Low budget with the train across Canada

Sleeping

How you sleep on the train strongly depends on your own budget. In the economy class, the cheapest variant, you have a comfortable chair with a reclinable seat. There is a lot of leg room and power outlets to charge your phone or laptop. If it is not too busy on the train, every time outside the peak season in summer and the Christmas holidays, you usually have two seats for yourself and sleeping is comfortable. As a couple you can take a four-seater and make a kind of bed with all footrests. We slept in a chair for four days in a row and slept amazingly well.

If you don't like to sleep in a chair, you can opt for a bed in the sleeper class. There are open berths where the seats are transformed into a bed at night. The more expensive variant is a private cabin and the most expensive variant has a full room with a double bed. In the sleeper class there are showers and the private cabins sometimes have their own showers.

Food

In the sleeper class all meals are included, but you also pay a higher price for that comfort. In economy class you have two options, bring your own food or buy everything on board.

We chose the cheapest option and brought our own food. Hot water, pepper, salt, peanut butter, jam, mayonnaise and sauces are available free of charge. This was a handy addition to upgrade our own food. You don’t have much excercise on the train and you don't walk more than 3,000 steps a day so you are not that hungry. This was our four-day food supply:
Breakfast: bread, cream cheese, peanut butter, granola, fruit
Lunch: tortilla wraps, cheese, avocados, bell peppers
Dinner: noodles, vegetables (homemade mix of carrots, broccoli and leeks)
Snacks: mandarins, cookies, nuts, chips

The alternative is to buy food on board the train. There is a small shop where you can buy snacks, soft drinks, coffee and noodles. You can also order meals, from breakfast to dinner. You pay between $ 8 and $ 11 Canadian dollars for meals, which is a lot if you have to buy food for four days. The meals look good, but are unfortunately served in disposable plastic containers.

Price

The cheapest by train through Canada is the title, but is it really cheap? A trip between Toronto and Vancouver is unfortunately cheaper by plane, just as traveling by plane in Europe is much cheaper than the sustainable variants. But, you don't see anything of the country on a plane. The train is much more than a transportion, it is a journey, an experience, a way to see a country.

The standard price for a train ticket in economy class between Toronto and Vancouver is around € 350. The sleeper class is more than twice as expensive, but you have a bed and three meals a day. Fortunately, ViaRail has a fantastic offer that makes it suddenly very cheap, the Canada Pass.

The Canada Pass
With this pass you can make a number of one way trips by train within a certain period. There are different variants where you can choose between 6 or 12 journeys, within 15 days, 30 days or 60 days. We opted for the variant with 6 trips within 30 days. This pass costs around € 500, but ViaRail regularly has offers to buy the pass with a discount. We were lucky and bought our Canada Pass on Black Friday for € 375. We traveled from Quebec to Vancouver and back within thirty days, which would normally cost almost € 1,000 and now less than half. Cheaper than flying, more sustainable and more beautiful.