VIA Rail Canada is in full celebration mode this holiday season with some of Canada’s most quirky events and festivals lined-up throughout the winter. From gigantic ice slides, to the largest winter festival in the world, to taking a dip with polar bears, a winter adventure can be found along VIA Rail’s routes.
A major attraction in Canada for the holiday season, the CAA Winter Festival of Lights is Canada’s largest lights festival, turning Niagara Falls into a winter wonderland and attracting more than 1 million visitors. Travellers can get off the Corridor train at the Niagara Falls stop and visit the festival that features more than 120 illuminations, including the Enchantment of Disney displays. The lights will stay up until January 31, 2013.
While on the Ocean later in the winter, visitors can stop at Moncton and join in on Winterfesthiver for fun filled family activities. On February 2 and 3, 2013 New Brunswick’s best winter celebration comes to Fredericton. The gigantic ice slides, almost 23 feet high, thrill visitors from far and wide. Families will also enjoy the snow maze; snow and ice sculptures; pony rides; horse-drawn sleigh rides; polar bear games of bowling, curling and golf; dog sled rides; petting zoos; and more.
At Halifax on the Ocean route, the Dead of Winter festival is an acoustic music festival held annually on the last weekend of January 2013. The festival brings a diverse group of acoustic musicians together to not only perform but to also meet one another in a professional environment. The event showcases the diversity of acoustic music in the Atlantic Region, Canada and the United States.
