THE THING ABOUT TRAINS… IT DOESN’T MATTER WHERE THEY’RE GOING.
WHAT MATTERS IS DECIDING TO GET ON.
We were invited to head to the North Pole on the Polar Express thanks to West Coast Railway Heritage Park. This adventure always brings back memories of our very first Polar Express experience. This is an incredibly popular holiday event in Squamish and a must if you have children or are a child-at-heart yourself that loves trains and loves the story about the Polar Express.
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU GO On THE POLAR EXPRESS
As with the story in the book, many come dressed in their pajamas. Do be prepared for the weather as it can be cold. We tend to pack lots of layers in the car and grab what is needed when we get there. Parking is $5, which goes to the Heritage Park, and a minute walk over to where the Polar Express takes place. You’ll pick up your golden train tickets and head to where you’ll board the train.
The big highlight of going to the Polar Express is the train ride itself. The train ride is under an hour and you get to go from the Heritage Park to the Squamish Estuary and back. During the ride, you get to see characters from the story come to life thanks to the live actors that walk up and down the train. Everyone is there, from the chefs who bring hot chocolate to the hobo who is trying to catch a ride on the train.
WHEN YOU ARRIVE IN THE NORTH POLE
After the train returns to the Heritage Park is when the imagination of all the kids there can run wild as they pretend they are in the North Pole and get to go meet Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus inside the main building. While meeting them, each child received a beautiful metal bell. There are also crafts and colouring sheets they can do. Or, if they would like, they can decorate a gingerbread cookie. We like to save the gingerbread cookie to enjoy on the drive home.
You are going to want to make sure you have plenty of time to explore at the North Pole after going on the train. We spent over an hour and a half in there and could have spent much longer! Riding on the mini train was another favourite part of the day for the girls. Plus you can go on the mini train multiple times, often the line for it slows down when another Polar Express ride has departed. There is even another building with more things to see and do, such as mini golf or even watch The Polar Express movie.
ALL ABOARD THE POLAR EXPRESS
We had a great time visiting and exploring The Polar Express. It was a great way to kick off the holiday season. This event tends to sell out quickly, I just checked again on the site and there are actually a few tickets still available for certain dates and times. You may be able to get to travel to the North Pole too! Candy Cane Class tickets are $35 and the prices per ticket go up to $59 per ticket for Premium First Class.
Going on The Polar Express is something that my girls are sure to remember for a long time. They both love trains and this just made the experience all the more fun for them. As soon as we got home we had to watch the movie, in our pajamas of course!
Have you ever been on The Polar Express?
It looks like so much fun! I would love to do this with my family!
We loved the train it is such a great way to spend the day with the little ones and the hot cocoa is delish!
I want to go on this with the kids so bad, hoping to next year! Such a sweet experience for the kids.
We just LOVE this, it’s been a tradition in our family for a while now. We’ve missed the last 2 years and we are feeling it big time. Stella was just too young the first year and now she is in that stage of well… YOU KNOW. So we hope to get back at it next year. We love the Polar Express!
I bet they loved feeling like they were living in the story. Looks like it was a thrill for little ones.
omg.. i cannot get over how cute this is! Your girls are growing so fast! I would love to take my girls and nephews on this one day of they ever make it out here for Xmas!
Isn’t this place amazing? We went during the summer and it wasn’t very busy, but I imagine the Polar Express attraction brings everyone there with festive spirit in tow. Come to think of it, I’ve never ridden an actual train in North America.
So much magic! Gorgeous photos, makes it feel like we were right there with you. We haven’t done this train ride but back in the day we did the Thomas one with my train loving boy.
One of my favourite events every single year!
The last time we were on the Polar Express was when Abel was a baby. I want to go back so badly!