Western Canada Train Tour Questions

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

We are starting to plan a Western Canada Train Tour for 2012.

What is a good tour? I think some of them travel during the day and layover at night where you stay in a hotel.

What time of the year is best?

What are some good websites for doing research?

Thanks.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

You are probably thinking of the Rocky Mountaineer train tours.

We did the Rocky Mountaineer circle tour from Vancouver - Kamloops - Jasper AB - Quesnel - Whistler - Vancouver. We had the Gold Leaf service/Deluxe hotels package. The tour runs during the day and stops for the night at each of these places. In Vancouver, Jasper, and Whistler, we stayed at the Fairmont hotels. In Kamloops and Quesnel the hotels were just regular mediocre hotels. All in all we were quite disappointed in the tour and would never do it again.

Canadian Train Routes & Vacation Packages: Rocky Mountaineer

You definitely want to go in the summer. We went the 2nd week of August, 2007.

[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

OK, John, I have to ask. Why didn't you like it? I've only heard good things about it. shaggy

[Kay H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kay H]

I did the very same trip several yrs ago and it was one of my best vacations. I absolutely loved it. Different strokes for different folks.

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

We had to move this back to 2013, any other input?

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

This is the tour that we did:

Classic Rail Circle: Canadian Rockies Train Tour with Rocky Mountaineer

They have made a major improvement to it by adding an extra night at Jasper. When we took it you only had one night at Jasper so it was a total waste as we arrived at 6:30 PM and had to leave at 6:00 am the following morning. Fortunately we had stayed in Jasper 2 years before so we had seen all of the highlights.

As I said we did the Gold Leaf/Deluxe hotels option. The first leg from Vancouver - Kamloops - Jasper was pretty good. The service was good. On the second leg from Jasper - Kamloops - Whistler the service was very poor. Overall the experience was not what we had expected for a first class tour costing over $10,000. The same tour now costs close to $12,000. There were many things they did that were definitely not first class. We also stayed in Vancouver for 4 nights, 3 nights in Victoria, and 3 nights in Seattle. The highlight of our trip was the stay in Seattle.

If you do opt for the tour, definitely choose the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel as your Vancouver hotel. We had a deluxe room on the upper floor facing the waterfront. You definitely want to go in July or August even though it is more expensive. Even in August, we had a number of days of cool rainy weather.

We have also driven all over BC and Alberta visiting these same places.

If you want any additional info, let me know.

I am very familiar with BC and Alberta. I was born in Victoria. I lived in Victoria, Vancouver, Windermere Valley and have traveled all over BC and Alberta several times.