Welcome
Thank you for considering VISIT CANADA to plan your educational field trip.
We sincerely believe that there is no organization anywhere that is more knowledgeable about your destination, more concerned about your needs as a group leader, or more aware of the needs and interests of your students.
This web page represents the first of two sections of our Group Leaders' Manual. It is intended to familiarize you with our procedures and services, and to help you through the early organizational phases of your trip.
The Group Leaders' Manual itself is a comprehensive guide to virtually every aspect of planning and leading your trip, and it will be mailed to you when you make your group's reservation. It includes a wealth of information about how to make your trip more educational, what to bring, what not to bring, what kinds of clothes to pack, what to do on your departure day, what to do upon arrival at the hotel, Customs and Immigration regulations and travel documentation (if applicable), and much more. We think that you will find the information extremely useful.
Who, What and Where is VISIT CANADA?
VISIT CANADA is a New England-based organization that specializes in the planning of highly structured, educational and cultural tours.
VISIT CANADA is an acknowledged leader in the field of educational tours. Since 1986, we have planned and operated high-quality and highly educational tour programs for well over 50,000 students and teachers.
Our home office address is 134 Pleasant Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801, and our telephone number is 800/456-5552 Monday through Friday between 9:00am and 5:00pm.
How do I Start the wheels in motion?
Typically, a senior staff member in our office will respond to a request for information with an individualized proposal consisting of a minute-by-minute tour itinerary, and a per-person price quotation based upon the numbers of students likely to be participating in the trip.
What happens when we make our group reservation?
If you do decide to make a group reservation with our Company, a confirmation kit, including tour documents, a Group Leaders' Manual, a Parent Meeting Agenda and our copyrighted Safety Manual will be mailed to you within a few days. (Our School Fundraising Manual is also available upon request.)
A VISIT CANADA representative will then call you a day or two after it should have arrived to confirm that you have received it, and to explain anything among its contents that you might not understand.
How is our tour price determined?
The price of your trip will be dependent upon three fundamental variables: the distance from your hometown to your destination (which determines the transportation cost), the number of students sharing the fixed costs (principally the transportation costs), and the exact content of your trip.
The price will generally be broken down into five-student increments. Unless otherwise indicated, our prices will include the cost of one complimentary chaperone for each 10 paying students.
What financial obligations are there?
There are no financial obligations at the time of your group reservation. Your initial deposit will be due only when you are sure that you have enough students to launch your trip (usually about 21 days after your reservation).
What insurance coverage does VISIT CANADA have?
When selecting an organization to plan your school's field trip, we think that the issues of default protection and liability insurance coverage are among the first you should address.
Visit Canada carries $2,000,000 in Professional Liability and Errors and Omissions insurance. Additionally, every student whose name appears on a final room list, received in our office at least six weeks prior to departure, will be provided with an additional insurance policy through Travelex.
Getting Started
- Organizing and Promoting the Trip. We think that the key to successfully getting a field trip off the ground is to keep it affordable! Even in affluent communities, where the ability to pay is not a critical issue, the price and value of the trip will be weighed very carefully by the students and parents who will be writing the checks.
Remember that the price of your tour often has less to do with the quality of the trip than with the number of students you take. That is, generally, the more students you take, the more affordable the trip becomes, and the more affordable it becomes, the more students will be able to go.
Given the foregoing, there are a number of ways to keep the cost of your trip under control without sacrificing quality:
- Get started early. Announce your trip before other trips and other school activities begin to compete with yours. Timing is absolutely everything!
- Open the trip to all or most students or levels of students. You might like to limit participation in the trip to your honor students, but please note that by including some less motivated or less advanced students you can keep the price of the trip within the reach of your most deserving ones.
- Collaborate with other teachers in other classes, or in other nearby schools. Many teachers in small schools combine their groups with small groups from other schools in nearby communities. If you don't know your colleagues in neighboring communities, this is a great reason to call and introduce yourself.
- Check the school calendar for major conflicts. If your trip will take place in the Spring, be sure to steer clear of college entrance exams, concerts, plays, and the prom, and if your group contains student athletes, watch out for Spring sporting events, including baseball, basket-ball, track and tennis tournaments.
- Keep the trip as short as practical. Don't try to do too much. A fourth day will add about $100 to the cost of a trip, and this will eliminate a distinct and measurable segment of your students.
French and Spanish teachers should remember, our foreign language trips are often an inexpensive alternative for less affluent kids who can't afford to go to Europe. Don't let your more affluent students talk you into a trip that only they can afford.
- The Organizational Meeting. We recommend that you conduct one or two organizational or promotional meetings very soon after booking your trip (and that you eventually schedule a mandatory pre-departure meeting about two or three days before your trip begins).
The basic purpose of the first meeting is, of course, to publicize the availability of the trip, and to get an early indication of interest.
You should also distribute the trip itinerary and our four-page "Dear Parent" letters and permission slips (which we will provide), and you should establish the initial deposit and final payment schedule.
For our Canada trips, get your students (especially foreign students) thinking about the process of obtaining travel documents. In short, every student and chaperone will need proof of citizenship to enter Canada and to re-enter the United States.
U.S. citizens should have either a passport, an original birth certificate, or a notarized photocopy of a birth certificate, with a raised seal; each non U.S. citizen should ascertain the requirements that apply in his or her own particular case. Resident aliens will need an original "Green Card". Part II of this manual contains more detailed customs and immigration information, including a list of countries from which the citizens need visas to enter Canada.
Deposits and Payments
VISIT CANADA will require an initial group deposit of $75 per person within twenty-one days of your booking, but we would encourage you to allow any needy students who might not be able to quickly raise (or spare) $75 to pay for the trip in installments. Eventually, we will require full payment (with your room list) six weeks prior to your departure. Theatre groups will be required to pay a $100 per person initial deposit within two weeks of your booking in order to secure tickets.
Why should we work with VISIT CANADA?
We are serious and highly experienced people, and we are absolutely dedicated to developing the finest educational tour program of its kind.
We employ only licensed, professional guides, we offer only meticulously planned and genuinely educational activities, and we house our groups only in clean and safe, first-class or deluxe hotels that have been inspected and re-inspected by senior, home office personnel.
We also personally check and recheck virtually every activity, and every meal in every restaurant.
If you have any questions about any of your trip's components you can call VISIT CANADA toll-free and talk, virtually any day, with a senior member of the staff who is familiar with every aspect of your trip.
