Amtrak Vacations
With the Fourth of July 2026 events and a…read moremajor east coast heat wave approaching, I started looking in late June for a trip that would take me across the United States from my home in Washington, D.C. to northwest Canada. While I've spent most of my free time on six polar expeditions over the past three years, this time I wanted to see the country from the ground. Amtrak Vacations exists for travel like this.
I've booked a lot of long-distance family train trips between Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, and New Orleans but I arranged those trips using Amtrak's own booking customer service - a lot like booking a flight directly with the airline instead of using a travel agent. For this trip, however, there were so many moving parts - finding sleeper car accommodation, finding hotels, arranging excursions - the better choice for me this time was Amtrak Vacations (which is part of the Railbookers Group family of brands). My guide and trip developer was Amtrak Vacations representative, Kevin Guadagnoli, who was working through Railbookers. It's more complicated than it needs to be, but Kevin did a great job assembling my itinerary.
I sought sleeper-car accommodations for as much of the trip as possible. Check. Kevin booked me a sleeper from D.C. to Seattle. I sought transit through Chicago and Seattle with minimal time in the U.S. Check. I left D.C. on Sunday, June 28, 2026, and after a short stay in Union Station we left Chicago and arrived at Seattle's King Street Station mid-afternoon on Monday, June 29. I sought accommodation in Jasper and Banff, with a flight back to D.C. from Calgary. Check. Kevin booked me at the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver for two days and booked me a 48-hour pass for the hop-on hop-off tour bus. He booked me for the Crimson Jasper for two nights, added an icefields excursion for the 3-hour trip from Jasper to Banff (making it a 10-hour trip instead of just the three hours to get from city to city). He booked me two nights at the Hotel Canoe and Suites in Banff and booked me for a 10-hour excursion to see the very popular "Mountains, Lakes, and Waterfall Tours" roundtrip offered by Brewster Transportation and Tours from Banff. Then he checked to see how I was returning back to D.C. (on a United flight from Calgary) and he booked me a bus trip from Banff to the airport in Calgary, where I would be staying at an on-site hotel.
Total cost included trip coverage through TripMate, underwritten by General Global Assistance ($1,089). Including this coverage, the total invoice for all travel, including rail, insurance, lodging, and excursions, was $12,234.85. Not bad for an 11-day trip that included as much as I found during this vacation.
The only glitch worth mentioning seems to be directly related to Brewster: in my printed itinerary, I was admonished that in order to take the tour from Jasper to Banff (which was to include an 8-hour tour of the icefields and the Columbia Skywalk) I needed to call 800 760 6934 "at least 48 hours in advance to reconfirm" my booking, pickup location, and time. I started calling that number on Thursday, July 2, and repeated my efforts throughout the weekend. I stayed online 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and more, and never got through. Three times I left a message asking that Brewster call me so that I could know in advance when I was to be picked up - but no one ever called me back. I left email messages with Brewster and with Kevin and no one called me back.
I don't know if there was anything Kevin could have done to help. While at the Crimson Jasper the hotel staff also tried, without success, to contact Brewster. This became important because while the tour was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., I had an 8:30 a.m. conference call. Brewster called me in the middle of that call - but left no message. My conference call ended at 9 a.m. and I was at the front desk ready to go at 9:06 a.m., when I learned the tour bus arrived at 8:45 a.m. and left without me.
In my experience, Brewster's failure to respond in a timely manner to my multiple calls and requests for return calls is likely a known issue that management has chosen to accept and ignore, because it apparently does not hurt the company's profitability. Brewster is an imposing presence in Banff and Jasper. There is probably little risk that they'll see a negative income impact by shutting down their offices over the weekend, particularly on the Fourth of July weekend. Still, not being able to reach a Brewster representative when I needed one was a dark point in my escape from Washington.
That bump in the road aside, however, Kevin put together an awesome cross-country trip. Tons of memories; beaucoup pictures and videos, including a summertime bear looking for a meal by the river's edge; great accommodations; great experiences; great food - even on the trains. Muchas gracias, Kevin!