Vegas. A fancy restaurant for dinner and drinks. Expensive passes to a show your customer may or may not like, or tickets to a loud sporting event where it’s hard to talk. Options for a corporate outing or reward incentive trip for top employees can feel limited. After a while the same old thing starts to feel like … well, the same-old thing.

Enter Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge, a one-of-a-kind luxury experience that is highly personalized, easy to access and––thanks to our unmatched setting and service––impossible to forget.

Why is Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge the perfect place for a corporate trip? For starters, we’ve specialized in hosting corporate groups for over 30 years. Our remote setting in the midst of a boreal forest lends itself to creative thinking, quality conversations and team bonding. It’s easy to get here––fly from anywhere in North America and arrive to watch the sunset over Aikens Lake that same day––and once you walk off the floatplane life only gets easier.

The bottom line on any corporate trip is a return on the investment. We know that. And we are able deliver it (call us for referrals or view our testimonials) based on two key differentiators: the highest commitment to accommodating and planning all aspects of the trip for you, and the simple reality that quality bonding time goes hand-in-hand with the Aikens Experience.

Relaxing boat rides on a pristine lake. Laughing around a beachside bonfire under the stars. Catching your first fish or a personal best. Spotting a moose and its calf, savoring a leisurely shorelunch, swapping stories about new adventures over happy hour––during experiences like these, the guard comes down between co-workers, customers and friends.
Aikens offers uninterrupted face time, away from cell phones and other interruptions so that each moment is an opportunity to bond one-on-one.

“Aikens is a great place to build relationships,” said Mike Kunin, Director of Parts Sales and Marketing at Komatsu America Corporation. “Every trip, there’s some funny fishing story or anecdote everyone remembers. Everyone who’s gone on the trip has loved it.”

To put a face to that sentiment and better realize the experience you can provide to your best employees or customers, check out the smile on Philippe Defoy, below, who came to Aikens on a different corporate trip in 2017 and had one of the most remarkable experiences of his life.

Defoy had only fished twice in his life prior to coming to Aikens, and while out with his business colleagues and their Aikens pro-staff guide, Defoy achieved the rare accomplishment of a Triple Crown––catching three different species of fish that each qualified as an official Manitoba Master Angler trophy. A trophy 30-inch walleye came on Day 1, while Day 2 brought a giant, 41-inch pike.

On his third and final day at Aikens, minutes before coming back into the lodge for happy hour and a steak dinner, Defoy caught the monster 37-inch lake trout (pictured above) to complete the Triple Crown and send him and his business partners into a state of shock.

“I couldn’t believe it. We reacted as though we had just won the Stanley Cup. We were yelling and hugging,” Defoy said. “I’ve never been this lucky in all my life. I’m going to remember that for all my life. Even just the spot itself is amazing––you can’t have a spot more relaxing than Aikens, because it’s so beautiful and remote. Flying into the lodge is an experience in itself. I was impressed with all the comforts there, and the staff was amazing.”

Our staff’s No. 1 priority is to make your trip amazing whether you catch a trophy or don’t fish at all. Guests often say they can clearly see that it is not only our team’s priority and job to do whatever possible to ensure your trip is a success, it is in fact our pleasure to do so.

“Whatever you want to do at Aikens, it works. They make it real easy,” said Kunin.

Kunin admits that despite their normal reluctance to do the same destination twice for a corporate trip, they continue to return to Aikens because it’s the most talked about and requested incentive trip Komatsu has ever done. It’s also extremely efficient and easy to schedule; our most popular corporate group options feature a 3-night, mid-week stay so people can relax and connect with each other but still be back to home and regular work life quickly with weekends unaffected.

“You run the place when you’re there,” said Kunin, who’s also brought his father and nephew on personal vacations to Aikens. “You go into the bar and you take whatever you want, because everything’s all inclusive. You’re the only guests there. The staff welcomes you at the dock, and they know everyone’s name within a couple hours of you being there. It goes back to having whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it.”

Indeed, you can be the only guests at Aikens and call the shots both before and during your trip. We can offer you exclusive use of our lodge for groups of 24 to 32 people. If you fly into Winnipeg we will gladly take care of everything else from picking you up at the airport to pre-stocking your cabins with your clients’ favorite drinks and snacks to running beach volleyball or fishing tournaments for your group during your stay, or even setting up training/conference sessions if you want to squeeze some work into your visit. How does an island, shorelunch seminar sound to you?

Custom menus and special diets are no problem for both our gourmet chef and camp baker, and we have a smaller, remote Great Grey Owl Mini-Lodge (for groups of 6-12) across the lake from our main lodge where you’ll be similarly pampered with a group concierge, private guides and gourmet meals in an exclusive luxury cabin that is great for workshops and seminars.

Our entire team is devoted to your every wish, and as a 2nd-generation, family-operated luxury resort, nothing makes us happier than sharing our special paradise with visitors who, more often than not, return as repeat guests.

“My favorite part of this whole thing is doing something special for a guest and seeing their reaction,” said Julie Turenne, co-owner and general manager of Aikens. “We’re able to plan anything if we know in advance. Whether it’s bringing in a certain type of drink or stocking up on someone’s favorite snack, it’s our pleasure to arrange that. We pride ourselves on doing those extra little things.”

Please call us at 800-565-2595 or 204-237-5253 to speak with us about hosting your next corporate trip.

Fly Away to the Perfect Corporate Retreat at Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge