Posted by llawjm on July 01, 2010

Fellow Travellers!

You guys have helped me out before, and all your suggestions for my most recent trip to California were very helpful, so I send a huge thank you to you all!

So our next trip is British Columbia & Alberta and we're trying to compile a list of "must see" places on our road trip. We (German 25f and Aussie 31m)

We'll be hitting Vancouver on the 11th of October 2010 and have 3 weeks to play with before flying out of Vancouver.

Having read up on Western Canada, there's so much to see and do. We love nature, and most of our time shall be spent outdoors of course.

We've got a few places in mind to visit, although very vague:

- Vancouver Island (Victoria)
- Vancouver
- Jasper
- Icefields Parkway
- Banff
- Whistler

Our transport shall be a rental car (something with guts to tackle the mighty Rockies), and accommodation shall be a mixture of hotels, hostels and private accommodation offered via the NP websites that we've been reading about. Has anyone done private accom in the National Parks before?

So if you have any tips, suggestions, accommodation or road trip itineraries that will occupy us for 3 weeks then that would be just so helpful to us.

Thanks again, any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Matt & Mel

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Reply by llawjm on July 01, 2010

Having looked at some posts, and getting some more ideas, could the following looped road trip be done inside 18 days or so?

http://tiny.cc/CanadaRoadTripRouteIdea1

Vancouver, BC
Whistler, BC
Pemberton, BC
Lillooet, BC
Cache Creek, BC
Kamloops, BC
Clearwater, BC
Blue River, BC
Valemount, BC
Jasper, AB
Canmore, AB
Sulphur Mountain, AB
Banff, AB
Moraine Lake, AB
Lake Louise, Banff, AB
Revelstoke, BC
Shelter Bay, BC
Nakusp, BC
Osoyoos, BC
Hope, BC
Vancouver, BC

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Reply by llawjm on July 27, 2010

Hi guys,

Firstly I must say sorry about all the 'Destination Points' in the first set of Google Maps from my first posting. The intention was to highlight a road map, not to stay at those places.

So we've been collating the many replies we've had across the forum posts, and have pretty much decided on a clockwise route to the Rockies.

Question: Driving Vancouver to Jasper - which way?
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A few people have mentioned it's worth heading up Highway #1 from Hope, which merges into Highway 97 then to highway 24, and joining back up with Highway 5 at Little Fort.

See Map: http://tiny.cc/CanadaRockiesOption1

Or should we just press on from Vancouver and head straight to Jasper via Kamloops.

See Map: http://tiny.cc/CanadaRockiesOption2

Where would you recommend we stay for a day or two between Vancouver and Jasper? Is it worth spending a day or two exploring Wells Gray Park?

Question: Driving Banff to Vancouver - which way?
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What is the most scenic way to travel back to Vancouver from Banff? We'd like to hit the wineries around Osoyoos. Should we go direct and travel directly south via Cranbrook, and then west along the US/Canada border; or should we drive South-West via Glacier NP and Mt Revelstoke NP and finally passing through Kelowna and the down to Osoyoos?

Question: Thanksgiving Day
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I should probably put this in the Vancouver forum. It's come to our attention that we are arriving on Canada Thanksgiving Day (Monday October 11th). Is it worth starting the road trip on this day, or spending the day in Vancouver. I'm assuming most things are closed in Vancouver and the day is spent celebrating with families. If we do stay for the day, can anyone recommend some places to stay/eat on this day?

I do partly regret booking our flight over to Vancouver and beginning the road trip there. I think we should of really flown into Calgary and started from West to East instead of doing the loop.

That being said, if there are some 'must see' places to explore on our way to Jasper from Vancouver, we are all ears.

Thank you again for your time and wonderful ideas - you are all great people! We have made sure our rental car has all weather tires, so that's sorted!

Cheers

Matt & Mel.

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