What you need to know, first, is that there are hundreds of different packages to choose from. Your carefully curated package can be as short as a two-day rail route to as long as a 12-night train and land journey. You also have the option to travel Eastbound or Westbound. We chose Eastbound, starting in Vancouver and ending in Calgary. Additionally, we added one extra day to explore Calgary before heading home and three nights in Vancouver at the beginning.
Altogether our trip was 12 days in length, including travel days. Due to various situations we ended up staying in two hotels in Vancouver. The first three nights we spent at the Hyatt Regency Downtown, we made a quick and easy trip over to the Fairmont Waterfront for our final day in the city. For the purpose of this blog I will number the days based on the package we had with Rocky Mountaineer. We spent four nights in Vancouver before boarding the GoldLeaf Coach for the two-day rail route portion.
Day 1- Rocky Mountaineer Train
The following morning we met in the lobby of the Fairmont Waterfront with a few hundred other guests. I believe there were a total of 650 guests on the entire train for our journey coming from various hotels around Vancouver. It sounds like a lot but there were only about 50 people on our specific coach. Rocky Mountaineer provided motorcoaches from the hotel to the Vancouver Rocky Mountaineer station. It was a quick trip of about 20 minutes. We were on the train and rolling down the tracks by 8am.
The all-daylight trains mean you get to sleep in a hotel at night. Our overnight for this portion was in Kamloops. We stayed at the Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Center for an evening.
The all-daylight trains mean you get to sleep in a hotel at night. Our overnight for this portion was in Kamloops. We stayed at the Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Center for an evening.
Day 2- Rocky Mountaineer Train
The following morning, we had to be up bright and early; meeting in the lobby at 5:45am. As expected, they drove us to the train station in Kamloops to board for our second day on the breathtaking journey. Day two of the train route took us in to the Canadian Rockies and things just got more amazing from there! By the time everyone had boarded the train this morning, we were moving down the tracks by 6:45am. The train has an Outdoor Viewing Platform that we spent quite a bit of time on this second day. The cool fresh mountain air felt great. We passed waterfalls, traversed bridges, saw eagles and big horn sheep, every moment had something to gaze at. We went in early June and so many of the mountains were still snow capped! That was exciting for this Florida girl. We passed the continental divide just before arriving at the Lake Louise train station around 8pm that evening.
Day 3- Lake Louise
We ended up with an amazing view from our room at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. You'll need to tune back in when I write up our hotel experiences. (I will come back and link it here once I get to that point.) The next morning we had a tour organized through Rocky Mountaineer. We headed out on a motorcoach that took us up to Jasper National Park and the Columbia Icefields. Our first stop was the visitors center where we had an included buffet lunch in Altitude. Next, we took the Ice Explorer, a specialized truck that can handle 30% grade and ice, and drove out on to a glacier. We spent some time out on the Athabasca Glacier. Our next stop was to the Skywalk, jutting out 115 feet out from the side of the mountain and 918 feet above the ground below! We were brought back to our hotel by around 5:30pm and had dinner on our own on the hotel property.
Day 4- Lake Louise
We had the morning hours to ourselves in Lake Louise and chose to walk as far as we could along the Lake Louise Lake trail. It is advertised as 1 hour round trip. We're in decent shape and after walking for 30 minutes we were not even half way to the end. We turned around and headed back for our lunch reservation. It was a beautiful walk over mostly flat ground. You do need to watch your step since it is not paved and there are sometimes tree roots or streams of water going across the trail. This is by far one of the most beautiful places I have been in my lifetime. He left around 2:30 for an organized motorcoach tour and transfer to Banff National Park Emerald Lake, the Natural Bridge, and then our next hotel, the Rimrock Resort.
Day 5- Banff
We had a fully open day to spend in Banff. The Rimrock Hotel is situated up away from the downtown corridor on Sulphur Mountain. As part of our package we were given bus passes for the Roam Bus to get us downtown and back. So we spent this day exploring Banff, sampling yummy food in the city, and relaxing. We attempted to go on a walk but the Concierge advised us that they had seen a few bears in the last few days, so we "noped" out of the that decision very fast.
Day 6- Banff
Our second day in Banff began with another escorted motorcoach tour as part of our Rocky Mountaineer package. Our first stop was to the Banff Gondola, which was a 5 minute walk from our hotel. We rode to the top of Sulphur Mountain on the 4-person Gondola, spent some time seeing the sights and then rode back down. I wish I had more time to spend at the top as there are multiple restaurants, a boardwalk, an interpretive center, and more. From there the tour brought us back to downtown Banff for a quick lunch stop where we chose a Vietnamese restaurant with gorgeous views of Tunnel Mountain (I think!). After lunch we were taken to see Bow Falls and then onward to Calgary and the Fairmont Palliser.
Day 7- Calgary
We had another open day to explore on our own in Calgary. We walked over to Prince Island Park and then made our way down to the Peace Bridge and then walked back to our hotel. We ventured back out to the CORE Shopping Center around lunch time and spent time wandering through their very unique indoor park called Devonian Gardens! We ended up stuck in the mall for a bit because as we left it started to hail. So we hung out in the park until the rain settled down. Later on we walked up and down Stephens Avenue Walk, their pedestrian mall with many restaurants and shops.
Day 8- Calgary
For our final morning we woke up, had breakfast at the Starbucks in the hotel and headed off to the airport for our final piece of the journey.
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