For this holiday, we travelled by luxury motor coach, train and cruise ship. On the motor coach portion of the holiday, we had two night stays in the famous Fairmont Hotels at Victoria, Whistler, Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff. Other than Lake Louise, we stayed in standard rooms at these hotels and, even though these are very old hotels, the rooms are
...read more nicely appointed and a comfortable size. At Lake Louise the travel package treats you to a stunning lakeview room, you really have to pinch yourself to realise that the view before you is real!
Between Whistler and Jasper we stayed at the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel for one night as we were putting down kilometers to cross this huge country. The stops along the way and the journey itself was filled with absolutely stunning scenery and the experts, guides and presentations provided in the tour package were interestingly informative and very entertaining. All the meals provided by the hotels as part of the package were very nice and some were fabulous, so we tended to eat "in house" for the few evening meals the package didn't include, after all, the facilities in general and dining in particular at the Fairmonts, was second to none.
On the train part of the journey, we were pampered with two days of delicious drinks and food and more stunning scenery in the glass domed carriages of the Rocky Mountaineer's Goldleaf Service. Now in Vancouver, we had another two night stay at a Fairmont Hotel and, like the motorcoach part of the journey, the tours included in the package were very good.
On to the cruise and again we were treated to the best available, Holland America were the original cruise company to do Alaska and have available to them the best berths at all the ports and best access to the glaciers in the national parks. The rangers from these parks, as well as the ship's crew were very informative and and especially so when there was wildlife to be seen.
Where this holiday is at the top end pricewise for seeing Western Canada and Alaska, the two night stays while journeying into the interior, the Goldleaf service on the Rocky Mountaineer and the Holland America cruise to Alaska make it good value for money for such an immersive travel experience. Also with Scenic, the people we travelled with on this journey were simply a great bunch, enjoyable in every way and most had previously travelled with Scenic, describing the travel company as not only having the best itineraries, but having a knack of having happy travellers on their tours.
The tour director for this tour, Cathy was at the top of her game and this is yet another reason why we would travel with Scenic again. And to book such a holiday, we would be using the help and guidance of Jemma at Global Journeys again.