Reviews of Departures Travel (Travel Agency)

Mary Lou Newbold

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.

Ken Watson

Departures Travel on Oak Bay Avenue has been our travel agency for many years. The staff is friendly and courteous with experience in all types of travel world wide. Our travel agent Colleen Johnson in particular has been amazing not only in facilitating routine travel arrangements but she has gone out of her way to assist us with travel difficulties when flights, cruises and tours are cancelled at short notice.

Colleen Hoggarth

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!!

erin maclean

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!

Dana Jackman

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.

Gord Barbeau

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.

Christine Campbell

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.

kiara w

The best place to get your travel needs met :)

Ali-Jourdan Barnhard

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

John R. Paterson

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.

JMarkias

Colleen did a great job of keeping us informed and rebooking our cancelled bus tour and cruise for next year. She's a hard-working, knowledgeable travel resource. Mark and Karen.

Lael Popham

My experiences with Colleen have been absolutely first class. From her own experiences to recommending specific hotels all has been fantastic. And, to then gain back all of the monies deposited has been an extra bonus. Colleen is an absolute joy to work with and I would highly recommend her!

Lynne Rippon

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!

James Jamieson

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.

Gwenn Brusset

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.

Lois Gerber

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

Shelly Holob

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

Rayyann Khudabux

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!