Single Older Woman- Canadian Beaches – Via Rail Excursion #3

August 2019

For this vacation, I found myself without a vehicle and had been using public transit to get to and from work daily.

So it was fitting and rather exciting, that the morning of my vacation, I was up and out of the house at 6 am to take public transit to the airport, where I would catch my Westjet flight to Saskatoon, Sask. This will be a 9 day vacation and I will conquer two provincial beaches – Lake Manitou in Watrous and Devonshire Beach in Alberta.

This post is about my short train trip between the two provinces.

Details about this journey will come in another post.

Once my stay in Sask was complete, I availed myself of the hotel shuttle service and the very kind driver took me to Tim’s first for coffee and then drove me to the Via Rail Station. This trip would be the shortest of the experiences so far. I was training it from Saskatoon to Edmonton – a short 10 hour trip. I booked a cabin for 1 – why not, lunch and dinner provided, a nice view of the landscape and I could visit with the other passengers.

Even on such a short trip, I was still treated like royalty, my bags were brought onto the train, the porter escorted me to my cabin and took my lunch and dinner seating reservations.

It’s truly a feat of super organization on behalf of #VIARAIL as to how well they manage to provide storage, amenities, toilet facilities etc in such a small space while still making the area comfortable and airy. Not an inch of space is wasted, yet one does not feel cramped or claustrophobic. The scenery along this route offered a lot more to see and as such, I spent quite a bit of time upstairs on the Panoramic level of the train. As this trip was during the day, there was so much to see.

By the time dinner was served, I was feeling quite melancholy, as I wished I could have stayed on the train longer.

I arrived in Edmonton, hailed a cab and made my way to my next destination – a local hotel in the City core.

My next trip – back to the East Coast, to swim at Martinique Beach, NS and the Isle de Madeleine, Quebec will be all train and rental car. Stay tuned – as we plan for summer 2020.

Thank you for reading and for letting me share.

Joye