Registration Terms
Registration & PaymentPayment Options
Travel Medical & Cancellation Insurance
Cancellation Policy
COVID-19 Considerations (within the Cancellation Policy)
Privacy Policy
Registration & Payment
Your deposit secures your seat, with the remaining balance due 75 days before trip departure. If reserving your trip within 75 days of the trip start date, a deposit can temporarily hold your seat, and full payment is required to confirm your seat.
Once registered with deposit you will receive access to our Pre-trip Information web page, which includes details for preparing to join us, including a packing list and link to our Release of Liability & Participant Agreement and Medical Form which must be completed and returned as soon as possible. This includes questions about dietary needs, plus a COVID-19 Agreement. This comprehensive form is an essential legal requirement for all guests, and helps us prepare for medical and dietary needs, kayaking equipment, transportation, tent accommodation, and other trip considerations.
This pre-trip information web page also includes links to accommodation suggestions in the Comox Valley and Campbell River areas that offer preferred rates for WCE guests for the night(s) before and after your trip with us. You are responsible for arranging your travel and accommodations to and from Courtenay or Campbell River so that you are ready for an early morning van shuttle departure on the first day. We also suggest not making any flight reservations on the last night of your WCE trip in case weather or other variables delay your return from Kyuquot.
Payment Options
We accept payment using major credit cards, personal cheques, e-transfers, bank drafts and international wire transfers.
- For paying by credit card, please use an orange Book Now button to access our secure online reservation system, or phone us with your credit card details
- For paying by cheque, please mail to: West Coast Expeditions, 1250C Ironwood St., Campbell River BC V9W 6H5
- For paying by e-transfer, please send to info@westcoastexpeditions.com
- For paying by wire transfer, please contact us for SWIFT codes and routing information
Travel Medical & Cancellation Insurance
Similarly, we recommend that Canadian guests, including BC residents, also carry medical travel insurance and trip cancellation insurance. If travelling out-of-province you should check with your provincial health care plan provider to understand your coverage, and to ensure they know you are travelling.
All guests are responsible for arranging their own travel medical and cancellation insurance. Travel medical and cancellation insurance is important for you and us, because as a small seasonal business, as much as we'd like to, it is very difficult to issue refunds for unforeseen circumstances (such as injury, illness, and family emergencies) close to a trip start date. If you paid for your trip with WCE using a credit card, your credit card may include medical travel and trip cancellation insurance benefits – these terms vary significantly by provider. Similarly, you may have travel medical and cancellation insurance benefits through employment-related extended health and benefits, or other year-round private insurance arrangements. Guests are responsible for knowing and assessing their existing coverage and deciding whether to supplement that coverage.
Guests can contact any insurance provider to learn more, including through Lifestyle Insurance and Benefits Services' Travel Insurance program for a quote and coverage. They specialise in insurance products for adventure tourism.
Some insurers are now providing “Cancel for Any Reason” (CFAR) coverage. Though more expensive, you may find this a suitable option.
Cancellation Policy
[COVID-19 Considerations below updated January 1, 2022]
Note: this Cancellation Policy applies to all new reservations, and to trip balance payments received from guests re-booking with credit from 2020 trip dates that were suspended because of COVID-19 disruptions. We are grateful for everyone’s patience and support through this period.
Our all-inclusive small-group wilderness trip experiences during a short summer operating season have considerable expenses and financial commitments that are incurred year-round and well-before each trip happens. Once you reserve a seat with deposit or full payment, that seat is not available to others.
We are fully committed to each guest reservation. We also know that life circumstances can throw significant curve balls that affect whether you can join us, or whether the trip will run as scheduled. We do our best to be understanding, fair, and as flexible as possible relative to the circumstances. If you anticipate having to cancel your trip with WCE, please notify and discuss this with us as early as possible and confirm in writing (by email or mail).
Our Cancellation Policy timelines
- 75 days or more before the trip date: we retain the deposit unless we fill your seat. If we can fill your seat, payment is refunded less a $150/person administration fee.
- 45-74 days before the trip date: 50% refund on the trip price and a full refund of any associated upgrades. If we can fill the seat, only the deposit is retained, and the balance refunded.
- Within 45 days before the trip date: no refund unless we can fill the seat. If we can fill your seat, the deposit is retained, and the balance refunded.
- Some circumstances may have the options of re-booking to a different date or trip type that season or maintaining payment as credit toward a future season, less a $150/person administration fee.
COVID-19 Considerations for Shared Safety AND Responsibility
Updated January 1, 2022
- This global pandemic is an ongoing known event.
- Guests are responsible for staying current and complying with all government recommendations, requirements, and restrictions related to social/work interactions, vaccinations, and travel, including the ability to meet entry requirements into British Columbia and Canada.
- It is essential that guests ONLY travel and proceed to join their trip with WCE if able to confidently pass all questions in the BC COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool within 48 hours of their trip start date.
- If you do not comfortably pass this self-assessment, contact us immediately to discuss your situation and associated follow-up with COVID-19 test results and medical advice, with opportunity for a refund or re-booking with credit. IF IN DOUBT, DO NOT TRAVEL.
- The above does not include: 1) cancelling or re-booking because you have changed your mind since making your reservation and are now feeling uncomfortable travelling during the pandemic, or 2) booking a trip and not being willing or able to comply with government requirements or restrictions. Note: "government" includes "your" government(s) from departure/home location, AND "our" government(s) including First Nations, Provincial, and Federal.
In the unlikely event that WCE cancels a trip we will provide a full refund if re-booking or credit is not possible or suitable.
WCE is not responsible for trip cancellations, interruptions, or refunds associated with unforeseeable external events or disasters beyond our control at a regional, national, or international level (for example, but not limited to natural disasters such as an earthquake or tsunami, forest fires, environmental disasters like fuel spills, acts of terrorism or war, new epidemics or pandemics, transportation disruptions, etc.) that make us unable to offer your trip, or which interfere with you joining your scheduled trip.
In all cancellation circumstances, West Coast Expeditions is not responsible for other costs associated with your travel plans, including but not limited to air travel, ferry reservations, vehicle rentals, hotel accommodations, trips booked with other companies before or after, house care, pet care, etc. We are also not responsible for providing refunds associated with trip interruptions, delays or alterations associated with circumstances beyond our control, or your control.
Privacy Policy
We respect your privacy and protect the security of your personal information. We strive to maintain high integrity and standards during our interactions with you. West Coast Expeditions will not sell, rent, lease, trade, or disclose information about our guests to third parties unless required by law or unless you provide consent to such a disclosure.
Information Collection
When you communicate with West Coast Expeditions or our designated agents (to join our mail or email list, inquire about or register for a trip, arrange trip payment, or for guest service, comfort and safety reasons) we may ask you to provide us with information through in-person conversations, telephone communications, fax, email, or online website forms.
By choosing to answer our questions or to provide us with any such information, you are consenting to West Coast Expeditions' collection, use, and disclosure of such information for the purposes of providing you with our services as outlined below.
How We Use Your Information
Any information collected will be used only by West Coast Expeditions or our designated agents to deliver our trips, improve our trips, refine our services and website, or to communicate with you through newsletters and notices. West Coast Expeditions only uses contact information and/or e-mail addresses for internal purposes and does not sell, lease, rent, or trade information to third parties. We don’t like receiving spam and unwanted junk mail, and we don’t have the time or inclination to generate spam or unwanted junk mail.
When registering and paying for a trip, we will ask for information that is necessary for processing your purchase and maintaining communication with you for all aspects of pre-trip planning, preparation, trip follow-up, or as otherwise specified and agreed, unless you request otherwise.
To complete your trip booking, we will ask you to fill out a guest questionnaire and medical information form. We will only use this information for providing or arranging for appropriate first aid, medical, or health care in the event of an emergency, to adjust and improve our services, or for risk management purposes (for example, altering trip activities to accommodate medical or health restrictions, avoiding known allergens in food and kitchen areas, adjusting menus for dietary restrictions and requests).
With your permission, using your email address West Coast Expeditions will periodically provide you with email newsletters and other notices to keep you current with what we offer, company information, discounts and special promotions, new trips, and other initiatives and information that we feel will likely be of interest to our guests. If you don’t want these types of communications, please tell us, and we won’t send them!
From time to time, we may conduct voluntary surveys of our guests that help us to refine our products and services. Participating is always optional, and all information gathered will be kept confidential.
West Coast Expeditions may profile website activity and compile data in aggregate form to better understand user activities and the success of our materials. This information is important for us as it enables us to continue to provide experiences and information that is specific to our customers' interests while informing efficient, respectful, and effective communications. Site visitor behaviour information is compiled in aggregate form and does not represent individually identifiable information.
West Coast Expeditions may link website visitors to websites operated by third parties who are select partners of West Coast Expeditions. West Coast Expeditions attempts to select reputable partners but does not guarantee the security of any personal information disclosed on those sites. West Coast Expeditions does, however, to the best of our ability, monitor the quality, privacy, and security compliance of those partners.
Any personal information collected by West Coast Expeditions using online forms is stored in password-controlled servers with limited access. However, perfect security on the Internet does not yet exist and we cannot guarantee that our transfer of data over the Internet is impenetrable or invulnerable to hackers.
At any time you may update or remove any personal information from our records. We will respect and act on any requests that you make about how and when we use your personal information, for example, whether you wish to be added to or removed from our email newsletter distribution list, or whether you would like your personal information removed and destroyed from our records. For changes, please contact us by phone, email, fax, or mail.
...enough fine print?!...