I browsed the menus, read the history, followed the Instagram account and compared GoldLeaf to SilverLeaf service, but despite my best research nothing properly prepared me for spending two luxurious days discovering Rocky Mountaineer’s Journey to the Clouds route from Vancouver to Jasper. There was fine dining, attention to provenance and even a bagpiper welcome at Rocky Mountaineer Station – just some of many nice surprises I encountered.
Rolling out the red carpet
Mike, the aforementioned bagpiper, is the first unexpected element of my Rocky Mountaineer journey. He’s been the station’s resident piper for the past 10 years. The surprises don’t really stop from there. The next comes as I stride down the platform, away from Mike and other excited passengers. I’m drawn to some of the double-decked train carriages. Sneaking a peek into their lower levels I spy pristine dining rooms and recognise these as belonging to GoldLeaf class.
I’m in carriage 3 and as I approach I’m welcomed by two smiling staff who roll out the literal red carpet. I expected the luxury to begin once aboard the train but instead this; the first of many small details that makes me feel like a celebrity from the moment I meet our carriage co-hosts, Kelly and Tony, on the platform. This humble stretch of red and gold felt falls at our GoldLeaf feet, emblazoned with the Rocky Mountaineer logo, representing everything that’s right with the journey.
Not only does it make for terrific photos, but it prepares me for the VIP experience that follows, from the dining room to the on-demand drink service. The carpet says, ‘if you lift a finger here, you’re doing things wrong.’
The seating situation
My spot in row 41 sure looks the part – all brown leather and leg room – but it’s the latest design features that tell me I’ve got the best seat in the house. My seat can be heated, has optimised recline with leg rests and a sturdy fold-away table. With plenty of track time ahead, this is an important touch that ensures I’m comfortable throughout the journey.
My GoldLeaf seat also includes a control panel, built into the arm rest, where more settings can be configured than hot meals will be served later on. Lumbar support, leg rest height, recline depth and seat temperature are mine to manage at the touch of a button and I make the most of it. Sure, this technically involves lifting a finger, but it’s all in the name of continuous comfort.
A not-so-rocky ride
Naturally, the brochures highlight the best bits and the most jaw-dropping sights from aboard the train – specifically, the towering Canadian Rockies and the dense forests that blanket them. What I didn’t expect to find was half a day touring the fascinating landscape of British Columbia’s “almost-desert” landscape on the trip from Vancouver to Kamloops.
This semi-arid shrubland stretching south to the U.S. border is as close to a desert as it gets without making the grade. Each year, only 30cm of precipitation falls on its dry expanses, pockmarked with gold rush towns, burgeoning wine regions and rushing glacial rivers. In the height of summer, temperatures regularly exceed 30°C and I’m told Canadians are recognising the region as a domestic escape from typically dreary conditions elsewhere.
Thanks to Kelly and Tony’s 170-page binder of fun facts, we’re kept well entertained and informed of the evolving landscape, only building our anticipation as the Rockies comes into view.
Bespoke macarons
Bon Macaron is a local B.C. patisserie handpicked by Rocky Mountaineer to create a bespoke macarons for every guest to enjoy. In honour of the train’s royal colour palette, the macaron is navy blue with gold accents. It’s delicate and light with a buttercream filling; the earl grey flavour isn’t overpowering. Our macaron is served alongside a lemon lavender posset with an Okanagan stone fruit compote; the dessert is another nod to local produce.
The macarons sit within a broader dining program that earns more attention than most passengers anticipate. Three culinary crew work each GoldLeaf galley – a kitchen roughly the size of a generous bathroom – turning out three-course meals for 70 guests while the Rockies pass by outside.
Menus are built around what the regions outside the window actually produce. A starter, a main with several choices across meat, fish and vegetarian, and a dessert that goes well beyond an afterthought. In GoldLeaf, this all happens in the dining room on the lower level – linen-topped tables, picture windows, service that isn’t in a rush, all timed so that the best views are still seen through the upper deck’s full dome windows. SilverLeaf guests enjoy the same calibre of food at their seats albeit with a tighter menu.
The GoldLeaf beverage list is equally rooted in local provenance, with three subheadings – B.C. Crafted Wines, B.C. Crafted Beer and B.C. Crafted Cider. The wine scene in British Columbia, I learn, has depth. Angus Porter, Assistant GM of Food & Beverage at the Fairmont Waterfront, came over from Edinburgh expecting beer and whisky and found instead a wine region with serious ambition. “I immediately found so much passion going into it,” he says, “and that was when I fell in love with British Columbia’s red wine.”
A pinot noir with the gnocchi at lunch and a rosé with afternoon tea settle it. The wine scene here is the real thing.
Hosts who know your name by lunch
Kelly knows my name by our second passing – a heartening surprise given she’s managing half a carriage of GoldLeaf guests.
Each GoldLeaf coach runs with a team of four hosts and three culinary crew. The upstairs team handles commentary, drinks and snacks; downstairs, the culinary crew runs two sittings for breakfast and lunch from a full galley kitchen in a moving train.
Twenty hours is plenty of time to learn how everyone ended up on the same train. Well fed and into the wine, our carriage does exactly that – guests, Kelly and Tony included. Drink recommendations are offered before menus to reflect what we actually like, and stories run long. In an off-peak, half-filled carriage, the hosts have room to move beyond service and into genuine hospitality. Considered without being overbearing, they seem to read our thoughts, from satiating snacks to answering questions about the landscape. Not a finger is lifted.
At Jasper Station, as we prepare to disembark for the final time, Kelly and Tony give a farewell speech and hand us each a signed postcard.
“You may not remember everything you saw, everything you ate, or everything we’ve said,” Kelly says. “But we hope you remember how you felt aboard the Rocky Mountaineer.”
They’re not wrong.
