[Closed] Canada Self Drive Suggestions

things to see...

the big tower thing in downtown Calgary is ok, and there's shopping if you like retail. Wrong time of year but if you like rodeos, the Calgary Stampede is one of the most famous. I think that's July though

Banff is nice, about an hour and a half drive west from Calgary on Highway 1. Canmore is about half an hour earlier & nice too, if small. It's also outside the Banff National Park so if you stay in Canmore for a couple of days to see the Calgary side of things, you won't need to pay for the NP permit

Distances on roadsigns are in kilometeres, speed limits in km/h. The drivers are very polite, I found.

Lake Louise is touristy busy, Moraine Lake is virtually identical, a short drive away and not so busy, but not anywhere near as many parking spaces.

Lake Louise:
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Icefields Parkway up towards Jasper is worth doing. On the way you'll see Bow Lake & Crowfoot Glacier:
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Jasper is supposed to be nice but we didn't get that far

then there's the Athabasca glacier that you can get an ice-bus onto:
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Keep on Highway One west through the mountains, you'll pass through places like Kicking Horse Pass, Golden, Kamloops, etc. The mountain scenery is amazing. Heading out of Kamloops you may also pass through some high plains desert - surprisingly arid up there. Kamloops is basically a railroad town, from what I gathered when there.
It gets very hot in high summer. We arrived in Kamloops for an overnight stop at 6pm on 2nd August, it was 38degC in the shade

word of warning. Calgary to Vancouver is an 11 hour drive, you might want to break it up a bit. Don't stay at the economy section of the Lake Louise Village Inn:
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(the non-economy section looked nice enough though)
but as it's only a couple of hours out of Calgary, you'll probably have gone beyond Lake Louise by the time you feel ready for a rest

When in Vancouver - yes it is worth a few nights stay - you should visit Stanley Park and perhaps meet some raccoons:
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Gastown (iirc) is the local name for what we would call Chinatown; there's a nice chilled out garden that has been used on TV series such as Continuum & Falling Skies:
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All of the above but I'd suggest doing the Athabasca glacier on a half day walking tour rather than the bus. Fascinating walk and more involving than the bus. I've done it twice (twenty years apart mind).

Jasper and Canmore Nordic Centre - good mountain biking for all levels, again can do half day, lots of hire opportunities.

Lake Louise Tea Huts walk is good but all day to do both.

Thanks John, that's great information.

Is it worth a drive from Vancouver to Seattle? I know there is a boat, but if I have a car anyway I'm thinking of heading from Abbotsford across to intersect route 5 and down to Seattle for an overnight before coming back up to Vancouver for a few days and dropping the car off to save a 3 days of rental. I'm assuming I'll need a visa, but not sure if it's worth the hassle for what will likely be 24 hours across the border.

I'd recommend Van Island. A couple/few days would be even better. A day in Vic and a day on the coast in Tofino (with dinner at shelter after a sea kayaking trip).
I did a month in BC and the places I really liked were Tofino and Nelson.

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I never got to the bottom of this but in remote parts of BC you'll see people fence off their cars when parked up for a hike. Some people said it was to stop porcupines eating the tyres, others say it's to stop mountain lions crawling in there for a nice warm place to nap....until you disturb them when you get back and they rip your ankles off 😯

whale watching could also be worth a trip while in the Vancouver area. We only stayed 3 nights so didn't really have time but one day, when I next visit...

BTW we stayed at The Listel Hotel on Robson Street, a short walk from both the waterfront and Stanley Park. Not cheap (correction, about £100/night which is quite reasonable IMO) but it has an art gallery if you're into that kind of thing, and parking was included IIRC, or certainly not very expensive. We parked up & didn't use the car again until we left the city. Skytrain is the local rapid transit system.

re Seattle. We didn't bother, didn't really have time (or the visas).

Not sure one night could do justice to "a city where it rains for 9 months out of the year" (Dave Grohl IIRC)

2 weeks is a reasonable amount of time to do a bit of driving and a bit of hiking. John has some good suggestions although for me I wouldn't bother with the Athabasca glacier unless walking on some ice means a great deal to you.

If you want to go to Moraine lake then plan very (and I mean 5am) early to avoid the crush.

If you're keen hikers than my favorite area to hike is the little Yoho valley as it's a bit quieter. However at the end of May I'm not sure which of the high trails would be snow free.

Mountain biking wise Canmore Nordic center rents bikes through trail sports and has everything from fireroad pootles to national level xc trails.

Personally I'd also plan on spending a couple of nights in Revelstoke. It's got a nice mountain town vibe and there's a few things to do. I think Skookum cycle rents bikes and the Mount Macpherson trails will give a good taste of BC riding. The blacks are certainly tougher then the ones in Canmore. There's also Rogers pass which has some fantastic hiking but again I'm not sure about the snow line at the end of May.

Penticton and the Okanagan make a nice change of pace. Lots of vineyards and can be used to break up the driving.

Vancouver is worth a couple of days and depending on your motivation and desire for riding I'd be tempted to head up to Squamish for a day. As a Brit it can take a while to cross into the USA so I'm not sure I'd do it 24 hours.

JimJam - It's for porucpines; they love to chew rubber. One in the Skoki valley behind Lake Louise tormented us for 2 nights. This is what it did to a hiking pole we accidentally left in the vestibule of our tent over night.

[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7120/7729694426_0c5beaa00f_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7120/7729694426_0c5beaa00f_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/cM3GRy ]Porcupine...[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/40674021@N05/ ]Mark and Liz in Canada[/url], on Flickr

OP
Stop over in Nelson on your way down if you can,awesome wee place.

In Van - take the ferry over the bay and get bus up to Grouse Mountain, if time take a drive up to Whistler. Have a walk/drive round Stanley Park, if you have kids go to the Aquarium in the park.

See how many bike shops you can find...

We stayed in Van for a few days, but also went up the Sunshine Coast to Powell River to stay with friends. The BC Ferries are dirt cheap with a car full. W ealso stayed in Whisler for a few days as a bonus (but was between bike season and snowboard season - D'oh!)

I would go to Victoria and get on a Whale Watching tour - never did it but would love to see Orca!

also - go watch You Gotta Eat Here - then go and find the restaurants..

Thanks for all of the replies. Great stuff! I think I have a lot to look through, but like most great trips I'll leave a lot to chance and plans are subject to change.