THE INCREDIBLE WEST COAST

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DESTINATION CITY Victoria, Vancouver, Cruise and tour to Alaska	DESTINATION COUNTRY Canada and The United States
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THE INCREDIBLE WEST COAST A 16-Day Motorcoach, Ferry, Cruise Ship and Rail Tour of British Columbia, Alaska and the Yukon This sample itinerary can be amended to suit the interests of your group. This tour combines the best features of land and water exploration along North America’s northwest coast to take you on an adventure of a lifetime. Enjoy a few days in two of Canada’s most picturesque cities before embarking on an unforgettable Holland America Alaska Cruise/Tour. Day 01– Motorcoach/Ferry to VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA Upon arrival at Vancouver’s airport you will be met by your deluxe motorcoach and driver for transfer by ferry to Vancouver Island. Your official welcome will take place at your hotel in picturesque Victoria, capital of British Columbia. Day 02– VICTORIA Begin the day with a guided tour of Victoria, which still retains the stateliness of its British heritage. The city has many scenic offerings from fine old structures such as the Empress Hotel and Legislative Buildings set against the background of the Olympic Mountains to the remarkable West Coast totem poles and artifacts in Thunderbird Park. Enjoy an afternoon visit to Vancouver Island’s famous Butchart Gardens, a vast amphitheater of solid rock containing thousands of flowering plants, trees and shrubs. Return to Victoria for your opening dinner this evening. (B/D) Day 03 – VICTORIA Today is a day of leisure. You may want to take a horse-drawn carriage ride through the stately city streets, or enjoy a stroll along the scenic harbour front. An afternoon visit to the Royal British Columbia Museum or tea at the Empress Hotel are other possibilities. Suggestions will be made for dinner and entertainment this evening. (B) Day 04 – Motorcoach/Ferry to VANCOUVER Transfer by motorcoach and ferry back to mainland Vancouver for a day of sightseeing. Begin with a tour through Gastown and Chinatown, then visit Queen Elizabeth Gardens’ Bloedel Conservatory with its tropical plants and exotic birds. A trip up Hollyburn Mountain will provide panoramic views of the region. This evening is at your leisure. (B) Day 05 – Cruise THE INSIDE PASSAGE Enjoy a festive party on the Lido Terrace as your Holland America cruise ship sails northward, under Vancouver's landmark Lions Gate Bridge. (B/L/D) Day 06 – Cruise THE INSIDE PASSAGE And, oh the wonders you will see… rustic lumber camps, majestic fjords, bald eagles soaring, whales breaching. You'll not miss a sight, thanks to lounges with panoramic windows and a promenade deck that completely encircles the ship. (B/L/D) Day 07 – Cruise to JUNEAU Port of Call Step ashore in Alaska's picturesque capital for a tour of the city, including an excursion to the mighty Mendenhall, Juneau's suburban glacier. Time on your own to shop for gold nuggets and to visit the Alaska State Museum. (B/L/D) Day 08 – Cruise to SKAGWAY When the gold rush prospectors landed in Skagway, they faced the daunting task of hauling a year's supplies - 2,000 pounds - over the pass. You, however, will be met at the pier by your Holland America Westours tour director, who will take care of all travel details during your tour. To hear the locals talk, it was only yesterday that Soapy Smith, notorious badman of the Klondike and good-guy vigilante Frank Reid shot it out down on the dock. Hear this exciting story and many others as your tour director takes you on a tour of the city, including the Gold Rush Cemetery, the end of the trail for Soapy and hundreds of other Klondikers. Relive those boisterous days as you explore the 0-fronted buildings constructed to lure the gold rushers. Overnight. (B/D) Day 09 – Railroad/Motorcoach to WHITEHORSE Away then, to follow in the footsteps of the gold rushers as you travel to the summit in a vintage parlor car of the narrow-gauge White Pass & Yukon Railroad. At Fraser, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police wave you into the Yukon and onto the scenic Klondike Highway…past the charming log cabin town of Carcross, blue-green Emerald Lake, and Miles Canyon, where hundreds of Stampeders capsized their crude boats in the Whitehorse Rapids, now tamed by a dam. Tonight in Whitehorse, after the included performance of the Frantic Follies vaudeville revue, sleep just blocks from the banks of the rushing Yukon River. (B/D) Day 10 – Motorcoach to DAWSON CITY This morning tour the Yukon Wildlife Preserve, where herds of elk, shaggy musk oxen and moose roam so close you can almost reach out and touch them. Then onward in loungecoach comfort over the Klondike Highway to Dawson City, a gold rush boomtown that looks much the same as it did in 1898…dirt roads, hitching posts, saloons with swinging doors. Overnight. (B/D) Day 11 – Motorcoach/Cruise to TOK A morning sightseeing tour takes you back to those wild and woolly gold rush days as you visit Discovery claim #1 - where George Carmack and his associates Skookum Jim And Tagish Charlie first struck it rich in the Yukon. Then enjoy a cruise down the ''River of Gold'' aboard Holland America’s own mv Yukon Queen. You are ''inside'' now, cruising through a wilderness where the nearest road is hours away, where the ghosts of miners past still inhabit the sandy shores of the river. See an Athabascan Indian village, an abandoned mining town, perhaps a moose swimming across the river. Disembark in Eagle, and travel over the scenic Taylor Highway to Tok for a night in the dog-mushing capital of Alaska. (B/D) Day 12 – Motorcoach to FAIRBANKS Pick up the famed Alaska Highway this morning and motorcoach to Fairbanks, hearing from your tour director about the construction of the highway, the Delta Barley Project, and the pipeline, which you will see up close at Delta Junction. In Fairbanks, learn about the city's blistering gold rush history as you tour Gold Dredge No. 8, where there are still gleaming nuggets to pan… and hearty miners stew in the Mess Hall. Overnight Fairbanks. (B/D) Day 13 – Private Railcar to DENALI PARK Board a private railcar of Holland America’s full-dome McKinley Explorer and travel through moose and beaver country into the Alaska Range - perhaps order breakfast of Alaska-style French toast in the car's dining room. Upon arrival at Denali National Park, tour deep into the preserve to look for grizzlies and other wildlife. Tonight, at the McKinley Chalet Suites, be lulled to sleep by whispering cottonwoods and the rushing Nenana River. (B) Day 14 – Private Railcar to ANCHORAGE Reboard the McKinley Explorer and roll across the highest bridge on the Alaska Railroad at Hurricane Gulch and through valleys so fertile it is possible to grow cabbages as big as bushel baskets. Overnight in Anchorage. (B/L/D) Day 15 – Glacier Cruise ANCHORAGE En route to Portage Lake, skirt the scenic shores of Turnagain Arm, watching for Beluga whales, Arctic terns, the incredible rush of a 6-foot-high bore tide. Learn all about glaciers at the Begich Boggs Visitor Center, then cruise across iceberg-strewn Portage Lake on Holland America’s Ptarmigan, coming so close to the face of Portage Glacier you can almost feel the cool pulsating from it. Overnight Anchorage. (B/D) Day 16 – HOMEWARD BOUND Bid all a fond farewell and transfer to the airport for your flight home. May you soon return! B - Breakfast / L - Lunch / D - Dinner - denote meals included in tour cost *Itinerary is tentative and subject to final confirmation*
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