My husband and I enjoyed the Best of the Canadian Rockies 21 years ago and thought we’d like to go back, plus I wanted to see Butchart Gardens and travel by train for an overnight. Overall the scenery is absolutely beautiful, but the glaciers have receded a lot and there are many more people. We were surprised to see parking lots for cars and shuttle buses to bring them to places like Lake Louise. Thank goodness Tauck takes care of the transportation. The float plane ride was smoother than I expected and kind of cool! I was not looking forward to this part of the trip, but took my chewable ginger and was okay. The gardens are very nice, especially the sunken garden. We were there for 2 hours and that was enough time to see everything and have time for a coffee. To us, so far Longwood Gardens in PA are the best we’ve seen. The Fairmont hotels are great and our tour director, Rachel Peer, was the best! Honestly she was a big part of the trip being better. At the welcome dinner, she told us that this is our vacation, so we need to enjoy it. There were a couple of activities that people would skip so they could golf instead. She was fine with that, as long as she knew you weren’t joining the group. The wildfire smoke was not bad in Vancouver, just a little hazy one day. Unfortunately the train portion of the trip had to be cancelled because of an out of control wildfire in the Boston Bar area. Everyone was disappointed, but Rachel explained we would probably see more on the bus during the daylight hours and that she would provide lots of snacks (which include this excellent Cabot Trail Maple Cream liqueur). We played games and listened to music along the way and although it was a lot of time, it was fine. Tauck arranged for our group to stay at the Delta by Marriott in Kamloops with dinner that evening (with wine) and breakfast the following morning. They said they would send us a refund after they review the itinerary changes. It was smoky in Kamloops and on the way we could see heavy smoke in the mountains and a helicopter picking up water from a lake. Once we got to Jasper, the sky was blue and although there are remnants of past fires, it is still beautiful scenery. The lakes, mountains, accommodations, food presentations were great. As I noted in a previous post, there are no close horse stables in Jasper anymore. We used the concierge people at each hotel, for at least local walking maps. In Jasper they said it cost $50 one way to get to the horse stables, or we could take the bus for less money, but it was a 20-30 minute walk from the bus drop off point. In Lake Louise, which is so much more commercial than before, the horse rides start at $175 and in Banff $95. We brought our refillable water bottles and used them every day. There were water filling stations at the hotels and most places did not give us water bottles in the rooms. One day our tour director gave us each $30 Canadian money for lunch and besides that, we only used our credit card for purchases. There were 39 people in our group and we all got along great. My husband (and I) loved the Tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria. The rafting trip on the Bow River was fun and the shopping in Banff, the best.
