calgary to vancouver

[asafstr2]

hi all,
i am first time going to Canada and first time renting an RV,
we are a family with 1 child 8 months old.
my plan is to fly from Ireland on the 29th of may sleep one night in hotel and take my RV from cruise Canada (the c30 one)on the following day the 30th,
i also need to return my RV on the 14th of June in Calgary.
then i have no plans yet and i need to fly back from Vancouver on June 19
there is not really a budget limit as long as it is reasonable, and i will also want to do shopping for one day,
what do you recommend i should do
the plan is to visit Banff and jasper and anything in between but have no idea how to split the days and where i can and can't drive with the big RV and also where to stay for the nights.
will appreciate any help thx.

[AZBuck]

Céad Míle Fáilte! Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

I'm sorry, but I'm a bit confused about where you're flying into and picking up the RV to start: Vancouver or Calgary? In either case we can help you find sites worth seeing and roads worth taking between the two cities. It's just that If you are starting and ending in Calgary the RV rental will be cheaper (no one-way drop off fee) and you can take two separate routes west-bound and then east-bound.

So let's start with the simpler (albeit more expensive) case where you're picking up the RV in Vancouver on May 30th and dropping it off in Calgary on June 14th, then flying back to Vancouver a few days later, presumably to make your return flight to Ireland. In this case you have roughly two weeks to make a journey that could conceivably be driven in as little as two days, leaving you lots of time to explore. The first thing I'd note is that Vancouver itself is worth a couple of days. It has both a vibrant downtown (Robson is the High Street) and one of the truly great urban green spaces, Stanley Park. Leaving Vancouver, BC-99 (the Sea-to-Sky Highway) up through Wistler is a gorgeous road that will take you past a number of sites that were part of the 2010 Winter Olympics as well as Garibaldi Provincial Park.

If you go this way (BC-1/BC-5 is another option) then next up would be to continue northeast along BC-99/BC-97/BC-24 past a number of great provincial parks including Nairn Falls, Joffre Lakes, Duffey Lake, Marble Canyon, Edge Hills, Green Lake and Bridge Lake (and others!) to Little Fort. From there, continue north on BC-5 past still more great little pocket provincial parks to Tête Jaune Cache where you'll turn eastward on the Trans-Canada Highway (BC-16/AB-16) to cross the Cariboo Range of the Rocky Mountains through Mount Robson Provincial Park and on into Jasper National Park.

It's then a relatively straightforward proposition to follow BC-93 down through Jasper and Banff National Parks to BC-1 (another branch of the Trans-Canada) into Calgary. For me, some of the highlights of those two great parks are the trips out onto the ice fields and glaciers, a visit to Lake Louise which has a color you will find nowhere else in the world and lunch at The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.

AZBuck

[Rick Quinn]

Hello!

If you're in Jasper and Banff, and you have any extra time at all, consider Yoho and Kootenay National Parks as well. Yoho is adjacent to Banff in the West, and Kootenay to the south. Yoho, in particular, is amazing. Buck mentioned the color of Lake Louise? Check out Emerald Lake, in Yoho: Emerald Lake.jpg

The whole area is just spectacular. You'll have plenty of company: those Cruise Canada RV's are a very common sight in Canada's National Parks.

Rick

[Twopodners]

You will love Canada. We enjoy staying at Canmore just south of Banff as there is a lovely walk along the river, with plenty of benches to stop and admire the view up to the Three Sisters mountains. Jasper is pleasant and Miette lake is worth a visit as are the Falls. We love Calgary. Although a modern city it has a nice feel about it, and good for shopping! Just be aware that all the shops are hidden in malls above street level, so you need to hunt them out. Once you've been to Canada you will be hooked.

[Lifemagician]

The best thing you can do right now, is get hold of a good detailed map of Canada or western Canada. You will see so much more than you can on a little screen. If you are not able to get one locally, I recommend that you purchase a Rand McNally road atlas of North America, which has good maps of Canada in it. Scroll down to the RTA store link at the bottom of this page. If you order it now, you will have it in a couple of weeks. You can then see just how many routes you have available to you, to take you where you want to go. These maps also show little tents where there are camp grounds.

If you have your basic route of where you want to go and stay, before you pick up the RV, you can discuss your plans with the Cruise Canada people when you pick up your RV. I an sure they will tell you if some of the chosen spots/routes are not suitable for your RV. But at least you will have designed the basis of your trip, and will be able to adjust it if need be. Between Banff and Jasper there is no shortage of camp grounds in the beautiful Rocky Mts. You'd need to do a little research to see which ones have hookups. But you may not require hookups every night.

From Jasper, you could head out on the scenic 16 to Edmonton and back to Calgary via route 2, savouring some of the little and big towns along the way.

Lifey