Planning your travel

To Fort Simpson, NWT and the Nahanni River

You’ve booked your trip and scheduled it into your calendar.  Here are some resources to help you get ready as you plan your adventure:

• Find out how we live comfortably and safely in the wilderness—from sleeping arrangements, to the menu, to the toilet system
• Learn about the activities and how you can get ready and in physical condition for your trip
• Find out what to pack
• Start getting to know more about the region and the river:
  • Learn about the region and its people
  • Help protect the Nahanni
  • Read up on the river and its history

Start getting ready

These checklists will help you get organized in advance so you’re ready to go. 

90 days or more before your departure

• Read through your trip InfoPack (emailed to you once you book) and start getting ready for an incredible adventure!
• Plan your travel* to and from Fort Simpson, NWT
• Purchase Medical and Trip Cancellation insurance*
• Complete your pre-trip questionnaire with menu choices, medical, emergency contact info, flight info, and anything else you’d like us to know (follow the link to the questionnaire in your trip InfoPack)
• Sign your waiver (also linked from your InfoPack)
• Check your passport expiry date (if you’ll be travelling from abroad)

*Before purchasing non-refundable flights and other travel arrangements, please make sure that our office has let you know that the trip is ‘confirmed’—meaning that we have the minimum number of participants to run the trip.

6 weeks before your departure

• Review your packing list 
• Make sure you have the gear you need and get missing items—let us know if you have any questions.

10 days and less before departure

• Get packing!
• Give family, work, or friends our toll-free number 1-866-242-9383 and email info@borealriver.com in case they need to reach you during the expedition—our guides will check for messages from the Boreal River office by satellite phone each day.

Travel day

• Let us know if you run into any delays
• Meet your Boreal River Adventure guide at the airport. They’ll be waiting for you wearing a Boreal River shirt and hat
• You made it—enjoy your adventure!

Contact us anytime if you have any questions at all.

Plan your travel to Fort Simpson

Meeting location and time:

Your trip starts and ends in the village of Fort Simpson, NWT. You should arrive by noon on Day 1 of your trip and you can depart anytime on Day 10, or after.

Your Boreal River Adventures guides will pick you up and drop you off at the airport.

If you’re driving to the region or arriving on an earlier day, we’ll meet you at 12:30pm at Mackenzie Rest B&B on Day 1.

Recommended travel agent

For a smooth travel planning process, we recommend that you book flights through Flight Centre Business Travel—they’re familiar with our Nahanni itinerary and can help you with travel, insurance, and accommodations.

Their team can provide you with discounted airfare (when available) from your home to the trip rendezvous point and back again*.

Specialist: Janice Luu
Office Hours: Monday – Friday, 9am-5pm EST
Telephone: 1-866-863-4592 (North America); +1-416-849-5019 (Int’l)
Email: janice.luu@flightcentre.ca

*Should you choose to book your own travel, before purchasing non-refundable flights and other travel arrangements, please make sure that our office has let you know that the trip is ‘confirmed’—meaning that we have the minimum number of participants to run the trip.

Travelling by air
You’ll probably be flying through Yellowknife, NWT. Depending on your point of origin, you’ll likely spend the night in Yellowknife before your trip.

Travelling by car
It is possible to drive to Fort Simpson from Northern Alberta and BC. It’s 1449 km from Edmonton, AB or 478 km from Fort Nelson BC—the last 400+ km are unpaved.

Purchase insurance

Participants on Boreal River Adventures trips need to have appropriate Medical insurance and Medical Evacuation insurance. We will bill any evacuation costs to the person that is leaving the trip. Insurance should cover emergency air evacuation from the river to a local hospital, medical treatment within Canada, and repatriation to a medical care facility in your home region.

We also strongly recommend that you obtain Trip Cancellation insurance, which will reimburse you for the unused portion of your trip if you must cancel prior to departure or leave your trip early due to illness, accident, family emergency, and other reasons that insurance will cover you for.

If you have coverage from a credit card or an existing plan, please make sure that it will cover you for the above mentioned emergency situations and that you are covered while participating in whitewater activities and remote wilderness travel.

For an insurance package that will cover you for the specific situations encountered on our trips, we recommended something similar to what World Nomads offers: http://www.worldnomads.com/

Again, you can purchase insurance at the same time as booking your travel through Flight Centre Business Travel (see above)

Read about cancellation policies

View the Nahanni Cultural Rafting Expedition main page