A rail trip of a lifetime

The Rocky Mountaineer rail trip from Banff to Vancouver was absolutely amazing. Almost every minute of the 2 day trip took our breath away. I really would encourage everyone to do it if they can.

Not only was it extremely comfortable, with good seats, great food, unlimited free drinks all day and huge panoramic windows, the views of the changing landscape were fantastic. The on board guide was funny and very knowledgeable about all stages, and some great stories to tell.

The weather had improved dramatically, so we left Banff in bright sunshine.

Passing through the Rockies, after about an hour we went through the world famous two spiral tunnels to take us down to the river bed level, which we pretty much followed via three rivers and two lakes to Vancouver.

Leaving the mountains behind we entered a semi arid area for our overnight stop at Kamloops. 

 Luggage was transferred directly to our hotel room, but they managed to lose my case for about an hour!

Early next morning, we set off again to travel along the bank of Kamloop lake until we reached the Thompson River , then Fraser River, which we followed all the way down to Vancouver. 

On the way, the two railway systems- Canadian Pacific and Canadian National intersected at a two level bridge crossing, with trains travelling in opposite directions on both bridges across the river.

There was absolutely stunning mountain and river scenery for mile after mile until we reached the plains just outside Vancouver.  

We were really sad to leave the train.  Darren, the host for the last two days was brilliant at his job.