All aboard the RockyMountaineer for the trip of a lifetime
Posted on 22 July 2011 with 3 comments from readers
ArabianMoney has been on more luxurious trains but for spectacular scenery the RockyMountaineer is completely unbeatable and deserves its acclaim as the greatest train ride in the world.
The RockyMountains are the Alps on steroids with soaring peaks of granite and endless pine forests sliced through by waterfalls and dangerously turbulent rivers. And the best way to see it is from the Canadian Pacific Railway that completed the First Passage to the West in 1885.
Magnificent scenery
Young cheapskates take a hire car on the Trans-Canadian Highway but they always come back in later years to see the real thing. There are many magnificent scenes that you just cannot see from the road.
Take the Gold Leaf service and you also have one of the great luxury train experiences of the world. The carriages are like the Emirates’ A380 superjumbo that flies to Toronto, with upper and lower floors.
The upper deck has a glass roof for maximum visibility and a constant, complementary beverage service to your large, first-class seat. The lower deck is a top-quality restaurant with fine dining for a leisurely breakfast and lunch.
We enjoyed the smoked salmon and caviar on scrambled eggs and later the wild salmon for lunch. You would struggle to find a restaurant on terra firma serving the same quality of food.
Our trip from Banff in Alberta to Vancouver on the coast of British Columbia took two days, almost all of it through the most amazing mountain scenery we have ever seen.
You spend one night in a modest hotel at the half-way point. Some luxury trains have accommodation on board and this annoys a few train lovers but you do actually get a better night’s sleep.
Can we think of any other niggles? Perhaps the local wine could have been slightly better on such a relatively expensive, once-in-a-liftime trip.
Open carriage
Maybe the open upper carriages also mean that you have to listen to loud conversations by other guests that you would rather not hear. It is the same in Europe at this time of year. There is always an American lady of a certain age talking about her life and medical history.
However, the service level on the RockyMountaineer cannot be faulted. You are very well looked after indeed and the staff work a long shift. From the instant luggage availability at the stopover and end of the journey to the waiter service nothing could be better or done with more aplomb.
If you are heading West then this is the only way to arrive in Vancouver. Arabian passengers are very few in number, and we think this is a pity. Vancouver is a cool city in both weather and facilities as we intend to discover.
3 Comments posted by readers:
Excellent advice for the would-be traveler heading west in Canada. Taking a ride on the Canadian Pacific Railway will be a memorable trip!
Canada is a beautiful country – during the summer. I was just listening to a radio host on NewstalkZB in Auckland describe his travels. He left New Zealand, as Kiwis often did in the past due to the economic conditions in the rather sparsely populated country in the South Pacific. He got a job in Vancouver with a ski resort. I laughed when he said how nice the climate in Vancouver was during the summer, but how the cool, rainy climate during the rest of the year soon caused him the flee to sunny Australia. He eventually decided that New Zealand wasn’t such a bad place to live after all, and moved back to Auckland. As long as the Chinese don’t stop eating, or wearing expensive wool suits, the Kiwis will be fine. Unless the Auckland volcanic field becomes active again. That would make CNN.
This debt debate is heating up. It will be interesting to see how much the market tanks on August 2 if they don’t come to some agreement before then. I hope to pick up some oil stocks at a huge discount. Here is an interesting fact. Oil production in the USA is increasing faster than in ANY other country! Horizontal drilling in action. Hoffmeister, former head of Shell, said on TV that he expects oil to be at $150 a barrel by Christmas 2012 and gasoline in the USA to be near $5 a gallon. If that happens, Obama will be a one-term President. I think he is a little on the high side. I can see $130, but not $150. The global economy seems to be slowing down.
Here on Clearwood Drive, someone has thrown the rain switch on. At least it cools it down, but I can’t use my new 90mm Coronado solar telescope. I’m glad that I insisted on my real estate agent finding me a nice house outside all official flood zones. Some of these thunderstorms can dump rain at a rate of nearly 5 inches per hour. I get a temporary waterfront property as the street in front of Clearwood Jr. High temporarily goes under water because the drains can’t handle the runoff. People actually try to drive these new cars that sit 5 inches off the ground through water about 14 inches deep in front of the school. Most make it. The smart ones use the higher school driveway to avoid going through most of it. And it is a hurricane evacuation shelter. It is 23 feet above sea level. That is considered high land in coastal Louisiana. Hopefully, the water won’t get THAT high, until the Greenland ice sheet melts. Any of you weather geeks can see the best radar images in the world at http://www.wwltv.com/weather/radar.
Did you know that Google Earth displays the land elevation at the bottom of the page. You can see the land elevation anywhere as you move the cursor. Many coastal cities are a LOT lower than you might think. The architects who planned Washington knew what they were doing. Hurricanes can’t flood it. One CAN flood New York City. Imagine the subway system flooded with SALT water. That will make Katrina look like a picnic.
You would not believe the size of the flood walls and levees that are being constructed around New Orleans. One flood wall is 28 feet high and 4 feet thick resting on piles driven 90 feet deep. No hurricane will push water over that.
Any bridge lovers might want to google the new John James Audubon Mississippi River Bridge. Those spiral ridges on the plastic cable covering prevent vibration in hurricane winds. Large ships don’t go that far up the Mississippi River, only giant barge tows travel above Baton Rouge. They are usually loaded with grain or coal.
Great article and indeed, the Rocky Mountains are truly stunning.
But, as someone who lived in Denver, Colorado for over ten years, let me tell you, if you really want to see the most beautiful mountains in the world, so beautiful that when the Swiss arrived over 100 years ago, they chose not to leave, then come to Colombia!
Not only are the Colombian Andes far taller than the US Rockies, they are also far greener and more bio-diverse than New Zealand, Costa Rica or Tasmania. In fact, just in the capital of Bogota alone (a city now bigger than New York), there are more moors than anywhere else, including the whole of Scotland. The Rockies are indeed very beautiful, but the Colombian Andes are simply glorious, if not paradisiacal.