I spent 4 days on the longest train ride in North America and I wouldn't hesitate to do the entire 96-hour trip again
With my carry-on sized luggage and backpack full of cameras, I headed to Union Station in Toronto to begin my 96-hour journey — a little more than four days — across Canada on The Canadian train.
I was about to traverse the iconic Great Western Way route from Toronto to Vancouver. At nearly 2,800 miles, it's the longest train route in North America and a bucket-list trip for almost every traveler I spoke with along the way.
I did a ton of research going into the trip, but I still had no idea what to expect when it came to the actual experience. With no WiFi and little cell service, I thought I'd spend most of my time bored in my cabin.
But after meeting loads of interesting people, seeing the Canadian countryside out my window, and dining on board, I understood why this is such an iconic trip for travelers of all ages.
The train makes seven scheduled stops along the way: Sudbury Junction in Ontario, Sioux Lookout in Ontario, Winnipeg in Manitoba, Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Edmonton in Alberta, Jasper in Alberta, and Kamloops in British Columbia.
But first, I'd have to board in Toronto. Union Station is monstrous, and it looks more like a courthouse than a train station from the outside.
I made my way to the VIA Rail lounge for all business class travelers — my Sleeper Plus class ticket fell under the business classification. This class of ticket can run travelers up to $6,000 depending on time of year, and includes all onboard meals and one of three seating arrangements that turn into beds.
I checked in at the lounge entrance and while still at the station made my reservation for dinner with a crew member. Everyone was friendly and helpful from the get-go.
As crew members announced that it was time to board, we were all led through the station to the VIA Rail platform where the train was waiting for us. I looked around and everyone was smiling — they all looked excited for the almost 100 hours ahead.
I was directed to my cabin for two, where I put down my suitcase and took off some of my many cold-weather layers. When I first opened the door, I was surprised at how much the cabin actually looked like the brochure. The seats were bright and the leather didn't look too worn...
… and there was a shelf above the sink with what I'd call "spa soap."
The toilet was in its own "annex" — a more sophisticated name for "little toilet room" as I called it.
The bed is folded up during the day, and when it comes down from the wall at night, the tan chairs fold down underneath it. If there were a second person staying in the cabin with me, their bed would be pulled down from the ceiling to resemble a top bunk.
The bed was nearly six-feet long and less than three feet wide. Even with it down, there was enough room to keep my suitcase out, stand at the sink, and open the annex door. Having a second person in the room would have felt cramped.
Train staff provided beautiful turn-down service nightly which included a piece of goodnight chocolate placed on the comforter. Every morning, usually while I was at breakfast, they came around to change the sheets and put all the beds away.
But, if you want to hold off on pulling down or putting away the bed, you can leave the "Do Not Disturb" sign outside your door.
Getting ready for bed was pleasant with the little sink and toilet annex conveniently in my room. I even had a miniature night table above my head for my water and glasses.
I was able to plug my phone in to charge as I watched the "Gossip Girl" episodes I downloaded before I boarded in Toronto. Thankfully, the charger reached my bed from the outlet.
The bed was surprisingly comfortable, and I got four fairly decent nights of sleep throughout the entire trip.
Above the set of mirrors, I found a shower kit with a towel, soap, and shampoo.
There was no shower in my cabin, but there was a municipal one for everyone in my car to share. It was just seven steps down the hall from my cabin. I never noticed a line for the shower.
The actual shower area was surprisingly spacious. The room had a single shower, a ledge for clothing and a bag ...
... and a "towel disposal" for my used towel. That was nice because it meant I didn't need to take it back to my room and figure out where to hang it.
Overall I was impressed with my cabin, and it made me wonder what other sleeping arrangements looked like.
When I explored the rest of the train, I got to see how my mates were traveling. Starting from my business class Sleeper Plus car near the back, I walked toward the front of the train.
Walking through a few more Sleeper Plus cars, I passed cabins for one, which consisted of a single bench, a murphy bed that folded down over the bench, and a toilet that doubles as a table.
There were also berth alcoves around the corner — a lower-cost ticket option from a cabin — made up of a pair of couches facing each other during the day ...
... that turns into a bunk bed style sleeping arrangement for the night. These beds are slightly shorter but wider than the cabin mattresses.
Finally, I made my way to Economy class — the low-cost ticket option. There was a sign on the door between cars that read "Economy Class Passengers Only Beyond This Point," but I just walked through.
Walking through the economy Skyline car — a lounge car for passengers — I could tell from the torn seats and fading teal color of the leather that it was not as nice as the business class Skyline car.
But economy was still a pretty sweet set-up. Seats reclined decently and they had pop-up footrests. I noticed that some passengers claimed sets of seats facing each other and made a full bed for themselves.
Most of the people I talked to in economy, though, said they were traveling for only part of this iconic route. Josh Barrett, seen here, was traveling for just three hours, so he didn't need to reserve a Sleeper ticket.
Some travelers, like Bobbi-Marie Sandberg, seen here, did sleep in their seats. She was traveling home with her three-year-old son and spent a total of 32 hours on board.
Economy passengers have access to a lofted dome seating area in their Skyline car. But the partially-cloth seats and faded colors made it look a bit more tired than the one I used in business class.
The Skyline car in business class had new-looking leather seats and a more modern color scheme. Eager passengers started to file in before we even pulled away from the platform in Toronto.
A major draw of this trip for passengers is the promise of stunning views. The best way to enjoy those views is through the elevated, windowed dome of the Skyline car.
Even more immersive than the observation deck in the Skyline car was the Panorama car, but it wasn't added to the train until we approached Rocky Mountain territory more than halfway through the trip.
VIA Rail staff said this car only ever travels between Edmonton and Vancouver, as it's the most scenic leg of the trip.
As the train started to move, Colin — the staff member assigned to look after the folks in my Skyline car— came around with welcome mimosas and introduced himself.
The glass-covered section of the Skyline car filled up quickly in Ontario. I found myself sitting at one of two small, rectangular tables with three strangers who, after a minute, were no longer strangers at all. The friendly introductions and echos of, "You can sit with us!" filled the car the entire trip.
The first moments of my trip were filled with conversations about cameras, which turned out to be great ice breakers.
Because of the visual nature of this journey, I wasn't surprised to find that many of my train mates were camera buffs. Randy Barba and Russell Kanhai, in particular, each had their collections of lenses and cameras with them.
They even gave me tips on how I could get the best pictures on mine, like putting the lens right up against the window to minimize reflections.
While I was able to get some beautiful shots of the orange, yellow, and red leaves ...
... most of my photos ended up looking like this blurry mess.
My trip was smack dab in the middle of October, so the environment was bright and at its peak autumn-ness.
The crew said if we wanted to get any red trees in our pictures, day one was the only day to do it. So everyone spent the first day snapping photos out the window, myself included.
Thinking the sunrise would be stunning, I woke up at 6 a.m. each day of my journey and headed to the Skyline car. Alas, it was too cloudy on most mornings, but we did get one glowing sunrise by the end of the trip.
The comfortable leather seats of the observation area were great for socializing. I learned more and more about my train buddies the longer I sat there.
There was Carina Clarsson, who is a rather spontaneous solo-traveler from Sweden ...
... Stuart and Kathy Halson, a couple who came from Washington to cross this trip off their bucket list ...
... and Randy and Jeanette Barba of Toronto. Randy told me that, as someone who works a lot with railways, "how could [he] not want to do something like this?"
![... and Randy and Jeanette Barba of Toronto. Randy told me that, as someone who works a lot with railways, "how could [he] not want to do something like this?"](https://staticbiassets.in/thumb/msid-72268314,width-700,height-525,imgsize-1084851/-and-randy-and-jeanette-barba-of-toronto-randy-told-me-that-as-someone-who-works-a-lot-with-railways-how-could-he-not-want-to-do-something-like-this.jpg)
Another opportunity to meet people was during mealtime in the dining car, which looked exactly like it did in the brochure.
Leather-bound menus, beautiful dishware, and lovely tablescapes greeted passengers as we sat down.
For each meal, the maître d' seated me at a table with three totally new people. It was cool to hear everyone's stories: Benoit, seen here, was in the middle moving from Montreal to Vancouver.
My first impression of the food onboard was at brunch — I ordered banana bread French toast and was not disappointed. Of course, my waiter insisted on topping off my welcome mimosa.
From 6:30 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. passengers can order from the continental breakfast menu. I ordered the yogurt and berries each morning and carried it to the Skyline car where I ate under the early morning clouds.
Daily specials and accommodating kitchen staff made up each of my 11 dining experiences on the train. Other brunches included brie-stuffed omelets, vegetarian hash topped with eggs, and fried chicken BLT sandwiches with a side of pancakes!
The kitchen staff humored me and my strange ordering ways. What can I say? I wanted to try everything, so I always asked for a small bit of another meal listed on the menu. Everything came out exactly the way I asked for it.
I was really impressed with the food as well as the wine pairings at dinner! Each dish on the menu had an icon suggesting a wine for an ideal taste. Meals were included in the price of our tickets, but alcohol and snacks were not.
When we stopped at Winnipeg, we still had two full days left on the train. I was constantly getting hungry in between meals, so we used the stop to visit the wine store and snack stand at The Forks Market, just a few-minutes walk from the train station.
Candy seemed like the logical choice of snack here.
But, every other day there was either a complimentary wine or beer tasting. During the tastings, we all pretended like we were professionals and gave our harshest opinions, but we still finished every last drop.
We had a sampling of some local Canadian wine after dinner one day ...
... which concluded with a musical performance by Andy Du Rego of Black Suit Devil, the selected musician for this trip as part of VIA Rail's artists on board initiative.
Andy told me the initiative allows musicians who want to travel across the country to hop on board for free and provide musical entertainment for passengers along the way.
As Andy played on that first night, I watched everyone get more and more lively as the hours grew later. I quickly learned this was shaping up to be a late-night crowd.
We stayed up in the dome of the Skyline car looking at the sky hoping to see stars, but it was too cloudy.
Even crew members stayed up late with us, telling us stories about how the train has changed in the past year — there have been schedule updates, which fixed the issue of frequent, 24-plus-hour delays.
Aside from my section's Skyline car, passengers were able to hang out in the Park car — a first-class lounge that's off-limits to business class travelers until 4 p.m. daily. The area features high tables and a bar ...
... and couches with a view out the back of the train. Passengers can sit and watch the track disappear out the rear window.
The dome part of the Park car was always off-limits to anyone who wasn't a first-class traveler. It looked exactly the same as the one in my Skyline car, though, so I didn't understand why it was so exclusive.
I was happy to go back to my dedicated Skyline car and listen to everyone discuss and debate countless topics as we passed through beautiful yet scenically repetitive prairies.
As we got more familiar with one another, people from all different backgrounds told tales of their past travels. And, of course, everyone came together to talk politics.
Political talk was mostly about with the upcoming Canadian election, but the train was filled with global travelers so conversation shifted from one world leader to the next quite frequently.
I love learning about people and different points of view, so hearing everyone explain their perspectives was my favorite part of the entire trip experience.
Another part of the trip I liked was whenever we were able to get out and stretch our legs. It was cold and rainy at most stops, but the small dose of fresh air was always so needed.
VIA staff told us that if a traveler doesn't make it back to the train on time, it will leave the station without them. So most of the time, we had just enough of a window to hop out and snap some photos.
Some stations were more popular than others for travelers who were starting or ending their trips. Passengers can also request to be dropped off at smaller, non-scheduled stations, and can even request to be let out on the side of the tracks if they want, but that's usually just people going camping.
The time you get at any stop is never guaranteed. When the train is trying to make up time, the staff will cut stops short whenever possible. Instead of the four hours we thought we'd have in Jasper, we only got 45 minutes.
Delays in the schedule came mostly from waiting for freight trains to pass by, which share the tracks and have priority over VIA Rail.
Even with delays, we ended up pulling into Vancouver on-time. Everyone had to be off the train by 8:30 a.m., so I had about two hours to pack up and get breakfast, but part of me wanted just a few more hours on board.
While the journey was long, filled with very dry recirculated air that made my nose bleed, and just generally exhausting, I really understood why so many people dream of crossing Canada on The Canadian.
From the sights to the friendships and the experience of riding an endangered mode of travel, I saw it as an amazing trip, and one I wouldn't hesitate to do again.
- Read more about my journey on the longest train route in North America
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