General Chat

That's our Christmas trip all sorted.

Booked the trains months ago, now we have somewhere to sleep on the non-travelling days.

It only took about 2½ hours, researching and then phoning to make the reservations :-0

Sounds great Sylvia. Where are you going to?

Florence in the hebrides

I a,ways love reading about your mammoth train journeys

How lovely, what could be better than travel and trains :-) Have a wonderful time Sylvia.

Sounds wonderful what is the itinerary?

Across to your daughter's for Christmas, Sylvia? Lovely. <3

That sounds so good, is there room for a little one Sylvia ;-) :-D

How I envy Sylvia and her coast to coast annual train trip! It's about 3,000 miles!

Margaret, JoyL and Linda are correct ..................

it's our annual trip across Canada, literally from coast to coast, to spend Christmas with our daughter and her family.

We leave from Vancouver in about 4 weeks time, spend 4 nights sleeper class on the iconic The Canadian train to Toronto, 1 night in Toronto, then a day train to Montreal, spend about 2 hours in the station, and take The Ocean train overnight sleeper class to Halifax. We then spend 7 nights in 2 hotels there, before starting the return trip, getting back home in early January.

Our daughter has a very small house, and we've realised overcrowding doesn't work for any of us, so we spend the days with them and sleep at a hotel about 5 minutes drive away.

The night before the train leaves, we transfer to another hotel that is right next to the train station ......... the original "station hotel" as it would be called in Europe .......... but it is now run by Westin hotels :-D .

We have a peaceful night, get our bags organised and checked in by about 8:30 am, and then daughter and family join us for a late leisurely breakfast in the hotel dining room, before saying goodbye and boarding the train in time for it to leave at 1 pm.

We get all meals and non-alcoholic drinks on the trains, rooms cleaned and beds made every night on the trains and hotels. Alcoholic drinks are even included with meals on the day train from Toronto->Montreal and back. Meals are usually 3* or 4* on the trains, especially on the Canadian where there's a chef in the galley basically cooking to order. Beds made and rooms cleaned every night. Luxury!!!

I've got some incredible rates in the hotels ............. their prices really drop in the days before and after Christmas :-D . For example, $228 (ca £133) for a room in a Fairmont hotel in Toronto (the "station hotel"), and $135 (ca £79) for a room with a gorgeous view of the harbour in the Westin in Halifax. That really pleased me. The Fairmont rates go as high as $600 (ca £350) in the summer :-0 :-0




Emma ........... could you squeeze into a carry-on case???? ;-) :-D

Sylvia that would be a No :-D

Your trip sounds amazing and am looking forward to hearing all
about it.

That's sounds pretty near perfect :-)

Thanks a Sylvia I guessed it was to your daughters but love reading the details with envy. Wonderful.