Recommend March 2011 - (Page 73)

Opposite page: Via Rail’s The Canadian is featured in Tauck World Discovery’s Grand Canadian Rockies itinerary. cious and with reclining seats and large picture windows—with meals served right at their seats. The company’s Rocky Mountaineer & Winery Tour is an 8-day jaunt along the Okanagan Valley, home to more than 100 wineries. Clients hop on the Rocky Mountaineer to get to Kamloops, British Columbia, where they begin their exploration of North and South Okanagan’s wine country, visiting seven leading wineries and indulging in wine-paired lunches and dinners. They’ll then hop back on the train to Banff, where they spend two nights enjoying their gorgeous surroundings from the ground and from the sky with a 12-minute helicopter tour before wrapping up their adventure in Calgary. The Rocky Mountaineer & Winery Tour departs from Vancouver on June 16 and Sept. 8 and is priced at $4,699 for RedLeaf Service and $5,499 for GoldLeaf Service. For a longer jaunt, there’s the 17-day Coast to Coast by Rail, Westbound tour, which includes two days on the Rocky Mountaineer plus four nights on board VIA Rail Canada, enjoying cozy private cabins. The trip visits Halifax, Montreal, Toronto (with a tour of Niagara Falls), Jasper, Lake Louise, Banff and Vancouver and starts at $4,849 pp. “This trip is the perfect introduction for anyone interested in experiencing the romance of rail travel,” says Armstrong. “The single overnight gives travelers a great sense of what it’s all about, without forcing them to commit more than one night of their vacation to train travel. It’s a special and memorable component of a very popular itinerary for us, and it’s perfectly complemented by overnights in four incredible Fairmont properties.” westerly trails Clients with a taste for the Old West and a love of the rails will want to know about Uncommon Journeys’ The Great Trains of the American West, with only three departures this year (June, July and August). It’s an old-fashioned adventure evoking the black-and-whites of the past, with scenic daytime train rides aboard some of the most famous locomotives still running today. Guests spend two nights in Denver and explore Rocky Mountain National Park before visiting Colorado Springs, then head to Manitou Springs for a ride on board the Manitou Cog Railroad to the top of Pikes Peak. From Canon City, they’ll board the Royal Gorge Route Railroad to get amazing views of Royal Gorge, disembarking to ride the incline railway up to the park. After an overnight in the mining town of Alamos, it’s off to Chama, New Mexico, over the Cumbres Pass aboard the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. The next day, clients will board the Durango & Silverton Railroad from Durango through the San Juan Mountains and San Juan National Forest and get some down time in Ouray, Colorado, before spending the night at Grand Junction. On day eight, it’s all about the Heber Valley Railroad through Provo Canyon and a spa visit in hot mineral pools before boarding the Great Western Limited, Uncommon Journeys’ own 1940s-style streamliner, for an overnight jaunt from Provo to Sacramento via the Overland Route of the Union Pacific Railroad. Here they’ll indulge in a champagne and chocolate reception and rest well in Pullman accommodations. The next day, they’ll continue over the Transcontinental Railroad and tackle the gorgeous Sierra Nevada Mountains, then arrive in Sacramento for a 2-night stay that includes a visit to the California State Railroad Museum and a farewell dinner on the Delta King riverboat. The 11-day trip starts at $2,795 pp. n Archived related articles (available on recommend.com): Rail Travel Through Western Canada (January 2010) contact information Rocky Mountaineer: (877) 460-3200; rockymountaineer.com Tauck World Discovery: (800) 788-7885; tauck.com Uncommon Journeys: (800) 323-5893; uncommonjourneys.com ain’t it grand On Tauck World Discovery’s Grand Canadian Rockies itinerary, clients enjoy the highlights of Vancouver, ferry over to Victoria where they spend two nights and then enjoy a “flightseeing” floatplane excursion over the Gulf Islands before hopping on VIA Rail’s The Canadian, which offers both single and double rooms. “Our guests board The Canadian after dinner, followed by a champagne send-off. They enjoy an overnight aboard the train, and the following day (day five), they experience a stunning rail journey through the Cariboo and Rocky Mountain ranges,” says Tom Armstrong, Tauck’s marketing communications manager. “Our guests enjoy breakfast and lunch on the train—which has been recently renovated—as well as incredible views from Tauck’s private domed observation car before arriving in Jasper at about 4 p.m.” Another incredible plus to this tour: great hotels. In Victoria, clients stay at the five-star Hotel Grand Pacific and have afternoon tea at the majestic Fairmont Empress. After their rail adventure, they spend two nights at The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge within the national park itself, where they can opt (at an additional cost) for a round of golf, a paddleboat ride on Lake Beauvert or a horseback ride. Then it’s off to Icefields Parkway for incredible views of snowfields, glaciers and waterfalls, as well as the critters big and small that inhabit the area. A specially designed Ice Explorer vehicle takes guests across the surface of the Athabasca Glacier. There’s a 1-night stay at The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, followed by two nights at The Fairmont Banff Springs inside Banff National Park (which resembles a Scottish baronial castle) and a float trip along the Bow River. The 10-day tour starts at $4,590 pp dbl with quite a few departure dates from May through September. march 2011 73 http://www.recommend.com http://www.rockymountaineer.com http://www.tauck.com http://www.uncommonjourneys.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend March 2011

Editor's Notes/Agent Speak
Hotel Desk
Tour Talk
Disney Dream
Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Baja Airventures
Central Gems of Japan
2011 Guide to Latin America
The Tastier Side of Central Japan
Ireland With Brian Moore International Tours
Exploring Antiquity: Egypt, Israel & Jordan
Sailing Into Antiquity on the Nile
Florida's Ever-Changing Hotel Landscape
Riding North America's Rails
Small Ships in the Old South
Turks & Caicos Keeps Expanding
St. Lucia—Beyond the Pitons

Recommend March 2011