O Canada 🇨🇦- where to begin ?

[SussexFamily]

Originally Posted by Gunna

Our Vancouver and Jasper ones we booked direct the others through Hotels.com or Expedia. Like Jo mentioned above Jasper & Banff do get booked up quickly as it’s very popular.

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I look forward to your Krakow trippy Neil ,we are going next year.

[SussexFamily]

Originally Posted by jocat

We did the following:

Vancouver - 4 nights
Whistler - 3 nights
Kamloops - 1 night
Jasper - 3 nights
Banff - 5 nights
Calgary - 2 nights

Have you booked your flights already? If not, I’d recommend flying into one airport and home from another if you can. It will save you doing the loop and give you a bit more time at the Lake Louise part of the trip. Even travelling from Jasper to Lake Louise along the Icefields Parkway can take a day as there are so many beautiful places to stop and see along the way.

My other worry is you seem to have quite a few 1 night stops. You may need to consider whether you will get to see what you want to in all of your chosen destinations. It is hard though to fit everything in - there’s just so much to choose from. We chose to have longer stays in each place and use it as a base to visit places up to an hour or so away. That suited us better than constantly packing and unpacking, but only you know what will work best for you.

The link to my trip report is in my signature if you want a read. I found reading trip reports invaluable in helping me finalise my itinerary. We had to ditch Vancouver Island from our initial plans, as we just couldn’t make it work for us without compromising elsewhere.

Enjoy the planning and feel free to ask as many questions as you like. Someone will always be along to help out.

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v2.0

Calgary - 2 Nights
Banff - 2 Nights
Lake Louise - 1 Night
Jasper - 2 Nights
Kamloops - 1 Night
Whistler - 2 Nights
Victoria -2 Nights
Vancouver 2 Nights

[jocat]

Originally Posted by SussexFamily

v2.0

Calgary - 2 Nights
Banff - 2 Nights
Lake Louise - 1 Night
Jasper - 2 Nights
Kamloops - 1 Night
Whistler - 2 Nights
Victoria -2 Nights
Vancouver 2 Nights

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Looking much more manageable, although if I’m honest, you could probably get away with just a single night in Calgary unless there’s a particular reason you want to spend longer there, such as to visit the Stampede. That would give you an extra day to tag on in either Jasper or Banff.

We didn’t do a separate stop in Lake Louise - instead we stayed in Banff and visited Lake Louise from there. It’s definitely close enough, so that’s another option for you if you’d rather reduce your number of stops. Other Dibbers may have a different view of course.

[SussexFamily]

Originally Posted by jocat

Looking much more manageable, although if I’m honest, you could probably get away with just a single night in Calgary unless there’s a particular reason you want to spend longer there, such as to visit the Stampede. That would give you an extra day to tag on in either Jasper or Banff.

We didn’t do a separate stop in Lake Louise - instead we stayed in Banff and visited Lake Louise from there. It’s definitely close enough, so that’s another option for you if you’d rather reduce your number of stops. Other Dibbers may have a different view of course.

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Lake Louise is 36 miles from Banff
Would you say an extra night in jasper rather than Banff?
Is kamloops Worth 2 nights?

[skalexander]

Originally Posted by SussexFamily

Lake Louise is 36 miles from Banff
Would you say an extra night in jasper rather than Banff?
Is kamloops Worth 2 nights?

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Unless you were gonna splash out and stay at the Chateau at Lake Louise, which is stunning, I would just visit from Banff. We were in Banff in January and even with the wintery weather it was 45mins to Lake Louise.

No personal experience but my parents didn't even think Kamloops was worth one night.

I personally would want an extra night on Vancouver Island.

In Whistler, I highly recommend the zip lining, its awesome!

[jocat]

Originally Posted by SussexFamily

Lake Louise is 36 miles from Banff
Would you say an extra night in jasper rather than Banff?
Is kamloops Worth 2 nights?

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Lake Louise is about a 40-45 minute drive from Banff.

You could easily fill 3 nights in Jasper - we visited the Jasper end of the Icefields Parkway, the Columbia Icefields, plus Maligne Lake and Canyon, all from our base in Jasper.

Plan on spending a full day travelling between Banff or Lake Louise to Jasper as there will be lots of stop and explore. Many others also visit the Columbia Icefields on this day, but we didn’t want to leave all our luggage in the car while we did this.

As for Kamloops, I would say it is NOT worth 2 nights there. It’s a bit of a necessary evil to stay there, to break up a long journey, but it’s only a bed to sleep in.

[SussexFamily]

Originally Posted by skalexander

Unless you were gonna splash out and stay at the Chateau at Lake Louise, which is stunning, I would just visit from Banff. We were in Banff in January and even with the wintery weather it was 45mins to Lake Louise.

No personal experience but my parents didn't even think Kamloops was worth one night.

I personally would want an extra night on Vancouver Island.

In Whistler, I highly recommend the zip lining, its awesome!

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Yes we were considering the chateau at lake Louise
Kamloops just breaks journey tbh
Yes I agree - Vancouver island is worth 3 nights - I’ve been before
Ty again

[jocat]

Originally Posted by skalexander

Unless you were gonna splash out and stay at the Chateau at Lake Louise, which is stunning, I would just visit from Banff. We were in Banff in January and even with the wintery weather it was 45mins to Lake Louise.

No personal experience but my parents didn't even think Kamloops was worth one night.

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Completely agree!

I understand why people stay in Kamloops but I think I’d actually rather do an 8 hour drive to Whistler, rather than stop in Kamloops again.

[SussexFamily]

Originally Posted by jocat

Lake Louise is about a 40-45 minute drive from Banff.

You could easily fill 3 nights in Jasper - we visited the Jasper end of the Icefields Parkway, the Columbia Icefields, plus Maligne Lake and Canyon, all from our base in Jasper.

Plan on spending a full day travelling between Banff or Lake Louise to Jasper as there will be lots of stop and explore. Many others also visit the Columbia Icefields on this day, but we didn’t want to leave all our luggage in the car while we did this.

As for Kamloops, I would say it is NOT worth 2 nights there. It’s a bit of a necessary evil to stay there, to break up a long journey, but it’s only a bed to sleep in.

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Ty jo
Just spoken to the others we are dropping some nights and adding in others

[SussexFamily]

v3.0

Calgary - 2 Nights
Banff - 2 Nights
Jasper - 3 Nights
Kamloops - 1 Night
Whistler - 1 Night
Victoria -3 Nights
Vancouver 2 Nights