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Across Canada by TrainSee the Great Lakes, Rockies and the Canadian Prairies in comfort
From Toronto to Vancouver by train. Travel in style and comfort on one of the world's great train journeys.
From the train window, a couple of hours into a 2,700 mile journey across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver, you will see what looks like an endless empty landscape. Occasionally a small figure will disappear into the distance. People sometimes walk across the tracks and wander off into the wilderness. You might well wonder who these people are and where where they could be going? There doesn't seem to be anywhere to go to. It is an enigma. as are many things here. Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia, with a population roughly half the size of that in the UK. This trip is a real Canadian adventure By taking the train one can see how hazardous forging a rail track across Canada was. They built a railway stretching across a practically empty country, no wonder it was called “an act of insane recklessness”. It cost a fortune and its construction encountered atrocious engineering problems. Take the "Snow Train" in winter for a really dramatic landscape. TorontoAs the train leaves from Toronto, this is a good opportunity to spend a few days in this lively cosmopolitan city. Pick up a free entertainment guide from newspaper boxes. A big draw is shopping and you can get down to some serious retail therapy in the Underground City - beneath the skyscrapers. But the West calls and the highlight of the trip, the beautifully restored train, the 'Canadian', with its fleet of refurbished Art Deco rail cars from the 1950’s, waits for you at Toronto’s neo-classical Union Station Soon you are installed in your roomette. They are small but contain everything you will need: wash basin, toilet, comfortable chair by the window and a pull-down bed. One of the great train journeys of the world lies ahead. The JourneyAn hour out of Toronto and into rural Ontario, riding alongside forests of silver birch, that seem to go on forever. The landscape becomes more deeply forested and isolated - beautiful in its silence. Next morning, you are still in Ontario (which impresses on you just how big this country is). Stopover en routeThe cost of the train journey includes one stopover. Jasper is a popular choice, and you are in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, two and a half days after leaving Toronto. Jasper National Park is one of the best year-round sports centres in Canada: skiing, skating, snowbiking, ice canyon walking in winter and in summer there’s back packing, mountain climbing ,horseback riding, fishing, plus much more. Wherever you decide to stay over - you could also stop at Winnipeg, Saskatoon or Edmonton - you will be back on board the Canadian for the last leg of the journey to Vancouver . Vancouver Vancouver is sometimes called 'Lotus Land' by the locals because of its mild climate and laid-back atmosphere. Just a couple of miles from downtown you could be in the hippy-dippy sixties. But the gleaming skyscrapers of the West End remind you otherwise and the city is decidedly hip. Under less than an hour you can be sitting in the lodge at the top of Grouse Mountain, 1,250m above sea level, gazing beyond the slopes to the city skyline below. Masses to see and do in this beautiful city. Something relatively new is Treetops Adventure, the first of its kind in North America. It is a series of linked suspension bridges, high above the forest floor, which give a squirrel’s eye view of an unspoilt West Coast rain forest. The Canadian is operated three times weekly from Toronto and Vancouver by VIARail.For information and bookings contact the Via Rail Specialist Agent www.simplrail.com. Why you should take a winter holiday For more articles on Canada click here.
The copyright of the article Across Canada by Train in Family Adventures is owned by Cathy Smith. Permission to republish Across Canada by Train in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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