What a trip! Exceptional scenery and wonderful new friends! This is our first Globus tour. I might consider another but … not with bunk beds …. or on a train ….
We traveled 1860 miles on the train from Toronto to Jasper, and then traveled 1200 miles by bus from Jasper to Victoria Island and ended up in Vancouver over the course of 14 days. We were fortunate to see an abundance of wildlife, but that damn MOOSE, I swear he doesn’t exist! He wasn’t in Nova Scotia last year and now we’ve traveled all the way across Canada without one sighting!
Our train was The Canadian by Via Rail, an Art Deco era train that has been refurbished. This cross country route runs twice a week in each direction, going all the way into Vancouver but we got off in Jasper. Being a passenger train, we have to give way to the commercial freight trains – they own the rails. At one point we were on a side track waiting for 3 different trains to pass.
It is interesting that “class” distinctions still exist on the train. There is Economy class. They have seats and no sleeping accommodations. They are not allowed outside of the economy area. They do have access to their own dome car. They do not have access to hot meals and instead have access to a canteen with ready made items. There is a long distance economy class that have facing seats during the day, that makeup into sleeping berths with bunkbeds and heavy drapes overnight. They do NOT have access to the dining car, bar car or activity car. The dining car, dome car and activity car are only available to Sleeper class. Sleeper class is made up of single and double rooms. There is another class called Prestige which was located behind our shared dining car. We, as sleeper class, had access to their bar car, called the Park car, after 4 pm, but I never visited it. Their rooms are supposed to be more spacious with NO bunk beds.
Our train had 25 cars. When we left Toronto we had 156 in Sleeper and 49 in economy. Not sure how many got off when and where but there were a bunch of people waiting to get on in Winnipeg. Our entertainment person/bartender told us that the train was fully booked up for the entire summer.
We were offered hors d’oeuvres the first evening on the train before dinner and then again in Winnipeg when the crew switched over. The dining car had 2 or 3 sittings and would seat 48 passengers at a time at tables for 4. White tablecloths and flowers on the tables. An attendant would walk the cars and announce the call for dinner in English and in French, but in our groups case, most everyone was in the bar or activity car waiting for the announcement. The second sitting people would anxiously wait for the first sitting people to pass by to find out what was on the menu. The scenery outside was only surpassed by what was on the plates at mealtime.
There was very little in the way of entertainment on the train. We did have trivia, beer and wine tasting and a voice would occasionally come over the intercom and announce a location and give facts about it. Oh, I nearly forgot! We also had Bingo and I won a game! Woohoo! I got a Canada pin with a maple leaf on it as my prize but I was seriously eyeing the Moose magnet that Carol won in an earlier game.
While the scenery was good on the train, it improved dramatically after we got off. Our bus was brand new and I was impressed with the amount of leg room we had – not a typical bus. Our driver made sure that the windows were spotless at the beginning of each day. I even saw him cleaning the windows at one potty stop!
On the bus, we changed seats every day. That was nice. When we got off the bus it was by side and not by row. That seemed to make exiting more efficient. It might be this way on all tours but this is my first one.
I took over 1200 pictures on this trip and have posted 400 on this blog.
I think that’s all I have as far as general comments. Enjoy and thanks for traveling along with us!
May 20, 2024 Toronto
We met Stuart (travel agent, travel coordinator, and friend) and his group in the lobby for drinks after we dropped off our luggage. Jeff and I split a delicious hamburger.
The larger Globus group met later to go over our itinerary, trip details and optional excursions.
Today was a Canadian holiday – Victoria Day, so when we went on the prowl after the meeting for Dr. Pepper, we found a lot of the shops closed. This was true in the mall and after having an amusing exchange with a mall security guard about the finer points of Dr. Pepper and whether it was available in Canada, we were pointed in the direction of a convenience store that did carry it!
Our initial outing in Toronto … hunting for Dr Pepper …. who’s surprised? The rest of the pics are taken from our hotel room.
May 21, 2024 Toronto
The tour group went to Niagara Falls, but we were just there a year ago, so we opted to go out on our own instead. We had breakfast with the group about 7am and then we set out for a morning walk to the Ripley’s Aquarium. They opened at 9 and we left the hotel about 8:30. We were walking from our hotel towards the waterfront and although it was, in my mind, past rush hour, we were encountering a lot of pedestrian traffic that was headed in the other direction (I think we were the ONLY ones headed against the traffic). It didn’t appear to matter which side of the street we were on, so we just dodged people and tried to stay out of their way. It took a few blocks but we finally figured out everyone was coming from the train station.
The downtown area of Toronto is very urban. It consists of hundreds of skyscrapers that house businesses as well as condos or apartments. There was still a lot of vehicular traffic too. There were lots of hotels, places to eat, a few street vendors, very few homeless people, and malls.
We didn’t do any walking “underground” with the exception of being at the mall, but it’s my understanding that it is a maze of tunnels so when the weather is bad the people can be out of the elements.
The aquarium was one of the best that we have visited. Nearly immediately, we came upon a cylindrical tank that connected to another tank via a round tube. There was a father telling his son that he had been here a dozen times and never seen the octopus out of the main tank. The octopus, with arms outstretched, was probably over 8 ft long. We watched as he moved from one tank, through the connecting tube, into the other tank, settled down, changed colors and then repeated the process. I could have watched him all day!
From there we visited a number of different exhibits that included jelly fish and sponges. The tanks were huge, well kept and had a lot of specimens. Everything was well thought out, very well explained and attractive. Next we hit pay dirt! An enormous tank full of the tropical fish that we have snorkeled with around the world. This was another place that I could have stayed all day. Watching all these different kinds of fish, interacting, getting along, not fighting …. I wondered, why can’t humans be like fish?
The shark tank was next. It was built so that the humans walked through a tunnel and were surrounded by the shark tank, or you could stand on a very slow moving “sidewalk” and let it carry you through the exhibit. There were about 8 divers in the tank working in two sets of 4. Three of the divers were scrubbing the coral and one of the divers was in protective mode, keeping the tiger sharks at bay with black and white striped batons. They did have several types of fish and a huge turtle in the shark tank too.
After the aquarium, we took some pictures of the CN Tower, then walked along the waterfront, before headed back toward our hotel. Our next stop was the Basilica of St. Michael. When we arrived, we found that a mass was in progress, so we stayed for that and then took a few pictures. We headed back to the hotel to get ready for our 4:15 departure for dinner at the CN Tower.
I thought that 8:30 this morning was outside of the rush hour and it wasn’t. You would also think that 4:15 would be outside of the evening rush hour, and it definitely wasn’t. We could have walked to the CN Tower faster than it took us on the bus. It was incredible how gridlocked the traffic was and it was complicated by lots of road construction. We left the hotel at 4:15 and our dinner reservation was at 5:45. We were immediately seated! It took us less than half an hour to walk this same distance this morning. Granted, we had to go through security, but it didn’t take that long!
Dinner was in the revolving restaurant “360,” located 1151 feet (the tower is 1815 feet) above street level with amazing views over the city of Toronto and Lake Ontario. The restaurant was aptly called 360 and makes one revolution every 72 minutes. I just looked up the menu online, and although we were a “group” meal and what we had wasn’t on the menu, the appetizers were $27, the entrees were $65, and dessert $15. After dinner we went to the observation level and I stood on the glass floor (Jeff said Nope!) and took a picture of the roof of the aquarium that has 2 sharks painted on it.
After returning to the hotel, a few of us met up with Stuart and headed out to a liquor store (with empty backpacks) to load up before we get on the train tomorrow. We had 4 backpacks full of booze!
May 22, 2024 Leaving Toronto and getting on the Canadian VIA train
Bags outside our rooms at 6 am this morning. Sue, our tour manager, took the luggage to the train depot while the rest of us enjoyed breakfast. We had to pack an “overnight” bag for the 3 nights on the train and would not have access to our large luggage until we reached Jasper.
We left the hotel at 8am for the train station, and after a kind of short wait, loaded onto the train for an on-time departure of 9:45am. We had to remain in our rooms until our steward went over our safety instructions. Then we were free to roam. Seemed like no time and it was time for lunch since we had the early seating – 11am for lunch, and 5pm for dinner.
There wasn’t much scenery wise leaving Toronto … I thought we’d never get outside the city. Then it was dinner time, then it was time to play cards and then it was time to go to bed! I’m sure the scenery will be better tomorrow.
Besides the beer tasting, the other onboard entertainment today was Canadian trivia. There were only about 4 of us participating. Jeff and I had a game plan. I was going to answer “Maple Leaf” to every answer and Jeff was going to answer “Celine Dion” … that way we were guaranteed to get at least 2 questions correct! In the end, we greatly amused ourselves and learned that we knew more about Canada then we thought we did.
Images from the bus station
Two adults, bunk beds with a ladder. ABSOLUTELY no room to move around. Your shoulder touches the bed on one side and the wall on the other. How was the mattress? It was hard and lumpy. Did I sleep? … NOPE.
May 23, 2024 Ontario – Winnipeg Manitoba
During the 3 nights on the train we will traverse the Provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Where are we today? Canada! Which Province? We were in Ontario most of the day but we had a two hour stop in Winnipeg which is in Manitoba Province. One of our cruise friends, Larry, met us at the station and assisted us on our successful quest for Dr. Pepper. We had a nice visit with him (and missed seeing his wife, Claire), before we reboarded the train and continued our westward journey.
Today’s entertainment was wine tasting! Nothing went in the trash can today!
This evening, in Winnipeg, the crew changed over. We got a new steward, new dining room staff, new chef, and new bartender.
May 24, 2024 Manitoba and Saskatchewan
Today we continued on through Manitoba and entered into Saskatchewan Province. Can you say Prairie? It felt like home, or Kansas or Nebraska.
May 25, 2024 Saskatchewan – Jasper Alberta
We had been on time up until today, our expected arrival in Jasper was 6:30am, then it was changed to 9:30, then the engineers timed out at 10:30 and we had to wait for replacements. We finally arrived at noon.
You can see from the time stamp on my photos that I was up early today. Might have something to do with the time changes too!
The change in the scenery is impressive. We’ve gone from urban city and suburbs, to what they call the Canadian Shield. This area is covered by Precambrian rock that is 570-1100 million years old. The erosive effects over the past million years have scarred the Shield’s surface and left the area a gorgeous landscape of rivers, lakes and streams dotted with cabins, hunting lodges and TREES. This made way to prairie and finally, passing Edmonton, and then the small town of Entrance which brought us to the Canadian Rockies.
After we got off the train with our carry-ons, we loaded them on the bus, Those of us that had excursions this afternoon were given 30-45 minutes to walk into town and find something for lunch while those that didn’t have excursions were taken to the hotel. We hustled it over to the grocery store and picked up some deli sandwiches, chips and drinks. When we returned to the bus it had started sprinkling. Guess where our rain gear is? In our large suitcase, which we were told we wouldn’t be able to access until the hotel. Thankfully, the tour manager felt sorry for us and our suitcase was retrieved and our rain ponchos were in our hands. It was a good thing too, because it was an absolute downpour during our entire excursion, until the last 15 minutes.
Magline Canyon hike – total hike = 2 hours, rain 1 hour 45 minutes! This was absolutely spectacular! It is so unfortunate that photos can NOT give you the sounds of the rushing water, the canyon depths, the size of the logs, or the sounds of pulling your shoes up off the wet, slimy mud path. You’ll just have to use your imagination! Absolutely, positively recommend this is you are ever here in Jasper National Park. The best part of this tour? It was downhill from the starting point and someone moved the bus to the bottom so we didn’t have to retrace our steps uphill …. worth every cent!!
After our excursion, we cleaned up and started walking into town for dinner. We didn’t walk maybe two blocks, and decided instead to return to the hotel and eat there. It was probably the most expensive meal that we had on this trip. I ordered Chicken Parmesan and Jeff ordered Bison Meatballs and Spaghetti. When our food arrived there was no less than a 4 person serving of pasta on each of our plates. The size of my chicken was the size of the plate. I made a valiant attempt and so did Jeff. When the waiter returned he wanted to know what was wrong with the food because we didn’t finish. Had I known the serving size we would have split something.
May 26, 2024 Jasper
We will spend this evening in Jasper also. Today was a sightseeing day. Our first stop was a ways off, to Maligne Lake where we were supposed to have had a lake cruise, but the lake is still frozen over.
We first made our way to Medicine Lake where there was a nesting pair of Bald Eagles. They mate for life and the area had recently seen a wildfire. It was unsure if the eagles would return, but they had, there nest still intact on top of a burnt tree.
May 27, 2024 Jasper – Columbia Icefield – Lake Louise – Banff
Today we’re traveling to Banff – all day trip. Bags had to be outside our rooms at 6:15, breakfast was at 6:30, bus left at 7:45.
Today we are marveling at the magnificent Canadian Rocky Mountains. It was unreal how the scenery was constantly changing. Every 5 minutes there was a new snow capped mountain that was completely different from the previous one. I stayed in total awe of the immenseness of these beautiful mountains. We were so fortunate to have the “good side” of the bus. Our first stop today is the Athabasca glacier in the Columbia Ice Field.
Today we crossed Bow summit, our highest point of our trip, measuring in at 6,780 feet.
The Columbia Ice Field is 165 square meters, which is the size of Vancouver and all of its suburbs. In 2023, NASA tested its autonomous Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) robot at the Columbia Ice Field. This robot is designed to navigate its way through previously inaccessible places in its search for signs of life in the universe. The Columbia Icefield offered a tough-to-navigate terrain which was perfect for testing purposes.
…. but we found it – middle of picture – square building on the outcrop! Samsung phones have awesome cameras!
We had a buffet dinner at our hotel this evening. We are overnighting in Banff.
May 28, 2024 Banff
At 10am we left for a tour of the surrounding area. We started at a viewing point that looked straight down the main street of Banff. From there we viewed the Fairmont hotel, the hoodoos and then had the remainder of the day to ourselves. We resorted (finally!) to a bit of retail therapy, had a filling lunch, skipped dinner, did laundry and called it a day.
May 29, 2024 Banff – Kamloops
Today was another long travel day. Bags out at 6:30, breakfast at 6:30, departure at 7:45.
We crossed Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park on our way to our overnight stop in Kamloops with a 4pm arrival and dinner at 5:45.
You could definitely tell when we had left the national parks. We were greeted with fences and billboards. The weather started off clear, then the clouds moving into the mountains made for some interesting pictures.
May 30, 2024 Kamloops – Victoria
If I thought we’d had early start times before, today beat the record with bags out at 5:45, breakfast at 5:45 and departure at 6:30 – Because, we have a ferry to catch!
More great cloudy pictures today but when we got to the coast to catch the ferry, it had cleared up with bright blue skies. We took the ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay. Once on Victoria Island we had about a half hour drive to downtown. We were dropped downtown for about an hour while the bus dropped the luggage off at the hotel. Then we were given a short orientation drive around the city before returning to the hotel and left on our own for the evening.
May 31, 2024 Victoria
There were optional tours today, but we didn’t participate. Instead, after breakfast we headed uptown to China town which was a total bust. None of the shops were open and once we were there, it really wasn’t that interesting. We had a quick lunch and headed back to the hotel to get ready for our tour of Butchart Gardens and our farewell dinner.
June 1, 2024 Victoria – Vancouver
Bags out at 7, departure at 8:30. Next stop Vancouver.
Unfortunately, there have been more than a few people on our bus coughing and getting sick. Unlucky for us, we’ve both started coughing, not feeling very well, but it’s, thankfully, the last day. We did a bus tour of Vancouver after bringing the ferry back over to the mainland. We were in Vancouver a couple of years ago so we didn’t see anything new.
After one stop, two of the ladies (Raine and Carol), separately, got back on the bus and brought me a Vancouver Moose magnet and told me to quit complaining about not seeing a moose!
We got to our Vancouver hotel room early afternoon. Packed up, tried unsuccessfully to take a nap, headed to the airport about 8:30 this evening and caught the red-eye to Dallas, then on to home the next morning, arriving home noonish to a gully washer of a storm.
June 3, 2024 Home Sweet Home
The boys were happy to see us and if I was sitting down, they were on my lap!
Great trip! Good to be home. Ready for the next one, right Jeff?
