Alaska Rail And Cruise Packages Add Value, Adventure

by Chris Owen on

Alaska rail and cruise packages, commonly called Cruise Tours, are heating up as more travelers opt to see more of what the land of the midnight sun has to offer. Choosing a multi-day land exploration, either before or after a seven-day cruise line sailing, gets passengers deeper into the Alaska heartland than possible by ship only. Now, a third-party travel source is offering to combine their package with a standard cruise line experience for something different.

Rocky Mountaineer is a rail line that offers over 45 Canadian vacation packages on four unique routes through British Columbia and Alberta, each rich in history and natural wonders. The luxurious train travels by daylight through the wild beauty of Canada’s West and is a great way to experience the majestic Canadian Rockies either before or after an Alaska cruise.

Traveling eastbound or westbound on the Rocky Mountaineer, the all-daylight rail journey departs three times per week on both the First Passage to the West and the Journey Through the Clouds routes from the end of April until the beginning of October. The Rainforest to Gold Rush route runs from the middle of May until the end of September, as does the Whistler Sea to Sky Climb route.On board, Rocky Mountaineer offers different levels/choices of service for rail journeys too. All passengers get onboard attendants that provide friendly service and informative commentary of the regions through which the train travels. Gold, Silver and Red levels of service offer more onboard amenities.

Now, combining Rocky Mountaineer extensive experience on land with Holland America Line’s experience at sea, comes a package that bundles it all.

Called Canadian Rockies Highlights & Coastal Passage with Pre-Tour Cruise – 2013, the package includes three days onboard the Rocky Mountaineer, a seven-night Holland America Alaskan cruise, eight dinners, eight lunches, nine breakfasts and five nights of hotel accommodation. Also included are Banff & Seattle tours, a Yoho Park tour and Helicopter Flightseeing.

The offer is simple: book a Coastal Passage rail/cruise trip by March 28 directly through Rocky Mountaineer and earn up to $1300 in credits toward the cruise portion, or extra hotel nights/restaurant meals along the train portion in cities like Seattle, Vancouver and Banff.

Want to know more about what travel via rail in the Rockies is like? Check this video:




[Photo Credit- Rocky Mountaineer]

Burgess Shale online exhibition brings 500 million year-old sea back to life

by Sean McLachlan on


The Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada, preserves an amazing collection of fossils of sea creatures from the Cambrian period. This was a time dating from 488 to 542 million years ago, when complex creatures were beginning to evolve but before the dinosaurs existed.

Some of the creatures were pretty strange, like the Anomalocaris canadensis pictured above in this image courtesy Nobu Tamura. The name means “strange shrimp of Canada”. Another is the Marella splendens, shown below in this image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. These little guys are the most common animal found in the Burgess Shale.

Fossils from the Burgess Shale can be seen in museums around the world, and now the Royal Ontario Museum and Parks Canada have created the Burgess Shale online exhibition. The exhibition has a fossil library of almost every species ever found in the shale, along with information about how they lived. Most interesting are the animated reconstructions, including a virtual submarine ride to visit sea life half a billion years ago.

More than 70 digital reconstructions of the animals allow you to examine them closely. You’ll see how many modern animals such as snails, sea stars, and crabs had their origins in this remote era. These real-life monsters are a great educational tool for kids. My son was fascinated.

If you want to see the Burgess Shale for yourself, go to Yoho National Park in British Columbia. Guided hikes to the otherwise restricted fossil beds, which have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are available from July to September