JUDY MICHON

Hello, <BR>My husband and I are flying to Edmonton for business, on June 21st, then we are renting a car and driving to Vancouver for fun and sightseeing. We have never been out that way. Does anyone have any ideas on best scenic route, any special stops alone the way we should do. We enjoy sightseeing, shopping for antiques and really different items. We are nearing retirement age and enjoy a slow and easy pace. Thanks so any ideas. Judy

L

How many days do you have? Are you dropping off the car in Vancouver or you have to come back to Edmonton to drop it off? <BR> <BR>This information will help fodorites to give you the best route

Bob Brown

Knowing what all is out there to be seen, particularly along the Icefields Parkway, and in Banff, Jasper, Yoho, and Kootney National Parks, I have to wonder why you are driving to Vancouver. <BR> <BR>If you drive straight from Edmonton to Vancouver by the most direct route, you don't see a whole heck of a lot of scenery and miss the best that Western Canada has to offer. That comment presumes route 16 from Edmonton to Tete Jaune Cache; route 5 to Hope (through Kamloops), and the Trans Canada from Hope to Vancouver. It is a trip of 975K. That is about 605 miles. You could do in a day if you did not stop to see anything. <BR>If you are looking for mountain scenery, that is not the way to go!! It is not even the place to go!!!

Gary

Bob has his opinion and I have mine. Whichis why there is chocolate and Vanilla. What I reccomend is a drive of about 5 hours from Edmonton to Jasper. Spend a couple of days in and around Jasper, (see other info stuff about what to do in Jasper), then spend a day driving down to Banff/Lake Louise along the Columbia Icefields. You can spen time in Banff which is a beautiful tourist trap or spend a couple of days wandering the various National Parks within a few hours drive of Lake Louise. Again I reccomend checking out the various information sites for places to see and things to do. <BR> <BR>After Banff Lake Louise area you have two or three choices to Vancouver. You can take the southern Kootneys route through Radium and Cranbrook than along Highway 3 through mountains and desert to Hope rejoining the Trans Canada through to Vancouver. That area is rich in out of the way places expecially the Douhkabour villages. Nelson is a city out of the turn of the century where you'll find a treasure trove of antiques. <BR> <BR>The other way takes you along a beautiful stretch of the Trans Canada through Kamloops where you have a choice of getting to Vancouver quickly via the Coquahalla freeway, (actually tollway), which will take you 3 1/2 hours or the more leasurly and scenic route through the Fraser And Thompson Valleys. You'll pass through Desert and stark river canyons and again will find many lovely places to pick up antiques and other miscelanea. Or you can turn off the Trans Canada just north of the desert town of Cache Creek and go down the Lillooet and Pemberton valleys through world famous Whistler and then the gorgeous Sea to Sky highway to Vancouver. <BR>Your biggest problem is going to be to decide which route to take. The one route I do not reccomend is the most direct one from Jasper to Vancouver on the Yellowhead. Maybe that's what Bob was talking about in such a negative fasion and if so that I understand. <BR> <BR>By the way when driving through Kamloops stop over at the Thriftlodge which is a fantastic deal at less than $45 for a double room with cont. bkfst and much more. It's part of the Travelodge chain and can be reached at 800 661 7769. It used to be called the Thrift Inn and it has a website but I can't recall what that is right at the moment. <BR>Have a great trip

JUDY MICHON

Thank you all for the wonderful replys. We will be picking car up in Edmonton then dropping the car off in Vancouver and then flying home. We decided to drive to Vancouver, only because we have never since any thing of west of Edmonton. We will leave Edmonton on Sunday the 24 and don't have to be to airport in Vancouver until the 30th. So we have several days. Yes, mountains will be wonderful to see as we don't have any here in Michigan. Thank you all so much.

Bob Brown

Gary, I think if you read what I said, I suggested that Ms. Michon visit Jasper, the Icefields Parkway, and Lake Louise for scenery. To wit: <BR>I asked her why Vancouver and NOT the places we both mentioned. <BR>Are you really saying that you think that stretch of road from Tete Jeune Cache to Kamloops is scenic compared to the Icefields Parkway?? <BR>Or that the Coquihalla Toll/Freeway can compare in scenery to that stretch of the TC from Lake Louise to Golden, particularly that gorge as you drop from the west gate of Yoho down into the Rocky Mountain Trench? <BR>Or the section of the TC over Rogers Pass through Glacier NP as you look at the towering peaks of the Selkirks and the Purcells?? (And the Monashees are no slouches either!!) <BR>You would really route someone from Hope to Vancouver for scenery rather than to suggest visiting Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Emerald Lake, Sunwapta Pass, Takkakaw Falls, and the mountains around Banff? <BR>Ms. Michon said she was driving from Edmonton to Vancouver. She said nothing about stopping in Jasper. And my suggested route complied with that condition of her trip. But it is also why I said that knowing well what is out there to be seen, I would not go that way. And if you infer negativity in any of my comments about Lake Louise, you inferred incorrectly. <BR>Perhaps Ms. Michon does not know the glories of the Icefields Parkway and we need to tell her about it, or she has not linked the beauty of Lake Louise and Moraine Lake to her present trip. <BR> <BR>I don't think there is any more beautiful view in Canada or the United States than the westward view from the east end of Moraine Lake to the Valley of the Ten Peaks. <BR>(And if there is a lake view in Switzerland that is better, I have yet to take it in.) <BR>So I think my question holds: Knowing what is out there, why Vancouver? <BR>

judy

Thank you guys for this wonderful information. I can hardly wait to go. It all sounds so beautiful. Have a great day. Judy

Gary

actually Bob, my post basically agrees with you except in your rejection of Vancouver as an ultimate destination. I said that there were a myriad of routes through the Rockies and South-east and central BC that could make a trip from Edmonton to Vancouver a feast for the eyes and spirit and the least of these was the Yellowhead/Coquihalla route into Vancouver. <BR>Since the drive from Hope to Vancouver is at most a 1 1/2 hour drive through idyllac agricultural countryside I think it makes a nice cathartic change to the previous days of rugged dramatic scenery. And to suggest to someone who has never been there that Vancouver is not a wonderful destination in it's own right is heresy. <BR>But in all other points I thing we agree.