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On track across the Rockies

This small but beautiful segment of Canada really rocks.

September 8, 2011 10:15
The Rocky Mountaineer travels past Castle Mountain just outside of Banff

ByJan Shure, Jan Shure

3 min read

Perhaps it helped to be travelling in the slipstream of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Or perhaps Canadians are just naturally warm people.

Whatever the reason, a notable aspect of a recent summer trip from Calgary to Vancouver aboard the Rocky Mountaineer train, preceded by a day in the charming town of Banff in the heart of the Alberta Rockies, was the boundless charm of everyone we encountered, all the way to the bus driver who when she realised she had forgotten to let us off at the Banff Park Museum, turned her bus round and delivered us to the museum's door.

Banff is an aesthetically pleasing town. It has a bright, clean main street and offers every kind of store, high-quality souvenir shop, Seattle-style coffee shops and restaurants offering food from every continent. It also has gorgeous river-side paths and bike trails, and the most eye-ravishing alpine scenery visible from every point in the town.

The finest views of this chocolate-box wonderland of shimmering lakes and fir-clad mountains are from the top of Sulphur Mountain, reached via a cable-car ride aboard the Banff Gondola.