What's It Like To Ride The Rocky Mountaineer?

Join hosts Brian and Will as they explore the journey through the Canadian Rockies aboard the luxurious Rocky Mountaineer train. In this episode, Brian shares his firsthand experience, detailing his two-day trip from Banff to Vancouver, complete with panoramic views, gourmet meals, and exceptional service. Brian discusses Goldleaf service, the practicalities of train travel without Wi-Fi, and the advantages of combining this scenic adventure with an Alaskan cruise. Whether you're a train travel enthusiast or simply seeking inspiration for your next vacation, this episode offers invaluable insights and tips. Tune in and get ready to be transported to the majestic landscapes of the Canadian Rockies. For more travel planning assistance, visit our travel agency! You can read more about the Rocky Mountaineer here. 

Transcript

00:00
Well the travel agents coming to you Tips, tricks, tips, and rhythm bullets just by cruise The travel agents bringing you the latest travel news

00:16
Yeah, man. And speaking of visuals, nothing I've seen quite as visually stimulating as the Canadian Rockies, buddy. It's beautiful. Is that what we're talking about today? Yes, we're talking about the Canadian Rockies because I got to ride the Rocky Mountaineer across the Canadian Rockies. Okay, so please tell me what is the Canadian Mountaineer? I think a good place to start well is the idea, the concept of train travel. Okay. So if you've been to Europe,

00:45
You probably got to ride a train. Europe is so compact. There's beautiful trains, couple hours. You can get from country to country, piece of cake. Coming from the United States, how many times have you been on a train here? I think Boston and New York City, that's about it. Okay, and those are probably, were they just within or were they long distance? I mean, technically they're subway trains. Does that count? Gotcha, so you weren't even going from state to state.

01:13
Right, right, right. Exactly, no air-tightening. There's the show, yet, correct me if I'm wrong, when you lived in Tacoma, you drove across the US a couple times. Yes, twice. Ohio to Washington State, 2,000 plus miles. So we just live in a country where train travel's not as prevalent, you kinda need a car. Yeah, you absolutely do. Unless you live in like Manhattan or something. Yeah, so what is the draw about the Rocky Mountaineer? Well, so many of my clients want to do train travel.

01:43
And let's just start with the US, then we'll get to Canada, and then we'll get to the Rocky Mountaineer. And it's the reason I'm doing that progression. So in the United States, our train service is called Amtrak. Right. And Chicago is our huge hub here in the Midwest. Any big train goes to Chicago, you got to get to Chicago to do your huge long train journey across

02:13
from Chicago out west. It's like a 36 hour train ride. That's crazy, okay. And when the clients come back, Will, they all have the same feedback. Yeah. I don't need to do it again. Is it all with Amtrak? Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, that's it. Okay, that's like who we have, Amtrak, right? All right. So, because the truth is from Chicago out west, like once you start getting to, I don't know, let's say Montana maybe. Sure. It starts getting kind of pretty.

02:42
The scenery? Yeah, gorgeous. Yeah, absolutely. You're getting into the Rockies at that point, right? Yes. But the majority is like cornfields. And it's just not exciting. Not at all. You're gonna watch a lot of YouTubers do it. While the food is nice and the seats are fine, the sleeper cars, you're in bunk beds. Sure. Okay. Then if you go just the country north of us, good old Canada.

03:09
They have their equivalent of Amtrak, it's called Via Rail, spelled V-I-A. Alright. Via Rail takes care of all of Canada, coast to coast. Coast to coast, right? Yeah. Labrador all the way to Vancouver, I don't know. There you go. So like going, now when you're on the East Coast towns, like going from Ottawa to Toronto and Quebec City as well as Montreal, those are all like three hour journeys, that's fine. Okay. Sit, chill out for three hours. Yeah, that's not that bad.

03:38
It's probably not that beautiful, but hey, you're going from one city to the next three hours. Not a big deal. It's efficient. It's fun. I trade. But people want to go from Toronto out west to like Jasper and Banff in Vancouver. A 30, 40 hour ride. Wow. It's that long. Yes. OK. Similarly, the majority of it is boring.

04:03
Cornfields cornfield had they have those in Canada. It's not just snow. It's like Directly north of like, you know, Kansas and Ohio and Indiana. It's like the same thing, right? Oh my gosh Okay, so it's not exciting All right, I give you all that to build up To the most epic train ride you will ever go on in your life. It's that good, huh? That is Well, I've not done

04:32
I've trained through Switzerland, but I've not done the Matterhorn or the... Sure. Well, you're going to be doing the McKinley, right? In Alaska here in a few weeks. Yeah, we'll see how I compare it with Alaska. So, as of my current life, most beautiful hands down. And that is going from Banff, which is in Alberta province, over to Vancouver. It's a two day train ride. You don't sleep on the train. Why not?

05:02
Interesting. Where do you sleep then? You go to... In a hotel. Because this is some of the most gorgeous scenery of your life, Will. You don't want to be sleeping. If you're sleeping, you're missing it. Ah, that's cool. You travel for eight hours a day, two different days. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Right. So Banff to a little town called Kamloops, which is the halfway point. It's the first day. Yeah. And then Kamloops to Vancouver. Two days of train through the Canadian Rockies.

05:29
on the Rocky Mountaineer, it's a special train, it's a luxury train, it's a tourist train. They're not transporting cargo, right? Nothing like that. This is for tourists. All right. And it is absolutely not only luxurious, but it's the most gorgeous scenery of your life. All right, so does it have the glass roof? It's a glass, there's two types of services we'll talk about. One is called gold leaf, one is called silver leaf. All right.

05:58
I got to ride Goldleaf. It was amazing. In Goldleaf, there's two levels to the train. An upper level and a lower. You eat on the lower, you ride and sit on the upper. And just kinda taking the views? The majority are on the upper. It's a glass dome roof. You can look straight up into the sky. That's so cool. So at any point, did you get bored? During the scenic part? I did not get bored and that's saying a lot because on this train,

06:28
There is no wifi. Really? Okay, so you just have to be social and taking the views. Yes, well, and every train car has a tour leader. Okay. And they are on the microphone telling you stories, like a good tour guide telling you jokes, Yeah. giving you a history and in science. And it's actually interesting. Sure. And when they're not doing that,

06:56
They put down the microphone and they bring you drinks, cocktails, beer, wine, snacks, like really good, like those wasabi peanuts. As well as chocolate peanuts, not just peanuts, but other stuff too, right? Yeah, it's just like a whole cornicle of like service. It's just a luxury service to the team. That's actually one of my, no, it's not. You are doted on the whole time. Okay. Hey, that's pretty nice. Being doted on is pretty nice. And I just, I want to touch on the seat before we get into my defining words. All right.

07:25
Talk about the seat and then I have a question in regards to pricing, if you have an idea of what we're looking at for something like this. It's not cheap. I bet, I can tell. All right, so first off, the seat reminds me of a business class seat. You're in kind of like a pod, so when you go to recline, the person behind you is not affected. Your seat doesn't come back because you're in a fixed pod, right? You have a hand control, like a Japanese toilet, with different buttons. One button to kick out your foot rest like a lazy boy.

07:55
All right. One button to lumbar support. One button to recline the seat and push you forward so you can not lie flat totally, but almost. Wow. And another seat warmer button with different levels of seat warmth. Sounds so nice. Yeah. So you're in and it's a big seat. So even if you're a larger person and no problem, I'm six foot three zero issue with leg room or anything like that.

08:24
Alright, that's impressive. So how does it compare to like a first class flight going over to Europe? For first class flight going over to Europe you get to lie flat beds So it's it's probably a wider seat and just as comfortable of a seat The difference is it does not lie flat. They don't want you sleeping. Sure Don't want to accidentally take a snooze No, and I never fell asleep on the train because when I was tempted to I went to the outdoor viewing platform Which we'll talk about that's

08:53
Such one of my highlights. So I'm curious, like something like this, obviously sounds really nice. It sounds luxurious and it also sounds really expensive. Yeah. What is someone looking like? Just the train alone. I just wanna be very clear here cause most people don't just do the train. They add on a couple of days in Vancouver or Banff. They add on some tours. Of course there's the flights and some hotels expenses. Just the two days on the train with the one hotel night in the middle.

09:22
That's it. That's all I'm talking about. Two eight-hour days of train, one hotel night in a town called Kamloops in the middle. Keep in mind on the train the breakfast and lunch. These are full meals are included all the snacks and drinks. Most people don't want to eat dinner because they just get so filled up right during the day. Yeah, that makes sense. Like because dinner's not included but... And you're sitting the entire time so... Yeah, yeah, yeah by 6 p.m. When you get off the train each day, you're like, I don't really need dinner.

09:53
I need it one of the days. No, I mean, it makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just that alone. Mm-hmm. Start, and Gold Leaf, I'm not talking Silver Leaf. All right, so high-end, high-end. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the best one. You're starting at $4,200 per person. Okay, all right. For two days of train with One Night Hotel. Sure, sure. I mean, it's, yeah, that's, it's not the most expensive, but it's not the cheapest either. So what is like Silver Leaf, do you know?

10:22
Well, that's the thing. It's like $3,800 per person. So it's totally worth it. Yeah, it's not that much of a difference. So $3,800 and then what was gold? $4,200 per person. So for $400, you're getting better seats, better experience. Yes, well, now that's just going for two days. If you're gonna fly, in my opinion, from like Ohio, where we are, you're gonna fly out there, you're gonna fly in a couple nights early and see Banff. Are you flying in a Calgary, right? Yes, Calgary airport, very nice. You're gonna maybe spend a night in Lake Louise.

10:51
At the end of it, I kind of fell in love with Vancouver. Yeah, and this is an interesting point. So in terms of like what we're gonna be talking about, we're sticking just with the train and what's going to happen with the train. We are doing an episode on Vancouver and we are also doing an episode on Banff, right? I think I have enough on Banff to talk about a whole episode to be continued. Yeah, we can do like a short one because Banff is really, really cool. A mini. Oh yeah, Banff is awesome. Sure. Okay.

11:19
I love this. I'm really excited to dive a little bit deeper into the train and kind of go over like why you would want to do this outside of the luxury. Let me finish the loop there with that. So the majority of people I sent on this trip, they don't just do the train. They do a couple nights in Banff, maybe one night in Lake Louise. Because you can customize it through Rocky Mountain or you could add on some sightseeing, a couple nights in Vancouver, some sightseeing, as well as flights to and from.

11:49
six to nine thousand per person when all is said and done. You can kind of see how that adds up, right, when you add in all that. So that becomes your full on, full on trip of the Canadian Rockies. That's pretty, honestly, it's expensive. I'm not saying that it's not expensive, but it's a really sweet package when you put everything in together. Like Banff, Rocky Mountaineer, and then Vancouver.

12:13
Now, when I say Vancouver, I want you to think of Alaska because so many, as you know, so many cruises, seven night cruises to Alaska depart from Vancouver. A Vancouver cruise piers a couple blocks from where the Rocky Mountaineer drops off. So if you're due in the Rocky Mountaineer departs around 10 a.m. and that cruise ship gets in at like 7 a.m. So if you're doing the math with me.

12:38
an amazing opportunity is doing your because the Rocky Mount near goes both ways Vancouver to Banff Banff to Vancouver. It you know, you can line it up and they line it up purposely with cruise ships just for this reason. You get off the cruise ship in Vancouver, hop on the train to Banff, right? Or start in Banff, go to Vancouver. And then the next morning get on your cruise to Alaska.

13:05
That sounds so cool and so expensive. That's gotta be like 30 grand then. But notice if you're already dropping, no, cause there are cruises that depart out of Vancouver that are mass market, premium and luxury. Sure, sure. If you look at a mass market cruise out of Vancouver, it could be as little as maybe two grand per person. Okay. Now you add on the cost, the Rocky button, you're like, should be twice as much as that. But now all of a sudden you're at like, you know, 60.

13:33
200 per person for cruise plus two-day train and that way you're only paying for one flight trip out there as opposed to Going back all back another trip makes perfect sense So you have a lot of options when you can start a trip like this You don't have to do it like this, but I mean if you're gonna You're missing out if you're not so I think that I had never thought of the Alaska cruise tie into this Until until this trip and make sense. Yeah, it makes sense

14:02
I'm kind of eager to see how we can make that happen with some clients. All right. So are we good for defining words? Is this our longest intro for in our history until getting into defining words? Yeah, probably. The rest of the episode will go by faster though. Yes. All right. Let's do it.

14:23
Well, I was really glad you asked me if it was boring. My first defining word is a relaxed experience. All right. I went into this knowing I was going to be sitting and staring at mountains. All right, yeah. I think everyone needs to know that, going into it. Prep yourself. Prep yourself, have the mentality, then you're not gonna be bored. All right. This is not a huge draw for children.

14:51
On my particular trip, I happened, I just, children are allowed. I didn't happen to see any children on my trip. That just makes sense. You it's just so gorgeous, the scenery. And there were people on their phones, because when you pass through the little towns of Canada, you can get cell reception for just a blip. OK. Yeah. So people, the moment we went through a little town.

15:17
What's going on on Twitter? Yeah, yeah, people are like quickly like, OK, I got a bar. I got a bar, you know, and I'm just I didn't worry about it.

15:25
What's funny is also because it's a tourist train and the train, even from the outside, it's so beautiful. Sure. I have to put up pictures of how pretty it is. People are waving to you when you go through towns. People come out of their homes, Will, to wave at you. Interesting. How charming is that? That is really charming. You can't help but wave back. It's like a Disney movie. You're smiling. We did get flashed once. I didn't see it. The rest, most of the train did. It was a- Not like a Disney movie. It was a dude drinking a Coors Light and he, yeah. Yeah.

15:55
So like an Adam Sandler movie. There you go. All right, all right. The ladies were cheering and yeah, they thought it was awesome. So you're defining where it is. Relaxed experience. All right, so do they kind of lean into like the luxury concepts? Do they do, obviously we're talking about how they dote on you, they're bringing things, are they bringing like warm towels, are they giving you like, can you get, I don't know, hand massages? Something like what? They have.

16:25
They push down the aisle a cart with freshly brewed coffee and fresh baguettes in the morning, and you can smell it. They have, if it's too warm, they have a portable air conditioning unit in each car to cool it down. Even the glass dome has these cool sensors where it can darken if it's too bright. All right. Yeah. It's interesting. That's very cool. And when it's time for, when it's time to eat.

16:55
You walk down the steps. I'm in Goldleaf service. Don't book Silverleaf. I'm sorry if you've already booked it. Don't do it. Silverleaf, you sit in your seat the entire time. They feed you at your seat, which might sound nice, but you end up just sitting in your seat, which is not as comfortable. No cool hand controls, no lazy boy foot rest. You just sit in your seat and there's no glass dome, just big windows. On Goldleaf, you have two floors.

17:25
full dome, a beautiful leg rest, hand controls, heated seat. And then when it's time for lunch and dinner, you walk down the steps and they have booths set up, white tablecloths, beautiful place settings, and you order off a menu. Awesome, all right. So they really do like provide a huge amount of food. It's the most delicious food. I would expect for the price point. Yes. All right, so what's your next defining word?

17:55
Spoiled. Like the food is just so good. And then any drink you want, like you really have that you have that flavor sparkling water. You have that kind of cocktail. You have that many beers, that many types of wine. It's all included in the price. Easy. I was just about to ask that. So it includes the price. You're not ever asking for your credit card whatsoever once you're on that train. Totally spoiled.

18:23
Remind me again the length of how many days you're on the train, two days? You're on it for two days, eight hours each day. Now some people want, no, I will say this, any client I talk to say, Brian, we loved it. It was awesome. After the second eight hour day, I'm good. I had the same exact experience, Will. After my 16th hour, I was good. I didn't need any more time. Some people choose to do what's called a round trip journey, where they go from Banff to

18:52
would be four eight hour days. I've not personally booked that for anyone, but I suppose for train connoisseurs, that might be something they want. Right up their alley. All right, okay. Spoiled, you're weighted on hand and foot. It's just incredible. And Will, my final defining word, of course, is the views. It's hard to do it justice, Will. I want you to try though. Imagine the most biggest.

19:22
mountain you've ever seen. And you think, well, surely that's the only one that could exist. And then once you train past it, you see another one that's equal, if not bigger. And you go, oh my gosh, there's two mountains that big in this world. Two mountains that huge. I'm looking straight up into the sky. I can't believe it. There's not just two, Will.

19:48
It goes on for eight hours as far as the eye can see and they keep getting bigger. And you're going, are you kidding me? This exists? And there's beautiful glacier waterfalls throughout it. And there's beautiful streams. And you're just so amazed. That's so cool. Is it the Rocky Mountain Range then? All the Rocky Mountains. Canadian Rockies, right? Canadian Rockies. Yeah. Okay. It's so incredible.

20:16
man, these are beautiful, beautiful videos. Sometimes, I did have, I went in April. So the tree, like the last week of April, first week of May, the trees were not exactly, the evergreens were evergreen.

20:33
I've heard some people say the trees were like in July, the trees were so big on both sides of the train tracks, it blocked their view of the Rockies. Oh wow. At points, not the whole time, there's too much, but at points. That was interesting. I didn't quite know what to say. Let's drop those trees. Get to work Canada. You guys are already struggling with those fires now. Let's get fracking and let's get cutting down those trees. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

21:02
I don't know anything about fracking. All right, those are my three defining words. Are you ready for any questions before highs and lows? No. Okay, I'm ready. All right. It's highs, lows, highs, lows, oh no.

21:27
My first high is Doris. What is Doris? Well, she's in her seventies, I think. Doris or Betty, Doris or Betty, I forget. Let's just say Doris. All right, all right, all right. She lives in one of the little teeny Canadian towns that you cross like 12 hours into your trip. Okay. She and her dogs come out to wave at every Rocky Mountaineer train. That's adorable.

21:57
past. Yeah, they've not missed one in like 20 years or something. Dang, you will see her every single time she comes out to wave. Rocky Mountaineer is this a special company, by the way, I'm very pro this company. They wanted to bless her. And they gave her a free trip on the Rocky Mountaineer. And initially will she declined it. Do you know why? No, she said, if I'm on the train,

22:25
No, this is gonna make me cry. No, nobody will be there to wave at the train when it comes past from my doorstep. That's how passionate she was. And they said, we're gonna take care of it. And they sent like six Rocky Mountain, your team members to stand on her porch in a way about the train as it passed. Isn't that precious? That's adorable. I mean, that's just adorable. It's like so touching. Yeah, yeah.

22:47
That's so cool. My next high is Gold Leaf Service. So I had the ability to walk through Silver Leaf just to see it. It's total garbage. Yeah, we're kidding. It's trash. I mean, it's just once you. Oh, man, I just want to be so clear at how cool the dome top is, how cool it is to walk downstairs to your meals, how cool it is to have the most luxury seat. Silver Leaf was all I can say is it looked fine.

23:17
Just picture the video like the kid did please sir. I have some more It's like as I need getting fat back here. I'm kidding. They do get fat, right? They get fat. They get fed They get fed similar meals, but it's to their seats. So they don't get they don't they have They order meals at their seat and they sit imagine like um When you're on an airplane and you pull down the tray rest from the seat in front of you. All right

23:47
and you have your luxury meal on the fat. I got to walk downstairs to a private dining car with beautiful booths and white tablecloth with where I got to really enjoy camaraderie with people facing me. And we had a blast, got to meet new friends. Do they have the glass dome? And so relief. No, just large windows. For $400, that's big of an upgrade. Dude. They did that on purpose. I love it. You have to do it.

24:13
I learned this 70% of the train is gold leaf. I mean, that makes perfect sense. Yeah, it should be like 95, it seems like. The next high was the views. I think I already kind of touched on that. It's cool. Different mountains even have different names. Like tabletop mountain. No, that's South Africa, sorry. Castle mountain, that's one. Cool name, cool name. And then there's others I forget. But that's kind of cool. There's a lot of mountains, a lot of once in a while. So many, more than the eye can see, yeah.

24:43
Is there a month that's better to go than others since July? The tourist season is April through October. I went early May, late April, and it was just wonderful. I'm also okay with cooler weather. I didn't mind 60s during the day. I like that. Yeah, that would definitely be really nice during the summer to have that. Do they get affected by the wildfires at all? The wildfires were very up north. Yeah, because they're north of us and we're kind of in the... Yeah, I don't know.

25:12
if they were affected or not. All right, all right. My next high was the staff. Jonas was my particular group, no, train. Group leader? Train staff lead, yeah. Okay, yeah. So he was on the microphone sharing stories, doing tidbits. He had two assistants who helped with serving and drinks and stuff, snacks and then food and stuff. Shout out to Jonas. Yeah.

25:42
It was great. Cool. Just like a lot of good energy and just kind of funny. Oh my gosh, fun, approachable, would remember who you were and come to your seat and even ask you questions and stuff. Were they all like that? Did you get a feel for it? Absolutely. Wow, that's cool. It's kind of like Disney in that they're gonna hire. That kind of service. Yeah, people who are just a little more friendly. Like me, I'd be perfect for it. You would be perfect for it. Yes. Just kidding.

26:09
You'd be perfect. My next high was Vancouver. Now we'll do a Vancouver podcast, but I did fall in love with Vancouver. I like, I like those is a cool West coast city. Sure. Little sneak peek. What was one of your favorite things about Vancouver? Uh, the diversity and scenery and people. Uh, so it's, it's West coast. So you have a lot of Asians and a lot of Asian influence with food. Yeah. I was just about to ask. I know you had a really good experience with a restaurant there.

26:35
Korean fusion and Japanese. I told you about the best Japanese food I ever had in my life. Oh my gosh, it was like, oh, I'll find that restaurant and Google the name of that dish before the next Vancouver episode. Cause it was very Japanese. Wow, yeah. Okay, all right, we'll get that info. And then I liked how you had city, but you also had the ocean, and you also had rainforest nearby and mountains.

27:03
Yeah, man, all that together. Pacific Northwest is crazy. Like it is crazy. I mean, and the mayor did something recently where what did he do? He she I don't know. I just learned that. OK, I guess for years the I think it's called the Lower East Side of Vancouver has been the sketchy area. All right. Kind of. You may or may not agree with this, but I guess what I learned is that they just kind of pushed it further away.

27:33
So I felt extremely safe in the city. I also did not see, you know, sadness. It wasn't Seattle is what you're saying. Yes, that's what I'm getting at. Which is why I think you would love Vancouver. Yeah. Because you love the scenery of Seattle, but you didn't like the- It's my least favorite city. Washingtonians are very nice people though. I really do like Washington people.

28:03
My next high was Banff. Banff is this kind of cool, kind of like a tourist, like a ski town. You would go there, yeah, because they have lots of mountains for skiing. They have hot springs, love the hot springs, beautiful views, gorgeous hotels, and this quaint little town with really fun food and shopping, and it's picturesque. It is gorgeous. Yeah, and you drive in, it's, you're just like, you see all the mountains, they're very.

28:32
The mountains even look cozy the way they're all kind of compact surrounding the little town. It's just great. I went to a place called Boston Pizza. It's a chain. Boston Pizza. Interesting. It's like they're a pizza hut. But it was new and foreign to me. And delicious pizza, I got a tall beer, and I watched a hockey game. Yeah. Although, it was like Detroit versus Houston. I was like, oh, that's lame.

29:01
Where are the maple leaves? I guess there's like more hockey teams in the US. The US. All right. Because it's a money thing at the end. Sure. I sat next to a local Alberta guy who went off on hockey and all that. He was very interesting. Yeah. And he got very, yeah. Even hockey is very political when it comes to, it's a money thing. I know. He was so interesting to talk to. Yeah. All right. Anyways, my last high. This is about the Canadian, this is about the Rocky Mountain. You had the train I was on.

29:31
was the outdoor viewing platform. So when you walk down the stairs, I explained that's the dining car, but off the back, there's an outdoor viewing platform where you go out there and it's open air. You can stick your head off the train and get the wind blowing through your hair. Amazing pictures. It's a very refreshing. I bet that mountain air, cool mountain air. It's so different. You can taste it. It's good. And you can just, I hung out there.

30:00
I would say of everyone on the train, I was probably there the most. Yeah, I'd say probably 50% of the time we were just waiting. I was out there because I just loved it. I wouldn't. I don't blame you. That sounds amazing. So I'd be there to do trains are going by the other way. And they're probably 10 feet away from you. OK, so it's a safe distance. OK, OK. But it feels like they're right there. I. Yeah. And you can stick your head out and just watch the trains. We get the tap into your inner dog. It's like, all right, I get it. I get it. I get why they do this.

30:29
Ah yeah. Okay, are we ready for some lows? Yeah, what were your least favorite things? Well, my first low was silver leaf service. Total garbage, total trash. Gotta be absolutely dirt poor to ride it. No, I'm sorry. Silver leaf seemed fine, but for that cost difference that we talked about. It's so minimal. I mean, it's a lot. You're paying that much. For a person, it's a lot, but. No, no, no, it's not. After you're paying that much, pay it.

30:59
Yeah, and if it's in if gold leaf isn't available on a certain date don't go that date because This is a one-and-done trip in my opinion. Definitely. It's not like a repeat thing and no one's not like it I don't see people repeating maybe like every like 30 years or something or if it's just someone who's so into trains Okay, because this really draws the train enthusiast. I Make sense. I mean, it's like historically like one of the top like what like five most beautiful scenic trains in the world gotta be

31:28
My next low would be, and this is something that like you can't prepare for, train delays. So here's why. There were times, Will, where there's only, there's like one track they built. All right. Okay. There can be trains coming the other way. Did you know that? No. And they have train pull-offs where the train pulls off so another train can come by. So they're not playing a game of chicken? No.

31:56
Soft. Canadian. Hypersensitive when it comes to safety, unfortunately. That'd be fun, right? They pull off. The problem is they're not doing it like last time. We'll just pull off like three, you know, 30 feet before you can get in. No, no, no. Yeah. It's like the other train's three miles away. Okay. And it might be a hundred cars long. But then...

32:20
The one behind it is 30 minutes behind it, but there's not another pull off between those two. So you have to just wait. And so the, it's funny, cause they don't actually know. There's so many trains, it's hard to tell and different. So many things could, it's like flights. Yeah, but there's no air traffic controller. It's just some guy. Oh, good point, good point. And so like a train could be, like a flight could, you know, like a flight can go off on time, but then like there could be an issue with like a passenger or crew member on board or a pilot.

32:49
and now a flight's delayed an hour, and that's a snowball effect of affecting other flights, landing times, similarly with trains, but it's, I think, so, it's pretty severe. So for example, in Vancouver, supposed to leave at 8 a.m., get there at five, or 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., right? Simple. Okay. We had one train pull off, because we're just a touristic train. We have to give way.

33:17
to the trains who were actually like logging emergency supplies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can't chew on the supply train. Right, and like perishable goods. So once the most we did, and even the staff said, this is kind of crazy because in all of last year we never had one this long. We had to wait for three trains to go by. How long did that take? Three hours. Ooh. And what happened was we were supposed to get in at five and that wasn't the only pull off of the day.

33:47
Now you're taking it. We got in at 9.45 PM. We were supposed to get in at 5 PM. They had enough food on board to feed us dinner because they felt guilty. They had to. You have to feed us dinner, right? Sure. And they don't normally feed dinner. It's not a thing. They had enough food. They did. It was a good dinner. That's crazy. Three hours. Yeah, yeah. Just for that one. Right. And there were another couple throughout the time, the day. So instead of getting in at 5 PM, we got in at 9.30 PM.

34:16
So people who had like evening Vancouver plans forget about it. We didn't get to our hotel until 10. So. Yeah, that would definitely put a day for everything. That's not the norm, but that's just something you can't plan for. You just have to. Yeah, you just kind of have to accept it. Yeah. All right, so then we're good for tips now. I'm ready for tips. Tips from the travel agents. My first tip is the train experience of itself while it's so great, it's only two days.

34:46
So add, if you're spending the money to fly out there and you're spending all the money for the train, make it a full week trip. Yeah, take advantage of it. Spend some time in Banff. Definitely, because you don't have to pay, you just pay for the hotels, like you're not paying. Do you have to pay for parking? Maybe some sightseeing. Parking? Banff. Like if you were to rent a car, you mean? I mean like, if you go to like one of the national parks, or go to like, what's the famous lake in Banff? Lake Louise is like 45 minutes from Banff. Yeah.

35:17
Like if you were on a sightseeing tour that would all be included if you go by yourself and you're not part of a sightseeing tour you I'm glad you brought this up you do have to purchase a national park pass okay same way I had a super Zaya national park and stuff like that so they're just as big as sticklers as the us national park good for them make that money and it's it's kind of pricey it's seventy three dollars

35:45
person. Oh wow, that is pricey. It's called the Canada Discovery Pass and you get a lot. So going into Banff, everyone has to have the pass no matter what. It's just that when you buy the Rocky Mountain near, they give you the pass. Oh, that's nice. So it's benefits to, yeah, well you're paying a lot of money. Sure. Benefits to going early.

36:11
to Banff, Vancouver. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You don't have to worry about, that's one nice, I guess, thing, is you don't have to pay extra for the pass. In your final trip documents, they email you your Banff pass, which they encourage you to print out, because they ask for it. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. You can show it on your phone. Yeah, so definitely plan a pre and post. Yeah, spend some time in Vancouver as well. It's a cool city. They have this in Vancouver, this will be on our Vancouver podcast, this sightseeing thing called Flyover Vancouver.

36:40
Have you done those flyovers before? I'm not sure if you've done one. I did one in Disney. And I guess there's one at Disney World called Fly Over America now. Oh, okay. Yeah. I know what you're talking about. You sit in a simulation. Yeah, it's a simulation. It's not like an actual plane or anything. No, no, no, no. Yeah, those are really cool. Kind of like an iMac screen. It's a 4D experience. They hit you with a spray of water, some different scents. But this one, you're just flying all over Canada. Okay. Okay. Well, I guess Fly Over Vancouver is going to be the next one, but Canada.

37:10
No, no, no, no. Flyover Chicago is gonna be their next one. Isn't that cool? That is cool. There's one in Pigeon Forge, I believe. I believe. It's a cool concept. It is a really cool concept. I really enjoy it. They're gonna make a lot of money quickly. They're fun, they're fun. They're expensive, but fun. My next tip is go gold leaf. Hopefully I don't have to really explain any fair more reason why. I think I made my point pretty clear. My next tip is, okay, the other train line in Canada is called Via Rail.

37:39
That would be just like Amtrak. It's more utilitarian. People use it to get from point A to point B. Kind of like how people who live in New York City might go to Boston for a meeting, right? They're not a tourist train. All business. The Rocky Mountaineer is a tourist train. It's not purpose, it's not practical. Not for $4,000. No, no. Maybe for a select few.

38:09
We're talking about the Rocky Mountaineer. That's what you want to talk to your travel agent about. Say, hey, I heard a podcast about this most gorgeous, epic luxury train called the Rocky Mountaineer. I want on it. Or a shameless plug. Just reach out to us and we'll plan it for you. Ooh la la, absolutely. My next tip, some people want to train across Canada, like the way they want to train across the US. Sure. I guess...

38:38
You know what, before I give my opinion, I've only flown across the states, never trained across and have never driven across. Will, you were one of my few friends who has driven, who has driven across the United States of America. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure some of it was gorgeous. Yeah, it was cool. I liked it. What? What was, give a quick,

39:08
If someone said I want to drive across the US, I assume it would be similar to training across the US in terms of views. What would you tell them? Let's say they were like dreaming of this. Yeah, you really have to enjoy driving. Like there's a distinct difference between train and car. Like I think there has to be an element of like some passion, like not passion. Passion is not the right word. I'm not passionate about driving around, but like I don't mind driving at all. So I would imagine.

39:38
going by train, the perk would be that you don't have to worry about like driving. It's all taken care of for you. I would imagine there's wifi on the train. At the very least you can take it back. On the Amtrak? Yeah. Probably. Yeah. Probably. So like that's pretty nice. Like I think for a majority of people, going by train is going to be a lot better. Free wifi on Amtrak. Yeah. But the perk of driving is that you can select.

40:05
the route that you go so that you can put in those scenic places. Like, we went through Kansas and I mean Kansas is not historically a scenic place, but I was still like, like my mind was still kind of blown by how flat it was. Like it was a cool experience to be like, oh yeah, this truly is very flat. Again, it's not like a scenic thing. It was just kind of like, all right, this is kind of interesting. And then kind of just seeing like the different cultural things that are in Kansas.

40:35
A little bit, yeah, a little bit. And then like half of Colorado is like that. Iceland was just incredible. Yeah. Because there's mountains at the end of the flatness. Exactly, yeah. Kansas probably didn't. It's just like, I don't know how to explain it. There's still like a massive scale to it. Like, I don't know how, it's interesting. I would like to see that. Yeah, it's interesting, but it's not like, you don't go to, that's the perk of driving across versus train, is that you can select the route while train it's just probably not going to be scenic for the most part.

41:06
What I was getting at with that, and I think you're touching this too, is it may not be necessary to train across all of Canada or all of the United States. I just want to go back to after 16 hours just going through the Rockies, if you go to a map and you go bamf to Vancouver, will it look so tiny? It's like, oh, that's all you did? Canada is so wide. You only did this little fingernail of it. And it's like, yeah, but I was...

41:34
It was amazing, but I was done. Sure. I think with the concept of taking a train across a country, like a large scale country, is to be able to stop at locations and not have to worry about writing a car. I think that's what's so interesting about the Trans-Siberian Railway. I'm not interested in taking a long train and I'm not condoning Russia or anything like that. But the Trans-Siberian Railway.

41:58
There's something about it that I'm like that would be kind of cool to go from start to finish on a chance I mean in real way and see everything imagine who you would meet Yeah, sure in with the amount that people probably drink. Yeah, it becomes. Yeah, very social sure Yeah, exactly. I don't know. Yeah, I think there's a there's a really interesting YouTube channel called bald and bankrupt Have you heard of him before? Did he go across the transseveral? Yeah, he does like a lot with the front. I think so

42:27
So like, I can't remember. He very much like travels to places that people don't typically go to. So he's done before the war and everything like that. He was doing a lot of like post-Soviet locations and he did the Trans-Siberian stuff. So if you're interested in something like that, that could be a good checkout for you. There you go, there you go. All right, let's keep rolling with these tips. Next tip, seasonal. So the Rocky Mountaineer, it makes sense. That's all right. Yeah.

42:57
Although, I wonder what it would look like in January. That's a good question. Is there like a risk of avalanches in any capacity? I don't know, but did you know about ice crusher trains that go in front of trains? Yes. You hear about this? Snowpiercer. Yeah. It's like a view. Oh, really? Is it a movie? Yeah, it's a good movie. Oh, cool. Yeah. I guess it makes sense. It has to happen.

43:26
Sure. They have to have this. There's that much snow in Canada, in parts of the US. It's just one massive industrial strength train car with like, how would you describe it? Like a snow plow thing. It's sharper. It's impressive just to look at. Yeah, it is really cool and really interesting. For sure. I didn't know those were like legit things. I'm just picturing the snowpiercer train from Snowpiercer, the movie. It's a sci-fi movie. But like, sci-fi movie. You'll have to check it out. It's good.

43:55
Okay, I'm ready for standby items. Let's do it. It's safety and other info. It's standby items. Here we go. All right, standby items. All right, cool, cool, cool. So just some little random thoughts. So random, like the food is so good for breakfast and lunch on the Rocky Mount near train. Okay. That like you don't, but you can only pick like one entree.

44:22
But you want to try everything. Yeah. But if you get two days, they're gonna give you the same menu the next day. So you have to be selective. FOMO. Well, it's okay. If there's two things you really wanna try, just get one one day and then you can get the next one. Sure, sure. It's a really good tip. Nice. Nice tip. Next, standby items. Tipping is not included on the train. Okay, do you tip Canadians? They recommend.

44:50
For after you paid this much money couldn't they just include it? Oh, well, that's a different it's a good question Yeah, for sure. Okay. I'm just a messenger. They recommend 40 US dollars per person per day for all that once per yeah It goes to everyone. Yeah, cuz you're out for two days Sure So your budget an extra 80 bucks per person what you put an envelope and on the last day when you're exiting In either Vancouver or Banff you hand it to the director

45:20
make sure it gets split up between the cooks and the crew. How many people are on this train? Well, there's only three assistants who serve you drinks and talk on the microphone and food. But then the cooks in the, like, whatchamacallit car, the dining car, I counted about 10. Oh, okay. So it's not like, well, fat stacks of cash. That's just your car. Okay, okay. We had, I think it was 70 in our car.

45:48
So then but there's so many cars so they okay Wow No, yeah, cuz that's like 30 went down at a time It seems like a system that could be improved upon. I I feel like that's kind of like just go bad at some point Like the next heist movie is gonna be about robbing the tips at the end of the trade. That's a good point Yeah, how was the security? I don't really You know most people did not want dinner

46:14
because it was so much food for breakfast and lunch and all the snacks and drinks. You stop in this little town called Kamloops. All right. It's the halfway point. Can you spell that? Do you know how to spell it? K-A-M-L-O-O-P-S, but that's actually one of them. The one night there, it's nothing to write home about. It's a very basic little town. I'm not saying I've never heard of it. No, no, no, no. It's just the, they basically, this is the halfway point of the train. We gotta stop in some town. So they built a Mary out there.

46:44
It puts you in for the night. And a bunch of people went to the Grateful Pig. Grateful Dead? Is it a band or a restaurant? A restaurant. Oh, okay, not the Grateful Dead. I was like, they went to a Grateful Dead concert. All right, good for them. The Noble Pig. All right. The Noble Pig is the famous restaurant in downtown Kamloops that people who do want dinner, right? Yeah, they go there. You go there to get your barbecue.

47:13
Ooh, sign me up. I went across the street to get a Chinese. And it was really mediocre. Should have went to the Grand Pig, the noble pig, the noble pig. Just I didn't want to go out with everyone. I had been so social on the train. Yeah, like eight hours for feeling burned out. Crazy. I want to go to the hotel, watch YouTube and just eat. Yes. Yes. All right. Besides that Marriott.

47:41
When it comes to hotels in Canada, Fairmont has a ton of hotels. When you hear the term Fairmont, well, I want you to think best of the best. Oh really, so we're not talking holiday yet? No, Fairmont, it's like five plus stars. How's it compared to like something like the Four Seasons? Competitor.

48:04
Wow, that's really nice. The best one is before and after your train, you can stay in Vancouver has three Fairmont hotels. Okay. Banff has one, Lake Louise has one, Calgary has one, lots of opportunities to stay in Fairmonts and Rocky Mountaineer, cause they'll help you customize before and after the train ride. Okay. They work with Fairmont hotels and they can put you in these ones. Will, I want you to have a look at the,

48:33
beautiful hotels. I never stay there, but it reminds me of the Shining. I did go in there and have lunch. I had a delicious grilled cheese and tomato soup. It's called the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Will, just look at it. Does it look like Castle-ish? Is that not the Shining building? It's not. They say it's oftentimes it's used as like a, like a, maybe it was given blank towards it.

48:59
Do we have a rough idea? Obviously, prices fluctuate as seasons go and as years go. And the off season, I sold it to a couple for 600 per night. I was about to look, so it's about a four seasons price. Correct. During the peak season, I've seen it start at 900 to 1,000 per night. All right, so exactly like the four seasons.

49:16
But then there's in 45 minutes away is Lake Louise, the Fairmont Hotel there. Will, look how it overlooks Lake Louise. How gorgeous. Ludicrous. That's gorgeous. There's three or four restaurants inside. I mean, these Fairmont hotels, they're doing something right. They're gorgeous. The service is impeccable. That's crazy. They're beautiful. I've never sold Canada, so I'm not well versed on Canada. Yeah. Well, now there are Fairmonts within the United States and other parts of the world. I've just noticed that Fairmont, I don't know if it's a Canadian, if it started in Canada.

49:45
if their headquarters are in Canada. But it's just, the hotels in Canada are amazing. That's cool, that's cool. All right, next. On the train, alcohol's included. They do not start serving the alcohol until about 11 a.m. So you'll get your fill, but I guess they just wanna keep it somewhat classy. I don't know. You can drink, but you have to drink with your lunch.

50:11
I think I mentioned this, there's no wifi on the train. It's funny when we got on, Jonas, our cool guy, he said, okay everyone, the wifi password is the gorgeous window on your right and left. All right. Nice, Jonas, nice. All right. On Goldleaf, remember, Goldleaf is two stories, Silverleaf is just one, you sit in your seat the whole time in silver, and Goldleaf, it's two stories. The majority of the time, you're sitting upstairs with your super cozy seat.

50:41
looking straight up and into the sides of your 360, 360, yeah, glass dome car. When it's time to go downstairs to eat, it's like a kind of like a winding staircase. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, luxury. There is a good handrails and the steps, I had little old ladies who were doing fine. Okay, that's nice. However, for those with disabilities, they have a little elevator. All right. And your whole wheelchair can go on it and take you up.

51:10
I didn't get to see it work because in my particular train car there was no one who had a physical disability. All right. But they could accommodate. That's cool. You do have to notify the Rocky Mountaineer agent ahead of time that you have someone with a wheelchair. They're going to get some specs for that wheelchair, but they're going to be able to accommodate it both manual and electric wheelchairs. Should we preface by saying we are not sponsored by the Rocky Mountaineer? Or are we? I'm just kidding. No, we're not. We're not sponsored by them.

51:40
So the big controversial question, is it better to go the route I did, Banff to Vancouver, or Vancouver to Banff? Spicy, what you take?

51:53
Speaking as you can only have done you've only done one. Okay, I will say this The first day is Banff to Kamloops what I did that is by far the most epic mountain range You'll ever see in your life. Okay, so it's kind of downhill from there a little bit. Well, but here's the thing Well, Kamloops to Vancouver had so much more water features the cool waterfalls and the cool rivers and amazing like lakes to go by

52:23
It was still mountainous. It was really cool. So it kind of just depends on how you want to end the trip. I've had clients say, you should go Vancouver to Banff because it gets more epic as the day goes on, as the journey goes on. Okay. You end with the most epic. Yeah, I can picture that. My thought is, you have the most energy at the beginning of your trip.

52:51
So do you want that energy spent in Banford you want to spend in Vancouver? Banff is a very active is a very active. Yes, the outdoorsy kind of you know, Vancouver You can kind of just like you could chill. Yeah, you can chill go to like I I think it's like do you like what do you like better cake or ice cream? Well, you may have an opinion of that ice cream. All right. I'm just saying like both are good. So I I

53:20
I would just say whatever date works and you can get gold leaf for sure. Is there an ice cream cake situation here? Or? I was not disappointed with my cam loops to Vancouver eight hours. That's cool. Yeah, it sounds like it's a really good time. Yeah. All right, my last standby item. So, so many Rocky Mountain-er guests, the guest satisfaction levels, like through the roof high, okay, in the upper 90s. Yeah.

53:49
through like Trustpilot and whatnot or whatever form they use. So, so many guests want to do more. Rocky Mountaineer. Problem is they've already done that maybe once or twice. They're like, how do we do more? Yeah. So I think this is only two or three years old. Rocky Mountaineer sent a couple train cars and staff to the United States and I'm proud to present

54:19
The Rocky Mountaineer is now going Rockies to the Red Rocks from Denver to Moab or Moab to Denver. Same idea, Will. Two eight-hour days with a one-night stop in Glenwood Springs, which I've never heard of. I've never heard of it. Colorado? Colorado or Utah. I don't know where it is. Where is Glenwood Springs? But whatever it is, it's just a town to overnight in. Oh, it's in Colorado. Very good.

54:45
It actually looks like kind of a big town. Yeah, it's pretty big. I thought it was kind of a bigger city. I had never heard of it. So, but no more snow covered mountains. You have the Red Rocks. That's pretty cool. When I got to go to Utah in, excuse me, in Utah and Arizona for our, I think that's episode number three we did. Yeah, Southwest Journey. Three or four, I forget. That was, it looks like that. All beautiful Red Rocks.

55:14
Sedona is pretty the only downside with that is they did not send over her any gold leaf cars No, Rocky Bountaineer. What are you doing? They only sent the US silver leaf cars Wow They're like, you know what you guys have everything else So I have a travel agent buddy who was on it last week. I sent me a lot of pictures. Okay Silver leaf. Yeah, there's no there's no dome. There's no multiple levels

55:42
But what I did not know is that on the Rockies of the Red Rocks, they have what's called a silver leaf lounge. And that had really cool sofas and really cool chairs and a little bar. And that actually looked pretty epic. I was I was impressed. That sounds cool. They classed it up for that. I would be hanging out there probably 80 percent of the time. So I was impressed. So I've not gotten to do it. Said I had a buddy who experienced that he his pictures were awesome. You know, that area is gorgeous, right?

56:10
It's red rock. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely gorgeous. Yeah, I do one of the coolest parts of the United States for sure Well, did I did I successfully sell you on the Rocky Mountaineer experience? I was curious because when you say I'm gonna talk about a train today. I was like, oh boy This is gonna be real exciting No, this was really cool. I'm actually really impressed I've heard a lot of really good things about some really cool scenic trains Yeah, and I haven't had an experience on one yet

56:38
And you're getting a lot of experience on it because you're going to be going on the McKinley one, like I said earlier, which is also a really famous one. Go into Alaska in about five days. Yeah. So get ready for the Alaska episode here in a few. I can't wait. Yeah. Thank you, everyone, so much for watching and or listening. Either one's fine. We just love it that you enjoy our content and find it engaging and interesting to listen to. For whatever platform you're on, I would please, please, please encourage you. Could you just write us a little comment?

57:09
It could be criticism or we prefer encouragement. It's preferred, but. It just, whenever we get a notification that we have a new comment, it really means a lot to us. And I know every podcast says that, but I've never been on this side of the microphone before saying it. And I can actually say it does mean a lot. So it only takes but a minute. Please, please drop us that comment. Yeah. And I'm going to address the nation here and say that we are off the hiatus starting

57:38
Now we are going back to continuous updates and continuous episodes. Um, we got a lot of really cool stuff in the works, a lot of really exciting episodes, uh, coming out soon. And if you have questions about the Rocky mountain year, we are travel agents, we can help you. Um, yeah, we can at least answer any questions that you might have. That's a freebie and, uh, see if, you know, if there's anything that we can do. And if you enjoyed the podcast, if you enjoyed the episode, like Brian said, let us know. Uh,

58:07
give us some feedback whether it's positive or negative. Any way that we can make this better and make this a better viewing slash listening experience, that is our ultimate goal. Thanks guys, and Brian, do you have anything else?

58:20
Visit Canada, visit the Rocky Mountains, you will not regret it. Oh Canada.