"The Canadian" Trans-continential train trip review

Lovely wife and I just got back from riding "The Canadian", Via Rail's luxury cross-country train trip.  

It was a real awesome trip.  

• Milwaukee to Seattle
• AMTRAK "The Cascades" to Vancouver
• 2 days downtown Vancouver at "The Douglas" hotel.
• Hopped on "The Canadian" on Monday at 3PM Vancouver time.
• Jasper at 2PM the next day
• Then Edmonton around 8PM that night.
• Then Saskatoon
• Then Winnipeg - Crew Change at Winipeg
• Then Sioux Lookout
• Then WE HIT A berkeleyING SEMI!
  • So that delayed us about 9 hours.  Fortunately no injuries at all, no derailment.  Truck was empty.
• Then on the rails again, made it to Toronto around 7PM local time last night - 4 hours behind schedule total.
• Stayed at the Intercontinental, 1 block from Toronto station. 
• Went and checked out their CN roundhouse turned park this morning, flew back to Milwaukee.

The train itself was awesome.  Very vintage 50s, some refits but not poorly done.  We had a sleeper with 2 bunks, private sink, private toilet, community shower - 1 per car.  

Food was really good, all cook-to-order plated meals, none of that steam table microwave BS.  Full service, no buffet style stuff.  Served 3 meals a day.

Menu was new every day, never disappointed in the options.  Everything was super solid.  

Plenty of water, coffee, tea, and snacks available throughout the day for free, free continential breakfast in the mornings as well if you didn't want the full breakfast.

Full bar with mixed drink, beer and wine options.  Beers were $8 US for a 16oz local craft beer, so certainly not terrible price wise.  You can also BYOB but you have to consume it in your car and there are not a ton of stops where you can get more.

We had access to two observation cars all the time, plus our own car had two moveable chairs and a large window.  

My wife and I played a lot of games, read, watched some TV, got some internet when we had connectivity, and really took in the scenery.

All the other people on the train were very friendly, I got to play some euchre yesterday, apparently the Canadians (or maybe the Wisconsinites) play differently.  

This was a solid 10/10 for vacations, I would recommend it to anyone.  We would definitely do it again.  

Cool. Good info, something I have considered.

Warning, Nick is now stalking you. 

If anyone is considering this trip, I would suggest the following:

• Go off-peak.  The train doesnt really stop so good weather isnt really needed for the stops, and talking to the crew the visibility from the train is better in the winter.  If you can't do winter, do late fall when most of the leaves are down.
• Off-peak also affords you the opportunity to use the premium class lounge car at the rear of the train all day instead of limited hours.
• Get yourself a sleeper cabin with the separate bathroom.  It was very nice to have the space and privacy.
• We did not get hassled for our slightly oversize luggage, *but* there is really no room for much on the train.  If you are making this part of a longer trip, have a plan to just pull out enough stuff for the duration of your trip and check the rest of your luggage.
• If you go in the true dead of winter, there will be a lot of long cold nights without much to see.  So go as close as you can to on-peak seasons to get as much daylight as you can.  Feb/March would be my suggested time.
• Bring slippers or sandals, you do not need proper footwear most of the time and it was real nice to just lounge around in my wagon burners.  
• Do the whole thing, 4 days 4 nights.  Don't get off early.  The scenery changes every day.
• Bring a few different snacks, we had some beef sticks and beef jerky and chips.  There isn't much variety in the snack situation.  You do not have a fridge and you can not use the foodservice fridge
  • We asked nice and they put a few of our personal beers in the food service fridges to chill them, but no promises that they would do this for just anyone.  
• For us it was way cheaper to fly in to Seattle and Amtrak it to Vancouver vs fly to Vancouver.  If you have never been to Vancouver, leave yourself at least 2 days there to get some sightseeing in.
• Dont plan on being on time, its recommended to bookend the trip by at least a day each way so you are not stressing.  

Very cool. Thanks for the writeup!

That looks amazing!

If you want the US version, I did the Empire Builder route from Chicago to Seattle (Portland also an option) with my wife and my parents a few years ago and it was excellent.

That looks like a great trip.  Thanks for the info!

A cool train ride is something that my wife and I have considered a lot, Empire Builder is the closest to us 

You went right past my farm.

I see the VIA passenger train for that route from my porch. I'd have gone and waved if I knew you were on it.

You would have gone through Watrous, Saskatchewan, that's the closest station to me.

I took The Canadian when I was a kid. Also crossed the Nullarbor Plain when I was in my teens, and my parents crossed the USSR on the Trans Siberian Express in the late 60's. My dad liked trains :)

More recently, we've taken the Zephyr from our home to Denver. It's a good trip, far more relaxing than flying or driving and the train goes through a route with no roads. We spent the entire time in the almost-empty observation car. Great trip, we'll have to do it again. 

Thanks for the trip report. A lot of the iconic classic Canadian hotels were built by the railway in order to give you somewhere to go. 

To anyone thinking of going, my recommendation would be to go soon. The old Budd stainless steel cars are on borrowed time, with VIA looking to replace them soon. And typically with passenger equipment, railroads replace old stuff that works well with sterile charmless new stuff that doesn't work at all out of the box and after 3 years of fiddling eventually works but not as good as what you replaced with it.

Also, they finally dumped the stupid buffer car requirement. Someone got it in their head that the old Budd stuff wasn't safe in a collision and required an empty passenger car tacked onto the tail end. Which kind of ruins the point of a round-end observation car, when all you can see is the vestibule of an empty baggage car. Then this year, they did some testing, which sadly destroyed four Budd cars, and realized the crash safety concerns were unfounded and dumped the buffer car requirement.

Also, it sounds like the Canadians have backed off on the rather draconian COVID precautions that were in effect until last year. You couldn't leave your compartment except to go to meals, all showers and meals had to be prescheduled, the dome cars were closed, there were no onboard events/activities/performances. It seems like that would have resulted in a considerably less enjoyable trip.

Oh yeah no way would we have wanted to go with Covid policies in place.  This was a full open experience, and the train was pretty dead, maybe 50 total people in all the sleeper cabins and no one in Prestige, so we all got top shelf treatment.  

Can confirm all trains did not have a buffer car on the back of them, just the pointed observation car as it should be.  

Talking to passengers and what we read before hand - there is no comparison to the Zephyr or the Empire Builder and the Canadian.  The Canadian is world class, the other ones are commuter lines.  

Regarding the cars, the Prestige class cars were old Budd cars that had been refitted, talking with the crew it sort of sounded like their plan was to gradually refit all the cars to modern internals while keeping the old skins.  It was definitely nice to be able to ride around in the vintage cars with the vintage look and feel.

In reply to ShawnG :

Watrous? My aunt lives there !

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

I was looking up prices. What all amenities are included in the package, and what are extra?

I gather than alcohol is extra, and it sounds like other beverages are not.

Food?

Hotel accommodations at stops?

My wife and I took the "sleeper plus" option with the double occupancy cabin.  

Included:

• 3 full made-to-order meals a day from Dinner on Monday night to Brunch on Friday noon.  
  • This is the real deal, not Amtrak heat and eat stuff
• Sleeper cabin, private toilet and sink
• Coffee, Tea, Hot chocolate, fruit juice, water, light snacks, fruit, continental breakfast items till around 10:00 AM

Not included:

• Alcohol ($11CAD for a 16oz craft beer, cocktails were in that similar range)
• Soda (no idea on price, not a big soda guy)
• Hotel accommodations on the front or back end
• Travel cost to get you to the start and end points.

I have a bunch of travel points for work squirrelled up and we got The Douglas on a super sweet deal through my AMEX.  Total cost to us less incidentals and sightseeing costs in Vancouver was around $3500 USD (2 people, 8 nights).  The night in Seattle, the night in Toronto, and the airfare was all paid for with points.  

I agree that the Canadian is a step above the Zephyr, but I wouldn't call the latter a commuter line. It's got observation cars, for example. It's still a step above a normal Amtrak trip. No real luxury other than being able to travel without being jammed into a pressurized tube, though. 

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

I might have met her. We're at the local Farmers market. 

Edit: Go Winterhawks!

My only criticism is that you still missed several days worth of Canada . I'm 14 hours east of Toronto by car. Probably 2 days on a train. I keep meaning to take the train to Halifax someday just for kicks. I've been told it's a nice way to travel.