Canadian / Vancouver Island / Rockies Trip Advice Please!

[pinktraceb]

Any experienced Canadian/ Rockies holidayers able to advise on our itinerary?

* 24 July - 27 July Vancouver
* Pick up car and get ferry to Vancouver Island
* Stay in Victoria for 2 nights (27-29 July)
* Travel to Tofino & stay there 2 nights (29-31 July)
* Ferry from Nainmo to Tsawwssen
* Travel to Whistler
* Stay Whistler 3 nights (31 Jul to 3 Aug)
* Travel to Kamloops & stay 1 night
* Travel to Jasper stay 2 nights (4-6 Aug)
* Travel to Banff & stay 2 nights (6-8 Aug)
* Travel to Calgary & stay 2 nights (8-10 Aug)
10th Aug flight back to Gatwick

I'm happy with the Rockies part, but it's the Vancouver Island bit that I'm not so sure on.

It's a 4.5 hour drive from Victoria to Tofino, and then on way back a 3 hour drive from Tofino to the ferry. So basically we would get just 1 whole day there really. I'm now considering ditching Tofino. But where to put the extra 2 days that will give us?

Not sure if it helps, we're a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 boys aged 13 & 16.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[dizzymcfarlane]

Tbh I’d miss Vancouver Island and concentrate on the mainland - unless you have a particular wish to go. We are spending nearly three weeks just on v island this autumn. Seems to be a lot of driving esp to Tofino when there’s so much on the mainland route you’ve desc. Esp with teenagers ! Hope this helps. We’ve been several trips to British Columbia and it is such a great family holiday !

[jocat]

We originally planned to see VI too, but it had to go from our plans as we weren’t going to do it justice. We’ve decided that we’d like to do an Alaska cruise at some point, so will tag VI on to that trip.

If you do ditch Tofino, I’d definitely put the extra two days in the Jasper/Banff area. There’s so much to see and do there. I’d also tweak Calgary and reduce that to just one night - we stayed for 2 nights and in hindsight it was too much. I’d move that extra night to Banff to give me plenty of time to visit Lake Louise and Moraine Lake too.

[pinktraceb]

Thanks both. Travelbag (who we're booking with) have suggested Sooke instead of Tofino as it's not such a long drive.

Now I'm totally stuck on what to do! Never considered not doing Vancouver Island as wanted to cover as much as possible.

Lots to think about now!

[Gunna]

We did Vancouver Island but just Victoria, there was enough here for a couple of days. I would however like to spend more time exploring the island as there is a lot to see.

When travelling from Nanaimo go to Horseshoe Bay on the ferry that way you are north of Vancouver and will have a shorter journey to Whistler and miss a lot of traffic.

Calgary if you’ve got an afternoon then late flight next day that would be enough to cut down to one night and I would use the extra time in the Rockies ( there is a lot to see here ) we had 3 nights each in Banff and Jasper and could easily have spent longer.

I’ve done a trip report , as has Jocat above, ( there’s also other good ones on here too ) so hopefully these will help but please feel free to ask any more questions as I’ll help if I can. It was one of my favourite holidays, really loved it.

[BigPetesWife]

I'd be tempted to ditch Whistler and split those extra nights between Tofino and Rockies. I'm not sure you get anything different to what you already have planned by adding Whistler, but you do get something different by adding Tofino. We only did one night in Victoria which enough for what we wanted to do, but I could have spent longer than the three nights we had in Ucluelet (just south of Tofino). Whistler is nice, but it's still a mountain resort and I'm not sure it's worth doing in addition to the Rockies.

[brucefans]

Dont ditch Tofino! We did almost identical trip to yours. Highlight was a boat trip in Tofino at dusk to see the bears feeding at the water's edge. Amazing. adventuretofino

[Melbatb]

Tofino/Ucluelet are one of my favourite places on earth! Whistler was not in the same class!