Driving from Calgary to Vancouver! Any tips or suggestions?
Discussion
Big Worm 1 said:
As it's not a simple return flight needed, and will require one way tickets from Manchester to Calgary, then flights from Vancouver to Manchester, Can anyone recommend the best airline to use and way of booking it?
We used Air Transat - direct from Manchester to Toronto, but think they also do onward to Vancouver or possibly direct.We split the journey by flying back during the day to Toronto from Vancouver, then flying out 30 hours later on the midnight flight (which the kids thought was 9pm because they were still on Vancouver time) and it was really quiet so we managed to get six seats between us and made a nest for the 3 year old across 2 seats - she slept the whole way.
Thoughts on Canadian Affair / Air Transat / Thomas Cook, from a 6'8" bloke with a short missus:
It's cheaper, you get food but not drink, the in flight entertainment is rubbish, and the seats look a bit cramped.
If you book early, you can upgrade to exit seats or premium seats for not a lot more, and book your seats for about £7 a seat to get together. You can take a Kindle and an iPad with you, and they will give you extra food if you're nice to them.
For us as a couple, pre booking seats, with exit seats for me, we saved about £200 over the cost of a couple of bog standard BA or Air Canada Economy seats. We were as comfortable as we would have been on either of the alternatives.
I would definitely use them again, but definitely not at short notice. (There are a lot of old people on the flights too, so don't park yourself too close to the toilets.
It's cheaper, you get food but not drink, the in flight entertainment is rubbish, and the seats look a bit cramped.
If you book early, you can upgrade to exit seats or premium seats for not a lot more, and book your seats for about £7 a seat to get together. You can take a Kindle and an iPad with you, and they will give you extra food if you're nice to them.
For us as a couple, pre booking seats, with exit seats for me, we saved about £200 over the cost of a couple of bog standard BA or Air Canada Economy seats. We were as comfortable as we would have been on either of the alternatives.
I would definitely use them again, but definitely not at short notice. (There are a lot of old people on the flights too, so don't park yourself too close to the toilets.
Use Psychology said:
Do it via Banff and jasper the road is ace. It's very much the long way round but is worth it.
We did the Icefield Parkway from Calgary to Jasper with the kids in a mahoosive motorhome many years ago. Ignore Google maps - or any others for that matter - for estimating journey times and if you're camping along the route get in to a campsite by early afternoon or they'll be full.Suberb drive though. Didn't see any bears much to Baby JS's disapointment..
Jaguar steve said:
Use Psychology said:
Do it via Banff and jasper the road is ace. It's very much the long way round but is worth it.
We did the Icefield Parkway from Calgary to Jasper with the kids in a mahoosive motorhome many years ago. Ignore Google maps - or any others for that matter - for estimating journey times and if you're camping along the route get in to a campsite by early afternoon or they'll be full.Suberb drive though. Didn't see any bears much to Baby JS's disapointment..
Steve Evil said:
So did you generally find Google maps was a bit conservative in its estimations, or that trying to stick to a plan didn't work so well with all the scenery around?
we found google maps was about right for the 'road' time, but factor in lots of stops for the kids. For example, our Calgary to Jasper day, from memory we stopped at Lake Louise and the Icefields station for about an hour at a time and that was enough to keep the kids from being overly bored (not including other quick stops for pees at the side of the road / photos / etc.Double the google time for total time budget in my opinion and you should take the stress out of it.
Steve Evil said:
Jaguar steve said:
Use Psychology said:
Do it via Banff and jasper the road is ace. It's very much the long way round but is worth it.
We did the Icefield Parkway from Calgary to Jasper with the kids in a mahoosive motorhome many years ago. Ignore Google maps - or any others for that matter - for estimating journey times and if you're camping along the route get in to a campsite by early afternoon or they'll be full.Suberb drive though. Didn't see any bears much to Baby JS's disapointment..
The real problem was pressure of time. We had 10 days in a motorhome with some Canadian friends that was just too big for some of the tiny tracks and access roads to the campsites. It was easy planning a route and things to do, which we did using road atlases and Lonely Planet and Rough Guides before we left but the actual reality was very slow progress. You look at a road map and measure out a 120km trip and think that's going to take maybe two or three hours to do - and you'd be driving for 6 or so up and down steep mountainside roads and having to do 3 or 4 point turns to get round some of the corners. Couple that with the need to get to the next campsite before mid afternoon or it'll be full and constant roadworks that go on for miles at a time where everyone stops and gets out of thier cars and progress was painfully slow. There's always lots of distractions too, like pretty views and walks to go on. We tried to see and do it all which considering the distances and driving conditions and the time we had was a mistake. More than once I got up before dawn and drove for a couple of hours to catch up and even doing that we had to chop the last couple of days plans off and go back to Calgary on the direct route.
It'd certainly be much easier in a car and staying in motels, but car or motorhome one thing you really must do is the Snowcoach trip up onto the Columbia Icefield - that was well worth the price.
Edited by Jaguar steve on Tuesday 23 August 06:18
Big Worm 1 said:
Thanks for the advice everyone.
It's likely that the trip won't be till early next year but i'm really looking forward to it now.
When you say "early next year", how early is early? Because although the Canadians are pretty good at clearing their roads, some of the less major roads (specifically the road from Lilloet to Pemberton) can be closed by snowfalls. From March you should be ok, as long as you build in a day here and there as slack. Jan/Feb could be trickier though. It's likely that the trip won't be till early next year but i'm really looking forward to it now.
Haven't got much to add to what has been said above on the Canadian side but as the OP indicates that this may be more than a one off trip, Farther in Calgary, friends in Vancouver. I would say once you have exhausted the above routes dont discount going south from Calgary into the US and through Glacier NP, across Idaho and Washington. there are several routes to choose from in Washington each of them with fantastic scenery at the cascades end, If open cascades NP is nice, alternately the Columbia gorge on the I84 or the Snoqualmie pass on the I90 into the back of Seattle
ps
To book open jaw flights just click on the multi city, multi stop or more options button on most of the usual travel sites and you can just put in the places you want to fly between and it will price it up as a single trip, no problem booking a return price flying out to one city returning from another. the only downside it the one way car rental fees, but you could avoid that by taking the Rocky mountaineer. (OK probably more expensive)
To book open jaw flights just click on the multi city, multi stop or more options button on most of the usual travel sites and you can just put in the places you want to fly between and it will price it up as a single trip, no problem booking a return price flying out to one city returning from another. the only downside it the one way car rental fees, but you could avoid that by taking the Rocky mountaineer. (OK probably more expensive)
As requested, just popping on to update on our trip.
What a fantastic two weeks!
Briefly, we flew into Calgary, drove straight to Banff and stayed there for a few days, then went up to Moraine Lake for a night, Jasper for 2 nights, drove from Jasper to Whistler and stayed there for a night, then spent a night in Horseshoe Bay, 2 nights on Vancouver Island, then 4 nights in Vancouver.
In that time we; hiked up Sulphur Mountain, went white-water rafting on the Kicking-Horse river, did the Athabasca Glacier tour, rode a Harley Davidson around Jasper National park, went zip-lining in Whistler, saw countless bears and other wildlife by the side of the road, went on a specific Grizzly watching trip and stood within 30ft of 2 Grizzlies fishing for Salmon, saw Orcas, Sealions, Seals, Porpoises and Eagles from a boat, ate far too much food and had the best holiday ever.
Tips we picked up:
If driving from Jasper to Vancouver, you could do it inside a day if you're prepared to not stop every hour, we left Jasper at about 8:30 and planned to stop somewhere along the way to Whistler, you gain an hour as soon as you enter BC, we found ourselves at Kamloops by midday (definitely stop at the Flour Meadow Bakery and Cafe in Clearwater for a take-away Burrito on your way, I'm still craving one now). We reached Whistler by about 4pm and we took the long mountainous route, if you'd remained on the highways you could reach Vancouver by the same time.
Do explore Vancouver, but we personally wouldn't recommend Chinatown, driving past in the bus on day one I saw one woman taking heroin within a block of the police station on the main street, then we took a walk through a day later, saw numerous people buying and selling drugs, along with various other people taking them in alleys and along streets, it made us feel really uncomfortable and we were glad to reach Gas Town. Your experience may differ, but for the 3 days we spent going through on the bus tour, it was consistently this way for us. Gas Town and Granville Island were far nicer places to walk around though.
If you find yourself on Vancouver Island in late-August to early September, head up to Campbell River and go on one of the Bear Watching tours, you get a boat up to the Aboriginal lands, have a good chance of seeing Orcas and many other types of wildlife on your way up and will get to be seriously close to the Grizzlies, we must have spent an hour waiting for one to appear, but when it did, it was amazing. The guides even let us out of the hide to get closer to it.
What a fantastic two weeks!
Briefly, we flew into Calgary, drove straight to Banff and stayed there for a few days, then went up to Moraine Lake for a night, Jasper for 2 nights, drove from Jasper to Whistler and stayed there for a night, then spent a night in Horseshoe Bay, 2 nights on Vancouver Island, then 4 nights in Vancouver.
In that time we; hiked up Sulphur Mountain, went white-water rafting on the Kicking-Horse river, did the Athabasca Glacier tour, rode a Harley Davidson around Jasper National park, went zip-lining in Whistler, saw countless bears and other wildlife by the side of the road, went on a specific Grizzly watching trip and stood within 30ft of 2 Grizzlies fishing for Salmon, saw Orcas, Sealions, Seals, Porpoises and Eagles from a boat, ate far too much food and had the best holiday ever.
Tips we picked up:
If driving from Jasper to Vancouver, you could do it inside a day if you're prepared to not stop every hour, we left Jasper at about 8:30 and planned to stop somewhere along the way to Whistler, you gain an hour as soon as you enter BC, we found ourselves at Kamloops by midday (definitely stop at the Flour Meadow Bakery and Cafe in Clearwater for a take-away Burrito on your way, I'm still craving one now). We reached Whistler by about 4pm and we took the long mountainous route, if you'd remained on the highways you could reach Vancouver by the same time.
Do explore Vancouver, but we personally wouldn't recommend Chinatown, driving past in the bus on day one I saw one woman taking heroin within a block of the police station on the main street, then we took a walk through a day later, saw numerous people buying and selling drugs, along with various other people taking them in alleys and along streets, it made us feel really uncomfortable and we were glad to reach Gas Town. Your experience may differ, but for the 3 days we spent going through on the bus tour, it was consistently this way for us. Gas Town and Granville Island were far nicer places to walk around though.
If you find yourself on Vancouver Island in late-August to early September, head up to Campbell River and go on one of the Bear Watching tours, you get a boat up to the Aboriginal lands, have a good chance of seeing Orcas and many other types of wildlife on your way up and will get to be seriously close to the Grizzlies, we must have spent an hour waiting for one to appear, but when it did, it was amazing. The guides even let us out of the hide to get closer to it.
Steve Evil said:
As requested, just popping on to update on our trip.
What a fantastic two weeks!
Briefly, we flew into Calgary, drove straight to Banff and stayed there for a few days, then went up to Moraine Lake for a night, Jasper for 2 nights, drove from Jasper to Whistler and stayed there for a night, then spent a night in Horseshoe Bay, 2 nights on Vancouver Island, then 4 nights in Vancouver.
In that time we; hiked up Sulphur Mountain, went white-water rafting on the Kicking-Horse river, did the Athabasca Glacier tour, rode a Harley Davidson around Jasper National park, went zip-lining in Whistler, saw countless bears and other wildlife by the side of the road, went on a specific Grizzly watching trip and stood within 30ft of 2 Grizzlies fishing for Salmon, saw Orcas, Sealions, Seals, Porpoises and Eagles from a boat, ate far too much food and had the best holiday ever.
Tips we picked up:
If driving from Jasper to Vancouver, you could do it inside a day if you're prepared to not stop every hour, we left Jasper at about 8:30 and planned to stop somewhere along the way to Whistler, you gain an hour as soon as you enter BC, we found ourselves at Kamloops by midday (definitely stop at the Flour Meadow Bakery and Cafe in Clearwater for a take-away Burrito on your way, I'm still craving one now). We reached Whistler by about 4pm and we took the long mountainous route, if you'd remained on the highways you could reach Vancouver by the same time.
Do explore Vancouver, but we personally wouldn't recommend Chinatown, driving past in the bus on day one I saw one woman taking heroin within a block of the police station on the main street, then we took a walk through a day later, saw numerous people buying and selling drugs, along with various other people taking them in alleys and along streets, it made us feel really uncomfortable and we were glad to reach Gas Town. Your experience may differ, but for the 3 days we spent going through on the bus tour, it was consistently this way for us. Gas Town and Granville Island were far nicer places to walk around though.
If you find yourself on Vancouver Island in late-August to early September, head up to Campbell River and go on one of the Bear Watching tours, you get a boat up to the Aboriginal lands, have a good chance of seeing Orcas and many other types of wildlife on your way up and will get to be seriously close to the Grizzlies, we must have spent an hour waiting for one to appear, but when it did, it was amazing. The guides even let us out of the hide to get closer to it.
Thanks for the update! It sounds absolutely amazing!What a fantastic two weeks!
Briefly, we flew into Calgary, drove straight to Banff and stayed there for a few days, then went up to Moraine Lake for a night, Jasper for 2 nights, drove from Jasper to Whistler and stayed there for a night, then spent a night in Horseshoe Bay, 2 nights on Vancouver Island, then 4 nights in Vancouver.
In that time we; hiked up Sulphur Mountain, went white-water rafting on the Kicking-Horse river, did the Athabasca Glacier tour, rode a Harley Davidson around Jasper National park, went zip-lining in Whistler, saw countless bears and other wildlife by the side of the road, went on a specific Grizzly watching trip and stood within 30ft of 2 Grizzlies fishing for Salmon, saw Orcas, Sealions, Seals, Porpoises and Eagles from a boat, ate far too much food and had the best holiday ever.
Tips we picked up:
If driving from Jasper to Vancouver, you could do it inside a day if you're prepared to not stop every hour, we left Jasper at about 8:30 and planned to stop somewhere along the way to Whistler, you gain an hour as soon as you enter BC, we found ourselves at Kamloops by midday (definitely stop at the Flour Meadow Bakery and Cafe in Clearwater for a take-away Burrito on your way, I'm still craving one now). We reached Whistler by about 4pm and we took the long mountainous route, if you'd remained on the highways you could reach Vancouver by the same time.
Do explore Vancouver, but we personally wouldn't recommend Chinatown, driving past in the bus on day one I saw one woman taking heroin within a block of the police station on the main street, then we took a walk through a day later, saw numerous people buying and selling drugs, along with various other people taking them in alleys and along streets, it made us feel really uncomfortable and we were glad to reach Gas Town. Your experience may differ, but for the 3 days we spent going through on the bus tour, it was consistently this way for us. Gas Town and Granville Island were far nicer places to walk around though.
If you find yourself on Vancouver Island in late-August to early September, head up to Campbell River and go on one of the Bear Watching tours, you get a boat up to the Aboriginal lands, have a good chance of seeing Orcas and many other types of wildlife on your way up and will get to be seriously close to the Grizzlies, we must have spent an hour waiting for one to appear, but when it did, it was amazing. The guides even let us out of the hide to get closer to it.
The plan is to stay in Calgary for a week and Vancouver for a week. I'm just trying to work out the whole journey and timeframes in between. I have been to Vancouver Island before but will definitely go back and take one of the trips you have recommended.
Knowing what you know from your recent trip, if you were planning a holiday like mine where the main stopovers will be in Calgary and Vancouver (Vancouver Island will probably be visited as part of the stay in Vancouver), how long would you put aside to make the journey in between?
Personally, I'd have spent more time in the Rockies than in Vancouver. We only spent about a week in the Rockies, but could easily have done more, each day we packed with activities and it would have been nice to spread them out a bit more.
Getting between Calgary and Vancouver you'd comfortably do in 2 days.
Could you not do 3-4 days in each of the big cities and spend more time in the Rockies in between?
Getting between Calgary and Vancouver you'd comfortably do in 2 days.
Could you not do 3-4 days in each of the big cities and spend more time in the Rockies in between?
Steve Evil said:
Personally, I'd have spent more time in the Rockies than in Vancouver. We only spent about a week in the Rockies, but could easily have done more, each day we packed with activities and it would have been nice to spread them out a bit more.
Getting between Calgary and Vancouver you'd comfortably do in 2 days.
Could you not do 3-4 days in each of the big cities and spend more time in the Rockies in between?
The father-in-law is moving to Calgary so the OH will want to spend at least a week with him, and my Auntie lives in Vancouver so we'll spend a similar time with her. Getting between Calgary and Vancouver you'd comfortably do in 2 days.
Could you not do 3-4 days in each of the big cities and spend more time in the Rockies in between?
I really do want to make the most of the journey in between though because it sounds fantastic! If i were to take 3 weeks off work, then i could do a week in each city, 5 days in between, and 2 days flying to and from Canada.
Are there plenty of information centres there to advise on things to do, or did you just do your research on the web before you went?
Steve Evil said:
Lots of info centres around, although I did a lot of homework before we went. Could you convince the FiL to spend a couple of nights with you both in Banff? It's only an hour and a half to drive there from Calgary.
Yeah it's a possibility that the FiL could stay with us in Banff if there is plenty for us to do there.The main consideration with this trip will be that we've got the kids with us who will be 4 & 2 when we go. That means that stuff like whitewater rafting is out of the window.
In that case, I'd recommend you go to the top of Sulphur Mountain in Banff (although take the cable car and don't walk like we did!) fantastic views all around. Also, if you're there on Sunday, have brunch at the Fairmont Springs hotel in Banff, we didn't manage it, but we did sit out on the patio at the back and it was a great place to sit for a few drinks and drink in the views. There's a restaurant in Banff called the Grizzly House which is a bit of a local institution, we ended up going for one of the hot-stone options where they bring you out a hot stone to cook your meat on, I had Shark, Rattlesnake, Alligator, Buffalo, Venison, Elk, Ostrich and a Frog leg, not all of which were great, but it's an impressive deck for the 'what's the weirdest thing you've eaten' game of top trumps. Be warned that if you go, much like the Pistenklause at the Nurburgring your clothes will have a meaty aroma after you leave.
Moraine lake is a few minutes drive from Lake Louise and is very beautiful, we stayed at the lodge, but were unfortunate that there was a layer of fog around for both days and we couldn't get the full picture of the place, one of the views there was used on the old $20 bill, so is well worth a look.
Drive the icefields parkway up to Jasper, making sure you go out onto the Athabasca glacier in one of the icemobiles, even in the height of summer it will be bloody cold up there, so take warm clothing. Stay in Jasper for at least one night and go up Mount Edith Cavell whilst you're there, it's a great drive up the mountain and is only about a 40 minute drive from Jasper, plus the view of the Angel glacier when you get to the top is amazing.
Driving from Jasper to Vancouver, I can't recommend the Flour Meadow Bakery & Cafe in Clearwater enough, it's only a tiny little town, so hard to miss the cafe, but you need to take a right on the first road off the highway as you enter the town and it's about 1 minute up there, if you could convince him to ship me a few of his mexican wraps over I'd be most grateful.
I'm sure both your FiL and Aunt will have plenty of suggestions about what to see and do in Calgary and Vancouver.
Moraine lake is a few minutes drive from Lake Louise and is very beautiful, we stayed at the lodge, but were unfortunate that there was a layer of fog around for both days and we couldn't get the full picture of the place, one of the views there was used on the old $20 bill, so is well worth a look.
Drive the icefields parkway up to Jasper, making sure you go out onto the Athabasca glacier in one of the icemobiles, even in the height of summer it will be bloody cold up there, so take warm clothing. Stay in Jasper for at least one night and go up Mount Edith Cavell whilst you're there, it's a great drive up the mountain and is only about a 40 minute drive from Jasper, plus the view of the Angel glacier when you get to the top is amazing.
Driving from Jasper to Vancouver, I can't recommend the Flour Meadow Bakery & Cafe in Clearwater enough, it's only a tiny little town, so hard to miss the cafe, but you need to take a right on the first road off the highway as you enter the town and it's about 1 minute up there, if you could convince him to ship me a few of his mexican wraps over I'd be most grateful.
I'm sure both your FiL and Aunt will have plenty of suggestions about what to see and do in Calgary and Vancouver.
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