Page 9 - AAA Central Penn – AAA Now! – May/June 2017

AAA
All Aboard to Ride the Rails to Authentic Adventures
TRAVEL AGENCY
Railroad Museum Tours
Pacific Northwest: Oregon & Washington September 11 – 18, 2017
America’s Pacific Northwest attracts travelers to Oregon and Washington for innumerable reasons and often for the states’ remarkable scenery from coastlines to mountain ranges. This uniquely designed tour commences in popular Portland with a specially arranged visit at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center featuring the state’s railroads, including those operated by the historically important logging industry. Your ride on Portland’s light rail train, “Max,” along with a guided city tour by motorcoach, including a visit to the famous Rose Gardens, plus a dinner cruise on the Willamette River, reveal the allure of the “Rose City.”
The call of “Westward Ho” leads you to Oregon’s Pacific beaches and the Oregon Scenic Railroad for a photogenic excursion aboard a train pulled by a historic steam locomotive. A visit at Ecola State Park, renowned for its stands of Sitka Spruce and for views of giant sea stacks on
the long shoreline, is followed by accommodations at an oceanfront hotel in Seaside, Oregon. You head east through the spectacular Columbia River Gorge, with views of the Bonneville Dam and Cascade Locks, and then ascend through the timbered forests of Mount Hood to the legendary Timberline Lodge for a two-night stay. Ride the Mount Hood Railroad through woods, orchards and vineyards, with views of Mount Hood and Mount Adams, followed by a visit at
The Dalles’ Columbia Gorge Discovery Center. Cross into Washington State for the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake and later board the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad’s train pulled by a historic steam locomotive. Farther north, a route across a glacier-fed river and through forests is featured on a heritage steam train operated by the Mount Rainier Railroad & Logging Museum. Boarding at Gig Harbor, a picturesque cruise of the southern end of Puget Sound rounds out a spectacularly scenic itinerary in the Pacific Northwest.
Canadian Rockies:
British Columbia
& Alberta
October 3 – 12, 2017
Among the great train
journeys in North America,
the magnificently scenic route
through the Canadian Rockies
is one of the best. As the most
comfortable and luxurious
way to travel by rail through
the Canadian Rockies, the
private Rocky Mountaineer
train features unmatched
glass-dome railcars and unparalleled onboard services to make this spectacular ride even more wonderful. AAA Travel has wisely coupled this train trip with a deluxe motorcoach tour to the classic destinations of Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper for an outstanding customized group vacation in Western Canada.
Vancouver’s attractive waterfront attractions, fashionable neighborhoods and beloved Stanley Park are yours to admire on a guided city tour. Victoria, on adjacent Vancouver Island, features a visit to delightful Butchart Gardens. Then, it’s “all aboard” the Rocky Mountaineer on which you are treated to premier Gold Leaf Service with luxurious seating in the upper level of an extraordinary glass-dome railcar and included gourmet dining served by friendly professional staff in your railcar’s lower level restaurant with large picture windows.
During your two-day journey aboard Rocky Mountaineer from Vancouver to Jasper, you see dramatic changes in scenery from lush green fields to forests to winding river canyons and high mountain peaks. Although other passenger trains through the Canadian Rockies continue to travel throughout the night and thus exclude many miles of views and photos of those picturesque areas through which they are passing in the dark, the Rocky Mountaineer stops halfway on its route for a comfortable hotel stay in the frontier town of Kamloops.
Rocky Mountaineer’s second day ride takes you above deep river canyons and through the Rainbow Range for views of Mount Robson (the Canadian Rockies’ highest peak) and railroad snow sheds, past Pyramid Falls and over Yellowhead Pass to Jasper National Park. From your seat or the dome-car’s outdoor viewing platform, watch for elk, deer, bear and other wildlife moving through the autumn foliage to lower elevations to escape early snows. Upon arrival in Jasper, you wave goodbye to the Rocky Mountaineer train and staff, and board a charter motorcoach for the balance of your deluxe tour.
During the next five nights, your legendary accommodations will progress from the Jasper Park Lodge to Chateau Lake Louise to Banff Springs Hotel; each was grandly built originally in the late 19th or early 20th centuries by the Canadian railroads and is now a premier Fairmont hotel. Your guided touring in this region of the Canadian Rockies includes Jasper National Park and its wildlife, the Icefields Parkway and Columbia Glacier, a ride on the giant Ice Explorer coach on Athabasca Glacier, and Peyto Lake, plus views of trains progressing through the amazing Spiral Tunnels. Independent time at each of the hotels and in Banff town provides time to relax, shop, dine and explore at your own pace. A motorcoach transfer to Calgary Airport commences your trip home after a marvelously memorable vacation in Western Canada and through the Canadian Rockies.
Each year, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania offers a variety of railroad-themed tours, which are open to AAA members, their families and friends in addition to members of the museum’s non-profit “Friends” support organization. You do not need to be a “rail fan” to enjoy these tours, which include visits and
activities at additional attractions of broad interest to many travelers. There always is a lot to do and see both on and off the trains!
Craig Haberle, CTC
MAY/JUNE 2017
9
Now!