Thursday 18th September – Banff – Rocky Mountaineer
A special treat for us today, as we set off on our Rocky Mountaineer train on their “First Passage to the West” journey from Banff to Vancouver. As this is a private railway company, and there are no public access stations, we were collected at the hotel by the Rocky Mountaineer team. At this point, we said goodbye to our luggage before being taken by coach to their terminal in Banff, where we were greeted by our carriage hosts and invited to board car number 3 via a lovely red carpet, guided upstairs and shown to our very comfortable seats near the rear of the car, where we settled ourselves down and started exploring our environment for the next 2 days.
We had booked a Goldleaf Service rather than the Silverleaf, which provided us with a double-decked carriage with a lower deck containing a dining room, large, spacious and clean toilets, an open-air viewing platform, whilst on the upper deck we had larger, comfier reclining seats with tons of legroom, plus fabulous full glass-dome windows with panoramic views. This level of service also provided an upgraded food and drinks package plus a slightly superior hotel at our mid-point stopover. Was it worth the additional cost? Read my conclusions at the end of the journey.
Once underway after being waved off by the station staff, we made our way through some stunning scenery, and each corner when turned provided another beautiful vista. The staff were very attentive and after an initial safety briefing, our carriage hosts Robert, Victor and Melissa described the day’s schedule and the sequence of dining options. We were lucky to be allocated to the first breakfast group today, and went down to the dining room for a really good breakfast. When entering the dining room, you are asked if you wish to share your table with other travellers. We chose to do so, and during our 2 days, we met and chatted with some friendly and interesting people. Having previously seen some YouTube videos of the journey, we were looking forward to some good food, and we were not disappointed.
The day continued, with Robert giving us a running commentary highlighting the areas we passed through, pointing out the significant attractions. At times, there were just too many sights that it was difficult to photograph them all. All of this was done whilst being served complementary drinks and snacks. All too soon, lunch time rolled around, and we went down to the dining car once again for some excellent food accompanied by a glass or two of fine Canadian wine.
When we were passing through towns and villages along the way, it was really good to see people being excited when the train passed through. People were holding up children so they could see the train. People were running out of their homes to the trackside to wave. One pair of fans, Robert told us, is Doris and her husband Brian, who greet the train each time it passes their house, near the town of Canoe. He told us that the Rocky Mountaineer staff became so fond of Doris’s big, joyful waves that when they discovered that they had an approaching anniversary, they invited them on board for a trip to celebrate. They then sent Rocky Mountaineer staff to wave at them as they passed their own house. It was eventually discovered that it was their dogs who could tell from the sounds and vibrations of the Rocky Mountaineer trains that alerted them when they were approaching. Right on schedule, there they were, standing on their back porch, wildly waving at us as we passed. As you can imagine, we were all just as wild with our returning waves.
The pace of the journey was at all times dictated by the volume of traffic on the line at any given time, with freight trains taking precedence. As there were a number of trains in front of us, we were often slightly delayed. Due to these delays, we were served an extra meal at dinner time, which was very welcome. It also allowed us to take some nice sunset photographs on the way. I thought that I would be taking tons of photographs during the trip, but there was just too much wonderful scenery of mountains, rivers and lakes, that it was impossible to capture it all. We were told that this is the busy season for grain trains, which are given priority on the line. This caused us to reach Kamloops much later than expected. On arrival, we boarded coaches in the dark and were taken to our hotel, the Windgate, to find our luggage already in our room, or at least some of it. By the time we checked in and searched, and found Jim’s misplaced backpack, it was time for bed.
Friday 19th September – Rocky Mountaineer
Day 2 of our railway journey started with us being collected early in the morning and taken back by coach to the Rocky Mountaineer terminal to reboard the train to be waved off by the terminal staff. We were later told that they were the night shift staff, and waving the train off was the last duty of their shift. As we had our meals on the first sitting yesterday, it was our turn to dine in the second sitting, while the first group were having their breakfast, we were given a coffee and a pastry. This was a nice way to start the day, riding along the Kamloops Lakeshore watching the eagles soaring above the waters, in yet another brilliantly sunny day, the weather on this trip has surpassed us; we never expected it to be so sunny and warm.
Early on in our journey, we encountered a couple of giant freight trains. The length of these trains is mind-boggling, at over 3 miles long, with well over 150 box cars; one recently took well over 5 minutes to pass us.
As we travelled further west, following the banks of the magnificent Fraser River, the landscape changed from an almost arid prairie to more agricultural flat lands. Our crew, Robert, Victor and Melissa, kept us informed and entertained during the journey. It appeared that all the hosts on board were linked via radio, so they were able to point out any highlights and wildlife we encountered along the way, but importantly, they kept us going with drinks and snacks as we travelled.
I apologise for the lack of photographs in this edition of the blog. We were enjoying the journey so much, it seemed such a shame to miss anything whilst behind a camera, so to compensate, here is another YouTube video; however, this one shows our journey in reverse, but we did pass through all of the places mentioned.
We eventually arrived in Vancouver and were taken by coach to the Sutton Place hotel, when we checked in and given our room key, we were very pleasantly surprised by the room we were allocated and opened the door, it was fun to walk down our hallway towards our sitting room, which sat alongside our kitchen and dining room, then we discovered the 2 bedrooms with their giant king sized beds, I chose the en-suite one, mainly due to my nocturnal activities, whilst Jim was more than happy with the other one. The large balcony overlooking the city was an added bonus.
Saturday 20th September – Vancouver
After a visit to the local Tim Horton’s for a quick breakfast, we returned to the hotel to finish packing and took advantage of a suitable time to catch up with family in Scotland and Australia, before departing on our cruise.
After a bit of a Snafu with an Uber hire, we were eventually dropped off at the Canada Place cruise terminal, where we had to pass through security and USA customs and immigration. Despite the long queues, we passed through this fairly quickly, and we boarded the MV Konigsdam and were directed to our stateroom.
In conclusion
I have travelled on many rail journeys listed as one of the world’s most scenic, only to find them a wee bit mediocre. This journey, however, I would certainly say has been the best I have travelled on to date. The scenery we passed was fantastic; there were sights to be seen around every bend and turn in the route. The Goldleaf carriage, with its high, full glass-dome windows, which provided wonderful views of that scenery, made it all the more special with comfortable seats, entertaining and knowledgeable hosts, a lower deck dining room and viewing platform, in addition to the wonderful food and drinks that would rival any high-class restaurant, puts the service at the top of my list. If you are considering a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer, don’t hesitate to upgrade to the Goldleaf service; it certainly is worth the additional cost.
The next instalment of this trip’s blog will follow shortly
Chiang Mai was a great place to visit, and I did loads during the time we were there. We ate some great food, went to a Thai boxing contest, saw a Lady Boy cabaret show and had a day in an elephant sanctuary, where we fed, bathed and washed the elephants and rolled around in the mud with them. There was also some good street art on display in the city.
Jim's travels 