All aboard for an epic rail journey across captivating Canada. Settle into your first-class, art deco train car aboard VIA Rail’s The Canadian to cruise and snooze your way through five picturesque provinces. Your epic adventure across Canada begins with two overnights in Toronto, featuring a visit to magnificent Niagara Falls. Then, you’ll board your premier transcontinental train to glide past picturesque panoramas, including the sparkling lakes of Ontario, the golden prairies of Manitoba, the winding rivers of Saskatchewan, and the sun-dappled forests of Alberta. Disembark your train to continue by coach to explore the extraordinary national parks of the Canadian Rockies, including Jasper, Banff, Yoho, and Glacier National Park. Explore historic Kamloops before continuing west for ferry crossings between the very British city of Victoria and cosmopolitan Vancouver. PLUS, your tour includes your choice of excursions in Victoria so you can plan your day your way.
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Welcome to Toronto! At 6 pm, meet your traveling companions for a welcome drink. Your Tour Director will prepare you for your upcoming adventure.
Drive along the shores of Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls. For the adventurous, your Tour Director will suggest optional flightseeing over the falls. Then, enjoy a Niagara Falls sightseeing CRUISE for a thrilling boat ride to view the thundering falls from river level. Return to Toronto for an orientation tour. This evening, enjoy dinner atop the 1,815-foot-tall CN Tower.
Meals included: Breakfast & Lunch
After breakfast, transfer to Union Station for departure on the CANADIAN, VIA Rail’s premier transcontinental train. Spend the next three days and nights on this classic trip across Canada’s heartland. Your Sleeper Plus class rail cars are refurbished art-deco cars from the 1950s. Domed observation cars let you enjoy views of the Canadian countryside as you roll past Ontario’s landscapes
NOTE: On VIA Rail, during the day your cabin for two offers armchairs, toilet, and a picture window. By night it transforms to upper and lower beds where guests must be able to climb a ladder to reach the upper bed. Traveling as a single, your cabin by day features small couch-style seating, toilet and sink, and a large picture window. By night, an economy of space requires the pull-down bed to fill the space obstructing the furniture and bathroom facilities. Public restrooms remain available in each coach.
NOTE: Train travel is subject to unforeseen delays.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Watch the scenic countryside from your windows as you relax in first-class rail accommodations. Travel past the sparkling lakes and sun-dappled forests of Ontario. Try the observation dome for unparalleled views or enjoy quiet conversation in one of the comfortable lounges. Enter Manitoba with its endless golden prairies and vast cultivated fields. In the late evening, arrive in Manitoba’s capital city of Winnipeg for a brief stop before continuing west into Saskatchewan.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Continue through the prairies and winding rivers of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. View the ever-changing landscape with ease and comfort as you meet and mingle with fellow passengers and enjoy freshly prepared meals that showcase Canadian cuisine and regional specialties.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Travel from Saskatchewan to Jasper with brief stops in Saskatoon and Edmonton. Admire the scenery as your train roughly parallels the famed Yellowhead Route, Canada’s historic trail of westward expansion. Arrive in Jasper for local sightseeing. Later, enjoy an excursion to Maligne Lake for a full-narrated CRUISE to Spirit Island.
Meals included: Breakfast
Enjoy free time in Jasper in the morning before enjoying a guided cruise on Maligne Lake to Spirit Island.
Meals Included: Breakfast & Lunch
Head south through Jasper National Park on Icefields Parkway to the Columbia Icefield for a thrilling Ice Explorer ride on Athabasca Glacier. Climb Sunwapta Pass to savor stunning vistas of alpine meadows, waterfalls, and massive glaciers. Next, stop at Lake Louise, whose green-blue waters form a perfect mirror reflection of Mount Victoria. Continue into Banff.
Meals included: Breakfast & Dinner
This morning’s sightseeing includes the Bow River and Falls. The rest of the day is at leisure. Consider an optional helicopter flight-seeing trip for a bird’s-eye view of the Rockies.
Meals included: Breakfast
This morning, travel through the spectacular beauty of Yoho National Park, one of Canada’s most popular recreational areas and site of pre-Cambrian fossil finds. On to Canada’s Glacier National Park, where the motorcoach climbs 4,379-foot-high Rogers Pass, a perfect spot for photos of the surrounding mountain cliffs and glaciers. Visit Sicamous, British Columbia, for a sweet treat at a local dairy. Continue to Kamloops for western hospitality, dinner and a relaxing evening at your riverside resort, South Thompson Inn.
Meals included: Breakfast & Dinner
Continue west and catch a BC Ferry to Vancouver Island. A city tour of Victoria includes the gardens of Beacon Hill Park, the Fairmont Empress Hotel, Bastion Square, and Thunderbird Park. Free time this evening—enjoy dinner on your own at one of the many restaurants in this harbor city.
Meals included: Breakfast
Today is at leisure for independent sightseeing and shopping. Your Tour Director suggests an optional wildlife and whale-watching trip. For shoppers, Government Street’s elegant shops and Market Square’s collection of specialty stores are good places to start. History buffs should be sure to visit the Royal British Columbia Museum. Enjoy dinner on your own at one of the many restaurants in this harbour city.
Meals included: Breakfast & Dinner
Take the BC Ferry through the Gulf Islands, an archipelago known for its Mediterranean-type climate. Arrive in Vancouver for a city tour that includes the Waterfront, Chinatown, and Stanley Park with remarkable towering evergreen forests and totem poles. Free time this evening to enjoy this vibrant city on your own.
Meals included: Breakfast
Your tour ends after breakfast with guests departing on individual schedules.