There was a time when passengers on the Rocky Mountaineer train were greeted by a British Columbia farmer standing in his fields wearing nothing but his boots.
While generally much amused, passengers hadn’t bargained for the full monty when they bought their luxury rail trips to see western Canada.
Alas, by the time I joined a Rocky Mountaineer tour, the two-day First Passage to the West, late in the 2012 season, the exhibitions were largely a thing of the past.
The host on our railcar explained that the farmer was protesting against all rail services because trains tooted their whistles just before entering a nearby tunnel, disturbing the farmer’s animals.
The farmer planned his striking protest to coincide with the Rocky Mountaineer schedule because it was the only train passing his way that carried passengers.
The farmer won a court case more than a decade ago, and the trains now roll silently into the tunnel. However, even now, for old time’s sake, the farmer occasionally greets the train in his birthday suit. He greeted our train, too, but fully clothed.
Rocky Mountaineer passengers are amused as their hosts share this and other entertaining anecdotal material about the ways of western Canadians, past and present. Each car on the Rocky Mountaineer sightseeing journey had its own service personnel, presumably with their own or similar collections of stories to tell and factoids to share.
The rail company, which has served up sightseeing rail trips in Canada’s West since 1990, offers 18 core Rocky Mountain trips, eastbound and westbound, which can be combined with each other or other services.
The 2013 season, running from April 23 to Oct. 3, includes a first for the company, an itinerary that crosses the U.S. border. The three-day Coastal Passage itinerary — the operator’s fifth route — picks up or deposits passengers at Seattle as part of a Rocky Mountain journey that travels via Vancouver, with an option for an extra night in Vancouver. Coastal Passage customers can choose Jasper or Banff as their starting or ending point on the Alberta end of this itinerary.
Across its multiday Rocky Mountain tours, the operator offers GoldLeaf, SilverLeaf and RedLeaf levels of service, each with a different railcar model.
I experienced the Rockies based on GoldLeaf service, which provided each guest with an assigned seat at the top of a bi-level glass-dome car. Gourmet hot breakfasts and lunches were served, with two sittings, in a dining room on the first level. Snacks and complimentary beverages of all types were served on request throughout each day.
GoldLeaf service included another invaluable way to get a good look at the passing rivers, lakes, mountains and occasional wildlife: open-air vestibules for unobstructed views and photographs from several angles and both sides of the train.
The scenery in western Canada, whether in the Rockies or west of the mountains, was predictably spectacular. Note: For those drawn to the open-air viewing, like me, white shirts are not a good idea.
A GoldLeaf package includes top hotels. In Kamloops, however, where our train overnighted, housing was, by necessity, of a “moderate standard.”
Hotels are deluxe at each end, Vancouver to the west and Alberta’s Banff, Calgary or Lake Louise to the east. In my case, the deluxe properties were the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver and the historic Fairmont Banff Springs.
The Vancouver property is a modern high-rise, conveniently located downtown and near the cruise port. Besides the luxury features one associates with any Fairmont, the property boasts a swimming pool, a 2,100-square-foot herb garden used by resident chefs, plus beehives for nearly 500,000 honeybees, all on the third-floor terrace. This space is a quiet, private retreat and great vantage point for viewing the harbor. And the bees produce more than 600 pounds of honey yearly, used in the hotel’s signature sweets, for cooking and as gifts.
The Banff property dates from 1888 and looks like the Scottish baronial castle it emulates. A National Historical Site of Canada, it is a gargantuan place with outsize public spaces, broad hallways and sizeable rooms that look a little quaint, despite modern bathrooms.
SilverLeaf customers view the scenery from seats in a single-level, glass-dome coach. Breakfast and lunch, with choice of entrees, are served at seats, and complimentary nonalcoholic beverages and snacks are available. Overnight accommodations are at popular hotels.
The RedLeaf coach is outfitted with large picture windows without the glass dome. Chilled meals are served at seats, and complimentary nonalcoholic beverages and snacks are served. As with SilverLeaf, accommodations are described as popular hotels.
For all three service levels, transfers are included, while baggage handling is included for GoldLeaf and SilverLeaf customers.
Baggage handling means this: On the first day, we checked our bags as if taking a flight but did not pick them up after. The next day, when leaving Kamloops, our bags were picked up in our rooms after we had headed back to the train. At the end of each day, bags were already in our hotel rooms.
In addition to my First Passage to the West journey and the new Seattle route, the Rocky Mountaineer operates the “Journey Through the Clouds” between Vancouver and Jasper, Alberta, and “Rainforest to Gold Rush,” between Whistler and Jasper.
The Rocky Mountaineer also operates the 3.5-hour Whistler “Sea to Sky Climb,” which takes passengers between Vancouver and Whistler, but its two service levels are characterized differently.
Sample starting prices, based on my two-day First Passage to the West itinerary, are $1,049 for RedLeaf service with Banff as the eastern start or end point, $1,773 for SilverLeaf service and $2,225 for GoldLeaf service for the same routing.
Lake Louise and Calgary prices are higher due to hotel cost differences for Lake Louise and the greater distance for Calgary.