Policies

Cancelling a trip is the last thing one thinks about when planning a vacation. However, circumstances can and do occur that result in an unplanned need to cancel. Although we have empathy for events that may result in needing to cancel, we operate during a very short season and with a very limited occupancy, and this policy is in effect under all circumstances.

When traveling, it is only prudent to ensure you are appropriately insured for all eventualities.  All our guests should look into trip cancellation insurance through a travel agent or your insurance provider. Further to this, all guests should ensure that they have insurance that covers any evacuation – either emergency or non-emergency – that arises in the event of an incident and means that they cannot continue the trip.

Another good way to ensure you are covered for any unforeseen circumstances is through your credit card company. Check whether your credit card has the option to include travel insurance for all cancellations if you use the card to pay for your trip. 

Payment Schedule:

• A deposit of 50% including tax is required for all reservations at the time of booking.
• The remaining 50% balance is due 60 days in advance of the trip date. We will email a reminder with the invoice one week before this date and instructions for how this balance can be paid online.
• Any trips booked within this 60 day period of the trip start date will be required to pay 100% of the balance at the time of booking

Insurance

In addition to cancellation insurance, be sure your personal insurance is adequate to cover expenses caused by accidents in remote locations.  Any costs arising from an unscheduled evacuation will be the responsibility of the client.

Non-Exemptions

Powell River Sea Kayak Ltd. is not to be held responsible for any environmental factors that may cause a package or portion thereof to be cancelled due to safety concerns, travel restrictions or any perceived reductions in quality of a package due to rain, wind, smoke, fog, cold, heat, or any other environmental phenomenon during the package dates.

Powell River Sea Kayak’s cancellation policy is still in effect during times of poor air quality due to smoke, or if travel is restricted due to concerns surrounding COVID-19 or any other pandemic related issues.

Furthermore, any personal circumstances that may arise from guests that prevents them from participating in their tour such as health issues, injuries, or personal scheduling conflicts may not be used as exemptions from this policy. Although we have never cancelled a tour in 25 years, there is still a risk (albeit minor) that this can occur. Anyone looking to book a trip is sharing in this risk with us as a company. We therefore strongly recommend guests consider trip cancellation insurance. Some credit cards even have this built into their plans.

If you feel there is a possibility you may need to cancel for any reason (as mentioned above), and you are concerned you will not be refunded as stated in this possibility, we suggest refraining from making a reservation until such time as you feel more confident the trip will go ahead as planned.

We appreciate your cooperation in adhering to this policy and kindly request that guests refrain from contacting our staff via emails and phone calls for refund inquiries.

Smoke & Wildfires

In recent summers, wildfires are becoming more prevalent in BC. That said, conditions on the coast and areas that we kayak are seldom affected by smoke and wildfires, however this can occur. For most healthy people, these conditions are not dangerous. Our trips go ahead as planned with or without smoke. If you feel that you would want to cancel your trip as a result of wildfire smoke and expect a refund, we ask that you do not book a trip with us. There will be no refunds due to wildfire smoke over the course of any of our tours.

Furthermore, if you have a pre-existing condition that would be affected by smoke and would therefore need to cancel, it is especially important to have trip cancellation insurance when making a reservation.

In addition to cancellation insurance, be sure your personal insurance is adequate to cover expenses due to unexpected evacuations in remote locations. 

Any costs arising from an unscheduled evacuation will be the responsibility of the client. Whether this occurs via the Coast Guard or a third party water taxi company, you should expect that evacuation costs from Desolation Sound to be anywhere from $200-400, and more for more remote locations. Our company motor vessel is not set up or insured for emergency transport.

Note that even if Coast Guard or a third party evacuate a guest from one of our tours, there are likely costs related to PRSK picking up kayaks, equipment, etc, that will also be the responsibility of the guest. Fees related to picking up kayaks/equipment are as follows:

• Desolation Sound area: $200
• Redonda Islands area: $300
• Toba Inlet: $400

Urgent evacuations that require immediate hospitalization from Desolation Sound are likely to be taken to Campbell River hospital, not Powell River. Guests should be aware of this, and also that the cost and logistical considerations of returning to Okeover from Campbell River is the sole responsibility of the guest.

Beyond evacuation for injuries, if you are unable to keep up with the group by maintaining an acceptable paddling speed, physically complete the trip as described, or help at all around camp to ensure a smooth tour flow, evacuation will also occur at the expense of the guest.

• Peak Rates apply from the June 20th tour through to the end of the season
• Off-Peak ‘Green Season’ Rates apply for all tours from the start of the season until the above date

• Off-peak Group discounts require 4 people minimum in a group to receive discount.
• To receive the group rate, all guests in the group must know each other – or of one other – prior to to the tour.
• We do not have group discounts for our Peak season tours.

Minimum age for Children

• Group tours (ie: your child or children are part of your own private group): 8 years
• All other regular vacation tours: 12 years
• Expedition tours: 16 years

PRSK does not run private tours unless there are a full 10 people in the group (or if a smaller group pays for all 10 available spots on a tour).

Note: All children less than 16 years are required to be in a double kayak with a parent.

• Minimum group size to run 4 & 5 day Desolation Sound Vacation tours is 6 (solo, double, triple welcome to join).
• Minimum group size to run 6 & 7 day Expedition-style tours is 6 (groups less than this welcome to join).
• For all above tour durations:
  • If the tour fails to reach the minimum group size 7 days before the scheduled start date, your deposit will be refunded and the tour will be cancelled.
  • At any time before the tour reaches the minimum group size, you may ask for a full refund and forfeit your reserved space on the tour.
  • Furthermore, PRSK can at any time cancel any tour that hasn’t reached the minimum guest threshold for any reason and will completely refund the deposits of all guests.
  • Once the required number of people have booked for a particular tour, the tour is confirmed and our normal cancellation policy is in effect.
  • If looking to book into a tour with less than the required number of people, we will accept your deposit and notify you to confirm the tour will run once this minimum number has been reached.
  • Please note: reservations are considered temporary until the minimum requirement has been reached. If PRSK receives a large group enquiry for these dates or over similar but conflicting dates, we reserve the right to cancel the temporary booking and refund guests their deposit at any time before the temporary reservation has received final confirmation.
• If the tour fails to reach the minimum numbers of participants, PRSK may still elect to run the tour and offer guests the opportunity to continue at the Peak Adult rate.
• For our one-way 7-day Toba Inlet tours, if there are less than 8 guests on the tour the price will be $100 more due to fixed motor vessel costs.

• If there is a scheduled expedition-style tour that has not yet reached the minimum numbers required by April 1st, PRSK may elect to advertise a vacation-style tour across the same date range.
  • If this new vacation-style tour receives any reservations before the expedition reaches the minimum numbers requirement, PRSK may elect immediately to cancel the expedition-style tour and run the vacation-style tour in its place.
  • Guests originally booked into the expedition may elect to join the vacation tour, or they can elect to receive a full refund.

• Powell River Sea Kayak asks guests during the reservation process whether they prefer single kayaks or double kayaks for camping tours. However, certain ratios are required to be met amongst the group for storage and risk management purposes.
  • On all our vacation camping tours and 6-day expeditions, at least 2 double kayaks will be used (assuming the trip is at full capacity with 10 guests). On our 7-day expeditions, at least 3 double kayaks will be used.
  • If a majority of guests indicate that they prefer single kayaks, the doubles will still be brought on the trip and guests will take turns paddling a double kayak throughout the duration of the tour.
• Double kayaks provide greater stability, and are very useful on longer days to help tired paddlers maintain pace with the group. If you are inexperienced or in any way unsure of which type of kayak to choose, we highly recommend selecting a double kayak for your camping tour.

• Guests are welcome to bring their personal kayaks and kayaking equipment on our multi-day kayak tours, however due to packing and quality concerns the following must be adhered to:
  • Kayaks must be at minimum 17 feet in length and have a total hatch volume (not including the cockpit) of minimum 200L.
  • Kayaks must be dropped off at our Okeover launch site by 4pm the day before the tour so our guides can have all the group gear packed and ready in all the kayaks by the time guests arrive in the morning.
• Guests that bring personal kayaks may still be required to share group double kayaks as required (per our minimum number of doubles policy) and that will mean that your personal kayak(s) (if singles) will be used by others in the group as a result.
• Generally we prefer guests use our kayaks as we carry kayaks that are well suited to touring in a group.
• Guests who bring their personal kayaks receive $50 off the usual tour or package rate.

• Powell River Sea Kayak tours are all-inclusive
• The 5% GST tax is the only additional tax on kayak camping tour prices
• Tour prices are per person
• Sleeping bags can be rented for $30 per bag/trip
• Paddling Jackets can be rented for $35 per jacket/trip
• Gratuities are additional (typically 10-20% of the package price – all tips are split evenly amongst the guides)
  • Please note that we are unable to process tips from credit cards. We recommend having enough cash on hand after a trip to cover this, however many guests will simply bring along a blank check that they can fill out after the tour, which works well for both Canadian and US guests. We also have wifi at our Okeover launch-site, and have found that e-transfers and PayPal transfers to the guides once you have returned to base work perfectly as well.
    

Camping tours – whether vacation-style or more remote expeditions – make it tough to organize, plan, and execute meals for up to 12 people for 4-7 days. We cannot create unique meals for each guest, but we use a set-menu that has some limited opportunity for adaptation for relatively common dietary requirements.

We ask all guests to be as flexible as they can with dietary requests. However if required, requests for the following dietary omissions will incur a surcharge of 5% of the package price per request. Below is also a list of dietary restrictions that we are unable to accommodate on our camping tours.

Restrictions we can accommodate (with 5% surcharge):

• Gluten/Wheat-free (not including celiac diets)
• Dairy-free
• Nuts-free
• Eggs as part of a meal (can still be used in baking)

Vegetarian diets are common and easily accommodated in our menus, so no surcharge applies.

Restrictions we cannot accomodate:

• Strict vegan diets
• Celiac
• Seed-free
• Oils-free
• Soy-free
• Complete egg-free (including in baking)
• Complete omission of key ingredients such as garlic and onion (including in sauces, pestos, etc)
• Nightshades, FODMAP diets, Paleo & Keto diets, or other ‘food group’ diets that cover a variety of common items
• Any other diet that requires a unique menu (low-glycemic, no-sugar, lean-protein, etc)

You will be asked to disclose any of the above unique dietary requirements during the booking process, and then will be asked to fill out a more comprehensive Medical & Dietary Questionnaire in the lead-up to the trip. If you do not disclose any of the above requirements at the time of booking, we may not be able to accommodate these requests.

We are unable to allow tour guests to bring their own food.

Powell River Sea Kayak Ltd. guides and staff take and collect photographs and videos from all our tours and packages, and reserves the right to use this media for marketing and promotional purposes, including social media and on our website, without remuneration to any trip participants included or involved.