Rail · planned privately
The Rockies from a glass dome, four nights across Canada, and Europe by train. We plan rail the way we plan everything else: the right seat, the right hotel at every stop, and a driver waiting at the station.
A train along the Bow River, Canadian Rockies
How we plan rail
Anyone can sell a ticket. What changes a rail trip is the class of service, the seat, the nights off the train and the minutes between the platform and the hotel. These four we handle on every booking.
First class, or the top service level a line offers: the glass-domed coach in the Rockies, a sleeper with its own washroom on The Canadian, reserved first-class seats in Europe. We tell you plainly when the step up is worth it and when it is not.
On a scenic line, the side you sit on decides half of what you see. Where seats can be chosen, we choose them for the view in your direction of travel, and we tell you which stretch to be awake for.
A rail trip is only as good as its nights off the train. We pick the hotel in each town for the walk from the station, the room and the morning after, and add Virtuoso benefits where they apply.
A driver meets you on the platform or at the station door and takes the bags, so a change of train or town is never a taxi queue. Where a line forwards luggage between hotels, we arrange that too.
Close to home
Two days of daylight rail between Vancouver and the mountains, in a glass-domed coach with meals served at your seat or in a dining level below, GoldLeaf style. The train stops overnight so you see every mile. Then the mountain towns: Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper, with the Icefields Parkway between them by private car.
The long way across the country: boreal forest and lakes in northern Ontario, the prairies, then the Rockies, from the dome and the dining car. A sleeper with its own washroom makes four nights aboard a pleasure rather than an endurance test. We add nights in Toronto and Vancouver at either end, and often a stop in Jasper.
Europe
In Europe the train is often simply the best way between two cities. We use it for the long distances and a private driver for the last miles, and keep the number of hotel changes low.
Narrow-gauge trains over stone viaducts and through spiral tunnels, glacier views from panorama coaches, and lake steamers between the rail days. We build it around two or three bases rather than a new hotel every night, with luggage sent ahead.
Fast trains between Venice, Florence and Rome, reserved in first class, then south to Naples and a private driver for the last stretch to the coast. Rail does the long distances; a car does the corners.
The West Highland line across Rannoch Moor and over the viaducts to the sea, the Kyle line through the glens, and Edinburgh at the start or the end. Country house hotels between the rail days, and a driver for the places the trains do not reach.
Madrid to Seville and Granada on Spain's fast trains, then west to Lisbon and up to Porto and the Douro, where the valley line runs along the river between the vineyards.
Short rides count too
Not every rail trip is a rail holiday. Some of our favourite train rides are short ones folded into a longer journey: a funicular up a mountain, a morning on a narrow-gauge line, a night train that saves a flight and a hotel.
Tell us where you are going and we will tell you whether there is a line worth adding, and when to ride it so the light is right.
Booking and fees
The daylight trains through the Canadian Rockies run from about April to October. June to September is the busiest stretch and books furthest ahead; the shoulder months are quieter, cooler and often clearer. We plan the train first and the hotels around it.
Four nights from Toronto to Vancouver, with a reduced schedule in winter. It is worth it if the journey is the point: you will read, watch the country change and eat well. If you only want the mountains, we would take a shorter train through the Rockies instead.
Usually not. For most trips, reserved first-class tickets on the trains you will actually take cost less than a pass and come with a confirmed seat. Where a pass does work out cheaper, we will say so.
Through specialist rail partners and the operators themselves, depending on the line. Either way we hold the booking, deal with the changes, and you have one person to ask.
Not on a set rail journey booked as it comes. A custom multi-stop trip, rail plus hotels plus transfers built around you, carries our CA$400 design fee, credited to the trip when you book.
A train in mind
We reply within one business day, and nothing is booked until you have a written quote.