Professional Travel Companion Services
When someone needs support to travel, we're there - across Canada and around the world.
Last updated October 7, 2026
A Travel Companion is an experienced caregiver who travels with someone whose health, recovery, or mobility makes travelling alone difficult. This could be an older parent visiting family, a traveller with early dementia or limited mobility, or someone recovering from illness or surgery. Portage plans and manages the entire journey behind the scenes, while your Travel Companion provides face-to-face care and support from door to door.
Who is a Travel Companion for?
Our Travel Companions support travellers whose health, recovery, or mobility means they need support on the journey, from door to destination. Common situations include:
Older adults visiting family, attending a wedding or reunion, or relocating
Travellers with anxiety about flying or busy airports
If a traveller's condition needs clinical monitoring or care in transit, a Medical Escort is the right fit.
How a Travel Companion journey works
Behind every trip are two roles: a Portage Case Coordinator, who plans the journey and manages the logistics, and your Travel Companion, who is focused entirely on the traveller.
Before departure
Your Case Coordinator books the flights and arranges airline assistance, wheelchair bookings, mobility equipment, timing, ground transport, and arrival arrangements. Most journeys are by commercial flight; for shorter trips, ground transport for the whole journey can be arranged where it is gentler or simply preferred.
Travel day
Your Travel Companion meets the traveller at home, in hospital, or at a care facility, and guides them through check-in, security, customs, boarding, and luggage. Throughout the journey, your Travel Companion provides personal care and hands-on support, reminders for medications, meals, and hydration, help with transfers between flights, reassurance, and updates to family at agreed points. If plans change mid-journey, your Travel Companion adapts on the spot while your Case Coordinator handles rebookings behind the scenes.
On arrival
Your Travel Companion stays with the traveller until the journey is complete — settled with family, at home, at a hospital or care facility, or checked in at their hotel.
Who are the Travel Companions?
Every Portage Travel Companion is an experienced caregiver, trained in the complexities of care during travel: airport logistics, mobility and transfers, personal care, medication routines, fatigue, and supporting a traveller who may become anxious or disoriented far from home. Each is matched to the demands of that particular journey and selected for their judgement as much as their experience. Your Travel Companion has one focus: the traveller. If our assessment shows a traveller needs clinical care in transit, we'll recommend a Medical Escort instead.
Not sure which service is right for the trip?
Book a free Navigation Call and we'll recommend the level of support the journey needs.
Travelling without a fuss
Your Travel Companion helps quietly, at the pace the traveller sets. Our goal is to look like two people travelling together, not a client and a service: no visible branding, no uniform, and no fuss made of the help being given. The traveller decides what support they want, where, and how visibly, and we respect that throughout the journey.
Travel Companion questions
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Our assessment is based on clinical care needs, not on how frail the traveller is. If practical, personal support is all a journey requires, we'll recommend a Travel Companion. If clinical care or medical interventions may be needed, we'll recommend a Medical Escort. You won't pay for clinical care a trip doesn't require. Unsure which fits? Read our guide: Travel Companion vs Medical Escort: What's the Difference?
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Travel Companions provide reminders and practical support with a traveller's own medications. If medications need to be administered or managed clinically during travel, that calls for a Medical Escort, and we'll tell you if that's the case.
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Yes. Portage supports journeys within Canada, to and from the United States, Mexico and worldwide.
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The more notice we have, the better we can plan. A wedding, a reunion, or a move can usually be planned well ahead, but travel needs don't always come with warning, and we can often help on shorter timelines.
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The more notice, the better the planning — but travel needs don't always come with warning, and we can often help on shorter timelines. Reach out as soon as you know the trip is happening.
Is a Travel Companion right for this trip?
If you're unsure whether your family member needs a Travel Companion or a Medical Escort, we're happy to talk through the situation and recommend the right level of support.