Trans-Canada Rail Guide: Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jasper, Calgary, Churchill, Vancouver

This is THE ultimate canadian rail travel book. I would even recommend this book for those driving through Canada. The author gives advise (very detailed) on where to eat, sleep, sight-see, and so on. I urge everyone to find this book at your local bookstore and thumb through it. Then buy it here. At the end of the book it even guides you along the train journey by listing the significant sights along the way (such as....at Mile marker 26 towards the south, you'll see the cemetary containing 145 victims of the Titanic). Best of all, it displays all of the VIA Rail timetables and how many calendar days each leg of the trip takes. This is especially useful for those on the CANRAIL pass package. YOu can literaly plan your entire itinerary from this single book. The size allows you to easily stow it in a small camera bag or purse. The PERFECT Canadian travel book.

Ok, I'm back. This is my second review of the book, however this time it's based on my real experience traveling with VIA from coast to coast (Halifax - Vancouver) and using this book on the road (oooppss...rail). While preparing my itinerary I used this book as a main source of information when deciding how much time I'll spend in each city and where I'll be staying. VIA web site is of course the place to pickup the latest timetables, calculate the price of the tickets, and make a reservations... (I found timetables at the end of the book still useful on the board of the train when I needed to quickly find out the distance to the next station). I put three books in my backpack, two travel guides from NELLES (guides to Atlantic and Pacific provinces) and this one. The guides from NELLES are good with lots of facts about the country and with nice photos, however I found "Trans-Canada Rail Guide" far more suitable for people traveling across Canada by train. Also the book is as valuable on board of the train as well in the downtown of the city. I rent the book to several fellow travelers in coach class and each one of them told me how great it is.The organization of the book is simple but efficient, for example in PART 4 City Guides and plans you can find for all mayor cities short descriptions of the following: History, Arriving in...(by air, by train), Local Transport, Orientation and Services, Where to stay, Where to eat, What to see, Moving on (by air, by train). If you are real rail enthusiast you'll have fun reading PART 5 Route Guide and Maps with description of small stations and places marked with mile markers so you can be "smarter" then others guessing what it is or where you are. Some prices mentioned in the book are the same even today but in general are higher. My average expense for the mid-range hotel or B & B was 55 CAD per night (including tax), entrance fees for museums and other events are in general higher, anything from 10 to 50% higher, food 10-20%, buses and taxis 10-20% , train tickets 10-20% (the cost of my Canrail Pass was 408 CAD including tax). If you need any additional tips or information about the trip you can send me a message to my account on Yahoo (see member page). Today I found out that second edition of this book is published so check it out!

This book helped me prepare itinerary for my one-month journey from Halifax to Vancouver that I'm planning to take in May 2000. I checked prices and some telephone numbers mentioned in the book with those I found on different web sites and despite the fact that the book is four years old it's still useful and accurate. There is everything you need to prepare for such journey: routes and costs, facts about country, practical advices (transport, festivals, food, time, hotels,...), history about Trans-Canada railway, mayor city guides and plans and least but not last route guide and maps with short description about small towns along the routes.