Sierra Travel

01/17/2025

Good morning☀️We have Mexico on our minds today and family vacations ✈️

Check these out👇

Calgary-Cancun
Feb 19-26
2 adults, 2 children (Ages 2-12)
Royalton Riviera Cancun
$9500

Calgary-Cancun
Feb 19-26
2 adults, 2 children (Ages 2-12)
Riu Playacar
$8540

Calgary-Cancun
March 12-19
2 adults, 2 children (Ages 2-12)
Riu Dunamar
$8440

Calgary-Cancun
March 16-23
2 adults, 2 children (Ages 2-12)
Dreams Aventures Riviera Maya
$8400

Edmonton-Cancun
March 18-25
2 adults, 2 children (Ages 2-12)
Family Club Grand Riviera Princess All Suites
$8840

Call your Travel Experts at Sierra Travel Sylvan Lake today!

Trish Ratzlaff - 403-340-6724

George Meiklejohn - 780-753-6869

Visit our website SierraTravel.com to learn more about who we are and fill out a client intake form while you’re there. Be sure to address it to either George or myself so we know where to send it. ✈️

01/17/2025

I’ve been busy planning the final details of our own tropical family vacation for this April in Hawaii. 🌸 It’s always important to me to think from a Travel Agent’s perspective of where I would send our clients and what I would suggest for them to do. I’m also a bit of a “budget” traveller 🧳 always thinking of how we can balance a nice place to stay that is in a good location without it being crazy (something mid range sort of thing). Cooking our own meals vs eating out all week for 3 meals per day. FYI you can get groceries delivered which is what I’m doing!

I’ve also been thinking of activities that we can do in the area of our accommodations vs needing to take an uber everytime we do anything exciting. Booking a car for a day excursion around the Island ahead of time while combining Pearl Harbour in the same particular day to maximize our car rental. Enjoying a nice boat tour with raving reviews without it being a sticky touristy feeling experience. Pre booking roundtrip transfers from the airport felt like a relaxing idea so I went ahead with that and decided to try two different companies to see which one I like best. I’m finding more of our clients are booking private transfers almost everywhere now from the airport! After a long day of traveling it’s a nice option plus with the exchange rate I’m thinking an Uber/Taxi likely isn’t a great deal. At least this is pre paid in CA and out of the way before we go.

I have also learned that we need to pre book the Pearl Harbour Museum one month early even though we have purchased tickets. We also need to pre book our time to hike Diamond Head. One more thing, pre booking seats on the plane and making sure they are comfortable is important. You don’t need Premium seats if it blows your budget but I am finding many of our clients are choosing that option or Aisle seats in econo so you can stretch your legs a bit. Tip: As your kids get older there are econo seats close to the Premium Seats! 😉 If you are early enough they are literally one row behind you!

Feeling very excited to experience Hawaii again and I definitely know with our girls along that we will be getting a lot of great videos and pictures to share here on our page, websites and other social platforms. 📸🌸I will put Chaz to work again on keeping our itinerary in order so I can pass that along in my blogs. He did a great job with that in London last April.

Sierra Travel Sylvan Lake

01/16/2025

Have you been dreaming of staying at a resort with swim out rooms? We can accommodate both adults only travellers or families over at their sister resort on the beautiful property. Contact Trish Ratzlaff @403-340-6724 or George Meiklejohn @780-753-6869 to book your next tropical escape ☀️

01/15/2025

How nice would it be to fly right into the Tulum airport rather than the Cancun airport when staying on the Riviera, Maya side?

We happen to have some nice options for you in February at

SierraTravel.ca

01/15/2025

Yesterday was fun and full of adventure in our home offices✈️George was busy sending quotes, adjusting bookings and completing some new ones. I completed a new blog .com & SierraTravel.ca and booked an All Inclusive vacation for my clients in beautiful Cabo for next month which will be amazing at the stunning Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas. 🤩Next I had the very unique opportunity of booking a vacation of a lifetime for our clients that have a dream of spending a few nights in overwater bungalow’s💕We are currently working on completing their Freestyle Itinerary which is a blast and we now have a direct business connection with this incredible resort that many clients have asked about over the years. Our prices are the same as what you would get booking directly with them, however you have the perk of building a dreamy destination like this with us and all you have to do is pack your bags. 💼 Lastly I had some young adults reach out to me to create a Freestyle itinerary for them to visit Guatemala. This one has been really neat to explore as well.

One of my favorite things to do is immerse myself in exploring itineraries, hotels, reading countless reviews and most importantly I go with my gut of what feels like a place I would want to send our clients to which translates to asking myself if I would go there or send my own adult children or friends/family there.

Today I have promised quotes to some new potential clients for Fiji and I need to complete an itinerary for our clients heading to the Philippines.

PS… my newest blog is all about health & travel together as one. Our health throughout the year is so important to maintain in order to feel our best when we travel the world. I hope you enjoy it!

📸Visit SierraTravel.ca to see our full and BRAND NEW website. Inside of tour website you can visit our blogs or go directly to 👉Travelratz.com 📖

01/14/2025

New Blog Sierra Travel Sylvan Lake

Traveling is something that we get to do in life rather than something that is owed to us which is why I feel that there should never be a vacation experience

01/14/2025

I was thinking this morning about how nice it would be to have some good book recommendations shared on our page for those who love to read while travelling. I’m going to start with the book I’m reading right now on my kindle that my daughter got me going with. 👇

The Housemaid by Freida Mcfadden😳Guy’s…you will not want to put this book down. 🙈

Have you read it? What are you reading now or what did you take on your last vacation to read?

PS…If I was in this location I would be reading in those lawn chairs under the umbrellas or sure. 💕☀️

01/13/2025

Did you know we can book custom tours with companies such as Globus, Trafalgar, Collette and for the younger 18-35 year olds we have Contiki Tours!

Over the weekend George was busy taking care of our Sylvan Lake clients with a lovely tour in Europe.

https://www.globusjourneys.ca/tour/europe/

Reach out and have us create the right tour for you from start to finish.

www.sierratravel.ca

Discover breathtaking wonders on this Norway fjords tour. Majestic mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and rich historical sites await! Book today!

01/13/2025

Hands up if you have been on a Celebrity Cruise ship?🙌When we took our Freestyle Vacation in 2023 and embarked on a 5 day cruise that took us from Trieste, Italy to 4 different cities throughout Croatia & Slovenia with Norwegian Cruise Lines we got to see the Celebrity Ship at the port and cruising past us while leaving Dubrovnik. What a sight to see 🤩It made our ship look so little which it was not!

Have you considered a Freestyle vacation in Europe? If you’re wondering what that means here’s the scoop. You tell us where you want to go and what kind of traveller you are and then we create your dream vacation with you based on your budget/vision/goals. We can have you fly into another country for example and then take a flight or train over to where a cruise or tour might begin. Or we can have you fly right into the area the tour or cruise will begin and pre book all of your transfers through the cruise/tour company. Perhaps you aren’t into a cruise or custom tour and you just want an itinerary, flights, hotels amd overall guidance. We have done several of those and would be thrilled to work with you!

At Sierra Travel we are your professional Travel Guides. ✈️🌎

Visit our new website to explore our own pictures from vacations that we as a family of taken over the years. We believe in having our own experiences to share with you while also exploring some that we haven’t yet because as much as we would like to say we have travelled everywhere, we haven’t quite yet. 😉 This is another reason why we value our clients reviews on our page which you can leave right inside of the “Reviews” tab 👈when you click it! We also love reviews for the simple reason of everyone’s experience being different and well as each clients perspective.

Cheers to Monday and a happy, healthy week!

01/13/2025

Is it too early to talk about Easter? 🐣

Personally we have booked our hot holiday over the Easter Break and we couldn’t be more excited! Our original plan was to visit Japan but with the prices of the flights going crazy we decided to pivot and explore Hawaii with our family instead. 👙🌸We are very much ok with the idea of relaxing on Waikiki beach.

What about you? April is a popular time to get some end of the year deals to places like Mexico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Costa Rica. Or maybe you want to travel to the United States like we’re doing or hop over the pond to Europe like we did last April which was so fun!

The world is ours to explore 🌎



👇Don’t forget to visit our new website @ www.sierratravel.ca ✈️

01/12/2025

We keep looking back at this adorable deck from our clients room in Jamaica that they shared with us☀️☕️This dreamy resort was everything they had hoped for which makes us so happy. ♥️Can’t you just hear the birds chirping and imagine yourself lying in this hammock?

01/12/2025

Our website is LIVE ✈️

We would love to know what you think about it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support♥️Our family business means so much to us and we are so thankful to be continuing to grow in our 45th year in business!

Turn your travel dreams into reality with Sylvan Lake's most trusted travel experts. From destination weddings to family resorts, we craft unforgettable experiences. No booking fees!

01/11/2025

When you want to workout but you feel the way your cat does and wish you were in this position on a hot beach instead☀️⛱️👙

01/09/2025

Important information for our Travellers going over the pond✈️

Starting today, Canadians with short-term travel plans to England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland will need an electronic travel authorization — or an ETA.

01/09/2025

We appreciate all reviews that we receive from our clients! Here is another one from a couple that travelled to Punta Cana before Christmas and arrived home 14 days later at the end of December. Before going they had read some reviews that were a little mixed so we searched for some alternative options. After some thought it seemed to make the most sense to them to stay where they had booked. Sometimes you just have to hope for the best as you never know how your own experience will be.

Client Review👇
We stayed at Sunscape Coco Punta Cana from Dec16 -Dec30.Our stay was nice.Our first room had a couple of leaks due to the rain,we were given a slight upgrade and had a pool just outside our sliding door.
The beach is beautiful there(but if you do not go early you are out of luck for a chair for the day).
The entertainment staff do a fabulous job ,there was always something going on ,from morning yoga to dance lessons ,a variety of games.
The nightly shows they put on were really well done .
The food was decent ,lots of choices, no one went hungry.
This resort is not new and has undergone some renos ,but still needs a lot of work done
The housekeeping staff was hit or miss most days ,somedays there were no towels others there was no water .You never got all you needed ,and several phone calls had to be made.
I also wish we had been made aware of something called the Sun Club (an added expense),but one that sounds like it may have been well worth the money.

Takeaway from Sierra Travel👇

Overall, one thing was clear, the adults only rooms definitely are the way to go with more perks which is what I would encourage future adult clients to book at this particular resort.

The staffing needs some work as far as making sure guests have the basics such as a nice big bottle of water in their room each day. This seemed to be a common issues at many resorts this past Christmas with both staffing and amenities.

It hits a nice price point. It is a 3 star resort that is part of the Hyatt Collection.

We will say that traveling over peek seasons are hit and miss. We are quickly taking notice each year of which hotels are doing the best and which ones are lacking. This changes yearly so we do our best to keep up with it for you. ♥️

01/08/2025

Curious about one of the most beautiful resorts in Jamaica that we have for you? Thanks to our clients we have some amazing pictures to share of Couples Swept Away in Negril. If you’re curious about what their experience was like please see Kristin’s post under the Reviews Tab on our page.

As she mentioned, it was wonderful for their honeymoon and exactly what they had hoped for. In her words it was magical💫

Sierra Travel Sylvan Lake