Departures Travel

Fantastic experience: In the middle of vacation travel my wife became ill, we were in Japan at the time and our trip would shortly have us travelling to Taiwan for another stay. I felt that this was not the best idea and contacted Max, our travel agent back home, 17 hours away in time zones. I sent a text not knowing exactly what time or the availability of our travel agent. I was bowled over when he responded in less than two hours with two available options for an early return home. The airline choice worked out to be remarkably convenient and we were on our way home in less than 24 hours. Max also rearranged two hotel bookings, cancelling one and rescheduling the other. Our last minute changes worked incredibly well as if it had been planned that way from the beginning. Amazing!

Fantastic experience: We were looking to do a giveaway and reached out to a few travel agencies. We haven’t booked anything yet but Max has already exceeded the services that were provided by the other agencies. He asked all the right questions, gave ample suggestions and made it very easy to continue the conversation. He sent an email with details as promised and within a shorter time than he had said. I look forward to working with Max and finalizing on some trips.

Fantastic experience: Cathy helped us plan our wonderful river cruise and assisted us in navigating a potential strike by Westjet. Cathy is personable, fun and very responsive to inquiries through the planning process. We highly recommend Cathy and look forward to planning our next trip with her!

Fantastic experience: I’m writing this review for Maksym (Max) Shkurupii at Departures Travel to acknowledge his exceptional service. We used Max in 2023 for a trip to Greece, and also in 2024 for a trip to Dubai and Seychelles. When planning the trips he gave us multiple options for accommodations within our price range to choose from. Max organized flights, ferries, private transportation and excursions with detailed itineraries. When we have emailed Max from our vacation he always got back to us right away, which is one example of his professional fee proving to be worth every penny. Max is always going over and above. On our way home from Dubai we were unaware that of connecting flight had been changed to a 12 hour delay. Max was on the phone with Air Canada and has us in a different flight with no delay. I became aware of this when I opened my email on my way to airport with everything rectified. Both of our vacations were amazing. Looking forward to getting Max to plan our next trip. Sincerely Anne & Gary

Fantastic experience: Max has helped built an itinerary for two different international trips for my kids and I that were both amazing. He's great to brainstorm ideas for a custom trip, and he knows the organized tour companies as well and his recommendation of GAdventures was the exact perfect fit for my two teens for the Absolute Turkey trip!! Thanks so much Max. Theresa, Sam and Molly!

Fantastic experience: I would love to write some appreciating words about Max. He’s always ready to help. He’s always ready to do everything and even more to make his clients satisfied and happy. Departures Travel Agency is lucky to have such a passionate worker. Good luck, Max! Let’s and your dreams come true!

Fantastic experience: Max organised two trips for me! One in Europe, including Alsace, Prague and Vienna! Everything went very well! The places he chose for me to stay were perfect seen as I was on my own! He was very patient with me and offered great advice! I highly recommend him! Now we are in the process of organizing a trip to Tahiti. We changed the dates and added two more persons for the trip! Max has been very patient with us and takes time to find us perfect accomodations! Again I highly recommend Max for your travel plans!

Fantastic experience: I've used Max for a couple of trips now and he has helped enormously. From researching various options on the best way to travel Scotland (bike, walk, train and/or car rental), to helping my family organize and then reschedule a whole trip to Tahiti without losing any money, Max is worth his weight in gold. He makes planning travel as stress-free as possible and it is always comforting that he is always reachable if something goes wrong. I highly recommend him!

Fantastic experience: I like Departures Travel a lot. This is the third trip they have helped me with, and the second time I have worked with Max Shkurupii. He found me some great flights this time, from Victoria to Europe and back. For me, it's really worth paying the extra fee, in terms of how quickly and efficiently they access the information I need. Max has years of experience doing this, so he also gives me great travel tips. I recommend his services whole heartedly.

Fantastic experience: It is a pleasure to write a review for Max Shkurapii at Departures Travel in Oak Bay, Victoria. He's definitely worth 5 stars!! Max has organized two multi-city itineraries in 2023 and 2024 for both business and pleasure. Both times he was able to find some great deals, great seating, and was available at a moments notice if we needed any assistance. Having Max to support bookings is well worth his processing fee, and I'm sure we will continue to use him in the future. Thank you, Max!

Fantastic experience: We had the best vacay planned from Max, will go back for next years trip to be planned as well!

Fantastic experience: Max did a fantastic job making arrangements for our two week trip to Iceland. He is very knowledgeable, thorough, easy to talk with, provided good advice and responded very quickly to our questions. Rick and Merrianne Holm

Fantastic experience: We are so happy with the service at Departures Travel and with all the help from Max Shkurupii when booking our recent trip to Japan. He listened to our ideas and made excellent recommendations. Every detail of the trip was planned out for us and our vacation was exciting and stress free. Max is helping us book our next trip, Thailand this time, and he is considerate of our budget and all the excursions we want to do. We enjoy chatting with Max and really value his travel knowledge and expertise. He makes the process of planning our vacations enjoyable!

Fantastic experience: Max Shkurupii is a pleasure to deal with. He has an excellent firsthand knowledge of many European and North American destinations and his recommendations are customized to the clients’ preferences. Max works fast and is very reliable that is helpful for vacation planning but was even more so when I needed to urgently go to Europe on a family emergency.

Fantastic experience: We’re so glad to have found Max at Departures to help us plan and make our individualized fast-paced 3 week tour through Italy! He is very knowledgable and dedicated and handled plane, train, car rental, hotel and excursion bookings. The trip was wonderful!

Fantastic experience: Departures Travel have been excellent to deal with from the planning stages, through our trip and afterward. We unfortunately had a difficult experience with one of our hotels, through no fault of Departures and Max was there to support us all the way through the process, even months after arriving back home. Could not ask for better service. Outstanding business.

Fantastic experience: Absolutely fantastic experience with this company and Courtney Morin.I was hesitant about booking my vacations online and made the decision to hire this company and I had the pleasure of working with Courtney whom was informed and considerate of my preference.She was knowledgeable about the area I was travelling to and covered all the bases .Not only was I informed on the culture and people but also reassured about any worry I might have had .Courtney also was very considerate and sent me emails both before and after my journey.She was extremely supportive and fun to work with .I would recommend her to anyone as my experience was all i could hope for and more .Wow what an excellent time I had!Thanks Courtney for making it the best ever experience I could hope for!I am so glad I had your expert advice and help.10 stars from me.Carol

Fantastic experience: Courtney at Departure Travels is a stand out, reliable, smart, and quick to respond person. When travel planning we think of Courtney first - because we know she will enhance our experience. We have relied on her for a few years and have always been grateful. We met her through another friend who highly recommended her, - they were right! A great person to help plan your travels.

Fantastic experience: Courtney is remarkable. She helped us with our trip to Italy. She listens, she gets to know your likes and dislikes Courtney’s experience and knowledge helped put together our dream trip. Thank you Courtney !

Fantastic experience: Max booked the flights and the hotel for the 6 days I spent with friends in New York. I was very impressed with his service and with his ability to make necessary changes when needed. I look forward to working with him at Departure Travels in the future.

Fantastic experience: Such a friendly environment and clean professional atmosphere! I'll definitely be coming here for my vacation needs :)

Fantastic experience: We’ve just returned from a trip to Rome, the Amalfi Coast and Sicily, and want to thank Max at Departures for helping us book flights, tours and hotels. His knowledge of Europe was super helpful in narrowing down what we should see and do over this three week holiday. He also did a great job in finding us good flights. Everything went smoothly. This is the second trip we’ve done with Departures and both times it’s given us confidence that if something happens, these travel agents have our back. For more complicated travel, working with them really makes a difference. Thank you, Max!

Fantastic experience: I’d like to thank Maksym Shkurupii, for organizing my first trip abroad. He found a way to fulfill all my requests for my trip to the city of Bogotá, connecting me to a comfortable secure location. While pairing me with adventurous guides and activities. I found he was intuitive to my vague ideas of travelling. Thank you departures travel.

Fantastic experience: Max planned a fantastic one week trip to the Greek Islands for our group of 11. Everything was well organized- from the hotels, airport transfers, and private tours, to the plane & ferry rides. He considered all details and made great suggestions for our one week away. The tour guides he’d booked were great, as well as the quality of the hotels. During our week away, Max was very responsive by email whenever we had any questions or wanted to make any changes. I would highly recommend Max for helping plan your travels.

Positive experience: Booked a vacation for a special occasion and for the most part, were satisfied with the help we received. No huge upsells, even when I was willing to be upsold -- I had to suggest the higher room category and premium class flights to our agent. A couple caveats so you can avoid the issues we had: A. Fees were never discussed with us, but they are additional. Our past travel agent experience was that the agent was commissioned, so we didn't pay fees directly. On this occasion, having not heard otherwise, we assumed it would be the same. Alas, we were billed an additional amount for agency fees by Departures along with the final payment of our trip, with no forewarning. This despite having had numerous discussions about costs of the trip, and exactly what was being billed when. So beware that whether it's discussed or not, Departures will take money from you for their services. Yes, I should have asked -- but given my past experiences, and that it wasn't broached with me, I made an assumption that was never corrected. B. If you book an all-inclusive trip through an agency, and then need to make adjustments or, in the worst case, need to cancel by a certain deadline, you'll be dependent on the agency to make those changes (with most carriers/tours). This is a bit annoying to begin with (blame the carriers, not the agency!) but to make it worse, Departures is not open on evenings or weekends or holidays. So bear in mind that deadlines won't mean anything unless you work on the premise that it's the last business day before the deadline, and before 5pm. You might get lucky and catch your agent working on a weekend, but there's no way to just dial the agency and ask for help -- you have to dial an extension for your specific agent, who most likely won't be available when you need them. All that said, we did find our agent quite responsive and helpful, as much as she could be given the limited hours. I'm not sure we'll use an agency again, because of the two points above (one of which is Departures-specific, and one of which is just the nature of booking through agencies), and also because in the age of the internet, we can do most booking ourselves fairly seamlessly. But if you are booking a complex trip, or need help, by all means, these are very nice people who know their stuff. Just beware the downsides!

Fantastic experience: I can't say enough great things about Carolina. She is so knowledgeable, friendly, engaging, helpful, and positive, and she will always give you her honest thoughts, opinions, and feedback about any type of trip you want to take. She has helped me plan epic, life-changing vacations around the world, and I completely trust any suggestions she has for new adventures. Her advice has saved me countless times abroad, and she has no hesitation in answering any questions I might have. She has a natural, and effortless ability to take the stress and complication out of any travel planning experience. Carolina really is the best, and I wouldn't trust anyone else to help me plan future adventures. Go see her, you won't regret it. You're guaranteed to leave with a smile on your face and the comfort of knowing your trip will be amazing!

Fantastic experience: From the moment she picked up the phone, I felt completely comfortable working with Carolina. With how overwhelming planning a vacation can be, we are so grateful to have had Carolina’s passion and knowledge and attention to detail. She seemed to be almost as excited about planning our trip as we were! Carolina was patient while we looked into a few different date options, and always had helpful suggestions about things we hadn’t yet considered. We especially love the idea to take little gifts from Victoria to give to the locals at the resort instead of just leaving tips, something to make the whole experience more warm and personal. We highly recommend Carolina and can’t wait to plan our next trip with her!

Fantastic experience: Ronnie is lovely to work with, very inviting and knowledgeable. I would definitely recommend her. Thank you Ronnie for making a bad situation (my father is very sick had to go to Toronto to see him) manageable.

Fantastic experience: Colleen Jhonson is a Five Star Travel Agent with Departure Travel. I use Colleen for all my travel and always feel confident that if there are any problems she will handle them, calmly. We booked a cruise for Nov. and cancelled because of the virus. She got our money back. Some of my friends have not been so lucky with their travel agents or travel plans.

Fantastic experience: Cathy, I just want to say that Fiona, just as she was leaving for her vacation, putting me in contact with Colleen, and it was a real blessing. Both ladies worked very hard to make sure I was taken care of. My flights home from Peru were all seamless, I know they came through the Oceania Agent, but information was passed on as soon as they got something. It was a bit of a tense time as Peru was shutting down everything very quickly. Colleen and Oceania came through, and we arrived home, tired but safe and sound……and with all our luggage! I will wait for Fiona’s return to start to deal with Oceania and rebooking the cruise. Thank goodness we had interruption insurance, but I think, as long as we can rebook the cruise and have the excursions etc. we are all good! Yes we still want to travel! Kudos, well down and thanks again. Shelly Holob

Fantastic experience: We booked a "mystery departure" with Departures Travel and Colleen. It was amazing! Perfect way to still get out and have some fun while adhering to all the public health orders. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone looking to get out of their house for a little while. There are so many things to do close to home that you wouldn't even think of! Colleen planned an amazing itinerary for us full of things we enjoyed and had never even heard of AND she was extremely prompt and communicative with all of our questions around covid restrictions. It was fantastic and her itinerary coupled with her professional communication made us feel perfectly safe!

Fantastic experience: I have so much admiration and respect for staff here, especially during these unprecedented and stressful times. Colleen has been absolutely outstanding and has gone above and beyond the call of duty to assist me with my necessary trip cancellations and to also get some travel plans back on track for the future. She is a wealth of information and has always been very patient , kind and calm which I appreciate so much!

Fantastic experience: Positive: Professionalism , Responsiveness

Fantastic experience: Positive: Professionalism , Quality , Responsiveness , Value

Fantastic experience: We took in a very interesting and inormative presentation on Viking river cruising. The staff were knowledgeable and had visited many of the destinations. There was no sales pressure - just god information. We definitely put a river cruise on our agenda.

Fantastic experience: The best place to get your travel needs met :)

Fantastic experience: Amazing service I went in not really knowing what I was looking for and once I spoke to the agent (Ronnie) she gave me a few options She was very patient and helpful. We were able to find a trip perfectly suited to my needs and situation. Thank you.

Fantastic experience: I have dealt with Departures for over 30 years. Always pleasant, effective, knowledgeable, with great understanding of everything travel. I have always dealt with Ronnie, who herself is 5 star.

Fantastic experience: Although not clients, while vacationing in Victoria, BC a few weeks ago, we were disappointed the tea room located next door to this travel agency was closed for the day. When we asked if anyone here could recommend another tea room, all the ladies were very helpful in suggesting and locating other suitable venues, acting immediately, calling various establishments to check their hours of operation. We were very satisfied with our experience at the tea room that was ultimately recommended by the staff at Departures! We would absolutely recommend Departures Travel, Victoria for booking travel plans, based upon their outstanding customer service alone. The personalized help we received when we just walked in the door right off the street was second to none and most refreshing, adding much to our wonderful stay in Victoria. Lois Gerber, St. Clements, ON

Fantastic experience: I have visited Departures Travel last month to plan a family cruise to Alaska. The service was amazing. Fiona was great at providing options and finding solutions to all my possible questions and issues. I highly recommend them!

Fantastic experience: We were very fortunate to work with Colleen at Departures Travel for a family holiday to Mexico. Colleen worked with us to find the perfect location that gave the my husband and I the quiet we needed and enough activities to keep our grown children enthused. The details of having us travel from Victoria and our kids from Toronto, right down to the seat placement on the airplane and room location at the hotel was perfect. We appreciated the follow up upon our return to ensure the holiday met our needs. We look forward to working with Colleen again!!

Positive experience: We were recommended to Colleen through family while booking flights for our trip to the UK this past June. Overall, our experience with Colleen was quite good, she was great with responding to our emails in a timely manner and sorted everything out for us relatively worry free. I had raised concerns during the booking process about flying Air Canada Rouge upon her and her coworker's recommendation, because my fiancé is 6'4, I had concerns that he wouldn't have enough room on these notoriously cramped planes. She assured us that it wouldn't be a problem but oh boy was it! I'm 5'6 and had barely any room, and my poor fiancé suffered a 7 hour flight with his knees pressed into the seat in front of him, unable to move his legs at all from Toronto to Victoria. We would certainly not ever fly Air Canada again after the entire debacle of the flights, and would certainly not ever recommend Rouge to our worst enemies. I had wished that Colleen had taken my concern for my fiancé's height into more consideration when recommending Rouge to us, especially for such a length of time to be in a heightened state of discomfort.

Fantastic experience: I have had the pleasure of working with Colleen Johnson at Departures Travel and highly recommend her. Colleen organized our staff travel to continuing education, quickly and professionally.