Welcome to Canada! Arrive into Calgary and make your way from the airport to your hotel. You have a night here to relax after your flight, or to explore the city. The Calgary Tower is a great place to start, its 158 metre high observation deck offering 360 degree views out towards the Canadian Rockies. For dinner or evening drinks, head to 17th Avenue.

Standard: Delta Calgary Downtown
Deluxe: Fairmont Palliser

Enjoy a scenic transfer into the Rockies this morning and check into your chosen hotel. Banff National Park has to be seen to be believed; a wonderous landscape of towering, snow-capped peaks whose steep sides give way to verdant forests and impossibly blue lakes. The rest of the day is yours at leisure, perhaps to visit Banff Hot Springs or enjoy a stroll through the pretty Cascade of Time Gardens.

Standard: Banff Caribou Lodge & Spa
Deluxe: Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

You’ll be picked up from your hotel this morning for an action-packed day of sightseeing, including a tour of the town, a ride on the Banff Gondola and cruise on Lake Minnewanka.

The Banff Gondola transports you 698 metres up Sulphur Mountain, for a panoramic perspective of the six mountain ranges that surround the town and the Bow Valley below. Follow the 2 km boardwalk to Sanson’s Peak, for more incredible vistas, and the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station.

Standard: Banff Caribou Lodge & Spa
Deluxe: Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Is there a more scenic drive in Canada? The journey between Banff and Jasper is nothing short of spectacular, with an ancient glacier, cascading waterfall or emerald lake around almost every corner.

En route, you will stop at the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre, to venture out onto the Glacier Skywalk, a glass-floored observation platform that extends 30 metres out over the Sunwapta Valley, and to ride in an Ice Explorer onto the Athabasca Glacier, and disembark to stop onto the ice.

You’ll be dropped at your Jasper hotel this evening, to relax before your Rocky Mountaineer rail journey tomorrow!

Standard: Jasper Inn & Suites
Deluxe: Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge

All aboard! Today you will Journey Through the Clouds on the luxurious Rocky Mountaineer, weaving your way through the Canadian Rockies from Jasper to Kamloops, in the heart of the British Columbia interior.

Sit back and soak in the dramatic scenery of the Continental Divide and the river valleys of the Monashee and Cariboo Mountains. Today’s highlights include Mount Robson, Pyramid Falls, the climb over Yellowhead Pass, and the journey along the North Thompson River as you approach Kamloops.

SilverLeaf & GoldLeaf: Selected Kamloops hotel (comfortable, moderate standard)

Breakfast, Lunch

Your journey continues west towards the Pacific Ocean and the coastal city of Vancouver. Enjoy the dramatic changes in scenery as you travel from the desert-like environment of the BC interior past winding river canyons and pristine forests, to the Coast and Cascade Mountains and lush green fields of the Fraser Valley. Highlights include the steep slopes and rock sheds along the Thompson River and the rushing waters of Hell’s Gate in the Fraser Canyon.

Standard: Rosedale on Robson
Deluxe: Pan Pacific Vancouver

Breakfast, Lunch

With three nights in Vancouver, you have two full days to explore at your own pace. To help you get around, we have included a 48 hour Vancouver Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour. Stops include Canada Place, Stanley Park, where you can walk along the seawall or visit the aquarium, Granville Island, with its local markets, Chinatown and Gastown, with informative commentary en route.

Standard: Rosedale on Robson
Deluxe: Pan Pacific Vancouver

Your Alaska journey starts early this afternoon at the Vancouver Cruise Terminal where you will board your ship and settle in to your choice of cabin.

Interior Stateroom

Dinner

Alaska’s Inside Passage is a protected network of waterways that wind through glacier-cut fjords and lush temperate rainforests along the rugged coast of Southeast Alaska. Arguably one of the greatest cruising routes in the world, the Inside Passage stretches through stunning landscapes, from Misty Fjords National Monument to famed Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

Sailing the Inside Passage offers opportunities to spot some of Alaska’s most iconic wildlife, with humpback whales and orca plying the bountiful waters alongside the ships, bald eagles soaring overhead and brown bears lumbering on the shoreline.

Numerous ports along the way recount Alaska’s colourful history. In Sitka, an onion-domed church marks Russia’s onetime foothold in the Americas; Ketchikan provides a glimpse of the Native Alaskan experience, with historic totem poles and native art galleries; and the legendary town centre of Skagway bustles as it did at the turn of the 19th century when it served as the rowdy Wild West gateway to the Klondike Gold Rush.

Interior Stateroom

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Juneau, Alaska may well be the most remote, beautiful and strangest state capital in the United States. Surrounded by water, forest and mountains, visitors seeking things to do in Juneau, both indoors and outdoors can hike a glacier, eat fresh-caught fish on a seaside patio and tour a grand capitol building all in one day.

The city itself is pleasant, but the real highlight of a visit to Juneau is tracking down some wildlife. You can hike up Mount Roberts to chance upon wild deer and bald eagles. Most sightseeing and whale watching tours head north to Auke Bay; bring a good pair of binoculars to get the best view of these majestic and surprisingly graceful creatures. If you prefer land mammals, catch a floatplane to a nearby wildlife reserve such as Chichagof or Admiralty Island to spy some bears lolling around.

The sleepy, misty city of around 32,000 – mostly fishermen and small-business owners – has a frontier town vibe, but welcomes more than a million visitors each summer to its natural attractions, cementing Juneau as Alaska’s number-one tourist destination.

Interior Stateroom

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

At the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, the port town of Skagway served as the primary gateway to the legendary gold fields and quickly grew into Alaska’s largest settlement. It was then a raucous frontier hub packed with trading posts, saloons and guesthouses. As the gold rush faded into the 1900’s, so did Skagway, but today it has been reinvigorated as a gateway for a new kind of visitor, those looking to explore Alaska’s colourful history, pristine wildlife and unrivalled natural beauty.

At every turn, you’ll find yourself immersed in gold rush lore, from the infamous Red Onion Saloon which still keeps a pistol that Wyatt Earp left behind en route to the Klondike, to the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad, a classic narrow-gauge railway that traverses rugged mountains and passes cascading waterfalls and towering glaciers as it connects Skagway to Whitehorse deep in the Yukon. Much of the town has been preserved as part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, where rangers offer free walking tours around the historic district. Here you’ll also find a vibrant local community, home to a rich collection of local galleries, curio shops and restaurants serving seafood caught fresh from nearby waters.

Interior Stateroom

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Imagine this; a bald eagle glides overhead when, in a flash, the ethereal silence is broken by the jarring boom of a calving glacier or breath catching splash of a breaching humpback. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve offers some of the most dramatic scenery and wildlife experiences in all of North America, which makes all the more reason for you to visit this UNESCO World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve on this epic Alaska cruise. It’s going to be a highlight of your trip, we assure you!

Interior Stateroom

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Alaska’s ‘First City’ of Ketchikan is so named because it’s the first major landfall for most cruisers as they enter the picturesque fjords of the Inside Passage. The town clings to the banks of the Tongass Narrows, flanked by green forests nurtured by abundant rain.

Ketchikan has long been an important hub of the salmon-fishing and packing industries. Here you can try your luck on a sport fishing excursion or simply savour the fresh seafood at one of the local restaurants. It is also one of the best spots along the Inside Passage to explore the rich cultural sights of Native Alaskan nations. You can see intricately carved totem poles at the Totem Heritage Center and Totem Bight State Park, while the attractions of Saxman Village just outside of Ketchikan offer the chance to see Tlingit culture in action, with working carvers and a dance show in the clan house. Be sure to leave time to explore the sights in the town itself, including historic Creek Street, a boardwalk built over the Ketchikan Creek, where you can shop for souvenirs, smoked salmon and local art.

Interior Stateroom

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

It’s the final day of your cruise and time to make your way back through the Inside Passage to Vancouver. Keep your eyes peeled today as you spend the day spotting the wonderful wildlife that makes this area of the world their home. If you’re lucky you might spot a pod of orca playing, humpback whales breaching off the bow of the ship, bald eagles soaring overhead or even brown bears wandering the shoreline in the distance.

Interior Stateroom

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Arrive back into port this morning and depart the cruise ship to make your way to the airport. If you have some spare time, you could add some extra nights here in this wonderfully eclectic city or move on to another equally fun destination nearby.

Breakfast