By Susan Smallheer, Vermont Maturity
BURLINGTON — Champlain Tours does it all.
It will arrange tours with larger, established tour companies, (think Viking or Princess Cruises), and at no extra cost.
Or it will design a small personal tour for a family.
And of course, it also does the traditional guided tours for points all over the world, including the United States.
“We just did a personal tour for a family that wanted to travel to Portugal and check off all these issues on their father’s bucket list — including the beaches of Normandy,” said Keith Sherpa, president and founder of Champlain Tours.
Based in Burlington, Champlain Tours wants to make traveling as stress free as possible, with a very personal touch. “We know these places,” he said. If Champlain Tours has an unofficial motto, it’s “More Adventure, Less Hassle.”
“I like to say all you have to do is show up at the airport in Burlington with your passport and we take care of the rest,” said Sherpa during a recent interview about his business, which he established in 2015.
Sherpa said that roughly 70 percent of his business comes from Vermonters, and a large percentage of it is repeat customers. The average age of his clients is 70, he said.
Sherpa said he takes a lot of pride in the number of repeat customers, which to him means Champlain Tours has satisfied them in every way.
Sherpa and his staff of four experienced agents both design tours for people who will go on a trip on their own, or will accompany people on their established tours. They bring their extensive first-hand experience and knowledge to the job, he said.
In the age of smart phones, Champlain Tours can give you a self-guided itinerary, that tells you where in the airport to turn as you get off your plane and head for your hotel. “People really like that detail,” he said.
It’s that attention to detail, and anticipating their client’s needs, that Sherpa thinks makes his company so successful.
Sherpa said the company recently returned from a tour to Australia and New Zealand, and he and another company employee took on the task of arranging the necessary visas for everyone on the tour, which could only be arranged via a cell phone app, for New Zealand while the tour was underway.
“They didn’t have to worry about a thing,” he said.
The COVID years generally hit travel companies hard, but he said that people are again starting to spend on trips.
However, people are not jumping back on planes, he said, and he said Champlain Tours’ trips to New York City and Washington, D.C., via bus were some of their most popular offerings.
“They are more affordable, and more local, and they don’t have to fly,” he said. Since COVID, he said, his company has seen more demand for domestic travel, “but that’s starting to change.”
“We do a lot of custom trips,” he said, that are deliberately small to avoid travel complications. Europe with its excellent rail offerings, makes group transportation easier.
Yes, that means his company will design a trip for three or four or five people. His staff of four have extraordinary experience and personal knowledge, he said. Two are from England, one is German, and another is a former Spanish teacher from South Burlington, he said.
One new big thing for Champlain Tours is its new barge-based tours, which will be available during the summer of 2026 in Provence and Barcelona.
He said the barges are much smaller than the large ships used by Viking, which can host up to 160 passengers. He said Champlain has chartered the entire barge for weeks at the end of July and beginning of August.
“It’s traveling on a much smaller scale,” he said, and as a result, the barges can go further upstream, to a small village “with no tourists.”
Champlain wants to get its travelers” off the main path.”
Champlain Tours clients are looking for the more intimate experience, he said. “They are people who don’t like pools or casinos.”
Champlain Tours does sell tours to Avalon, Viking (he prefers Avalon over Viking) and other large tour operators, he said. “Avalon is better and you’re not paying for $1 million in advertising,” he said, a reference to Viking’s famous advertisements on public television, among other places.
Their new barge trips are less crowded and more intimate — there are about 20 cabins on the barge.
“We want people to come back and we’re always thinking ‘How can we make it more special?'” he said.
Interest in the Champlain Tour’ 2027 German Christmas Market tour is already strong as people are already sending in deposits. Yes, 2027, as this tour is very popular.
Champlain Tours visits the most popular Christmas markets, but the majority of the itinerary has been intentionally crafted by our German counterparts to experience Christmas in Germany through a local lens. This means balancing iconic markets with smaller towns and traditions that reflect how Germans themselves celebrate the season.
Sherpa emphasized that while the tour includes the famed markets travelers expect, it is carefully designed to avoid the most congested moments, when dozens of tour buses arrive at once and overwhelm the experience.
“We want to get off the beaten path,” he said, “and into the heart of a German Christmas.”
Sherpa said his company loves to teach people how to travel, and how to navigate on their own on future trips, which could mean that people wouldn’t need a guided tour the next time they head to New York, he pointed out.
Sherpa said while Champlain Tours’ prices at first glance may seem higher than other tours, he said a big difference is that all costs are included. Unlike many tours, which are always adding in extra costs. With other tour operators, “it’s always plus, plus, plus,” he said. “We publish the actual price.”
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