24 Day Rockies & Alaska Explorer With Rocky Mountaineer

Welcome to Canada! The rest of the day is yours to relax or see the city at your own pace.

A visit to British Columbia means you’ll be close to nature, even in the city. With mountain and ocean views, Vancouver is actually quite compact and a great city to explore on foot. You can take the 3km loop around False Creek Olympic Village for great views of the city skyline.

Bike or walk through the urban oasis of Stanley Park. It’s larger than New York’s Central Park, with a seawall of nearly nine kilometres to protect it from winter storms. There’s a lake, gardens, totem poles and more. Or head to historic Gastown, Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood, and wander the cobblestone streets, admire old Victorian buildings and see the iconic Gastown Steam Clock.

Vancouver is an exciting foodie destination, whether it’s for fine dining, buzzing Granville Island market, or a bite of a famous Japadog, a small chain of street food stands selling Japanese-inspired hot dogs.

The wild beauty of Canada’s west awaits – we’ll board the Rocky Mountaineer train this morning at Vancouver Station. We’ll travel from this coastal city to Kamloops, in the heart of British Columbia’s interior.

On today’s journey you’ll see dramatic changes in scenery, from the lush green fields of the Fraser Valley, through forests and winding river canyons surrounded by the peaks of the Coast and Cascade Mountains, to the desert-like environment of the BC Interior.

Highlights include descending through the narrow Fraser Canyon and passing the raging waters of Hell’s Gate, and the steep slopes and rock sheds along the Thompson River.

The train itself is a luxurious way to travel. Breakfast and lunch are included onboard. At the end of the trip, the Rocky Mountaineer will travel along the shores of Kamloops Lake to arrive into Kamloops between 6pm and 7:30pm. The evening is yours to explore the city of Kamloops or relax.

Kamloops is known as an adventure destination, a haven for hiking, cross-country and downhill skiing or paddling the many lakes. There is plenty to do at night, whether it’s enjoying live music or eating at buzzing restaurants, lively pubs and food trucks.

Hotel: Will be assigned by Rocky Mountaineer

We’ll board the Rocky Mountaineer train again this morning, to continue north and east to the mighty Canadian Rockies and the province of Alberta, often referred to as wild rose country.

Once again, you’ll be surrounded by dramatic scenery as you follow the banks of the North Thompson River through the Monashee and Cariboo Mountains, climbing ever nearer to the high peaks of the Continental Divide. Today’s highlights include Mount Robson, at 3954 metres the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. There’s also Pyramid Falls, and the climb over the Yellowhead Pass into Jasper National Park, the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies. It’s home to an array of native wildlife including bears, moose, wolves and mountain goats.

Breakfast and lunch will be served onboard. You’ll arrive in the resort town of Jasper between 7:30pm and 9pm.

This morning we’ll depart along the Icefield Parkway, one of the world’s most beautiful drives, passing some of Canada’s highest mountains and most magnificent glaciers. It’s hard to grasp the magnitude, the sheer majesty of the Rocky Mountains until you’re actually surrounded by them. Jagged peaks, brilliant blue lakes, waterfalls, impressive glaciers – this is what you’ve imagined. The wildlife won’t disappoint, either. Perhaps you’ll pause to watch a passing moose or elk!

We’ll stop at Athabasca and Sunwapta Falls before reaching Athabasca Glacier, one of the largest non-polar ice fields in the world. We’ll pass Bow Lake and Peyto Lake, with its surreal colour – yes, it really is that blue! – on the way to Banff, the flagship town of the Rockies, to stay the night. This quaint mountain town is located within Banff National Park, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today it’s a full day touring the stunning beauty of Banff, passing the Bow Falls, Tunnel Mountain Drive with the wind-eroded hoodoos and Surprise Corner, revealing the Banff Springs Hotel. Bow Falls is not particularly high, but the sheer volume of water roaring over it is impressive.

Like the rest of this region, Banff is a dream location for photography. We’ll see the quaint high street of Banff and the luxurious Banff Springs Hotel. Nicknamed the ‘Castle in the Rockies’, it was built in 1888 by the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Today’s sightseeing also includes a photo stop at incredible Lake Louise. Imagine postcard-perfect views of calm turquoise waters against a backdrop of rocky mountain peaks. It’s usually busy, for good reason. In summer, visitors come to canoe or paddle board and in winter, it transforms into a skating rink. You may spot a grizzly bear wandering the shore.

We’ll continue onto Johnston Canyon via Bow Valley Parkway. This gives great views of the Bow River that meanders through the valley, alongside the parkway. We’ll visit magnificent Moraine Lake, another beautifully coloured Rockies lake, with its picture perfect vistas and the rugged Valley of the Ten Peaks framing the lake.

We’ll return to Banff to stay overnight.

Heading west into British Columbia and Yoho National Park, we’ll make a stop at the natural bridge of stone across the Kicking Horse River as well as the beautiful, peaceful Emerald Lake. The natural bridge of stone is a fascinating feat of nature, a unique rock that has been gradually carved out over time by the powerful river to resemble a bridge.

Continue through Rogers Pass and Revelstoke on the way to the quaint mountain village of Sun Peaks for overnight.

This morning we’ll head for Vancouver. It’s a scenic trip, travelling west along the shore of Kamloops Lake to reach Cache Creek. You may wish to visit the Hat Creek Ranch, a restored roadhouse from the 1860s gold rush, which displays the history of the gold rush era as well as the culture of the region - the cowboys and native peoples (admission not included).

We’ll continue along the Fraser Canyon, where you’ll view the raging turbulence of Hell’s Gate. You may like to ride the Airtram (additional expense), which descends 153 metres across the Fraser River. It offers stunning views and the thrill of the steep run across the canyon.

We’ll continue through Hope and the fertile agricultural lands of the Fraser Valley to reach Vancouver.

The morning is free time for you, until your midday transfer to Vancouver Cruise Terminal for your 14 day Great Alaskan Explorer cruise.

You might spend the morning exploring the downtown sanctuary of Stanley Park, a favourite for tourists and locals alike. Stop and smell the roses at the Stanley Park Rose Garden or visit the Vancouver Aquarium, located within the park. There are always people walking, cycling or rollerblading along the scenic seawall, enjoying the views of the city, ocean, mountains and Lions Gate Bridge.

You’ll board your ship ready for the cruise experience of a lifetime to the vast, pristine wilderness of Alaska. Over the next 14 days you’ll see nature’s wonders like Tracy Arm and Hubbard Glacier and visit interesting Alaskan towns like Homer and Ketchikan.

Alaska’s Inside Passage is a protected network of waterways that wind through glacier-cut fjords and lush temperate rainforests along the rugged coast of Southeast Alaska. Arguably one of the greatest cruising routes in the world, the Inside Passage stretches through stunning landscapes, from Misty Fjords National Monument to famed Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve.

Sailing the Inside Passage today offers opportunities to spot some of Alaska’s most iconic wildlife, with humpback whales and orca plying the bountiful waters alongside the ships, bald eagles soaring overhead and brown bears lumbering on the shoreline.

Today will give you a glimpse of the Native Alaskan experience with a visit to Alaska’s “First City” of Ketchikan – so named because it’s the first major landfall for most cruisers as they enter the picturesque fjords of the Inside Passage, where the town clings to the banks of the Tongass Narrows, flanked by green forests nurtured by abundant rain.

Ketchikan has long been an important hub of the salmon fishing and packing industries – visitors can try their luck on a sportfishing excursion or simply savor the fresh seafood at one of the local restaurants. It is also one of the best spots along the Inside Passage to explore the rich cultural sights of Native Alaskan nations like the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian.

There are several port activities to choose from. You can see intricately carved totem poles at the Totem Heritage Center and Totem Bight State Park, while the attractions of Saxman Village just outside of Ketchikan offer the chance to see Tlingit culture in action, with working carvers and a dance show in the clan house. A salmon fishing excursion is not only a chance to land the day’s catch, but you’ll also have a great chance of spotting sea lions, whales, seals and other wildlife. You can also fish for the largest flatfish in the world, halibut, on a fishing expedition with an experienced Alaskan guide.

Leave time to explore the sights in the town itself, including historic Creek Street, a boardwalk built over the Ketchikan Creek, where you can shop for souvenirs, smoked salmon and local art, while exploring gold rush-era tourist attractions like Dolly’s House Museum.

A scenic cruising day today to see the dramatic natural gem of Tracy Arm, a classic fjord. Steep cliffs and glacier-covered mountains flank this fjord, fringed by the largest intact coastal temperate rainforest in the United States. Old-growth trees colonised Tracy Arm’s mouth long ago as the Ice Age retreated. But further up the sinuous 48 km waterway, its icy grip lingers a little. There, the twin Sawyer Glaciers flow from the peaks down to the sea, sloughing off stories-high chunks of water frozen decades or even centuries before.

Even more glorious than nearby Glacier Bay, Tracy Arm is part of the 5.7 million acres of pure wilderness sheltered by the Tongass National Forest, America’s biggest. Visitors often see bears, whales and mountain goats roaming across various corners of this pristine area – not to mention chubby baby seals resting on the ice floes.

Summer temperatures average 0 to 16 degrees Celsius, so pack warm clothing. And don’t forget waterproof gear, even when traveling by cruise ship: More than a metre and a half of rain falls here each year! We also recommend a water bottle, thermos or reusable coffee cup: On scenic cruising days, cruise ships ban paper and disposable plastic products that could litter this unsullied environment.

Today we’ll visit Haines, the adventure capital of Alaska. Haines boasts a unique rustic feel, even more so than other Alaskan cities. It’s almost as if time has stopped and chain stores, and even stop lights, haven’t infiltrated this town.

In the late 1890s, when Jack Dalton turned an Indian trail into a tollway ($10 for four horses with an unloaded sled or wagon), the town emerged as a stop for prospectors headed to the Yukon for the Klondike Gold Rush. Decades later it became a logging town, before turning to tourism. These days, Haines is known as a haven for artists and nature lovers and is visited by far fewer cruise ships than other Alaskan coastal cities.

Haines is a hotspot for rafting and hiking, fishing (salmon, halibut and trout) in the Chilkat River or kayaking on Chilkoot Lake – as well as heli-skiing in the winter. During the late fall and early winter, thousands of bald eagles migrate through this area to feed on the salmon, an event celebrated by the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival in November.

The memory of prospector days lingers on with opportunities to pan for gold, while the Indian Arts gallery, with its totem pole carving studio, offers a glimpse of an even older Haines.

Port activities include nature and wildlife delights like the Glacier Point wilderness safari, or freshwater fishing on Chilkoot Lake. Experience the adventure capital with an ATV exploration or a kayaking excursion.

Back in the old days when a freezer was a piece of ice, fishermen in Alaska had two problems. The first one was finding the fish, although that wasn’t too complicated, the ocean was chock-full of fins; but the second problem was a little harder. The government regulated how long you could keep your catch on the boat, and it wasn’t very long.

Canneries were the answer. As operations spread up and down Southeast Alaska, these became true company towns. A big cannery needed a couple of hundred workers, for everything from keeping books to making the millions of cans needed to ship all that fish, as well as the actual cleaning and prepping of fish on the line, called "slime row".

Canneries were usually somewhere beautiful, someplace you could see from far off and aim your boat towards. But canneries didn’t survive the advent of refrigeration. Most were taken back by the forest or simply left to rot. With one exception: Icy Strait Point, beautifully restored. Just opposite Glacier Bay, Icy Strait Point stretches for a few hundred metres along the beach; the old wooden buildings, bright red in the endless green of the Tongass, now offer a museum and a cannery demo. But more interesting is simply the madness of scale. Icy Strait Point gives a chance to look into history to see where Alaska’s money came from, all in a ghost town of millions of fish.

There are other exciting things you might opt to see and do here, like a whale watching cruise, a cooking class or a halibut fishing excursion. Explore Chichagof Island’s stunning mountain trails on a small-group ATV expedition, or experience the world’s longest zip-line.

We’ll cruise on to enjoy Alaska at its most pristine and wild as we pass the Inian Islands. Located at the northernmost point where the Gulf of Alaska enters the Inside Passage of Southeast Alaska, the Inian Islands are prime feeding waters for a wide array of creatures, including sea lions, humpback whales and sea otters. This is the undisturbed wilderness you’d hoped to experience on your Alaskan adventure.

It’s a day at sea today, and a chance to relax and explore the best of what your cruise ship has to offer. Every day onboard offers delicious dining options, culinary experiences, world-class entertainment and cultural performances.

We’ll visit Anchorage today, where approximately 40 percent of Alaska’s population live. This diverse city of 300,000 includes a large military population, Native Alaskans, individuals who work for the oil industry and adventure-seeking types who want to get away from “the Lower 48”.

Much like Seattle, Anchorage is a place where you can find a coffee shop (or espresso shack) anywhere. Locals enjoy skijoring, a winter sport where a person is pulled on skis by one or more dogs or sometimes a horse. While some cities have deer, Anchorage has lots of moose, known for being a bit rambunctious (and should be steered clear of if seen wandering down a street).

Anchorage is a city where you can see the northern lights – aurora borealis – on a clear dark night, typically during colder months. There are also plenty of attractions to hike, bike and enjoy wildlife at, such as the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail or Flattop Mountain Trail inside Chugach State Park.

Optional port activities include a visit to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, a glacier cruise or a tour within Anchorage to experience Alaska Native culture.

A day in Homer today, the area known as the halibut fishing capital of the world. These rich fishing grounds here attracted Native Alaskans centuries before British settlement. The town captivates audiences around the globe as the home of the Discovery Channel’s Kilcher family, made famous by Alaska: The Last Frontier. Homer’s port also anchors the F/V Time Bandit, which swashbuckled into TV viewers’ hearts via Deadliest Catch.

This plucky little town sells End of the Road certificates to visitors who’ve motored here to the furthest reach of the Kenai Peninsula. It’s something worth celebrating: a drive down the world’s longest street that protrudes into the ocean! But walkers, bikers and in-line skaters can also experience the thrill, thanks to a 6.5km-long paved multi-use trail.

Top Homer attractions include the Pratt Museum, the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center and hikes at Grewingk Glacier Lake. Of course, optional port activities include a fishing expedition to snare some famed halibut. There is also guided sea kayaking, hiking and a chance to learn about farming in Alaska.

A paradise for fishing enthusiasts, Valdez offers every kind of salmon, huge halibut and ample opportunity to reel them in. Rivers and streams spill into the Sound here and are ideal for kayaking.

You’ll have the chance to take an optional coach tour through the stunning alpine setting of Thompson Pass and Worthington Glacier, or a historical cruise to discover the rich history of Port Valdez. For the adventurous types, there is whitewater rafting and kayaking.

A cruising day today and one to savour – sailing towards Hubbard Glacier is an incredible feeling. The glacier is up to 65 metres wide at its face and 50 metres tall, but that’s only the tiniest piece of the ice: The main channel of this frozen river begins 122 kilometres back, pouring down from around the 3400-metre mark off the shoulder of Mt. Walsh. The deep blue of the face of the glacier on a sunny day is simply dazzling.

The glacier is on the move. Hubbard is the longest tidewater glacier (meaning it ends at the ocean) in North America. But unlike nearly every other tidewater glacier on the continent, Hubbard is advancing, not retreating; it’s forever pushing a little further into the bay. Chunks of ice that break off become floaties for seals.

You might like to take the option of boarding an expedition vessel for Hubbard Glacier, cruising near the rocky shoreline and weaving through a maze of icebergs.

We’ll visit Juneau today, which may well be the most remote, most beautiful and strangest state capital in the United States. Surrounded by water, forest and mountain sights, visitors seeking things to do in Juneau can hike a glacier, eat fresh-caught fish on a seaside patio and tour a grand capitol building all in one day.

The city itself is pleasant, but the real highlight of a visit to Juneau is tracking down some wildlife. You can hike up Mount Roberts to chance upon wild deer and bald eagles. Most sightseeing and whale-watching tours head north to Auke Bay – bring a good pair of binoculars to get the best view of these majestic and surprisingly graceful creatures. Optional tours include visiting the Mendenhall Glacier, or taking to the air to see glaciers from an authentic Alaskan seaplane. Or you might enjoy a traditional Alaskan salmon bake in Southeast Alaska’s rainforest before toasting marshmallows over a campfire.

The sleepy, misty city of around 32,000 – mostly fishermen and small-business owners – has a frontier town vibe, but welcomes more than a million visitors each summer to its natural attractions, cementing Juneau as Alaska’s number one tourist destination.

Sculpted by glaciers over millions of years, Misty Fjords’ u-shaped ‘canals’ wind through steep canyons of granite, shrouded in western hemlock, Sitka spruce and western red cedar. Misty Fjords is a part of Tongass National Forest and home to grizzlies, salmon, whales, mountain goats and deer.

We’ll cruise back along the glacier-lined, wildlife delight of the Inside Passage again. Enjoy the last of the calm waters and spectacular scenery before you return to Vancouver.

Upon arrival at the Vancouver Cruise Terminal, you’ll be met by your guide. A morning sightseeing tour of Vancouver begins leaving Canada Place and the waterfront with a drive around Stanley Park, stopping at the totem poles. We’ll see Chinatown, North America’s second largest, and historic Gastown with its 19th century buildings, cobblestone streets and hidden passageways.

We’ll then make a stop at Granville Island with its famous public market, art and craft shops and many cafes and restaurants. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed this extraordinary journey.

Cross the international date-line.

Arrive home today after your amazing adventure, we hope you have been Inspired!