My wife and I are planning a trip to the USA and Canada and are looking for some ideas as the best way of doing it given that we are both 60. We intend to start from San Francisco in late September / early October and would like to visit Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, New York, Niagara Falls and then up to Canada to do the train trip across the Rockies ending up with a 7 day Alaskan Cruise.
We are not adverse to traveling by train / bus as long as it is comfortable.
If anyone can put us in the right direction we would be greatly appreciative.
We are not adverse to traveling by train / bus as long as it is comfortable.
If anyone can put us in the right direction we would be greatly appreciative.
1
Rent a car when ready to leave San Francisco... Visit Yosemite NP.& drive the highway 120 to 395 South. This very scenic drive will take you to a drive through Death Vy. to Las Vegas... Retain the car to drive a "loop" Highway 93 to Kingman Az East on the "Old rt 66" to the South Rim GCNP. Leaving the Canyon to the East on the 64 gain the 89 to Kanab UT, and visit Zion NP... Returning to Vegas on the I-15...Fly Vegas NYC...Take then, AMTRAK rail to Buffalo NY. for the falls(if you must) Continuing by rail to Toronto... Fly to Edmonton Alberta rent there and drive a Canadian Rockies loop...Then take VIA RAIL Edmonton-Vancouver...happy t(rails)...carracar2
The route proposed by #1 is excellent. If you want to see anything in between the destinations you propose, you will have to rent a car. And then you can skip some relatively boring parts of the continent by flying. The only part where a bus might work is between New York, Niagara Falls, and Toronto, though you'll have to weigh the cost savings of the bus versus the added comfort of the train.One amendment I would make to carracar's itinerary is to take the train from New York to Montreal, visit Quebec City, Ottawa, and Kingston if time allows, and then bus or train to Toronto. From Toronto, you can make Niagara Falls a day trip.
4
You will be too late for a 7 day cruise but the Alaska Marine Highway will still have limited ferry service operating, which is cheaper/better than a cruise any day. http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhsThere are a bunch of train haters on here that also hate their own countries. To see a bit of the country take the Amtrak from Vegas to NYC, from Toronto to Edmonton take Via rail's Canadian.
5
You can find cruise packages that sail from Vancouver (a city well worth seeing) to Alaska, then, by land ,cross the mountains and continue to Edmonton. Plenty of scenery on that route. From Edmonton you have a choice of itineraries and transport across the plains to the east. Whether through the USA or Canada, the Prairies require a vast traverse.8
agree, to start with you have to re-think your time line. i believe the end of the alaskan cruise season is in september.for trains, from the rockies to vancouver (or vis versa) you can use via rail which runs about every 3 days but passes through parts of the mountains at night time and runs year round...or, the rocky mountaineer which is higher class, very expensive but does the whole trip during daylight hours but again, doesn't run year round.
