Advice on Canada Trip

[scz4]

Looking for advice on a trip I am planning for July next year. Time is limited so I can't see everything, I appreciate this, but how does the schedule below look and I have I missed any major stopping points or trips?

- Vancouver for 5 nights
- Hire car for next 8 days, starting in Seattle for 1 night
- Kamloops for 1 nights
- Jasper for 2 nights
- Lake Louise for 1 night
- Banff for 1 night
- Calgary for 1 night
- Fly to Toronto for 4 nights
- Fly Home

Planned Trips
- Vancouver Island
- Whale Watching
- Jasper Park
- Boat trip on Lake Louise
- Helicopter sightseeing tour in Banff
- Yoho?? National Park
- Niagara Falls

What do you think?

G

[fatboy b]

Niagara Falls town is a let-down, so only plan to see the falls for a couple of hours. A few years ago I hired a 4-seater plane out of Hamilton and flew over Niagara. I'd recomend that - http://www.peninsulair.com/ . They'll organise a trip for you, or I'd guess there's a few helicopter trips around the area if you don't fancy the drive to Hamilton.

[Allanv]

I would do it this way personally.

- Vancouver for - 5 nights
- Whistler - 1 night
- Kamloops - 1 night
- Jasper for - 1 night
- Banff for - 2 nights
- Calgary for - 1 night
- Fly to Toronto for - 4 nights
- Fly Home

Planned Trips
- Vancouver Island – We stayed in Victoria and its great.
- Whale Watching – we did this a couple of years back, enjoyed every minute.
- Whistler – take the Peak to Peak gondola, if you’re brave – google it.
- Jasper Park - take the Jasper gondola
- Boat trip on Lake Louise – more like a canoe trip. It is fantastic but it isn’t a big lake.
- Helicopter sightseeing tour in Banff
- Banff National Park – and visit as many lakes as you can.
- Niagara Falls – never been

[sawman]

not sure I would bother with so long in toronto, unless you have a specific reason, niagra falls is interesting, the falls are a must see, everyone slates the town for being tacky, but I've been to most seaside places in the UK so on that scale its quite nice, and at least it's clean!
I would perhaps be inclined to drive to niagra, stay the night and drive back next day, meandering through the vineyards etc.

you might want to spend a day driving out to Drumheller from calgary, its a very cool place (if you are interested in dinosaurs/geology) again it would be tough to do it on a day trip from Calgary but you could stay over there

[Don]

I'd reduce the time in Toronto and add some time in Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.

When in the Lake Louise area stay at Lake Moraine. It's close but the road to it is closed in winter so this might not be possible. The Moraine Lake Lodge is a very special place. Better value than the Fairmont Lake Louise too.

Allow enough time for doing some trails: frankly it's the reason for being in the Rockies.

[sawman]

just noticed you are driving from van to seattle, it's quite a boring drive down the interstate 5 instead, you should take the ferry to port angeles - you might need to ferry to vancouver island first. Port angeles is at the tip of the olympic penisular, its a much more interesting drive around the bottom of puget sound. Feel free to return to canada the dull way!

[Matt..]

Here are my thoughts on a route:

- Seattle 1 night
- Sea plane to Victoria (Vancouver Island)
- Victoria 2 nights (2 nights mainly to account for weather issues and whale watching!)
- Ferry to Vancouver
- Vancouver 4 nights
- Kamloops for 1 nights
- Jasper for 2 nights
- Lake Louise for 1 night
- Banff for 1 night
- Calgary for 1 night
- Fly to Toronto
- Toronto 3 nights (+ Niagra day trip)

You could totally drop Seattle though and add the days elsewhere.

With the whale watching, you can do this from Vancouver, but i would suggest going from Victoria. You could just fly out via sea plane, do the whale watching, and get back to Vancouver via the ferry (which is good!) or the sea plane again. This would give you more time elsewhere if you needed it.

[BigMans197]

- Vancouver for 5 nights - I's cut that down to 3 or 4 and add on those days elsewhere
- Hire car for next 8 days, starting in Seattle for 1 night -
- Kamloops for 1 nights - stay near 'Golden' instead and go rafting on the Kicking Horse river, fantastic.
- Jasper for 2 nights
- Lake Louise for 1 night
- Banff for 1 night
- Calgary for 1 night - apparently theres not a great deal there, was on our itinery, but gave it a miss in the ends.
- Fly to Toronto for 4 nights
- Fly Home

Planned Trips
- Vancouver Island - Theres a little town to the west called Tofino, great for whale watching and loads of Bears.
- Whale Watching - as above
- Jasper Park
- Boat trip on Lake Louise - get there early, we were there at 5am, watching the sunrise over lake louise is special.
- Helicopter sightseeing tour in Banff
- Yoho?? National Park
- Niagara Falls

[Lunja]

Sounds like an awesome trip!

I worked in Vancouver for three months between terms at Uni, and it was a great experience. Vancouver in the summer could easily double for San Francisco - there's a nice buzz about the place, and there are some great beaches too.

For a cheap day out I'd recommend hiring a couple of bikes and cycling round Stanley Park. It's a small peninsula which, if it were in the UK, would have been built on and developed by now, but it was bequeathed to Vancouver and carries a caveat (or so I was told) that it has to stay as a public park. There are some great views across the bay to Grouse Mountain and North Vancouver (it's worth taking the cable car up Grouse Mountain as well - STUNNING views from up there! We went up in July 2006 and there were still small patches of snow!).

Also, make sure you head into Gastown, one of the oldest parts of downtown Vancouver, and visit my old workplace Steamworks. It's a micro-brewery where they use the heat from a natural steam line below the ground to brew their own beers - definately worth a look, and the food's great too. Look out for celebrities as well - a lot of filming work takes place in Vancouver, both for TV and feature films (the tax breaks can make it attractive to producers), so well-known faces can pop up anywhere...

Oh, and if you get the chance to drive up to Whistler, do it. The views from the Sea-to-sky highway are truely amazing!

[srebbe64]

Personally, I'd stick to the west coast. Have been to Canada many times and my itinerary would be:

- Vancouver for 5 nights
Hire car
- Kamloops for 1 nights
- Jasper for 2 nights

Enjoy the Jasper / Lake Louise road - arguably the best road in the world.

- Lake Louise for 3 nights
- Banff for 3 night
- Calgary for 1 night
- Fly home

[Don]

srebbe64 said:

Personally, I'd stick to the west coast. Have been to Canada many times and my itinerary would be:

- Vancouver for 5 nights
Hire car
- Kamloops for 1 nights
- Jasper for 2 nights

Enjoy the Jasper / Lake Louise road - arguably the best road in the world.

- Lake Louise for 3 nights
- Banff for 3 night
- Calgary for 1 night
- Fly home

I used your good advice to great effect a few years back and had a GREAT trip. The Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper is one of the great driving experiences of the world and it should not be hurried. We wanted to get out and take photos every few minutes...

[Whoozit]

srebbe64 said:

Personally, I'd stick to the west coast. Have been to Canada many times and my itinerary would be:

- Vancouver for 5 nights
Hire car
- Kamloops for 1 nights
- Jasper for 2 nights

Enjoy the Jasper / Lake Louise road - arguably the best road in the world.

- Lake Louise for 3 nights
- Banff for 3 night
- Calgary for 1 night
- Fly home

I did pretty much the same route in reverse a few years ago. It's a LOT of driving time and if you're staying only one night in each place, it is possible you'll be rushing past a lot of things. I'd second the choice of staying in places more than one night. Side trips to include could be Whistler (while in Vancouver), Gulf Islands (Salt Spring, maybe? as a one day trip from Vancouver), Emerald Lake from Banff (one of the prettiest places in that region, and that's saying something!)

Vancouver-Jasper is a looooong way. Kamloops isn't that pretty, if you can I'd see whether you can find a lakeside lodge somewhere off the main road on the way. We were aiming for Whistler rather than Vancouver so we stayed in a motel in Clearwater. It was a small town but we happened to be there on the night of the weekly town barbecue and country recital, all set in a small natural amphitheatre with the town bakery in a log cabin to one side!

[scz4]

After taking onboard the advice above and speaking to a friend who stays there, we're going to leave Toronto to an east coast tour at a later date. So here's the new planned itinerary.

Fly to Seattle rather than Vancouver - 2 Nights
Sea Plane to Victoria, Vancouver island - 2 Nights
Vancouver - 4 nights
Hire car and stay in Whistler - 2 nights
Jasper - 1 Night
Lake Louise - 1 Night
Banff - 2 Nights
Calgary - 1 Night
Home.........

What do you think?

[Don]

Too long in Vancouver, nowhere near long enough in the Rockies. At that pace you will be flying by all the best bits!

Unless you have a special need to be in Vancouver I'd swap at least two of the nights there for extra time in Jasper/Banff/Lake Louise.

Also if you are driving over from Vancouver to the Rockies you could route via Kelowna rather than Kamloops and see if you could do a vineyard tour - the Okanagen wine region is interesting!

A nice place to stay near Kamploops and DIRT CHEAP in the summer is the Delta Sun Peaks skiing resort. During the summer there's noone there and its excellent.

[Simon Brooks]

If you are heading to Calgary in July, why not try to be there when the Stampede is on, have been to a few local Rodeo's when in Jasper, which were great fun and the perfect excuse to dress in jeans,check shirt, boots and stetson and not be out of place. If you stay in Jasper have a look at stayong at the Japser Park Lodge (not cheap, but very nice) they used to have a piper walk around the lake everynight and finish at reception to lower the national flag


http://calgarystampede.com/faq/stampede.html

have a great time

[havoc]

Can I bump this please - we're looking into doing Canada for 2 weeks next summer - into and out of Toronto as would be visiting relatives in that area (so would spend a few days with them to start with...).

Not sure we'll have the time to visit the west-coast (unless we fly), so what would peoples' recommendations be for East Coast and the centre? Not into adventure sports or more than a day-hike, but would like to see a variety of scenery (and animals???), and a couple of cities (not for longer than necessary though...).

Cheers all,

Martin.

[digger_R]

I spent a little over three months between the west coast and the Rockies and as some other posters said - the icefields parkway between jasper and banff is stunning. I was lucky enough to cycle along it over a few days last summer.

[sawman]

havoc said:

Can I bump this please - we're looking into doing Canada for 2 weeks next summer - into and out of Toronto as would be visiting relatives in that area (so would spend a few days with them to start with...).

Not sure we'll have the time to visit the west-coast (unless we fly), so what would peoples' recommendations be for East Coast and the centre? Not into adventure sports or more than a day-hike, but would like to see a variety of scenery (and animals???), and a couple of cities (not for longer than necessary though...).

Cheers all,

Martin.

you are right, you would need to fly to get to the west coast and back sensibly. You could probably amuse yourself in toronto for a couple of days, then theres niagra. You can do ottawa and montreal(5 hours drive), the east coast is a fair drive too (probably 8-9 hours to Boston, or rhode island). but you could dip over the border to the states, trains run from toronto to New York, or you could drive to the adirondacks (5 or 6 hours) i suppose. Chicago might be on your list too

[havoc]

Sorry Sawman, should have specified - we're sticking solely to Canada, due to the US's (over- and pointless-*) reaction to the latest terrorist incident.

I was hoping to do a stop-off in New York for a few days (Becs really wants to go there), but it's not worth the hassle, esp. with half the airlines now banning hand-luggage from flights in-and-out of the US, and me having ~£2k of camera kit that I won't trust to the baggage monkeys...and that's before the joys of US Customs 'officials'!





* Old rules would have been perfectly adequate IF applied properly...once again it's human error.

[sawman]

havoc said:

Sorry Sawman, should have specified - we're sticking solely to Canada, due to the US's (over- and pointless-*) reaction to the latest terrorist incident.

I was hoping to do a stop-off in New York for a few days (Becs really wants to go there), but it's not worth the hassle, esp. with half the airlines now banning hand-luggage from flights in-and-out of the US, and me having ~£2k of camera kit that I won't trust to the baggage monkeys...and that's before the joys of US Customs 'officials'!





* Old rules would have been perfectly adequate IF applied properly...once again it's human error.

fair doos. although I was assuming you would be driving!