Airplanes are faster, automobiles more adaptable. Yet more and more Americans--a 17% rise in the past four years--are choosing to take their vacations on the railroad. While some trains are not yet up to European standards of luxury and convenience, rail tours in Canada and the Americas offer reasonable comfort, good food and some spectacular scenery. Here are some of the options:
VIA RAIL ACROSS CANADA LOFTY MOUNTAIN PEAKS THAT SMILE DOWN ON YOU
In 1886, a year after the last spike was laid on the railway that joined the Dominion of Canada from coast to coast, the Prime Minister's wife, Lady Macdonald, traveled across the new country. For 600 miles of the trip she sat in a candle box attached to the cowcatcher on the front end of the train. There she was thrilled by "the novelty, the excitement and the fun of this mad ride...with magnificent mountains before and around me, their lofty peaks smiling down on us, and never a frown on their grand faces." More than a century later, the Rockies still smile down on passengers traveling across Canada aboard VIA Rail's Canadian, which now takes a more northerly route through British Columbia and Alberta.
Train buffs consider this 2,750-mile, three-day, five-province journey one of the best in the world because of the train's refurbished Art Deco-style cars and first-rate service and the stunning scenery. Owen Hardy, president of the Society of International Railway Travelers, praises the Canadian as "a classic example of the elegant modern trains rolled out by the private railroads in their last-ditch battle against the automobile and interstate highways."
Three days a week, year-round, the train travels between Vancouver and Toronto, stopping in Jasper, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. A Silver & Blue ticket, which costs from $747 to $2,128, includes sleeping accommodations, meals and exclusive use of the Park Car with its dome section and lounges (www.viarail.ca, 888-VIARail). --By Valerie Marchant
ROCKY MOUNTAINEER RAILTOURS FIRST-RATE SERVICE, HEART-STOPPING SCENERY
On any of 30 different trips and tours offered by Rocky Mountaineer Railtours, you travel in daylight hours so that you don't miss any of the heart-stopping scenery. Choose the GoldLeaf Service because you'll be assigned a seat in the dome car, which offers a 360[degrees] view of some of the most dramatic sights in the world, and you'll eat in a first-class dining room with picture windows. You can stand on an open-air observation platform at the rear of the train, the wind on your face and moose, bear, eagles, bighorn sheep and mountain goats in your view.
Last summer Lloyd Abert of St. Louis, Mo., judged the Rocky Mountaineer tour he took with his family (including his 84-year-old mother) one of the best of his life. "What they provided," he said, "was a dream far beyond any expectations. The service was extraordinary. I don't know of a person who wasn't happy on that train." So appreciative of the scenery was his family that they took more than 700 photos.