Destinations

For most of us in the UK, rail travel these days is something to be avoided unless absolutely essential. So why would anyone plan their holiday around a six-day train journey?

Well, if you take Royal Canadian Pacific’s Rocky Experience tour, you don’t have to worry about melting track, essential engineering work or leaves on the line. Canadian Pacific not only owns all its rolling stock but also all of the track. That means the train goes pretty much wherever it pleases, whenever it wants, and is never thwarted by the wrong kind of leaves or a dust of snow.

From the moment the chauffeured limo picks you up at Calgary Airport, you know this trip will not be like the 8.40am to Waterloo. The limo deposits you at that most venerable of Canadian hotels, the Fairmont Palliser – good enough for the Queen and certainly good enough for me.

The Palliser is one of the great railway hotels of Canada, conveniently situated next to the station. I retired early to my Fairmont Gold room on the executive floor in anticipation of an early start the next morning.

I had joined the five-night Royal Canadian Rockies Experience, one of several different themed trips offered by Canadian Pacific on a journey through the heart of the Rocky Mountains. The Royal Canadian Pacific offers the ultimate experience in luxury rail travel. The railcars, built between 1917 and 1930, were used by Canadian Pacific executives and important guests and are truly sumptuous, decked out in walnut, velvet and solid brass fittings. It’s like stepping back into a bygone romantic era.

I sat in the Mount Stephen observation car as our train headed out from Calgary across the vast Alberta prairies towards the Rockies. Our first stop was at the aptly named Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump-Point where, for centuries, cunning First Nation tribes (or the Blackfoot) tricked herds of buffalo to run over the edge of a large cliff and turned them into buffalo burgers.

We were soon heading up into the heart of the Rockies through some truly spectacular scenery. After travelling through Crowsnest Pass, we crossed the Continental Divide where, in theory at least, a single raindrop could split, one half ending up in the Pacific and the other in the Atlantic.

The next stop was Lake Louise, 5,680ft up in the Rockies. There can be few places in the world as stunning as this and the view from the Fairmont’s Château Lake Louise is without parallel. From the opulence of the tearooms you look out over the lake’s turquoise water to the summit of Mount Victoria towering at 11,600ft. The hanging glacier – a permanent band of ice more than 500ft thick and resembling a wedge of icing on a cake – squats ominously over the lake.

One of the many beauties of this trip is that Canadian Pacific provides top-class guides and experts at the various stops, and few guides anywhere could match the enthusiasm and expertise of Bruce Bembridge at Lake Louise. A character mix of David Attenborough and David Bellamy, his favourite expression was "Oh jiggers" as he regaled us with tales of "negative bear experiences" – that’s a bear attack to you and me.

Some luxury train journeys cover such great distances that they have to travel through the night. Canadian Pacific has avoided this, choosing to have the train remain stationary throughout the night, usually beside a stunning lake. This ensures a sound night’s sleep, cocooned from the dreaded negative bear experience, in beautifully appointed berths.

On the food front Canadian Pacific has something far more dangerous than the British Rail sandwich in Pierre Meloche, its French Canadian chef. In the wood-panelled Craigallachie dining car, he conjured exquisite meals, morning, noon and night. We soon abandoned any ideas of girth control. His baked lemon cheesecake is forever etched on my mind and, I fear, my waistline. His enthusiasm is inspired by the surroundings. As he put it: "Few kitchens have a view and I have one of the best views in the world."

Another highlight of the journey is a stop at Banff, developed by Canadian Pacific entirely as a resort for rich Victorian tourists. The stop offers stunning views of the imposing Mount Cascade which looms over the town. Cornelius Van Horne, the first Canadian Pacific president, famously commented: "If we can’t export the scenery, we’ll import the tourists." Our stop there included a conducted tour of the legendary and wonderfully eccentric Banff Springs Hotel where those Victorians certainly knew how to holiday in style.

During the trip we huffed and puffed our way up and down mountains (including the spectacular spiral tunnels), zig-zagged through passes, past lakes and forests, and gorged ourselves on delicious food. But although the journey is undertaken in considerable style and comfort, the wilderness isn’t far away.

Bears are regularly spotted from the train and cougars and wolves are never far away.