Alberta-transfer: Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, Calgary

The journey itself was fine and all on time but some of the customer service and communication was lacking. I used Tripadvisor to message the company to ask if they would drop us at our airport hotel instead of the airport and my reservation was updated with the new address. The driver kind of accosted us for being late even though we were a couple minutes early by my account, so it could be clearer when to arrive. I checked to confirm he would drop us at the hotel but he immediately just said “we don’t drop off there” even when I showed him the reservation. He and another staff member just said “it’s because you booked with a third party” but weren’t apologetic.

We were lucky to have Dave & Jamie as our tour guides, and in a very small group - 4 early on and just the two of us with Dave & Jamie for a large part of the day. They made it such a great day - stopping for as long as we wanted at each sight, taking photos for us and generally just being as helpful and entertaining as possible. That did include a Justin Bieber singalong at one point! I did say that would be my two word review, but of course they deserved more than that. Well done guys, it was great to meet you. David & Stephanie (visiting from England).

As part of the Rocky Mountaineer package we used Brewsters to transfer between hotels, resorts and experiences between Calgary and Jasper, where we caught the Rocky Mountaineer train. Very experienced driver (Ilya) on first part of journey between Calgary & Banff. He talked nearly non stop with interesting facts on the journey, but did get annoyed and sarcastic with some chatty Americans on our coach. Got the impression he wanted everyone to be silent which on a holiday tour cannot really be expected. They were not loud enough to distract those who wanted to listen. He also mentioned that all our gratuities on the trip were covered but not the 'drivers'. Fair enough but his actions when we offered a tip at the end of the day at Rimrock Hotel left a nasty taste!. Its been a long time since we have tipped Coach drivers, used to have a little pot on dashboard for change etc. but he stood outside the coach, we thanked him and as I did not have any notes to hand, gave him a tip in cash ($5). At which he said, rudely no thank you and would not accept it, though he had notes in his hands from other passengers. Was change not good enough? I was so annoyed, I pushed it back at him and said give it charity! 2 days later we left Banff and were escorted by Rachel? (from England) & Mary - absolutely brilliant host and driver. Both were informative, Rachel accompanying us on all tours, taking photos for everyone and encouraging everyone to experience everything. Mary gave a very emotive talk about the Jasper Fire and how it effected the town and her own experience in helping the evacuation. They were great & made the day.