver services if a trick can be used. No wonder that the staff is not available: they are enjoying spending the money so easily obtained!

TOTAL RIP-OFF.
THEY CANCELLED TRIP.
THEY ARE HOLDING MY $15,000+ DEPOSIT.
OFFICE CLOSED
EXECUTIVES ARE IN HIDING.

We booked with Fresh Tracks Canada for 23,000 US dollars a train trip (VIA RAIL) from Vancouver to Toronto in summer 2020 and paid a deposit of 7,300 US dollars. Fresh Tracks informed us in May that the trip was cancelled because of Corona. They "offered" to book the same trip in 2021 against an immediate payment of 4,900 US dollars or there would be a price increase of 5 to 8% (Note: inflation rate foreseen to be of the order of 2% only). We could not accept because of our ages. Fresh Tracks refused to reimburse the deposit. Quote from the owner: ”Consider that last year 22 million people visited Canada, most of them from April to September - then imagine the economic impacts on all the businesses that depend on that when that number of visitors turns to zero. Refunds are just not possible on a mass scale such as this”. In other words: tough luck for you, customer, good opportunity for me, the owner of Fresh Tracks Canada.
We should have read the assessments of Fresh Tracks by their own employees on Glassdoor.ca : "all they care about is making as much money as they can. I feel guilty about how much we rip off customers", “terrible management, overworked, they don’t care about the clients only the profits, no longer an actual travel agency as its more of a call centre"... We would have realized that Fresh Tracks Canada is the travel agency to avoid at any price.

We had fortunately bought an expensive "Cancel For Any Reason" insurance with Allianz Global Assistance, business partner of Fresh Tracks. Fifteen (15) weeks after Allianz Global Assistance acknowledged having received our claim for reimbursement of our deposit we have not heard of them in spite of several reminders. We start to fear that we shall never get our money back.

Altogether this was a total disaster for us, obviously not for Fresh Tracks Canada!