Vancouver & British Columbia Travel - here to help!

withabix

I think 3 nights in Banff, 2 in Lake Louise and 3 in Jasper might be a bit of overkill given how close together Banff and Lake Louise are. We did a similar tour about 8 years ago. I would probably cut all three down by one night each to be honest.

Vancouver and Victoria you've got right, although maybe split Victoria with Ucluelet or Tofino - beautiful Pacific coastal scenery there and you can do Whale Watching trips from there instead of Victoria.

Maybe from Kamloops you could take in Kelowna for a night and down to the South Okanagan before going back towards Vancouver on Highway 3 from Osoyoos. That's a better tourist route than the Coquihalla (HW5 from Kamloops to Hope), which is devoid of stopping-off points other than for a wee in a long-drop. It was built for a purpose and serves it...HW 97C (The Okanagan Connector) from Kelowna to Merritt was similarly built for a transport purpose.

In Banff we stayed at the Fox Hotel & Suites and can recommend that one. I seem to recall that a lot of Banff hotels/eating places/shops are owned by one company. In Jasper we stayed at the Best Western Jasper Inn & Suites. We were disappointed. Could be a nice hotel but needed renovation. Maybe they've done that since...

Obviously there is a lot of wildlife to see on the road between Banff and Jasper. Easy to spot, because there will be a line of parked cars and Japanese tourists by each animal...

Near Jasper, Maligne Lake is a must see, along with some river rapids (can't remember, but will be obvious!).

On the way from Jasper to Kamloops, Helmcken Falls in Wells Gray Prov. Park is a must see.

Whistler is an easy day trip from Vancouver (about an hour and a quarter each way). Worth the trip in June for the Peak to Peak gondola and you can go right up to the glacier skiing areas by ski-lift and see the pros doing acrobatic boarding and ski-ing. The views are amazing!

Fort Langley is worth a stop off as you approach Vancouver. The birthplace of British Columbia and the Fort itself is definitely worth a visit. The village of Fort Langley is quite nice too.

Don't underestimate the driving time between towns on your itinerary. You can easily add 50-100% to each journey time with sightseeing stops. Rush and you will be disappointed!

joaniemerc

withabix wrote: »

Also did an Alaska cruise from Vancouver in 2013, so know a bit about that too!

Hi - thanks for offering your advice.

We are planning an Alaskan cruise in 2016 (currently spending on a BA Amex card to obtain a 241 for flights from UK to Vancouver - going well - £2,500 to go and hope to be in a position to book flights, as you say, 11 months ahead).

What time of year would you recommend for the Alaskan cruise please? Don't fancy May as have read midges are bad at that time of year - if indeed that's true. Would love to see the bears "salmon fishing".

TIA

withabix

joaniemerc wrote: »

Hi - thanks for offering your advice.

We are planning an Alaskan cruise in 2016 (currently spending on a BA Amex card to obtain a 241 for flights from UK to Vancouver - going well - £2,500 to go and hope to be in a position to book flights, as you say, 11 months ahead).

What time of year would you recommend for the Alaskan cruise please? Don't fancy May as have read midges are bad at that time of year - if indeed that's true. Would love to see the bears "salmon fishing".

TIA

There are mossies in Alaska. There's no getting away from that. Not as bad as Scotland in my opinion. Wear a mossie band and you will be fine though.

You are unlikely to see bears fishing on a cruise. You would probably need a post-cruise land tour (or a day trip) for that, as they tend to fish in more turbulent inland rivers. You will see various whales almost certainly.

July and August are very popular - on our trip it was a particularly hot summer and we had temperatures in the 30C+ range even up in Juneau.

We went in July 2013 on Celebrity Millennium, flying with BA in Business Class using points (thank you Tesco!!). We had cabin 1140, which is one of the best Aqua Class cabins to get, if it's available (Google it!).

King Salmon were running in July at Juneau (they run May-July), because there is a large-scale hatchery there (another Google!). Sockeye, which has the biggest run, is usually in July.

Some of the other cruise liners looked really nice - there will be at least 3 in each port of call every day. Ketchikan for instance has a resident population of just over 2000. When the liners are in, there are up to 14000 people in town!

There are a lot of other cruises available with all the cruise lines.

I'm a bit uncertain as to what the future holds for BA Avios at the moment - a lot of things change later next week (29th April) and probably not for the better. There may be better availability going forward, because I suspect a lot of people will be making bookings for the next 11+ months ahead, before the change takes place.

I looked for some availability back to UK for later this year and there is zero Redemption availability in any class from Vancouver to/from Heathrow.

wondercollie

With Alaska cruises you have to get your timing right. The ships come north after doing the Mexican cruises over the winter.


The Mickey Mouse Big Red Boat has done this route, so if you aren't up to loads of Disney maniacs, make sure to avoid it! My pal has done it with her grandkids.

If you time it right you can get great packages involving a weekend in Vegas and a cruise from San Diego to Vancouver quite cheaply. The ships then turn into the Alaska cruises. In the Autumn, they do the reverse, Vancouver-San Diego and a weekend in Vegas with flight home.


In your case it might be worth looking into.

joaniemerc

Thank you, both. You can do a day excursion from the ship to see the Bears.

Don't fancy being somewhere where there's possibly 14,000 peeps in a small area.

Might aim for last week of August/first week of September. When do Canadian schools go back after the summer pls?

vivatifosi

wondercollie wrote: »

The Mickey Mouse Big Red Boat has done this route, so if you aren't up to loads of Disney maniacs, make sure to avoid it! My pal has done it with her grandkids.

.

You mean the big blue ship!

I've done a few Disney cruises, I don't agree that they are only for Disney fans, however they are hideously expensive. It really isn't worth paying the premium if you aren't going to get the most out of it. It's much cheaper to do NCL or one of the others. Quite a few of the Disney Cruise regulars don't do the Alaska with Disney, preferring one of the alternatives as they go further north and you get to see more. For that reason, when we get round to it we'll do it on NCL instead.

vivatifosi

I wondered where you'd got to withabix.. Haven't seen your posts for a bit, maybe I've been looking in the wrong places.

I'm going to be in Vancouver for two days only. What would you recommend we do as a highlights tour? The one thing we'd definitely like to do is take the cable car, but beyond that we are unsure. Any suggestions?

withabix

vivatifosi wrote: »

I wondered where you'd got to withabix.. Haven't seen your posts for a bit, maybe I've been looking in the wrong places.

I'm going to be in Vancouver for two days only. What would you recommend we do as a highlights tour? The one thing we'd definitely like to do is take the cable car, but beyond that we are unsure. Any suggestions?

I've been busy becoming Canadian! Moved over here in October 2013...

As you've already selected Grouse Mountain, I would say Stanley Park (including a walk on the seawall from English bay end at sunset), Vancouver Aquarium, Granville Island market, Hadden Park/Kitsilano beach, Gastown/Downtown Vancouver sightseeing/shopping, Canada Place is a great viewpoint and maybe a trip to Capilano suspension bridge. A trip across the sea bus to Lonsdale Quay just for the novelty and to get great photos of downtown Vancouver from the Quay itself.

Food is a big part of Vancouver. It's all good, be it downtown restaurants, street vendors or Granville Island. A good choice would be the Boathouse Restaurant (part of a Vancouver chain, all in good waterfront locations) next to Sunset Beach before a stroll along the sea wall to catch the sunset.

Skytrain and buses are a good way to get around sightseeing. The sea bus is part of the Skytrain day ticket, as are all the buses.

That would easily fill your 2 days as a 'highlights of Vancouver' trip.

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My avatar is the stainless steel crab outside the HR MacMillan Space Centre on Kitsilano Beach. Taken on a very sunny Boxing Day in 2006!

stormbreaker

Thank you withabix, I am loving this thread

Tiggy_Wiggy

So glad that I found this thread, it's a big help as we are finalising our itinerary for our Canada visit in June.

We are starting off with a 3 night stay in Toronto, then flying over to Calgary where we will pick up a campervan for our brief 8 day tour from Calgary to Vancouver via Banff/Jasper. Then staying in Vancouver for 3 nights.

So it's great to hear what others are planning.