Planning a trip for a group of students or musicians is one of the most rewarding things a teacher can take on. It is also one of the biggest commitments a teacher can make on behalf of students and families.
The good news is that the difference between a well-run school trip and a stressful one is usually decided long before departure — in the conversations you have while choosing who to work with.
Here are ten questions worth asking every student travel company you are considering, and what a solid answer sounds like. Most apply equally well if you are organizing an adult group.
1. Are you registered with the travel regulator in the province where you operate?
In Ontario, provincial law requires travel agencies and tour operators to be registered with the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO) under the Travel Industry Act, 2002. British Columbia has a parallel system through Consumer Protection BC.
What to listen for: a registration number, offered without hesitation. You can verify it yourself on the regulator’s website — TICO maintains a public register of Ontario registrants. Be aware that these protections generally attach to purchases made through companies registered in your province. Booking with an operator that is not registered in your province may affect the protections available to you, so it is worth understanding exactly which consumer protection regime applies before you book.
2. Where is my group’s deposit money held between now and departure?
Deposits for a school trip can sit for a year or more. You are entitled to know where.
What to listen for: a clear explanation of how client funds are protected, including whether deposits are held in trust or otherwise safeguarded under provincial regulations. If the answer is vague, or if you get a version of “don’t worry about it,” treat that as the answer.
3. Who will actually be with us, and who answers the phone at three in the morning?
Every company promises support. The useful question is what support means at 3 a.m. local time when a student is in hospital, a flight is cancelled, or a coach does not arrive.
What to listen for: specifics. Is there a tour manager travelling with the group? Is the emergency line staffed by a person who can make decisions and spend money, or by a call centre that takes a message? Ask whether the person you are speaking with today will still be your contact next spring.
4. Is the quoted price in Canadian dollars, and what is not included?
A price quoted in U.S. dollars introduces exchange-rate risk that can change the final cost between registration and departure, entirely outside your control. That can create difficult conversations with families if costs rise after plans are already underway.
What to listen for: pricing in Canadian dollars, and a written, itemized list of exclusions. Ask directly about tips and gratuities, airport taxes and fuel surcharges, meals not included, entrance fees to optional sites, and baggage. Ask what happens to your price if fuel costs or exchange rates move.
5. What happens if we don’t reach our minimum number of travellers?
Group pricing depends on group size, and school groups shrink. Sometimes a lot.
What to listen for: the exact minimum, what the per-person price becomes at several different numbers, and the deadline at which the count is locked. A company that can clearly explain pricing scenarios at 30, 40, and 50 travellers is usually a company that has planned many groups like yours.
6. What are the cancellation terms — for the group, and for one family?
These are two separate policies and both matter. A family whose circumstances change in February needs to know where they stand, and you should not be the one discovering the answer on their behalf.
What to listen for: a written schedule of deadlines and the amount refundable at each. Ask whether a cancelling traveller can be replaced by someone else, and what that costs.
7. What insurance is offered, and what does it actually cover?
Travel insurance is where assumptions do the most damage. “Cancel for any reason” and “cancel for a covered medical reason” are very different products at very different prices.
What to listen for: a named provider, the policy document itself, and a plain-language summary of what is excluded. Pre-existing conditions and cancellations for reasons outside the covered list are the two areas most likely to surprise a family later.
8. Who designs the itinerary, and how much can we change?
Some operators run fixed departures you join. Others build the trip around your group’s goals — a performance venue, a curriculum link, a specific festival, or a commemorative site that matters to your community.
What to listen for: honesty about which model they use. Both can work. But if your choir needs a particular adjudication, or your history class is travelling for a specific anniversary, you need the model that bends. (Music and performance tours and commemorative tours are two areas where this matters most.)
9. What administrative support do I get?
This is the question group leaders wish they had asked. The travel is the visible part; the paperwork is where the hours actually go — permission forms, passport tracking, individual family payment plans, medical and dietary information, board or administration approval documentation, and risk assessments.
What to listen for: whether families can pay the company directly rather than routing money through you, and whether you get a portal or a person to track who has submitted what. A company that hands you a spreadsheet and good wishes is handing you a second job.
10. What is your approach to risk management and duty of care?
Every operator has had a cancelled flight, a closed venue, a student taken ill, or a coach that did not arrive. What separates companies is not whether disruption happens — it is whether there is a plan behind the response.
What to listen for: specifics about how risk is managed before and during travel. Does the company monitor health and safety advisories for each destination rather than leaving that to you? Is there a documented incident management plan, and has the team been trained on it? Are suppliers — hotels, coach operators, ground handlers — assessed against safety standards rather than selected on price alone? And when conditions change, who has the authority to alter an itinerary, and how quickly can they do it?
A Note on Where Your Travel Company Is Based
Much of the student travel marketed to Canadian schools comes from companies headquartered outside Canada. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but it has practical consequences worth understanding: which provincial consumer protection regime covers your deposits, which currency your price is set in, which time zone your emergency support sits in, and whether the itinerary reflects a Canadian curriculum rather than an American one.
Ellison Travel & Tours has been Canadian owned and operated since 1980, with its head office in Exeter, Ontario, and additional offices in London, Ontario and North Vancouver, British Columbia. We are registered with TICO and licensed through Consumer Protection BC. We are also a Certified Student Travel Organization (CSTO), a certification granted by the Center for Student Travel Safety in partnership with the Student & Youth Travel Association (SYTA), and we are members of SYTA, the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA), the Ontario Motor Coach Association (OMCA) and the National Tour Association (NTA). You can read more about how we approach safety and risk management.
On administrative support: the ET Tour Leader App is free for Ellison group leaders and puts your day-by-day itinerary, key travel documents, supplier details and confirmation numbers in one place. It works offline once your content has loaded, so a weak connection on a motorcoach or in a remote area does not leave you without your paperwork. You can share access with approved administrators and chaperones, which means your whole leadership team is working from the same information rather than three versions of it.
