Bank on Canada
There’s a way to see the world’s wonders at a perfect price, says NICK DALTON
GAZE out of the window as you climb the Sea-to-Sky Highway and you see an ever-changing vista of some of the most magnificent scenery on earth. Jagged peaks rising from the equally jagged fjord, the glinting waters far below dotted with islands and the occasional ship.
The road twists and turns as it soars from the city of Vancouver up to Whistler, a year-round mountain resort. It’s a stunning journey in Canada’s Pacific Northwest, a place that’s full of them.
The new Essential Western Canada trip from escorted tour specialist Titan is just that – everything you need to see between Vancouver in British Columbia and Calgary on the edge of the plains in Alberta.
It’s part of the Essential Collection of holidays that keeps to Titan’s core values, while trimming back some of the more luxurious elements to give a great-value experience without resorting to budget travel.
The nine-day trip, with various departures in 2018, starts at £1,799 – and that includes Air Canada flights, accommodation, coach travel, a tour guide, a city tour of Vancouver and a full-day tour of the Banff/Lake Louise mountain paradise.
Lake Louise is a picturesque spot, with the grand railroad-era Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise hotel on its banks and with the Victoria Glacier as a backdrop, while Banff is a rugged railroad town hemmed in by soaring peaks. The tour also includes a stay in New Westminster, on the Fraser River just outside Vancouver, the first capital of British Columbia in the 19th century.
The Essential Collection features more than 30 value-for-money getaways with tours and hotel-based holidays from only £749pp. There’s everything from the trains of Austria to the beaches of Portugal, the deserts of Oman to the Great Wall of China.
And there’s a wave of Essential Cruises, too, with prices starting from only £209 for a three-night French Christmas Markets trip on Cruise and Maritime Voyages’ Magellan, from Tilbury calling at the magical city of Rouen on the Seine and the pretty medieval port of Honfleur (departing December 10).
All escorted tours feature the expertly planned itineraries and the attention to detail that Titan is known for and involve a tour manager. Cruise itineraries leave you to relax on your own.
SCHEDULED flights are included but could be with a low-cost airline and you will have to get yourself to the airport (rather than have the use of Titan’s snazzy VIP door-todoor travel service).
Western Canada is one of two new Canadian itineraries. The other is Essential Eastern Canada, an equally invigorating tour that heads from Montreal to Toronto, taking in Canada’s elegant capital, Ottawa and its picturesque Rideau Canal, dramatic Quebec City, with its stone city walls, and Niagara Falls, with a night in a hotel just off the Niagara River.
The eight-day trip, including tours of all four cities, starts at only £1,249 for an August 20 departure this summer, and £1,449 for 2018.
If you’re looking for an awe-inspiring holiday it’s essential that you find the best value – and Titan’s new collection does just that.