Maple Leaf Adventures is committed to creating a great sustainable tourism industry in British Columbia and southeast Alaska.

We provide high-quality adventures, following the principles of eco-tourism, where we not only respect the environment and communities of our coast, but we give back to protect and regenerate, too.

The trips provide special access to the wildlife, landscapes, culture and nature of the coast, while providing the excitement of an adventure by ship.

Everything at Maple Leaf Adventures reflects our core values of:

• environmental sustainability,
• celebration of our natural history,
• personalized and warm interactions with everyone,
• fostering the local economy,
• connections with science and discovery,
• leaving the world better than we found it, and
• general excellence.

This spectacular coast is our home. We and our all-local crew and guides are delighted to share the best of it with you.

Kevin Smith, the president of Maple Leaf Adventures, has explored the coast by boat since before he could ride a bike.

As a young backcountry and marine park ranger, Kevin witnessed the incredible power and beauty of nature, often alone on his patrol boat. He wanted to share it with others.

Kevin is a geographer by training, and he knows the best experiences are beyond roads’ reach. To truly explore the landscapes, wildlife and culture of the coast, you need to go by water. But not in the traditional manner, with thousands of people on a huge cruise ship. He wanted to share the glory of the coast as he had gotten to know it.

He volunteered for five years on the team that created British Columbia’s ground-breaking land use plan, which preserves large tracts of the Great Bear Rainforest. The process pointed out a needed solution in the area: a conservation-based economy.

Kevin realized that his vision of sharing the coast’s wonders with others would fit. His business acumen, green ethics, expedition knowledge and love of hosting lead him to a newly emerging kind of travel: ecotourism done at a very high level.

Since 2001, Kevin has built Maple Leaf Adventures into an award-winning company.

As the leader, he must spend time in the office. But he (as with all Maple Leaf Adventures staff) stays focussed by donning his GoreTex jacket and operating trips each year. It keeps him in touch with the interesting guests who join us, and the geography, wildlife and other people of the coast.

After all, that’s the dream that brings us – and you – together.

Our headquarters and ships’ home port is in downtown Victoria, in the homelands of the Songhees and Esquimalt People. Our trips explore all along the coast in the traditional, unceded territory of many First Nations. This includes nations in the broad language groups of Coast Salish, Kwak’wala, Nuučaan’ut, Oowekyala/’Uik’ala, Nuxalk, Hailhzaqvla, Sm’algyax, Haida and Tlingit. More specifically, some of our First Nation friends invite us into their communities and territories including:Toba Inlet (Klahoose Nation), Alert Bay (‘Namgis Nation), Kyuquot (Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k:tles7et’h’ Nation), Port Hardy (Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxdaw’xw Nations), W̓áláqvḷa (Heiltsuk Nation), Klemtu (Kitasoo/Xai’xais Nation), Hartley Bay (Gitga’at Nation), Kitamaat (Haisla Nation), the Kitlope (Xenaksiala), Masset and Skidegate (Haida Nation) and communities in Tlingit traditional territory. We are particularly pleased to have been able to work with the Gitga’at, Kitasoo-Xai’xais and the Heiltsuk nations to formalize a common understanding, along with our land and sea acknowledgements, in protocol agreements, and with the Haida through the Archipelago Management Board in Gwaii Haanas. We look forward to more of these kinds of respectful relationships in future. We are pleased that our guests can learn from these communities about their rich cultures that have existed here since time immemorial. For those interested in learning more we encourage you to visit the First Peoples Map of BC.