[dadspet]

Our Cruise ship decided to Dry dock in Vancouver 5/20 2011 instead of going on to Alaska and since we are in Vancouver we are thinking about touring the Canadian Rockies - Lake Louise Banff etc (we have been to Alaska before). There are a few options we are looking at : Rocky Mountaineer (2 day train and bus ), Grand Circle Tour (all bus) and AAA tour (train and bus), to those locations. The tours that include the train are significantly more money then GCT and would be the way we would prefer but the extra $$s seem hard to justify. Approx $$s below wo air.

Rocky Mountaineer 7 days 6 night $2600
Grand Circle Tour 14 days 13 night $1600 (they gave us a $300 discount for traveling with them before)
AAA tour 7 days 6 nights $1600

There are some differences of course but not nearly enough, in our mind, to make up the difference and we have recently toured with GCT and were very pleased with them.

Since the train ride from Vancouver to Banff is major difference It seems like the bus will have to go a similar route from Vancouver to Banff so the scenery should be very close (thats an opinion from someone who hasn't been on either - me).

I'm looking for comments from anyone who has toured this region with either Rock Mountaineer Railroad or Grand circle tours or AAA or anyone else. Anyone have any other suggestions that would include the train but would come close to the GCT prices?

[carm310]

It depends on the level of service and the experience you are looking for. It is hard to compare train to motorcoach. You will have more freedom to move about on a train, included meals and most likely better hotels with Rocky Mountaineer. If I found what you are refering to with Grand Circle or AAA tour - you are referring to the travel agency, not the tour. If you look at a sample itinerary for all the packages you are referring to you will have a better idea of what you are comparing. Rocky Mountaineer is more in line with a luxury day train and they are not fully escorted packages. They also have various classes of service on the train and at the hotels. You can mix the class of service, for example you can choose Gold Leaf on the train and Red Leaf hotels.
Ask yourself what experience you want, cost should not be the only deciding factor and you may not be comparing apples to apples.