11 bucket-list worthy experiences along Canada’s best train journey

The Rocky Mountaineer Journey Through the Clouds is Canada’s best train journey, as Caroline Smith explains.

The Rocky Mountaineer Journey Through The Clouds is one of the world’s epic stand-alone train experiences, but the joy is amplified by some extraordinary experiences along the way. Keep reading to discover the bucket-list worthy stays and adventures on Canada‘s best train journey.

Vibing in Vancouver

As a starting point on Canada’s best train journey, Vancouver is hard to beat. The Fairmont Waterfront is the perfect front-and-centre harbourside base to brush off jetlag or fully immerse yourself in this surprising city’s attractions. Borrow a bike from the hotel to ride along the seafront and around Stanley Park, the city’s green, harbourfront oasis for harbour views, nature trails and fresh mountain air.

Feast for foodies

Undo the good work with a visit to nearby Granville Island Public Market for indulgence of the gourmet-foodie kind on Canada’s best train journey. Snack on a charcuterie ‘shot’, feast your senses on the local produce and indulge yourself with a local sweet treat Nanaimo Bar, a lemon square or artisan donut. While there, browse one-of-a-kind gifts from the quirky to the beautiful, or both, such as hand-crafted besom brooms from the Granville Island Broom Company.

Bee fabulous

Back at the Fairmont Waterfront, local, sustainable and fabulously fun options are on offer. My Signature Harbor Stanley Park View room overlooked the seaplanes taking off and landing on the mirror-flat harbour. Relax by the rooftop heated pool, wander through the bountiful kitchen garden and get a buzz from Chief Bee-Keeper Julia Common’s engaging bee experience on Canada’s best train journey. Taste the honey, sip the hotel’s signature Waterfront Gin cocktail – sustainably produced with fermented honey from the house hives – or roll your own beeswax candles to take home.

Sip ‘n’ shuck

ARC, the Fairmont’s versatile restaurant and bar, elevates cocktail hour with Sip & Shuck every weekday. Champagne paired with local varieties of freshly shucked oysters equals happy hour heaven. The coastal-style menu showcases locally sourced produce from the kitchen garden and nearby Vancouver suppliers, making it a must-do experience on Canada’s best train journey.

Coastal culture connection

Before boarding the Rocky Mountaineer train, explore the hotel’s extensive and eclectic Indigenous art collection featuring totems and extraordinary pieces by the Coastal Salish (Musqueam) and Kwakwaka’wakw Nations. It’s a fascinating and moving glimpse into Vancouver’s ancient cultural heritage. Two days in Vancouver is so good; but you’ll want to stay longer.

Stay at Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge

Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, in the heart of the Rockies, is a fitting finale to end the rail leg of Canada’s best train journey. Nestled around the glacier-fed Lac Beauvert, in UNESCO World Heritage-listed Jasper National Park, this historic lodge blends rustic charm with refined luxury. Established as a camp over a hundred years ago, there are now 13 exclusive Signature Cabins dotted among the trees and the original lodge with a restaurant, bar, heated pool and spa.

Our four-bedroom log Point Cabin, furnished in high Western style with a huge open stone fireplace, could be straight from Yellowstone. Marilyn Monroe once famously stayed with then fiancé Joe DiMaggio while filming River of No Return. Queen Elizabeth II was another notable visitor, while today travellers from around the globe regularly retreat to this mountain haven.

Take the plunge

For healthy thrills, try an unforgettable guided glacial plunge in the lake, followed by a sauna with views to Mt Pilgrim and a cocktail in the hot tub. The invigorating shock of cold water leaves you exhilarated, clear-headed and alive.

Be starstruck

Jasper National Park is the world’s largest accessible Dark Sky Preserve, and its stargazing is unmatched. Join Matricia Bauer of Warrior Women, a local Cree Knowledge Keeper, around a lakeside firepit as she shares legends and ancestral stories under the swirling cosmos. Native Americans used the same galaxies and stars for navigation, guidance and spiritual enrichment.

Visit the Jasper Planetarium or head out to Pyramid Island, Old Fort Point or the toe of the Athabasca Glacier for more celestial beauty. On clear, cold nights of winter, the aurora borealis may be seen above the horizon. The Jasper Dark Sky Festival in October is a must for astronomy-lovers.

“Sorry, trees” SunDog Fire Tour

The major wildfire in 2024 devoured a huge tract of the adjacent forest but spared the lodge. While the forest is already regenerating, the human trauma is not so easily healed. On SunDog Tours’ newly designed ‘The Evolution of Fire’ tour, local guide Kevin Lazzari tells dramatic stories of tragedy and resilience. The tour offers visitors a new perspective of forest recovery and the town’s rebuilding. At an overlook near Maligne Canyon, a blackened stump has been poignantly inscribed: “Sorry, trees”. It’s a reminder of loss but also of hope and how visitors can play a part in the area’s recovery.

Drive Icefields Parkway

The 230km drive along the Icefields Parkway from Jasper to Lake Louise is an exclamation point of scenic highlights carved into the landscape by capricious giants, or retreating glaciers, depending on your imagination. Either way, this stretch of road along the Continental Divide is one of the most heart-stirring beautiful scenic drives in the world; through jagged mountains, past fiercely blue lakes and glaciers inching seawards.

Take a short hike at Bow Lake or Athabasca Falls where the thunder and spray of the Athabasca River torrent crashing to the canyon below is a whole-body experience. Summer brings wildflowers and in winter this frozen wilderness is nature at its most powerful: the epicentre of ice climbing in the Rockies.

Climb every mountain

The imposing façade of Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise in Alberta’s Banff National Park, set against the impossibly blue lake, has to be one of the world’s most recognisable images in travel magazines. Once a base for European and US climbers dating back to 1890, it now draws adventurous tourists, wellness voyagers and romantics of all ages, year-round. After the grand natural overwhelm of the Columbia Icefields and dramatic glowering peaks of the Rockies along the Icefield Parkway, this lakeside sanctuary is a fitting place to pause and recharge on Canada’s best train journey.

Glow up with the new Basin Glacial Waters thermal bathing facility, a sound bath session in the spa or be simply pampered in high heritage style and understated elegance. The 539 rooms and suites are designed with contemporary facilities and unsurpassed views into nature. The Walliser Stube restaurant honours the Swiss and German mountaineering heritage, featuring three kinds of elevated fondue (an alpine specialty) with a setting to match. After this indulgence, wander the lakeshore trail of the pristine lake, enjoy the fresh alpine air and those breathtaking views, or skate on ice, followed by delicious marshmallows toasted over the outdoor firepit.

The Rocky Mountaineer Journey Through The Clouds is far more than a legendary rail trip. It’s a passage through breathtaking landscapes, stories and moments, enriched by Fairmont’s signature destination hotels and experiences of discovery, renewal and pure natural wonder.