During 20 years over one million of passengers enjoed the services of the most popular luxury train in Canada – Rocky Mountaineer.
GoldLeaf carriage of Rocky Mountaineer
There are four routes on which the train travels.
Each journey will take one, or two days and the rains stops at night, so you are not going to miss any of spectacular landscapes around.
Unlike many of the other trains Rocky Mountaineer has no sleeping cars, you will be transferred to a hotel, which in some locations means Marriot, or Sheraton.
There are four levels of service, the top one, GoldLeaf Service offers a fabulous glass domed carriage.
The First Passage to the West starts from Vancouver and it follows the historical route of the first railway line that over 120 years ago connected all parts of Canada, which consolidated the young country. Overnight is in Kamloops and after the wine country the train enters the Rocky Mountains giving you the possibility to see Lake Louise, Banff and Calgary, where is the end of the journey. During Winter there are the best ski areas that hosted the Olympics in . During the Summer months the area is the same attractive and June is the month of famous Calgary Stampede.
Journey Through the Clouds route runs between Vancouver and Jasper with same overnight at Kamloops.
Rainforest to Gold Rush recalls the time of Golden fever which ruled in this part of Canada at the end of 19th century.Along the way from Vancouver to Jasper are Cariboo and Chilcotin regions
Vancouver is another Candadian town that hosted Winter Olympics (2010). You can see the landscape surrounding the Olympic venues during Sea to Sky Climb journey. It is a shortest line and covers a distance of 118 kilometres (73 miles) between North Vancouver and Whistler. The journey takes only several hours, but you will see Brandywine Falls, Cheakamus Canyon, Brackendale and Squamish.
As the whole area is very attractive and worth spending an entire holidays there, you may want to combine several routes into one bigger journey, or purchase one of the special packs
offered by Rocky Mountaineer, which include many of the other attractions beyond the standard routes.
Worth mention is 2-3 weeks package that includes Rocky mountain train experience and Alascan cruise aboard the ship from Holland America Line fleet.
In the neibourhood of Rocky Mountaineer routes are two international airports in Vancouver and in Calgary.
[photo courtesy of Mark & Andrea Busse]
