
Dinosaur Trips is a new small Canadian tour operator creating group departures and private itineraries around the world centered around dinosaurs.
“To be honest, I’m mostly just living out a childhood dream, that’s what it really comes down to. Or more accurately, it’s my childhood dream meeting with grown-up tastes along the way,” said Zach Vanasse, founder & director, Dinosaur Trips, who uses the tagline "It's been 66 million years. Why wait any longer?" for his business.
“As a kid, I dreamed of being a paleontologist. I envisioned going out into the badlands to fossil hunt and dig for dinosaurs with paleontologists like Dr. Philip J. Currie. Well, I didn’t end up becoming a paleontologist. And as an adult, that whole world of paleontology still seemed almost mythical, or at the very least, extremely inaccessible to regular folks. But as I dug back into an interest in paleontology and dinosaurs as an adult, it became apparent that there’s a whole planet of scientists, fossil hunters, and incredible characters from the world of dinosaur research out there. The entire globe can be explored through the lens of dinosaurs and paleontology. Someone just needed to put it all together.”
Dinosaur Trips featured tours including digs, discoveries, experts, and access into the world of our prehistoric planet through dinosaurs and paleontology.
The inaugural Dinosaur Trips destination is in Alberta. The first Dinosaur Trips small group departure, Badlands & Beyond, will explore Calgary, Drumheller, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Grande Prairie, Wembley, Canmore & Kananaskis, and Banff from 02-13JUL, 2023. As part of this 12-day / 11-night prehistoric journey across the province of Alberta, Dinosaur Trips’ guests will have the opportunity to hunt for dinosaur bones with paleontologist Dr. Philip Currie as part of a four-day fossil dig program that supports the work of the Dinosaur Research Institute, a non-profit charitable organization funding dinosaur research in western Canada.
Badlands & Beyond guests will also take part in Dinosaur Trips’ programs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller and in Dinosaur Provincial Park. The trip wraps up with a few days spent at the foot of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, Canmore & Kananaskis.
Dinosaur Trips will then return to the Badlands of Alberta in the fall for a series of family-focused trips exploring Calgary, Drumheller, Dinosaur Provincial Park, and the Canadian Rockies.
Future Dinosaur Trips destinations include Patagonia, South Africa, France, the United States, Mexico, Germany, Hawaii, Australia, France, China, and more.
According to Dinosaur Trips' release, "More than simply exploring the world through dinosaur-based experiences though, Dinosaur Trips’ travel experiences also include elevated, stylish, and trendy touches so that guests can go deep and nerd out about way more than simply paleontology. In addition to delivering incredible dinosaur-based destination experiences for guests, Dinosaur Trips has made it its company mission to help
support and strengthen dinosaur research in the places they explore."
Vanasse is keen to work with the trade, saying, "we are offering agent commissions of 10% in our first year of operation (I do hope to increase that to 15% going forward)."