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A new analysis highlights the country’s most breathtaking rail journeys, from glacier-carved mountains to vast prairie landscapes.
Few countries lend themselves to train travel quite like Canada. One route might have you rolling past vibrant golden canola fields beneath Saskatchewan’s famously big skies; another may trace the edge of a turquoise, glacier-fed lake in the Rockies. Now, a new ranking has identified the Canadian rail journeys that travelers find most scenic.
The analysis, conducted by tour operator Journeyscape, evaluated Canada’s best-known rail routes, using four equally weighted factors: Tripadvisor ratings, annual Google search volume, Instagram and TikTok posts, and the number of notable natural attractions travelers can see along each journey.
Claiming the top spot overall is the White Pass & Yukon Route, a historic railway that begins in the Alaska cruise port of Skagway before climbing into British Columbia and Yukon Territory. The route begins at sea level and ascends nearly 3,000 feet through the Coast Mountains, hugging sheer cliffsides, crossing dizzying steel trestle bridges, and threading through tunnels blasted from solid rock as waterfalls cascade down the surrounding peaks and icy rivers rush hundreds of feet below.
While the White Pass & Yukon Route earned the highest overall scenic score, VIA Rail’s The Canadian route emerged as the study’s social media favorite and the second most scenic route overall. Running between Toronto and Vancouver, the four-day, 2,775-mile journey generated more than 11,000 social media posts—more than any other rail trip included in the analysis. The cross-country route carries passengers through the forests and lakes of northern Ontario, the prairies of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and into the dramatic mountain landscapes of Alberta and British Columbia.
Third place went to Rocky Mountaineer’s First Passage to the West, a two-day journey between Vancouver and Banff that follows portions of the historic Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rockies.
- White Pass & Yukon Route (Skagway, Alaska–Whitehorse, Yukon) — Day trip
- The Canadian (Toronto–Vancouver) — 4 days
- First Passage to the West (Vancouver–Banff) — 2 days
- Journey Through the Clouds (Vancouver–Jasper) — 2 days
- Rainforest to Gold Rush (Vancouver–Jasper) — 3 days
- The Skeena (Jasper–Prince Rupert) — 2 days
- Agawa Canyon Tour Train (Sault Ste. Marie–Agawa Canyon) — Full-day excursion
- Polar Bear Express (Cochrane–Moosonee) — About 5 hours each way
- Winnipeg–Churchill Train (Winnipeg–Churchill) — Approximately 45 hours
- Train de Charlevoix (Québec City–La Malbaie) — About 4.5 hours each way
Read the original article on Travel & Leisure
