Question concerning White Pass Scenic Railway!!!

[gotohoro]

I've been checking out the Princess excursion entitled "Yukon Expedition & White Pass Scenic Railway." On this trip you get to go to the top on a bus and then take the train back to town. It looks wonderful, but it's simply too expensive. If we rent a car in Skagway, and went into the Yukon would we be able to see the same things?
Thanks loads!!!

[Yukon]

If you rent a car, you'd see the same things as the bus passengers, but the train trip is substantially different. The history and engineering feats you see from the train are what makes it one of the top 10 rail attractions on earth. Now having said that, some people just aren't into trains and history as much as I am (okay, most people aren't! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] ). To give you a side-by-side comparison, you can see the highway trip at [url="http://www.explorenorth.com/library/roads/sklondike-photos1.html"]http://www.explorenorth.com/library/roads/sklondike-photos1.html[/url] and the rail trip at [url="http://explorenorth.com/articles/steamex.html"]http://explorenorth.com/articles/steamex.html[/url] The other considerations are that you have total flexibilty by renting a car (but no guide as in a bus), and that the wildlife viewing opportunities are near-zero on the train (a train makes a lot of noise!).

Murray

[This message was edited by Yukon on 04-19-04 at 12:10 AM.]

[LindaKE]

You could just book the train portion. You go up then turn around and come back down. You change sides with the passengers across the aisle from you so everyone gets to see everything. The scenery is amazing and, even for a non-railroad buff, it is very interesting. Try to sit on the left going up. There is more narration going than returning, and returning, you don't always know where to look for particular sights. If you book through the cruise line, you can board right on the docks. Also, you get priority booking. Sometimes the non-cruise seats get sold out, because they save most seats for the cruise lines.

LindaKE

Sun Princess(Alaska)
Carnival Inspiration

[Thoth]

You can book roundtrip on the train for $99 and takes 3 & 1/2 hours. I did one which combined the train up and highway and Liersville goldrush living history program going down.
I too love trains and feel that White Pass railroad was the high point of my Alaskan cruise.