Western Canada tour

oxters

Hi

I am looking at a self drive holiday trip, flying to Toronto ( edit: not Toronto - I meant Vancouver) from Scotland with a scenic tour to Calgary via Jasper and Lake Louise and back.

I fear that Kuoni and other organised trips will be overpriced and wondered if anyone can offer some tips. Sky scanner says flights in September are just over £400 pp and Holiday Autos for 3 weeks is between £400/500 depending on car.

Can anyone give me a rough guide to hotel prices on the way and if you have an itinerary you can copy for me?

Many thanks for any information.

Alan_Bowen

Are you sure you want to start in Toronto for the Rockies, they are thousands of miles to the west? You would pay a fortune in one way car hire fees as well, I drove from Vancouver to Calgary via Jasper over 7 days and was hit for a substantial one way fee and frankly do you want to drive for days across the wheat fields of Canada where there is little to see?

My advice is fly to Vancouver or Calgary, we spent 4 nights in Vancouver, taking a day trip to Whistler, not my cup of tea at all, and a day to Victoria via coach and ferry which was worth its weight in gold. Then picked up a car and took two days to drive to Jasper, staying in a beautiful log cabin with a log fire, the moose literally came up to the front door but it was rutting season and we were warned to keep away.

Then drove down the Icefields Parkway, stopped to take the Snowmobile over the glacier itself and then another two nights in Banff, with trips out to Lake Louise. Banff was much busier, at the time some of the shops appeared to be catering to Japanese tourists only, with prices to match.

The plan was to spend the last 2 nights in Calgary but it was so cold, and began to snow mid afternoon, so we drove straight to the airport and bought seats to San Diego for a bit more warmth. As a holiday it was one the best ever, booked a hotel in Vancouver in advance but found accommodation along the way everywhere else. We travelled towards the end of September. The Canadian dollar is very weak at the moment so it is a perfect time to travel but not I would strongly suggest from Toronto!

John259

I agree with post #2. Use Google Maps etc to check the distances:
https://goo.gl/maps/4db6XcZcfx32

redpete

Starting in Toronto would be madness, thousands of miles of pretty boring driving.

Last year we flew to Calgary, drove to Vancouver Island, back to Vancouver, train through the Rockies to Jasper and drive back to Calgary. Plenty of variations on a theme possible.

TripAdvisor forums are a useful resource for itineraries. Planning your own trip is far more fun than picking one from an expensive brochure.

Loanranger

The best and most relaxing way to see the Rockies is from the train. Fly to calgary via toronto and take the train from calgary to vancouver. I have done this trip twice and would do it again if I had the money and was younger.

John259

Driving in Canada and the USA outside of the cities is very easy, would give you total flexibility, and allow you to see the wonderful Icefields Parkway which is the highlight of the Canadian Rockies. I wouldn't recommend a train trip or a coach trip unless nobody in the party can drive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icefields_Parkway

blindman

Loanranger wrote: »

The best and most relaxing way to see the Rockies is from the train. Fly to calgary via toronto and take the train from calgary to vancouver. I have done this trip twice and would do it again if I had the money and was younger.

Unless you cannot drive I would NOT recommend this.

Overpriced and you miss out on being able to stop when\where you want.

We flew into Vancouver, drove to Jasper and flew out of Calgary in about 7 days IIRC.
No one way drop off fee for the car.
Organised our own accommodation (B&B's motels) Not too pricey TBHO.

Excellent trip. Went in June to avoid crowds.

oxters

Oh boy, did I have a senior moment there! I had been looking at various Canada options and tapped in Toronto when I asked - I meant Vancouver to Calgary. That was silly😡 I feel stupid and embarrassed.
Thank you for your replies anyway. And you are right of course, it would be some undertaking from Toronto. I will go through your replies and ask some more questions, no doubt. I will try to get my cities right next time.

Thanks for replying.

redpete

blindman wrote: »

Unless you cannot drive I would NOT recommend (taking a train through the Rockies )

Overpriced and you miss out on being able to stop when\where you want.
.

Using the scheduled journeys on VIA Rail is a lot cheaper than the Rocky Mountaineer. Two or three days on this leaves plenty of time to do your own thing for the rest of the holiday (one week would be too short to do it justice in my opinion). The views of mountains, rivers and wildlife whilst relaxing and being looked after was worth it for us.

Alidolly

I did a cosmos Rockies tour a while back. Doesn't take in Calgary but did cover vancouver and victoria and someone else did all the driving. Covers a lot of mileage in short period with numerous stops for photos etc plus can do extra excursions like whale watching. May be worth a wee look as cheaper than Kunoi. Think they also do the fly-drive option as well.

John259

At the southern end of the Icefields Parkway, Golden is a less expensive and less touristy option than Banff. At the northern end, Hinton is a less expensive and less touristy option than Jasper.

It's possible to drive the Icefields Parkway in one day, but that doesn't allow time for any significant stops. Better to take two days. From Saskatchewan River Crossing you can take David Thompson Highway east to Rocky Mountain House where there are plenty of motels, then return to the parkway via the same road the next day.

As well as Lake Louise, I'd recommend visiting nearby Morraine Lake - just as beautiful but less developed.

On the western side of Kicking Horse Pass, the famous spiral tunnels are well worth a stop and with luck you'll see a long freight train passing through them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hill

There are plenty of other good towns in southwestern British Columbia such as Hope and Princeton.

For Waterton Lakes you could stay in Pincher Creek.

If time allows then you could cross into the USA for Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana, and drive its magnificent Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass. On the west side of the park, Kalispell and Whitefish are good places to stay. There's very little accommodation on the east side of the park.

You can use Google Maps to search for motels, and this will also give you a rough idea of their relative rates. For example, in Golden:
https://goo.gl/maps/F9j5pBJH85t

Super 8 is a good budget motel chain which operates in both Canada and the USA. In the USA I'd recommend Motel 6 for a road trip but they're a bit too basic for some people's taste. "Mom & pop" independent family run motels in small and medium sized towns are often excellent value for money.