Canadian Train Odyssey with Alaska Cruise Reviews

About Tracey at Global Journeys - excellent service with our bookings and very helpful whenever we sent through a query. About the trip itself, we felt that we paid a premium price for a 3 star holiday, though the cruising part on the Zaandam was quite good. The Meet & Greet in Toronto, was more of a check-in than a social experience as there wasn't read more a Welcome Drink in sight. The guide was a nice person, but over the course of the journey, did not really seem interested in interacting with most of the people on the train leg or when we were off the bus, so many of us did not get a sense of any sort of personalised service from our tour guide.

Toronto accommodation was good, but generally went downhill (genuine 3-star places) from there, especially the property in Vancouver, where we encountered mice in our room. Most of the motels did not have a functioning restaurant or bar, which was disappointing after sitting in a bus all day ! A lot of people were not prepared for being without phone or internet access on the train - these sort of things should be better communicated to people. That is as much as I want to comment on for now, but while we saw and did some really nice things, we felt pretty disappointed with the overall trip part of the experience, not the booking and admin by Global Journeys! We would encourage people to really investigate the rail and bus part of this tour as there are quite a few things that we felt should have been said and done to match the price you pay for your adventure.

I feel the Vancouver section of the tour should have been completed before the cruise and included Whistler or Capilano as this was a highlight - we did this ourselves, I also feel like we were dumped before the cruise and tour should have included sights of Vancouver. The accommodation in all places was excellent , the train journey to Edmonton was read more excellent and the food on the train was amazing. I felt parts of the tour overall were a little rushed. When we arrived in Vancouver we had a day before the cruise and 2 days after, I feel we should have had all the days before the cruise and there were places to see that should have been included like Capilano or Whistler. Overall it was a wonderful holiday.

Could not be happier with the way our tour was organised and operated. All enquiries were answered promptly by Georgie before we left. Georgie made our decisions easier to make. All transfers, of which there were many, went exactly as planned which saved a lot of frustration and hassle. The tour director Scott McEwan was fantastic, very informative, read more answered any and all questions from us and made sure we were on time and where we were supposed to be.

The train from Toronto gave us spectacular views and we had fun sleeping, eating and rocking our way to Jasper. The coach tour through the Rockies exceeded our expectations, everywhere you looked there was a photo to be taken. We were very lucky with the weather, sunshine throughout. The transfer to the ship was well organised and we had 7 lovely days cruising, eating way too much, and looking at the sea life and beautiful scenery. It was a trip of a lifetime. Highlights were the train, glacier walk, scenery, zip lining, Grouse Mountain, Butchart Gardens... there were just too many.

Scenery breath taking and beautiful especially the Canadian Rockies and Lakes. Highlights being Magline Lake and the Columbia Ice Field. The cruise with Holland America comfortable and satisfied except for the compulsory tipping both on board and the land tour. On board ship wine at meals had to be purchased which I found unsatisfactory. Train cabin read more very tiny and cell like. The Chelsea Hotel which began the tour from Toronto is like a railway station, large and with little atmosphere. Other hotels ranged from average to pretty good. Time of year mid June perhaps a little early for warmer weather but was not too bad. Take some warm clothing! Fellow travellers a mix of various nationalities. The Americans very friendly, others average and a couple of nasty Aussies.

I highly recommend this trip. Such a fantastic holiday. The Rockies are magical with stunning views. Canada and Alaska has spectacular scenery. I love the group enthusiasm amongst newly made friends. Fantastic tour experience overall.

The Cosmos tour was great. The Tour director and driver were a wonderful, helpful and knowledgeable team. The accommodation provided was excellent, much better than I had expected. I would not hesitate to recommend a Cosmos tour. What I could not recommend was the train trip. I had a dream of travelling the world by train - that dream is gone. The read more train is always late waiting for freight trains so instead of adjusting the timetable they adjust the speed at night to make up the time. It is a well known practice apparently. For most of us it makes it too scary to sleep at night as the train jumped, rolled and banged its way across Canada. Most of us managed 2 hours sleep in the early mornings. So even though we were scared witless we still arrived in Jasper 7 and a 1/2 hours late, at 7.30pm - our free time in Jasper gone. The train staff gave no apologies, no sympathy and no lunch or dinner!!!!

We had a wonderful tour of Canada & Alaska. The scenery was amazing in both countries and the cruise up to Alaska on the Volendam was really relaxing and gave us time to reflect on all that we had seen along the way. Michelle at Global Journeys was great in assisting me with all the details and documents that were required before we left Australia.

Our tour guide, John, was brilliant and the tour was great from day 1. John provided historical and humorous anecdotes and his knowledge of the area was encyclopedic. The VIA Rail portion of the journey was great with beautiful scenery and lovely meals over the three day trip. The stops at Jasper and Banff were also highlights with lots of scenic stops read more and wildlife. We saw black bears and a grizzly, elk, a wolf and coyote and numerous mountain goats, big horn sheep and squirrels. The visit to Victoria was nice with lovely weather and atmosphere with markets and buskers providing lots of entertainment. Nice restaurants and settings made our two day stay very pleasant. We joined a cruise to Alaska after completion of the Cosmos tour and this was also a great trip with historic ports and beautiful scenery. The ship, (the Volendam, was well equipped and comfortable and we really enjoyed the interaction with other passengers. Overall the trip was a once in a lifetime treat.