happiness

I'm making a 3-day trip to Calgary but would like to spend a day and a half in Vancouver. Does anybody know about the drive from Calgary to Vancouver during this time of year? How long does it take? What kind of road condition? Other pointers also welcomed. Thanks...

Judy_in_Calgary

Hello Happiness,

It's a bit difficult to understand your question without more background information.

If the roads are in good condition, most people count on the drive from Calgary to Vancouver taking about 12 hours.

We are having a spell of quite mild weather for this time of year right now. However, we've already had some snow, and could get more in a few days' time.

Unless people come to Calgary for business in winter or to take in the Calgary Stampede in July, Calgary rarely is considered to be a destination city in its own right. Usually it's used as an entry point for the Rocky Mountains.

It's possible to do a quick trip from Calgary up to the mountains and back in a day. Certainly one could do a quick tour of the mountains in 3 days. One could briefly see Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.

The city of Vancouver is more than double the size of Calgary. There is a great deal more to see in the city of Vancouver itself than there is in Calgary. Consequently Vancouver is a destination in its own right.

Although there are people who do a one-day tour of Vancouver (for example, if they're boarding an Alaskan curise in Vancouver), it's really more ideal to have at least 3 full days to see Vancouver.

From what you've said, I just don't know if you'll have enough time to drive from Calgary to Vancouver and still have time to do justice to the Canadian Rockies and Vancouver.

Perhaps you could consider flying from Calgary to Vancouver, if indeed you do decide to see both cities.

Something else to take into consideration is that November is a rainy month in Vancouver. In fact it's the rainiest month of the year in that city. Vancouver gets an average of 7 inches of rain in November. The average number of rainy days in that month is 20.

You can look at Calgary's, Banff's and Vancouver's climate data at this website:

http://www.worldweather.org/056/m056.htm

Borealis

Three days to see both Calgary and Vancouver as well as driving between the two is not realistic even in the middle of summer when the road conditions are usually excellent and you have long hours of daylight.

The road conditions this time of the year are unpredictable - could be great, or could be lots of snow and closures on the high mountain passes. Plus there are less than 11 hours of daylight each day (and the days are getting even shorter as we get closer to the winter solstice). It takes about 10 to 11 hours minimum (1050 km = 652 miles) to drive Calgary to Vancouver - and that's just one way (and if you were doing it in one day some of your driving would be in the dark of night).

An ideal amount of time to see both cities and all the country in between would be a week - so that you can allow for sufficient time in each city as well as 1.5 days to drive there and 1.5 to drive back.

But - if you want to see both cities in 3 days - your best bet is to fly (which takes less than 1.5 hours flying time each way).

Good luck!!

Borealis

Hello Judy!!

This time it was my turn not to see your reply before I posted mine!! Good thing our answers complement each other .

Happiness - the road conditions in Alberta (Calgary to just west of Lake Louise) and British Columbia (Alberta border to Vancouver) are available at the following websites:

http://www.ama.ab.ca/cgi-ebs/road_re...=00&path=1

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/bchighways/r...oadreports.htm

taggie

FYI we just had a huge, day-long drenching rainstorm here in Vancouver and there is now snow on the Coquihalla highway between Kamloops and Hope....it should be relatively dry and clear on the coast for the next couple of days (note that "relatively" does NOT mean no rain at all!!).

I personally think you are insane to consider driving all the way here from Calgary for a day and a half. We used to drive between the 2 cities at Christmas, staying a week in Calgary to allow us to recover and gear up for the return trip. No more - too many horror shows on that highway, such as the drive taking us 21 hours one year because of a freak storm - we will always fly now if we're travelling between late October and late March.