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Travel Connection....Your travel destination information and news!

Keeping you informed on today's travel tips and news! Please check back every month for new Travel Connection articles we will make available to help you plan your travel adventures!

Vancouver by Rail

For a green, scenic, and relaxed way to travel this summer, consider taking one of the six trains that serve Vancouver, BC. All feature the unforgettable scenery of the Pacific Northwest.

VIA Rail Canada's Canadian arrives from Toronto three days a week, crossing the Rockies at Jasper, Alberta. This Vista Dome train is vintage 1950s -- the only streamliner from those grand days of railroading still operating. On its four-night land cruise, the Canadian offers comfortable sleeping cabins and elegant dining cars. An upgrade called "Romance by Rail" pampers passengers with a queen-sized bed, champagne, and fresh flowers.

Three tour trains, running only between mid-May and mid-October, are operated by Rocky Mountaineer Vacations and feature glass-topped cars. Travelling only during the daytime so passengers won't miss any scenery, one goes to Banff, another to Jasper, and a third via Whistler with a connection to Jasper. Each train takes a different route through the Rockies.

Amtrak's trains arrive daily from the US. One train (Cascades #516) starts from Portland, Oregon, and the other (Cascades #510) from Seattle. The train from Portland crosses both the Willamette and the Columbia Rivers. If the weather is clear, the ragged crest of Mt. Saint Helens appears to the east. Then skirting the Columbia, the train heads for Puget Sound and glides under the Tacoma Narrows bridge. When the snowy peak of Mt. Rainer comes into view, Seattle is not far away.

North of Seattle, the pine-clad islands of Puget Sound, and the ferries that serve them, appear. Mansions of Microsoft millionaires overlook the water.
Just past the border of British Columbia, trains pause at the quaint vacation hamlet of White Rock, with its wide beach and resident bald eagles. Border officials come onboard here so you won't need to wait in traffic lines or lug your suitcases around to be inspected. Simply fill out a customs form on board, enjoy goodies from the food car, and then -- you're in Vancouver.

Sylvia Blishak,
Train Travel Consulting at Accent on Travel.
sylvia@traintravelconsulting.com
NAMED ONE OF THE WORLD'S TOP TRAVEL SPECIALISTS BY
CONDE NAST TRAVELER MAGAZINE SINCE 2002.
3939 S. Sixth St. #331, Klamath Falls, OR 97603
Phone: 800 347 0645 Fax: 541 883 6457
http://www.traintravelconsulting.com

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