KRAZY

Me and my wife are travelling to Calgary and plan to drive to Vancouver through the Rockies in a 8 day trip, please help us decide on sightseeing in Calgary and enroute through Banff and Jasper upto Vancouver.
Is Kamloops worth taking a stop and we need tips about sightseeing in Victoria and Vancouver.

Kert

It's difficult to know where to start, perhaps this link will help:

http://www.travel.telegraph.co.uk/tr...17/etp6roc.xml

It might also help if you put a more specific title to your question.

Regards
Kert

gregfromvictoria

I live in Victoria and I have a personal website about Victoria for tourists to view. In it I link to a bunch of sightseeing web sites and tourist attraction web sites. You can view it at:
www.funlinks.com/funlinks/victoria/index.html

For Victoria, I recommend that you visit:
-Butchart Gardens
-Royal BC Museum

In Vancouver, you may want to visit:
-Vancouver Aquarium at Stanley Park

For more Vancouver ideas, go to this web site:
www.tourismvancouver.com

Lynette

Kamloops is only worth stopping at if you are heading up to Sun Peaks to Stay. Sun Peaks is like a little Whistler. Skiing in the winter and in the summer, golfing, hiking and mountain biking. The Village grows every year I go up there. The newest hotel is the Delta Sun Peaks which just opened last Nov. There are lots of others as well. The Hearthstone and Fireside come to mind. It has a real mountain resort feel to it with shops and restaurants and lots of places to hang out.
Kamloops itself is just a city with a stinky mill.

Mitmap

If you are thinking about doing all the places you mention, including the driving, in 8 days, I think you'll be a little rushed. Driving from Calgary to Vancouver alone will take you about 10 hours, with just rest stops, not extended sightseeing stops. And I think you'll need at least five days to see Vancouver and Victoria. If you drive from Calgary to Banff to Jasper, you'll actually have to double-back to Banff to cross over to the BC border to Vancouver. Banff to Jasper is about 2.5 - 3 horus, so roundtrip there would be another 5 hours.

Borealis

It isn't necessary to double back to Banff to get to Vancouver from Jasper.
All you have to do is follow the Yellowhead Highway (#16) from Jasper past Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies to highway 5 in B.C., then travel south to Kamloops.
Driving time Jasper to Kamloops is about 5 hours.

Except for a lot of newer motor hotels and inns, Kamloops doesn't seem to have much in terms of tourist attractions.

Kelowna is a much prettier spot, it's right on Lake Okanagan, in an area of fruit orchards and vinyards (and wineries with wine tours etc.) and golf course resorts!!!.

However, if you are travelling from Jasper to Vancouver, Kelowna would be an extra "side trip".
With only eight days to take in over a 1000 kilometers, you'll have some hard choices to make.
It might make more sense to give Jasper a miss this time, and drive from Banff through Lake Louise and over Rogers Pass to Kelowna, and then from Kelowna continue to Vancouver.

But then - if you don't drive from Banff to Jasper (Icefield Parkway) you'll miss one of the most breath-taking and gorgeous drives in Canada!!!

stew

being from jasper, i would suggest it is a must see, but may not fit into your plans..you really are stretching yourself, i would even suggest coming another time to see the west coast, if that is possible? jasper really is much smaller and less busy than banff, far more peacful...so i would strongly suggest you try to fit it into your trip. if you are flying out of vancouver, the trip is do-able, jasper to vancouver can be a 10 hour trip, if you don't spend much time diverting, except for mount robson, pray for no sun. a lovely semi-desert scenery...good luck.
p.s. if you go to jasper, try to see mount edith cavell and maligne lake, both must sees' !