My husband and I are planning a rail trip to the Canadian rockies this fall. We are looking into either a planned tour with a tour company or planning a trip on our own. We will be going from Vancouver to Calgary or the reverse of that. We are finding very high prices on most of the tours available. We were wondering if we could cut cost by planning it ourselves. Does the canadian rail take you through areas worth seeing. Just not sure what to do!
canadian rockies trip
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Hi Tracy,
My suggestion is to do a search on this forum. There's been lots of threads about travel between Vancouver and Calgary including rail and different possible itineraries. Just use the "Search the Forums" box at the top of the page. You may want to click on the "Advanced search" link to help you get the best results.
The train trip from Vancouver to Calgary is on the Rocky Mountaineer which is a quite expensive trip.
The cheaper (not cheap) trip is on ViaRail (Canadian) from Vancouver to Jasper. If you can stand one night in coach on the Canadian, you can save many dollars. Rent a car in Jasper and see Banff/Lake Louise and if you have to see it, Calgary.
Will and Kate are going to put in an appearance at the Calgary Stampede in July.
Calgary Stampede site has links to lodging in the Calgary area.
http://cs.calgarystampede.com/contact-us/faqs.html
Will and Kate will be at the opening ceremony on July 8 since they will be in Los Angeles to visit the Beckhams (and maybe new baby) on July 10.
Tom,
Tracy stated that she will be visiting the Rockies in the fall. So, they won't be here for either the Stampede or Will and Kate's visit to Calgary.
I don't know if there is any savings with going on a tour because then there is a "middleman" who has staff and overhead expenses to pay, and a profit to make. Also, tours choose their hotels and restaurants based on the pricing they get, not because it's necessarily a great place to stay or eat.
The TripAdvisor forums for this area are much more active than the fodors one.
I note that you tagged this post under "Northwest Territories" - might want to switch that to "British Columbia" and "Alberta", you'll get more responses
Brewster is your bus tour company in Jasper. Their counter is in the east section of the ViaRail station in Jasper.
Peyto Lake (21 miles north of Lake Louise) just made the list of the 12 most beautiful lakes in the world. (#2).