Riding the Rails – VIA Rail Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto

Canada is vast, evidenced by the fact it takes five days to go from one side of the country to the other on a train (and that’s the slimmest bit). To embark on this epic adventure, which we took in 2025, you need to board The Canadian. Four glistening silver trains which have been plying the route since the 1950s make up the fleet that operates the route and it was our turn to see why people completely fall in love with the journey. Join us for our full VIA Rail Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto review.

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Don’t miss our post stuffed full of 40 tips for taking the VIA Rail Canadian HERE

A Quick History of the VIA Rail Canadian

Traversing Canada from one side to the other seems so very easy in 2025. Hop on a plane and you can do it in 4.5 hours, hop on the train and its 5 days. Google thinks that you could make the journey by walking solidly for 28 days, but that just isnt practical! In the 1800s, you didn’t really have a good way to travel from coast to coast. Well, when British Columbia joined the Confederation, they wanted to ensure a rail connection to the rest of the country. It took years, but in 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed.

Passenger trains were launched and these were rather swish. Think plush sleeper cars, big-windowed dome coaches, and full-on dining cars serving proper meals on white tablecloths. Cars began to dominate the travel scene and by the 1960s, plane travel became accessible to the masses. The trains just didn’t hold the same appeal with fewer and fewer tickets selling. The government took over in 1977, and VIA Rail was formed. They reduced the train network but The Canadian was kept in place with its fabulous 1950s rolling stock in place. It is now mostly a tourist train, although that does include a decent number of domestic tourists, keen to relax and see some of their own country from eye level. With slow travel and climate concerns gaining popularity in the travel sector, it seems that it will continue to sell out for years to come.

Our Trip

After deciding I fancied starting our holiday in Vancouver, and ending in Niagara Falls we needed to look at logistics. There are those that board the VIA Rail Canadian and don’t disembark four four nights, travelling the whole 4,466km (2,775 mile) journey in one go. I thought about doing this but decided, this would be a perfect reason to stop off in a more unusual destination. After some research, I settled on the city of Winnipeg, about halfway along. So we split the trip into two halves: two nights from Vancouver to Winnipeg, and then another two from there to Toronto. Honestly, I would have liked to stop off in Jasper too but as the train only comes every few days, it extended the trip too much for our annual leave allowance. Plus, I figured we would have the chance to return to Jasper on a future adventure.

Departing Pacific Central Station

We arrived rather early for our train adventure. Call me paranoid but I love contingency time and it gae us time to look around. The Pacific Central Station is a rather grand building that dates back to 1917. It retains many of its original features, including long wooden benches which, although asthetically pleasing, are murder on your bottom! The vintage clock hanging from the ceiling, roman numersals and all, told us that we were two hours early. We were just keen to get into the lounge and grab a coffee. Lounge access is only granted once you are checked in, but there was nobody at the desk as the inbound train was running late.

Check In

Happily, they allowed us to drop our luggage off so at least we weren’t weighed down by our backpacks. Everyone is encouraged to check in their larger bags, only bringing a small hand luggage into their carriage in an effort to ensure everyone has enough room. We had decanted two days of things into tote bags.

After poppng across the road for some pictures, we decided to line up, ready to check in. We were directed to the Sleeper Class queue and waited for about thirty minutes. They called forward the Prestige passengers and the n it was our turn. The check in was fast, with the staff clearly a little rushed. They couldn’t begin the check in until the train had arrived and so they were struggling to get it turned around in the shortest possible time.

We showed our passport and tickets before being shown to a seocnd desk where we could request a dining time. Our train had just one dining car for the Sleeper Class passengers (in summer there are two), and so there were three times to choose from. The middle slot, the classic dinner time had all been snapped up so we decided to go for the latest sitting.

The Lounge

Honestly, the lounge feels slightly misnamed. There were a few seats inside in what was essentially a corridor. We found a station with tea, coffee, chocolate and biscuits so I grabbed a coffee. Most of the seating was outside. It was in the shade so it was a bit chilly. Mr Fluskey popped back in and got a hot chocolate, mostly to keep his hands warm. We sat and waited, chatting to two fellow passengers that strangely, we never saw on board. They made an announcement to apologise for a further delay and put on the patio heaters.

All Aboard

The iconic call of “All Aboard” (“Tous à Bord”), rang out across the station and we excitedly scrambled up to join the throng. Everyone surged forward and began the walk along the platform. There were buggies to help those that would struggle with the walk which was nice as it is a long train!

We found our carriage and were greeted by our room attendant who advised us to head to our room and wait for her. It was so exciting and we began poking around, exploring the nooks and crannies of our cabin for two. She popped her head around the door and then came in to show us the details of the cabin and explain how she would convert the beds using a special key.

Roll Away Party

After the briefing, we made a mad dash for the back of the train and the fancy Park car. I had read somewhere that this was the main hangout for the Prestige passengers. In the summer, we wouldn’t be allowed in here until 16:00 on day two, so we thought we would make the most of being here for this departure. There were canapes being handed out and little glasses of bubbly for everyone. It was less than five minutes after we arrived that the station platforms began to slide away and the train was off. The most was jubilant and the conversation pleasingly social.

I popped down the bar and asked if we were allowed a second glass of sparkling wine and they said of course! I don’t know if anyone else knew this because I didn’t see anyone else take advantage. What rookies. The grey suburbs of Vancouver morphed into industrial areas running alongside the tracks. Crossing a long bridge and rounding a bend, we left the urban world behind, ready to roll our way towards The Rockies.

A Look Around the VIA Rail Canadian

Our Room – A Cabin for Two

There are several options for travelling on the VIA Rail Canadian. Economy offers reclining seats, the berths are seats by day and bunkbeds by night, cabins for one are teeny tiny single rooms with a sink and toilet, and Prestige rooms have double beds and ensuite bathrooms. We opted for a very happy medium., the cabin for two.

The Room

By day, the cabin has two seats. These can be moved around but not super easily. There is a nice picture window, ideal for watching the world slip past by day and for a touch of stargazing at night. We could ask for the lower bunk to be left down if we fancied a nap or just wanted to stretch out but we liked having the extra space during the day.

I have heard people say that these rooms are tiny but honestly, when compared to Amtrak’s roomettes or the Caledonian Sleeper’s classic room, they are bigger by at least a foot in each direction and that doesnt include the attached toilet. There was plenty of room during the day, but with the beds down and the ladder out, it was tight.

The Bed

The beds were prepared nightly by the room attendants, using a special key. The bottom bunk was from the wall, Murphy bed style, and the top came down from the ceiling. The alcove that it came from gave the top bunkbed a good amount of headroom. Mr Fluskey could sit up easily. The bedding consisted of a proper duvet cover and a reasonably plump pillow. I like a high pillow shelf, so I popped a thin blow-up pillow underneath, but it was enough for Mr Fluskey. It was a nice, comfortable sleep, especially decent for a train bed.

The Bathroom

Within the room is a sink which is really handy. It does let noise into the room from the pipes but putting the plug down really helps and putting a towel over that is even better. As well as the tap for washing your hands etc, there is a drinking water tap. This is amazing and saves so many trips down to other cars to get a midnight glug. We got soap and moisturiser provided. On both of our trains, these were different brnds so it is a fun lucky dip to see what you end up with.

The cabin for two has a teeny en suite, delightfully named “The Annex”. This really is small but it is so nice to have your own toilet. This, combined with the sink in the room, mean you can get ready for bed without queueing for the bathroom, or go for a midnight wee without running into anyone else. It works like a cruise toilet, vacuuming the waste away after a worrying long thinking period. Apparently, the pipes can freeze in the dead of winter but we had no issues and it was really rather cold outside. I bought a room freshener packet to hang in the toilet, keeping it smelling fresher during the trip.

The Shower

Each sleeper carriage has a shower located between the sleeper cabins and the berths. There is a changing area before you hop into the shower itself with enough room for most people to get dry comfortably. Mr Fluskey tried the shower and said it was warm and had a medium flow. Apparently, a few years ago, someone left the shower running and flooded the carriage so now they all have timer buttons (like the local swimming pool). This can get tedious, but it is better than having a room full of shower water. They provide a shower kit with a towel, soap and shampoo.

Storage

Storage is limited within the cabin, hence having to leave the bigger bags to go in the luggage car. There is a large shelf up above the toilet which easily fit our two hand luggage sized backpacks. Above the sink is a small cubby for washbags. We couldn’t fit both of ours here but mine has a hanging hook so I could pop it elsewhere.

A thin hanging space by the door. is for your coats and boots (or whatever it is you need in summer). Above that is a mini locker for any bits and bobs you need handy, but don’t want cluttering the room the whole time. Some people use this for snacks, and it’s worth remembering that this should only be shelf-stable goodies, as there is no fridge available. Mind you, you will be very well fed, so you shouldn’t need any to be honest.

Exploring the VIA Rail Canadian

We didn’t spend loads of time in our cabin during the day opting, instead, to make the most of the other cars.

Skyline Cars (Upstairs)

Our train had two Skyline Cars with domed glass roofs designed for maximum views. The first of the Skyline cars was based in the economy section of the train and was reserved exclusively for those passengers. Ours was a hub of activities. The Skyline Car has the most divine 1950s styling and I fell utterly in love with its retro charm. I spent the whole of the first morning upstairs, drinking in the gorgeous Canadian Rockies and sipping the included coffee. It was the perfect place to spot Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Rockies. The mist lifted and the sky cleared at exactly the right time. We were lucky.

From the Rockies to the flat prairies of Manitoba and the lakes of Ontario, each region unveiled a new facet of the Canadian landscape and these cars are the best place to let it all roll by.

Skyline Cars (Downstairs)

Downstairs in the Skyline Car was the activities room and a little lounge. This is a handy place to charge your phone or other devices, or indulge is a more traditional form of entertainment. There is a stack of board games and jigsaw puzzles for everyone to use. It was great fun passing through every so often and seeing the progress someone was making on a puzzle. Other activities on offer were:

• Wine Tasting – We did two during our trip. The first was a straightforward tasting with some info about Canada’s different wine regions. The next was more of a game where we had to pair the wines blindly to their descriptions, which was great fun…even if we were rather bad at it.
• Beer Tasting – If you know us, you know beer isn’t our thing so we skipped this one.
• Talks – With each new province, the train activities co-ordinator would give a short talk about the region. It was really nice to have some context for those gorgeous views.
• Bingo – Have you ever played bingo with cards before? Turns out, it is such a lot of fun…if highly competitive. I won a postcard of the Canadian when I got my winning board.
• Films – They have a small TV in the room where they sometimes do film night, or show documentaries. Obviously, being blind, this wasn’t great for me but actually, I didn’t feel the absense of telly for a few days.

The Park Car

Right at the back of the train (the caboose) is the Park Car. This also has a dome roof but it is of a slightly higher calibre. It is attached to some of the Prestige cabins so this is where those passengers tend to hang out. In fact, on a busy train, regular sleeper car passengers have to wait until later in the day to join them. Being a little off-season, we had full access aside from the first six rows of the viewing car, which were reserved. Down in the lounge are some lovely, comfortable seats, perfect for enjoying a drink and chatting with others sitting opposite. I think the 1950s styling in here is especially obvious and I adored it. Note the drink holders in the tables, a nod to the most popular activity in this car. A couple of steps down from the lounge is the onboard bar. Drinks are included for Prestige folks, but we paid as we went. Sometimes the card machines here didn’t get signal. It was a heart-stopping five minutes watching our drink, already poured, just out of reach as we hoped the signal would return.

The Dining Car

At busier times, there can be two dining cars on the train (A & B), but on our journey, there was just the one. They say that B must be fancier if you do have two, as this is where the Prestige passengers dine, but we cannot confirm or deny.

Dining on the VIA Rail Canadian

If there is one thing you cannot fault, it is the food. Every meal was served with care, cooked to perfection and delicious. You are going to be fed well on the Canadian.

Breakfast

I’m not a big breakfast person, but on the Canadian, I couldn’t resist. The hash browns that came with many of the breakfasts were thinly sliced potatoes, fried to crispy perfection. Happily for me, there was no onion in it, so I could stuff myself full of it. A common theme of the menus onboard the VIA Rail Canadian is that they come and go. This is even true with breakfast. You will find the Transcontinental every day, but everything else will change. I think the options with eggs (the Transcontinental and omelettes) were the best as they seemed super fresh and didn’t fill you up with carbs when lunch was only a few hours away.

For those who don’t want a formal breakfast, or are up too early, there is a continental breakfast available to grab in the Skyline/activities car. This includes muffins, pastries, jams, fruits, juices and hot drinks. On our first morning, jet lag and excitement to spot Mount Robson had me up before the sun. I grabbed some coffee in my thermos and a muffin to take with me up the stairs to the dome seats.

Lunch & Dinner

If you were thinking of having a light lunch, think again. At both lunch and dinner, you are going to get a multicourse feast. The meals celebrate local ingredients from across Canada served in both traditionally Canadian dishes and some fun ones from further afield. Yes, there’s beef from Alberta, and it is delicious.

At lunch, you can choose from a soup or fruit juice to start, then there is a main meal (or entree) and a light dessert….(Is light dessert an oxymoron?) Similarly, dinner begins with either a soup or salad. The salads were all interesting and delicious so we tended to opt for those. Then we could choose from four different main courses. I was very impressed with the selection and the quality of cookery. The galley is tiny, and it is astonishing that the chefs produce such great food. Perfectly pink meat, tasty sauces and veggies that still have a little bite, this isn’t canteen food. We have had the same standard on some other luxury trains around the world, and I feel like the food on The Canadian is underrated.

A word of warning, at dinner, you need to leave room for dessert. The cakes are large, rich and utterly impossible to resist. The carrot cake cheesecake was served twice, and I couldn’t finish it on either occasion, which I am still kicking myself about. It was spiced and sweet with just the right level of sour from the cream cheese….I am genuinely sad I don’t have someone coming to serve me a slice tonight. The chocolate cake was the last cake I had, and it was truly decadent. Seriously, if you are taking the VIA Rail Canadian, do not skip your sweet course!

Drinks

As mentioned, there is a bar in the Park Car. The prices really aren’t bad, especially considering you are a captive audience. We had a couple of simple mixed drinks during one evening and a glass of Canadian ice wine during a chilled-out afternoon.

You can order drinks from the dinner table, and so we discovered, there is no bar service in the Park car during dinner times. We stood at the bar for slightly too long before we figured that out. If you want a drink at dinner, wait until you are seated, and they will take your order at the table. There are wines and beers from Canada and further afield, and enough spirits/liquor to satisfy most palates.

You can also have in-room drinks. Just bring your favourite beverage and you can enjoy it in the cabin. We bought a couple of sodas/pops/fizzy drinks and chucked in a shot or two of rum before dinner. It was rather pleasant as a pre-dinner tipple.

The Staff

A quick word on the staff aboard VIA Rail Canadian. They were all a perfect mix of no nonsense and fantastically fun. I am not sure how they have struck this balance, but they have nailed it. Sadly, I am terrible with names (and far too blind to read name badges) but let’s be real, I am sure that even the staff we didn’t have the pleasure of meeting were just as nice, so I am comfortable making such sweeping generalisations. They must have had something special, as I felt the distinct teacher’s pet urge to please and be liked by all of them.

The Stops

Jasper

Our first longer stop was in the famous town of Jasper. This is really popular with tourists all year round thanks to its proximity to gorgeous lakes and mountains, and its homely charm. Just looking around, the snow-capped Rockies gave every angle a gorgeous background. There was a huge fire in Jasper in 2024, but signs throughout the town celebrate the community coming together to rebuild. We had 45 minutes to explore and mostly sent it popping in and out of food spots. You wouldn’t think we were eating up to 9 courses a day in the dining coach. We grabbed a Bear Paw (a cinnamon pastry) and a Beaver Tail, a deep-fried pastry topped in our case, with apple and yet more cinnamon.

Winnipeg

We broke our journey in Winnipeg, the logic being that Winnipeg is a lesser-visited destination and less accessible to us in the future. We might pop back to Jasper as part of a Canadian lakes type trip, but Winnipeg is pretty far from….everything. Honestly, most people were just confused when we said we wanted three days in the city but it was great fun and definitely worth checking out. During our three day stop (between our train arriving and the next one) we:

• Ate in some wonderful restaurants, including Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar, James Avenue Pumphouse, Tabula Rasa and Clementine. Seriously, who knew there was a great food scene there?
• Tried amazing cocktails at Darling Bar, Sous Sol, Solera and the iconic railway hotel, The Fort Garry.
• Got thoroughly absorbed in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
• Explored a snowy wilderness and played on a toboggan onto a frozen lake at Fort Whyte Alive,
• Saw how coins are made for Canada and many other countries in their Royal Mint.
• Took a trip to a Scandinavian-style spa called Thermea. Dashing between hot pools and saunas in below-freezing temps was such fun.
• Explored The Leaf, a botanical garden that was the perfect spot to warm up.

Fresh Air

Along the route, the train had some stops which were between 10-20 minutes. We were given some notice to get laid up and then the staff popped out extra stairs so we could all disembark. We did laps of the platforms to get our steps in, and the smokers amongst the travellers could have a quick smoke break too. It was good to have some walking time in a space that was wide and not swaying and we tried to make the most of it every time.

Arriving into Union Station

We woke up on our final morning into a landscape full of frozen water. Ontario is a huge province and it is defined by its water. Pools, lakes, streams and other watery ways are dotted throughout. With an almost total covering of snow, we could just see some melt in smaller ponds as the March weather rose just above freezing. We watched white land fill with dwellings, roads and other urban delights until we were fully in the outskirts of Toronto. Then, we turned a corner and right in front of us was the iconic CN Tower, the most recognisable spot in Toronto. Somehow, despite having been five hours behind schedule when we went to bed on the last night, we actually arrived two hours early. We spilled into the large, echoing main hall of Union Station and decided that, with the extra time, we should grab a drink. Much like the Fort Garry in Winnipeg, the Royal York sits opposite the matching station. It is now a Fairmont so the drinks are rather more pricy than the Fort Garry, but ending our journey with an amazing bevvie felt appropriate. The backpacks we were carrying and the scruffy hair we had did not…but hey ho.

After five days, five provinces, two trains, and one unforgettable experience, our epic transcontinental rail adventure came to an end in the heart of Toronto.

Final Thoughts on Our VIA Rail Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto Review

Travelling across Canada aboard the VIA Rail Canadian truly put the scale of Canada into perspective. Splitting the journey in Winnipeg added a chance to get our land legs back and to explore a lesser-known city, but I would have loved the journey even if we had done it all as one. We were genuinely surprised by how comfortable, social, and charming the whole experience was. Yes, there were delays, but they somehow felt like a novel part of the journey. Knowing that we were in for a slow pace helped us relax and just enjoy the views.

For anyone looking for gentle adventure, with an appreciation for slow travel, and who loves retro charm, The Canadian is an experience not to be missed. We would love to head back to Canada one day and finish our journey up the east coast. After taking the commuter trains, we would hop on The Ocean and end up in Halifax…but that’s an adventure for another time.

Rosie xx