I did upgrade to gold train when I booked and I'm glad I did.  Freight trains pass often and whilst they are passing it could take about 20 minutes but you can still see the scenery as you are up so high in gold.  Food superb. I recommend the North Shore trip which takes you up Grouse Mountain the 2 bears up there have a huge compound and large pond to swim in.  

Lovely hotels all through.  We were extremely lucky as we were upgraded in Jasper to the Fairmount instead of the Lobstick but that was because people who had been evacuated from the large fire in Alberta had taken the rooms. They are now returning back to their homes.

I did the river raft and it was extremely calm on the water. 

The full day Victoria is a long day.  It takes a long time to get to Victoria itself after getting the ferry (90 minutes) and then an hour's drive.

Butchat gardens were pleasant and ice cream Shop did a good trade.

Having regularly travelled to the USA I did find the prices were higher in Canada don't forget the price you see is not the price you pay you have to add sales tax.

There were 24 of us.  Most travellers gelled together. We had Brian Croft as our tour manager.

He got us  on the road early to see the wildlife and how fortunate were we.  It was as if he had arranged for the wildlife to be in certain areas as we travelled through the areas.Thank you Brian for a lovely holiday.

Thanks for the review, this is a tour I have my eye on so it was good to read your thoughts on upgrade to gold! Glad you got to see animals, and I have heard good things about Brian from other reviews..

Cindy

Katy

Thanks for taking the time to write a review. This one of the holidays at the top of my ToDo List.

Can I ask how many people upgraded to Gold? and also roughly how much spending money you need.

Kind Regards

Kezzer

Thank you. I must put this trip on my list.

Always a good trip with Brian

Regards Julie

Hi Gill,

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.  This one of the holidays at the top of my ToDo List.

Can I ask how many people upgraded to Gold? and also roughly how much spending money you need.

Kind Regards

Kezzer

Hi Kezzer

Only 9 of us out of 24 were gold and we had a different hotel for the overnight stop too from the silvers. Regarding money I took a load of dollars plus credit card for emergencies. Only one evening meal is included so I budgeted for about 100 dollars a day to include lunch, dinner, tax and waiter tips. Please note that if you decide to do optional JY excursions whilst you're there the tour manager can only take cash he does not accept credit cards as he has no machine to process them.  Helicopter people will take a credit card though. I did a personal trip in a seaplane in Toronto again they take credit cards.

Gill

Many thanks for this brilliant review - I had planned to do this tour next year but some other new tours have got in the way!!  I am delighted that you had such a great time, between all the wildlife and incredible scenery - my two favourite things on any tour.  I am now planning for 2018, fingers crossed!

Best wishes,

Bob