best time to visit Vancouver & Rocky Mtns
 

Next year, I am planning to return to London to see my son, and whilst there flying over to stay on one of the greek islands for a week. Then after returning to London, I would like to fly across to Canada, to see Vancouver and the Canadian Rocky mountains.
What are the best months to see this part of Canada? weather wise and when there is still a bit of snow on the peaks.

The Rocky Mountains are not near Vancoouver. Those are the Coast Mountains.

The Rocky Mountains are on the British Columbia / Alberta border, about 500 miles east.

The Coast Mountains,however, are spectacular too.

You might consider flying to Calgary, renting a car, and driving through the Rocky Mountains, across British Columbia, to Vancouver. It is a great drive, spread over two days.

I think that June is hard to beat. It's warm enough to be comfortble, it is just ahead of the tourist rush (children are in school in Canada until late June). September is good, too, and there may even be a bit of snow.

Up the middle of the Rocky Mountains, on the road from Banff to Jasper, there's snow-peaked mountains all year long,a nd even glaciers to visit.

BAK

The best time to visit Vancouver and Southern BC is from the middle of July to the middle of August when the odds are 20-1 against any bad weather. June has always been an iffy month while September is usually lovely. This past year however it was the other way around. Nevertheless the period from mid July to mid August was almost perfect as usual.

In my opinion the best time to visit the Rockies (Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper) is the end of August to the middle of September. The weather is usually still very nice, the trees will have started to change colour to a glowing golden, and the crowds will have thinned. Depending on the weather systems some of the peaks will have fresh snow on them in September. It'll be too late for mountain meadow wildflowers though.

Summer (July and most of August) is beautiful too but usually very busy with lots of traffic in the most popular spots. For wildflowers and resulting colourful scenery July is tops.

June can be very pleasant too, it's the period before crowds start arriving, but during the very early part of the month some lakes won't be completely thawed, and the leaves will just have started to appear on the deciduous trees. By the end of the month the weather is July-like and some of the mountain flowers will have started blooming.

Mind you I love the mountains even in winter when they are covered with a thick robe of white, and the fir/spruce/pines are covered with frost that makes them glow a silvery green - and with the low winter light, the soft mists, and long shadows, the scenic beauty is incredible, awesome, and stunning.
So, sigh, I am, in fact, planning another trip very very very soon :-) !!!!

Hello Tropo,

The Rocky Mountains are beautiful at any time of year. However, the icing on the cake is the turquoise colour of the lakes in summer.

You can be sure of catching the lakes at their best from the middle of June to the end of September.

The timing of spring varies from year to year and that, in turn, determines when the lakes thaw.

In recent years (I'm not sure why -- maybe global warming?), spring has arrived early more often than not, and the lakes have tended to thaw by the beginning of June. But, although the trend seems to have been moving in that direction, the timing of the thaw has not been consistent.

The mountains are heavily touristed in July and August. Although June and September also are popular months for visiting the mountains, the concentration of visitors is not quite as great then.

So, in my opinion, the best times to visit are the latter half of June or else any time in September.

As BAK said, there is some snow on the peaks year-round.

Here's another thread in which I made some introductory remarks about the Canadian Rockies, in case that helps:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34534968

Although Vancouver's winter temperatures are mild by Canadian standards, the city gets a lot of rain and many rainy days per month between October and March. April is a transitional month. May - September are the best months, with the following averages:

DAILY MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE

May : 17 deg C

June : 19 deg C

July : 22 deg c

August : 22 deg C

September : 19 deg C

MONTHLY PRECIPITATION

May : 68 mm

June : 55 mm

July : 40 mm

August : 39 mm

September : 54 mm

Precipitation jumps up to 113 mm in October and gets even higher in the subsequent 4 months, so that gives you an idea of the difference between summer and winter.

NUMBER OF PRECIPITATION DAYS

May : 13

June : 11

July : 7

August : 7

September : 9

You can use this website to check out average weather conditions in Canadian cities:

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

Although BAK is correct that you can drive from Calgary to Vancouver in a couple of days, and that certainly would be an attractive drive, it would be even better to do it over between 3 and 5 days, if you could afford the time.

One can see the bare minimum highlights of Vancouver in a day. People often do that when they use Vancouver as a departure point for an Alaskan cruise. However, if one is to do any kind of justice to Vancouver, one needs a minimum of 3 full days, IMO.

Another nice thing to do while one is in Vancouver, if one has the time, is to go across to the smaller city of Victoria on Vancouver Island. The Butchart Gardens are Victoria's greatest claim to fame, but it is a pleasant city for other reasons too.

The visit to Victoria can be done as a day trip, or an overnight trip, either by ferry or by plane.

Hope that helps you get started with your planning.

I SWEAR I checked for other replies but, at the time that I posted, only BAK's response showed up on my screen. :-@

Anyway, Tropo, GaryA lives in Vancouver, so I highly commend any advice he gives about that city.

Borealis lives in Edmonton, and I've lost count of the number of times she and I have answered a Rocky Mountain question almost simultaneously.

Good morning Judy ~o)!! Glad to see that you're back !!

It must be OK that we respond at the same time. It seems to me that we have a slightly different focus when we answer, and anyway, the more good and accurate (and timely) information that we are able to give our fellow Fodors travellers the better, isn't it??

And for those who are waiting to ski and/or snowboard - it started snowing in Alberta (this past weekend). If this cold weather coninues we will have an early ski season this year C:-)

Many thanks to all who replied, it has given my wife & I a very good idea, of what time of the year to visit. Canada has been on our "must visit" places for some time now. A few of my relatives have visited, and "Rave" about the beautiful country & how helpful & friendly the Canadians are.
My nephew and his Canadian girlfriend live inland at a place called Penticton, so it would be nice to visit them, after seeing the Canadian Rockies. Sorry to get the mountains mixed up, I did mean the ones inland towards Calgary, I guess.
Hi Judy, I guess living in Calgary you are blessed with the view of the Rocky Mtns. all the time. We have had good rains in the last few days in Hervey Bay, which is good for the lawns & the farmers especially.

Now that we know Penticton is on your route, the thing to do for sure is land in Calgary, enjoy that city plus Banff, then drive to Penticton, and then continue on to Vancouver.

Or get your son to meet you in Clagary or Banff. You could fly to Calgary, take a bus to Banff (it's only a couple of hours) and enjoy that town, and then have him pick you up.

But Vancouver's great to visit, so make sure you continue on to there.

You could also take a bus from Calgary to Banff, then another bus from Banff to Penticton, and then bus from penticton to Vancouver, all of which are resonably small trips and would be pleasant enough.

BAK

Hi Borealis,

I wonder who is getting more snow at the moment -- Edmonton or Calgary. Hey, I know our cities are competitive, but this kind of competition is beyond a joke. :-d

Hello Tropo,

Here are a couple of websites that will give you an idea of distances and driving times:

Map Quest. Many people consider it to be a bit too conservate in its time estimates, but it does have the advantage of providing a route map along with the driving directions. To make an enquiry you don't need a street address. The name of the town and the abbreviated province (AB for Alberta and BC for British Columbia) are sufficient.

www.mapquest.com

Many people consider Free Trip's (generally shorter) time estimates to be more accurate, but Free Trip doesn't provide a route map.

www.freetrip.com

The distances and driving times don't take into account spots, like Lake Louise, that are particularly rich in scenery, and that deserve a stop. Nonetheless, Map Quest and Free Trip would at least give you a sense of the distances involved.

Since you are researching so well in advance, you also can order free maps and helpful provincial travel guides from

Travel Alberta

http://www1.travelalberta.com/cfforms/freestuff/

Tourism British Columbia

http://www.hellobc.com/bcescapes/request_start.asp

The Okanagan Valley, in which Penticton is situated, is very pretty. How nice that you have family there.

Well Judy - my DH and I just got in from shovelling all that white stuff - and wow! is it ever wet and heavy. We hadn't even taken in our patio furniture yet, so now it's all covered with huge mounds of snow making a surreal landscape in our back yard (the tables are giant white mushrooms!!). The snow is already quite deep - it's been snowing here since the wee hours of Saturday morning - and I estimate that we've had at least 6 inches if not more over the last two days.
Bad news for driving - great news for skiers!
Now it's time for some hot chocolate, and dare I say it - Christmas music ;-) !!

Hey, you guys are so helpful. Judy, I will certainly look up those websites. I have made notes of each persons recommendations, and even though the trip is for next year, it gives us plenty of time for planning, & saving money (as always)
Judy to put you in the picture, my son's wife comes from Toronto, and they both live in London, hence the reason for our tripping to London every so many years. My daughter in law has relatives in Vancouver, I believe.
Now my nephew who presently lives in Penticiton, has this lovely Canadian girlfriend, and we wouldn't be surprised to see a wedding on the horizon, so that could mean a quick trip over for a wedding, and I guess some associated sightseeing. If they don't get married straight away, then we will go over possibly for August/September, as everyone has mentioned. We even gave thought of leaving London for another time, and flying from Brisbane through to Vancouver, then over to Banff & Penticiton, Calgary, etc.
Anyway, I must be off, its 5:40am in the morning, and we are off soon, driving south to Maroochydore, to pick up my 84 year mother, who is going to spend a week with us, so I am pretty excited to see her again.
I hope you guys don't mind if I ask more questions on Canada as time goes by?
Regards Leigh.

Hello Leigh,

Don't know when you'll get a chance to see this again, but whenever you do ......

Just to give you one more thing to think about ......

In the summer it is cheaper to pick up a rental car in Vancouver and drop it off in Calgary than the other way round. It seems that more people fly into Calgary, pick up a car here, drive to Vancouver, drop off the car there, and fly out from there than the other way round. I guess the heavier demand for the east to west driving direction has created a higher price for that direction. (I've seen instances of the price being 60% higher in that direction.)

Possibly the price situation is reversed at other times of the year. I haven't looked into that, so I don't know one way or the other.

In fact I only became aware of this issue during this past summer when a poster who was researching a visit to the Canadian Rockies alerted us to it. Having always driven my own car to Vancouver, I've never had reason to rent a car from Calgary to Vancouver.

If you are visiting several regions of the world on the same trip, I'm sure you have masses of information to juggle.

Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that into the mix.

Hello tropo - if you are going to be in Penticton anyway, you may want to consider that the fall wine festival in the Okanagan is usually at the very beginning of October (next year - 2005 - on September 30th to October 9th). Here's their website:

http://www.owfs.com/festivals/festivals.html

So you could time your trip to visit the Rockies in mid-September, the Okanagan and Penticton at the beginning of October, and Vancouver after that.

Judy, well I am back from Maroochydore, and its great to have mum staying with us. We have quite a few places around Hervey Bay region to show her whilst she is here. She even brought her swimmers. The water in the Bay is quite flat, so I think she will enjoy a swim again (I can't remember when she last swam in the ocean). Our drenching rain has ceased now, so good for the farmers, after such a dry winter.
Judy I have taken on board what you said about the car rental - thank you.
Borealis....My wife & I are lovers of wine. We have visited just about every major wine growing area in Australia, so to visit during a wine festival, would be great.
No doubt I will be asking more questions as time go by, thank you once again. Leigh