Western Canada Roadtrip! - suggestions & info

[Pierscoe1]

Hello all...

following the great success of our recent Utah/Colorado/Arizona roadtrip, thanks in no small part to all the help from this forum, I'm back for some more top tips and stories of your Canadian adventures!...

Basic plan:
2 weeks roadtrip in western Canada
two flight options that spring to mind - in/out of Vancouver, or into Vancouver & out of Calgary
We know we want to see Vancouver, Vancouver island, Banff, & Jasper, with some time for some hiking/kayaking etc at the latter two...
Also, Orca-spotting from Vancouver.

What else is a must-see in that general area?

Would you go for a loop from Vancouver, or an A-to-B Vancouver > Calgary?

(they don't seem to have interesting rentals in Canada, so there might be no mustang/camaro this time )

[Pierscoe1]

excellent set of photos!

I was wondering about bear watching... (the sign about bear-watching etiquette). Did you manage to see any?
I'd love to add that to the list if there's a good place to go for it.

What did you think of the places you stayed? would you swap nights around between them if you were planning the same trip again?

[Pierscoe1]

geordieracer said:

scrap Vancouver Island if you only have two weeks and go Vancouver - Calgary.
Callaghan highway is off route 99, is where we used to recommend folks to go to see bears without paying for a tour!

excellent. thanks for the pointers.

MonzaEvo said:

I wouldn't swap any of our stays, but would definately have preferred longer in each place. For example, we only actually had a couple hours drive in Wells Gray National Park, which meant we got to see the place (and a bear) but 'barely' scratched the surface.

sounds good. thanks for the info.
unfortunately we're restricted to 2 weeks due to holiday allowance...
just want to make sure we make the best use of it.

Did some google-mapping... and it looks like you could do the vancouver > Calgary drive in 3 easy days... so the distances don't look too bad at all.

off to do more research now.... thanks all.

[Pierscoe1]

what are the smaller towns like en route to Jasper?

we could just do a 2 day drive, vancouver > kamloops/clearwater > Jasper...
but would time be well spent doing it slower and stopping off more on the way?

Also, is Calgary worth spending a few day in?

[Pierscoe1]

Greg66 said:

My two pence:

Having done that route a couple of times now, I wouldn't say there is much to be gained by taking time to drive from Banff to Vancouver. Personally, I'd aim for Revelstoke and perhaps one other stop on the way (not Kamloops; Kamloops is a st hole).

excellent stuff. thanks for all the tips. It's good to know which towns are worth avoiding! (guess TripAdvisor isn't allowed to do rating for Towns per-se...)

[Pierscoe1]

good info, cheers...

won't be crossing over into the US for this trip. Have added micro-breweries to the research list though

[Pierscoe1]

ruggedscotty said:

if your in to your mountain bikes then visit corsa cycles again in Squamish.

I am indeed into mountain biking... the temptation on this trip is huge, but I don't think my wife would be very happy if I spent half the holiday in whistler/squamish on a bike...
I'll just have to book biking trip out to Whistler next summer! Really want to do one of those heli/float-plane trips!

Thanks for the other tips... added to the research list

[Pierscoe1]

anybody have any experience of bear-watching day-trips in the area?

looking at things like this:
http://www.whistlerdiscoverytours.com/breakfast_wi...

[Pierscoe1]

good tips. I shall go look that guy up.
thanks

[Pierscoe1]

havoc said:

Another road-trip Piers? Lucky man...

We tried to squeeze in west and east Canada in 2 weeks (in laws near Toronto...) back in 2010, and it was too much...but we did prefer the west coast.

Yup
So many amazing places to see... so little time.

Some great photos there, and thanks for all the tips. Got 'em noted down in the scrapbook.

[Pierscoe1]

so flights booked, and just about to sort the car....


So far, I have just a preliminary itinerary, as something to base a few things off, and shift days around etc etc... each line is one day:


Fly In

City Sightseeing Full Day Vancouver

Ferry > Vic. Island (am) + sightseeing

Whale watching trip (am) + sightseeing

Vic. > Nanaimo, ferry to Horseshoe Bay, drive to Whistler

Bear Watching (am) + sightseeing

Whistler > Kelowna

Kelowna > Clearwater (am)

Clearwater > Jasper (am) + sightseeing

Hiking / Kayaking / Sightseeing in Jasper

Jasper > Banff (inc stop-offs along Glacier Highway)

Hiking / Kayaking / Sightseeing in Banff

Banff > Calgary

SPARE DAY

Fly Out



Any nights people would do, or defininitely not do out of those?

I'm not sure about the route from Whistler to Jasper (which way has more/less to see, etc etc)... need to do more reading here.

[Pierscoe1]

Greg66 said:

Comments:

I'd take my spare day and spend it in Whistler.

Also, isn't Kelowna a bit out of your way? Maybe look at driving north from Whistler through Pemberton/Lilloet to Clearwater, and then press on to Jasper. Potentially that could free up another day.

Personally, I'd aim to leave Banff the day you fly out of Calgary (assuming you have a pm or later flight), grab a meal in Calgary and otherwise skip it. I've never found Calgary's charms especially seductive.

thanks for the input.

why Whistler for the extra day? just a favourite place over jasper/banff/vancouver/etc?

Kelowna is out of the way, yes... the (very vague) idea was for the potential to visit a bit of the Okanagan wine-growing area (that, and everybody says Revelstoke isn't worth visiting)... but maybe it's the best place to optimise and use that day elsewhere.

good to know re Calgary.

[Pierscoe1]

excellent tips! Thanks.

So far I'm looking at:

2 Nights Vancouver
2 Nights Victoria
1 Night Hope (after driving from Vic > Nanaimo, ferry, Horseshoe > Hope, for example)
1 Night Revelstoke
4 Nights Jasper
4 Nights Banff

Do you guys think it'd be better to add a night to Victoria Island, and just get the ferry back to Vancouver (rather than Horseshoe) and do a big drive to Revelstoke in one day?

(6hrs from Van. ferry terminal to Revelstoke... LONG day, plus the ferry crossing (how long is that?))

[Pierscoe1]

What are people's thoughts on Victoria in general?

I've got a thread going on TripAdvisor where most people are saying reduce Victoria to 1 night, and add one onto Vancouver...

I think we're too short on time to really explore Victoria Island, so maybe a boat-day-trip from Vancouver to Victoria City and use the nights elsewhere?
Okanagan, for example?

[Pierscoe1]

One more question about Victoria...

if we end up just going over there for the whale-watching trip, is there any point in taking the car over? Is it easier to just use public transport to get from the ferry terminal into town, to wherever the whale watching goes from, etc etc?

[Pierscoe1]

Symbolica - Excellent set of tips, thanks!

Leithen - good to know re Okanagan. Might add a day there somewhere...

calgarytrainnut - good info, cheers. Revelstoke is on there really just to break up the drive, as Kelowna>Jasper is best part of 7hrs! We'll be in hotels/motels.

Ucluelet sounds great, but I'm not sure we have time... it's quite a trek from say Victoria, so would need an extra night or two to enjoy, and don't know where I'd take them from.

Just been googling the transport... ferry terminals seem quite a way from town at both ends, so seems pointless to pay for busses etc when we will have the car (although it'll cost a bit on the ferry I suppose)

So I think we'll cut a night from Victoria, and just add it to Vancouver, as there's lots there I want to see.

Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver
Victoria (ferry over in the morning, then whale watching trip)
Kelowna (after catching ferry back)
Revelstoke
Jasper
Jasper
Jasper
Jasper
Banff
Banff
Banff
Banff
Fly Out

Maybe swap one of those Jasper nights for a bit more time in the Okanagan area? maybe...
would love to squeeze in Ucluelet, but it'd mean ferry + 2.5hr drive from Nanaimo to get there, one afternoon there, then 4hr drive back to Victoria the next day, where we'd have to squeeze in the whale watching in that afternoon... that seems a lot of effort and travel for an afternoon.

THanks again everybody... really appreciate all the input

Edited by Pierscoe1 on Friday 19th June 19:26

[Pierscoe1]

thanks for hte links thunderace, and Martin.

Was going to ask about the park passes... when we did our last American parks roadtrip, we got an annual pass that made it all quite cheap. Think it was $80 or something, for access to jsut about all of them as much as you like...

[Pierscoe1]

calgarytrainnut said:

Pierscoe1, looked at you prelim itinery and as others have said, the entire province is beautiful and you cannot go wrong with places to visit. You appear to have 4 priorities. In chronological order - Vancouver, whales, Jasper, and Banff.

Now, if you were my guest and I was make a suggestion. Choice 2... Stay with one or two nights on the Island, to Kelowna, to Golden, to Jasper, to Banff.

Excellent info... thanks!

...and choice 2 sounds like a good idea to me... I was thinking of taking one of hte jasper nights and swapping it to the okanagan... but Golden is another good idea.

I'll read through the links you suggested tonight.

[Pierscoe1]

Right... itinerary's all set now...

I shall report back in a couple of months with many photos

Thanks for everybody's help!