Banff or Calgary
 

We are taking the Rocky Mountaineer from Vancouver to Banff at the end of May. We then have a night in Banff, a night in Lake Louise and the last night is to be in Calgary, though we have changed that last night to Banff per recommendations. Only problem is, our flight leaves Calgary at 11:15 a.m. on the final day. We'd probably have to leave Banff by 7 a.m. so I'm wondering if we should just stay in Calgary that night. Which would anyone recommend? Thanks in advance for any help.

I am assuming you have your own car so that you can leave when you wish.

Being somewhat risk averse, and knowning that you will be headed east into Calgary traffic cause me to suggest erring on the conservative side.

You don't say which day of the week you will be trying to get to the Calgary airport, and whether or not you need to return a rental car.

If you are driving to the airport on a normal workday, I would advise you to find a hotel on the northeast side of Calgary where you can take the 4 lane road north to the airport, which is in the opposite direction of the main flow of traffic.

Also you did not say if you were flying to a Canadian destination or to a state-side destination. If you are flying to the States, you will go through passport control and customs in addition to the normal security check. (American authorities are present to handle passport control and customs inspections. You will not have to repeat those steps once you land in the USA. Be sure to have your passport.)

If you have a map of Calgary you can work out alternate route if you were to encounter major traffic backlogs, but the Trans Canada is mainly on surface streets rather than on freeways.

For those reasons I would elect to leave Banff in the late afternoon.

If you want a suggestion of a hotel, I have used the Greenwood several times and found it quite acceptable. It is convenient to the airport with just a couple of traffic lights to negotiate; the rest is freeway driving.

I'm sorry--I should have provided more information. We are on a tour with Rocky Mountaineer, and will be staying at the Fairmont in Banff (and would be at the Fairmont in Calgary as well). We do not have a car and would be taking a shuttle provided by the tour. We will be flying into the states, and I assumed two hours ahead would be acceptable? The main question is, is Banff that much more superior to Calgary as far as things to do and see? We would have a full half day at either, whichever we decide to do. Thanks again!

that's a tough call. i'd always want to spend the night in banff over calgary but, you are right that you'd need to leave banff by 7:00 a.m. and hope there are no traffic problems. how late the night before would you be able to hang around banff/lake louise before the shuttle takes you to calgary? if you can put in a full day and evening there and take a late night shuttle into calgary, that would probably be my first choice. second choice, i'd take the risk, stay in banff and get an early morning shuttle to calgary.

Again, I forgot to mention--it would be on a Saturday (5/31). The shuttle service provided by the Rocky Mteer tour would take us to Calgary in the morning before the flight--which is why I said probably 7 a.m. We will be free from about noon on on Friday, so it would be an entire afternoon and evening we could spend in Banff over Calgary. Hence, my dilemma! I'm thinking from the sound of the responses that staying in Banff may be best and just bite the bullet on the early morning transport. Yes?

Where will the Rocky Mountaineer shuttle bus drop you in Calgary and at what time assuming you stay in Banff the extra night? (I.e Airport or Hotel)- This may determine your answer.

We did a Rocky Mountaineer Tour a couple of years ago and spent the last two nights in Calgary. If you check out one of my posts you'll see there was very little to do in Calgary.

Based on our experience I would stay the extra night in Banff but e-mail the Rocky Mountaineer and ask them what time the shuttle bus is likely to leave Banff and what time they expect to arrive in Calgary (and where will they drop you).

We found them very helpful when planning our trip and confirming lots of different queries.

They have told me it is about a two hour journey. I'm told they will arrange a shuttle to take us from the Fairmont in Banff to the airport in Calgary. I will call and find out what time we'd leave Banff. Again, from this latest post it sounds like staying in Banff is the choice of most. Seems like we'll have lots of early mornings on this trip--guess this will be just one more!

Oh yes you will have lots of early mornings!

We found most of the coach drivers friendly and helpful although we did have one particular day when we managed to get a new foreign (not Canadian driver) who didn't have a clue where he was going and managed to put half the groups bags on the wrong bus!

Other than that we had a great time. If you have any other questions about the places just ask and I will let you know what we got upto.

I guess your staying at Fairmont at Lake Louise. We were lucky enough to get a free upgrade to face the lake and what a view but I guess if your staying at all the fairmonts then you should get one of the lake rooms anyway.

Have a good trip.

Given that you are traveling on a Saturday, I think you have time BUT only if the tour company lives up to its word and conveys you to the airport promptly after you arrive from Banff.

I have never done it tour wise, so I cannot judge how tight your schedule will be.

The last time I went through passport control at the Calgary airport, there was not the silly question and answer game I played at the highway border crossing. I had my passport and very little to declare to customs. However, don't try to bring fruit into the US. It will be confiscated.

I think the main delay will be getting through check-in at the airport. That is the imponderable.
If the airline knows people have checked-in at the front desk, but are still in the passport/security processing queue, there is a chance the controller will hold the flight.

But if you are late checking-in, then you may be SOL.

You all are so helpful--I can't thank you enough. TedG, I do have lots of questions about the trip. I'm so excited about it. Two days on the train and those few days in Lake Louise and Banff. Never enough time--but some time is better than none. I'd love to have any tips or suggestions regarding any portion of the journey. We're going Gold Leaf with top hotels, so hope that will alleviate any problems (keep our fingers crossed). Again, any suggestions welcome. If you want to post an email, I'll write you separately from this board. Again, thanks ever so much!

Are you planning to spend anytime in Victoria or Vancouver before the train journey? We spent 5 days before the train trip in these places and it was great start to the holiday so if you can I would recommend it.

We then did the Rocky Mountaineer Gold Leaf train Vancouver-Kamploops-Jasper

Basically just sit back and enjoy - and buy a DVD on the train - it's a great reminder); -
I,ve just done a recent post on the train but here are a few notes: -

We upgraded to Gold Leaf which meant you sat on the upper deck with the glass dome roof and then went to the lower deck for your meals (Plenty of choice even for me being a fussy eater).

The seats were very comfy (You could also go outside if you wished). The views were amazing from the upper deck and the staff on board gave commentary throughout on the sights and scenary we were approaching (so you had time to get the camera ready). They even stopped the train at certain points so you had time to take the photos.

The meals were top restaurant quality and the extra touches (like chocolate trains for dessert) were great for us tourists.

When arriving in Kamploops we were met by the Mounted police (another nice tourist thing) and stayed the night at a Ranch in Kamploops.

We then spent 11 days travelling between Jasper to Calgary.

Some days we were with the Rocky Mountaineer Coach and others we planned things ourselves.

Have you any free time to do your own thing (I.e a morning/afternoon/all day) and if so where?

I can then give you an idea what we did in the time by ourselves otherwise the Rocky Mountaineer Tour pretty much look after you all the way.

Unfortunately we have very little additional time. We (we are two women traveling together) are going to Vancouver one day in advance, so we will have one full day on our own. I was hoping to take a day trip to Victoria (I found a few on the web), but somewhere I read it is 4 hours one way just to get there. If you have a suggestion of how best to utilize an extra one day only in Vancouver that would be great. We had a partial day there last spring prior to an Alaskan Cruise, so we already did the trolley and some walking about. Is it feasible to try to get to Victoria for just one day? Again thanks, and thanks for all that information you provided TedG. Sounds like the Gold Leaf is well, well worth it.

p.s. I forgot--we will also have one afternoon/evening free in Lake Louise and the same in Banff. Suggestions welcome!! Thanks!!

I would forget about Victoria if your just in Vancouver for the day as you would lose a lot of time just on the ferry - Its a 1hr 35min crossing see www.bcferries.com and www.pacificcoach.com but that doesn't include boarding time etc so you could lose 4-5 hours of the day with the ferry. However you could leave early and get a late ferry back (I.e leave at 07:00 and back at 21:00) - another early start.

We went in July and were lucky with the weather but to give you an idea of what we did in Vancouver: -

Day 1 - Cycled around stanley park (£10 to hire bike) stopping at Totem Poles, Brockton Point, Prospect Point and English Bay.
Then visited the Aquarium in Stanley Park which was about £10 each.
We then had a bit of time to walk up along Robson Street which was one of the main areas.

Day 2 - Basically just walked around Vancouver but spent most of the time at Coal Harbour, Canada Place, Yale Town and went up the look-out tower (we got the pass provided by the Rocky Mountaineer)

Also check out www.vancouverattractions.com for some ideas.

If you like horseriding there is a stables at Lake Louise but I think this starts in June. (You'd have to check)
From memory there were 3 main walks around the lake and the surrounding area. I can't remember the name of the one we chose but it was the first path on the right (looking at the lake from the hotel). This took you up to a log cabin were you could get a drink after the up hill climb. All in all I think it took us about 3 hours roundtrip and worth it for the views.
We did try another path but this was closed due to lots of bear activity!

In Banff I am assuming you will be going on the Gondola as part of your Rocky Mountaineer Tour. We did this one and the one in Jasper which we preferred but great views from both.

We also took a boat tour of Lake Minnewanka which is 15 minutes from Banff.
I got a bus from Banff which included the Boat Ride (Again about 3 hours round trip). This was very good and we got to see lots of wildlife including Bald Eagles and Elk - Oh and as our camcorder shows, me running away from some big horn sheep (all very amusing now).

Check out www.sightseeingtourscanada.ca

I'm sure you will have a great time. I actually got loads of leaflets before we went by e-mailing all the hotels we were staying at and asking them to post me information so we could plan our stays.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond in such depth--I really appreciate it. Will look out for what you point out--sounds like Victoria may be out of the question. I also did see a website for a whale watch in Vancouver--might be fun for the day. Again, thank so much. I'll try to report back after the trip!