During the Fall season, I always have winter on the brain. It has been raining in Southern California for the last week straight and while most people have been complaining about it, I have been thinking "all this rain is turning to snow somewhere!" At this time of year I am planning out my winter calendar, and with each destination I choose, I plan out as many activities as possible.
This year I will once again be headed to Whistler. It's an annual pilgrimage for me. During my planning I ran across a company called Canadian Snowmobile Adventures, which calls Whistler Blackcomb its home. I love the outdoors and it is easy for me to find people that have the same amount of passion. But it dawned on me, as I was plowing through a ton of online options for travel ideas, what if this is a new interest for somebody? How would they gauge the good from the bad options? Here is how I do it…
Professionalism - When I review the Canadian Snowmobile Adventures' site I see a breadth of services. They have snowmobiling, snowshoeing, and dogsledding as possible tours. They also have B2B services for the film industry offering location selects and logistics. Additionally they have courses for avalanche training, first aid, snowmobiling and guide training. If you dig a little deeper on the site you notice for each of the activities they offer a variety of packages. At a glimpse, Canadian Snowmobile Adventures seems to be a very professional and well versed company in outdoor activities and logistics. Professionalism – check!
Passion - Like I said before, I am passionate about the outdoors and I look for the same from any company that is creating experiences in the outdoors. Simply put, do the people offering the services love what they do? I look through the Canadian Snowmobile Adventures site and here are descriptions that jump out at me: "journey into the depths of the pristine valley", "be thrilled by the sensation", "feel the serenity of the high alpine", "unlock the mysteries of the mountain". All of these create very vivid pictures in my mind. Most likely created by somebody else that sees them with passion. The CSA twitter profile reads "we have a passion for all things adventurous." Passion – check!
Reviews - Strength in numbers. The great part about travel today is that you can rely on others before you to give you the straight info. Canadian Snowmobile Adventures gets high marks across every review site I have visited – yelp, yahoo, trip advisor. In one review CSA got a 3 out of 5 stars, primarily for the reseller of the package rather than CSA itself. However, the reviewer stated "the guide was great and the saving grace". In the same review somebody from the CSA team addressed the issues directly and restated its commitment to always creating a memorable experience. Customer service – check!
Gut Check - In the end it always comes down to my gut feeling. Having followed Canadian Snowmobile Adventures on Twitter for some time now I find them to be a very fun group of people. The last few tweets were about supporting the cure for cancer and their love of winter:
We #lovesnow because that's when we can get all our toys out – snowmobiles/snowshoes/dogsleds/snowcats.
In the absence of actually having used the services of a company in the past, there are still ways to successfully choose a great adventure! As for me – I am going to do the dogsledding with Canadian Snowmobile Adventures. When you look at this junior team member below, how could you not?!
Enjoy the ride!
