Travel Support for Families and Caregivers
An experienced caregiver travels with the person you're arranging this for, and you're kept up to date along the way..
Last updated: October 10, 2026
Portage works with families and caregivers who are arranging a journey for someone who needs support to travel: a parent visiting from another city, a spouse coming home after a hospital stay, a client or resident moving closer to family. A Portage Case Coordinator plans the trip with you, and a Travel Companion or Medical Escort cares for the traveller from door to door. Intake confirms which service fits.
Healthcare professional, insurer, or assistance company?
Our professional pages cover referrals and coordination with your team.
What makes travel harder when you're arranging it for someone else?
Often the person arranging the trip isn't the one travelling. Three things tend to make that hard.
You can't be there. An adult child in another city, a spouse who isn't able to travel, or a caregiver who has to stay behind can't make the round trip twice to collect someone and bring them back.
You're not sure what the journey needs. Airline assistance, mobility equipment, oxygen approvals, and medication timing all have to be arranged in advance, and most families haven't done it before.
You won't know how it's going. Once the traveller is on their way, families are left waiting for a call.
How does Portage help?
We take care of the traveller for the whole journey, and we plan it with you. Which service fits depends on the traveller's needs, not on your situation, and we confirm the right level at intake before anything is booked.
Travel Companion
An experienced caregiver who manages the airport, connections, and bags, and provides hands-on personal care on the way. The usual fit for a parent visiting family, a seasonal trip between homes, or a move to a new city.
Medical Escort
A regulated healthcare professional who provides clinical care during the journey, including monitoring and administering medications. The usual fit after a hospital stay, or when a physician wants the traveller accompanied by a clinician.
If you'd rather come too. Your Companion or Escort looks after the traveller, so you travel with them simply as family. We can arrange the travel for the whole party if you'd like.
What should we prepare?
How much you lead depends on the traveller. Someone able to plan their own trip plans it with us and you're kept in the loop; someone who relies on you to speak for them is still consulted, and you lead. Either way, your Case Coordinator will ask for the traveller's needs and medications list, the dates and addresses at each end, the name of the person we should keep informed, and, after a hospital stay, permission to coordinate directly with the care team. Before the trip we agree on the milestones you'd like to hear about, such as met at home, boarded, landed, and arrived, and your Companion or Escort updates you at each one.
Case Study - Helping Kelly spend time with her mom—not airports
Kelly lives and works in Calgary. Her mother lives in Montreal and has reached the point where travelling alone is no longer realistic.
For years, every visit meant Kelly flying to Montreal, accompanying her mother back to Calgary, enjoying their time together, then repeating the entire process to take her home. Each visit required several flights, multiple days away from work, and a significant amount of planning.
Eventually, Kelly realized that while she wanted to spend time with her mother, she didn't need to be the one managing the journey.
Portage met her mother in Montreal, accompanied her throughout the trip, and safely reunited her with Kelly in Calgary. At the end of her visit, we returned her home the same way.
Instead of spending her vacation days navigating airports, Kelly spent them doing what she had wanted all along—sharing meals, making memories, and enjoying time with her mom.
That's what we mean when we say we help families focus on being family.
Related guides
Two guides that answer the questions families ask us most.
Questions from families and caregivers
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Yes. Your Travel Companion or Medical Escort meets the traveller where they are, whether that is their home, a hospital, or a care residence, and travels with them to the destination. Most of our journeys are commercial flights within Canada; we also support international journeys, including trips from or home to Canada.
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Yes. The traveller consents to the plan before anything is booked. Where someone else holds decision-making authority, such as a power of attorney or other substitute decision-maker, we confirm that proper consent is in place with them. In every case we make sure the traveller knows who will be with them and what the day will look like, and that everyone involved is comfortable with the plan.
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Yes. Home-care workers, private care agencies, and retirement or care residences arrange journeys with us on a client's or resident's behalf. Your Case Coordinator plans with you and with the family, and the traveller receives the same care as on any other Portage journey. Where the traveller is in hospital, see how we help patients returning home.
Returning home from hospital.
Let’s plan the journey
Tell us about the traveller and the trip. We'll recommend the level of support, plan the journey, and have a Travel Companion ready to go.