LuvToGo

We will be traveling to Vancouver via cruise ship (one way) in June and will have a week to spend in the area. We love to see the countryside and would like to take some day trips or even over a few nights. How long is the drive from Vancouver to either Whistler's mountain or the Jasper area. Is there a lot to do/see in those areas in June? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

BAK

Long way to Jasper. Assume one very long day. About 500 miles.

Pretty much the same distance from Vancouver to Banff.

But you can go to Vancouver Island,you can go to Whistler in a couple of hours including stopping to see the sights...

June in Vancouver is wonderful.

Whistler can be a one-day round trip. You could go to Vancouver Island and back in one day, via car ferry, but it's even better to spend at lest one night there.

Vancouver itseff has parks, art galleries, mountain scenery in town, harbour cruises, excellent restaurants...

It's my favorite Candian city for just driving around in, wondering what I should have done in the past so I could be living there now.

BAK

Judy_in_Calgary

Followed your sig, and saw you'd been on a cruise to Alaska, in 2003 if I remember the date correctly. Also saw you telling someone about Granville Island Market and a day trip to Victoria.

I was just about to launch into my usual (often lengthy) spiel for first time visitors to the British Columbia coast and the Canadian Rockies. I also was going to go on and on about Vancouver, because I feel the same way about it as BAK does. Just as well I first took the precaution of looking at your previous posts, LOL.

So, now that I've caught myself in time, you're going to get the brief version.

As BAK said, Whistler is a couple of hours out of Vancouver.

As BAK also said, Jasper is a hard day's drive out of Vancouver. It would be more ideal to do it over two days.

In six days you really can't do justice to a circular drive that starts in Vancouver, goes through the Canadian Rockies, and returns to Vancouver again. To my taste it would involve too much driving and too little stopping.

If you were going to visit Vancouver and the Rockies in six days, it would be more practical to start in Vancouver and fly out of Calgary. But if you already are committed to a flight out of Vancouver, I guess you won't be able to do that.

Perhaps you'd enjoy the wilderness and rural areas of Vancouver Island, starting with Tofino, for example. I don't know. Since you're a repeat visitor, obviously have seen some of what the Vancouver area has to offer already, and you have a limited amount of time, it would be useful if you provided more parameters (what you've already seen, more details about what you want to get out of the experience).

In case you are not tied into a flight out of Vancouver, could switch to a flight out of Calgary, and are still interested in including the Rockies in your trip, my web site may be of some assistance:

http://groups.msn.com/CalgaryandCana...kiesTravelTips

Hope that helps.

LuvToGo

Thank you both for the info. I guess I should have said I'd been before, but it was with my sister and we only had 3 days. Did a ferry day to Victoria Island and a bus trip around the city. Traveling with my husband will be much different as we have a week and we like to enjoy the countryside. I've never heard of Tofino or Vancouver Island (I thought Vancouver was an Island - is this something different)? A trip to Whistler's would be good too. We don't mind doing some driving or spending a few nights somewhere. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. We don't have to fly out of Vancouver, but we have to get back to San Fransisco to fly home so we can use a round trip ticket. Anywhere that goes one way to San Fran will work.

Bobmrg

Can a Seattleite stick his nose in here? I see/hear people talking about Victoria Island all of the time. Victoria is on Vancouver Island. The city of Vancouver is not on an island. There may be a Victoria Island somewhere in the world but it is not in the Pacific Northwest.

That said, I would not fall all over myself to go back to Tofino. That may very well be because our visit was "out of season" and almost everything except for a couple of restaurants was closed. There is, however, an amazing gallery of serigraphs by Roy Henry Vickers, a native artist...but he also has a gallery near Victoria. You could Google for addresses.

laverendrye

There is indeed a Victoria Island in Canada, and it's about 7 times bigger than Vancouver Island, so large that it's split between the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It gets far fewer tourists, however, than does Vancouver Island.

Carmanah

This map should clear things up about the city of Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and the city of Victoria:

http://www.andersenhouse.com/map2.gif