Hi Everyone
I have read through the forum with great interest and picked up lots of excellent tips. I am hoping that you can help me organise my thoughts becuase it seems that the more I read, the more confused I get.

We are a family of 4 traveling from Vancouver to Edmonton [ after doing a one week inside passage cruise in Alaska]
We come from Israel so snow, ice, glaciers etc are our top priority - we don't get those here.

I would love getting suggestions of the absolutely not to miss things to do along the route [and when to do them] when the details that cannot be changed are as follows:

Sunday - ex Vancouver - sleep in Sorrento
Monday - drive to Lake Louise - Baker Creek Chalets.
Tuesday - sleep as above
Wednesday - drive Icefields and Jasper area - sleep in Hinton
Thursday - drive to Edmonton

I can't get a grip of what we should see on which day , so that we can maximise our experience.

I'll just add that we aren't big hikers - we prefer to do more short walks rather than 1 long hike.

I hope you can help and thanks in advance

The Icefields Parkway is your best bet for a drive through beautiful scenery.

In Jasper, the Angel Glacier, which comes off of Mount Edith Cavell, is really nice to see and it is a short walk that you can cut at most any point and return.

Along the parkway, there is a glacier trip in a special bus with big tires and other features that goes out on the flat part of the glacier.

At other points there may be short walks up to view points of other ice fields.

At Bow Lake, there is a viewpoint for a glacier.

I think a short, but spectacular road is the Trans Canada Highway coming over Rogers pass in Glacier National Park.
(This is the Canadian Glacier Park.)

Around Lake Louise there are several spectacular sights as well, particularly the view toward the end of the lake.

There is so much to see out there that I think you will have plenty to view.

Hello elanatene,

>>>Monday - drive to Lake Louise<<<

Brookwood mentioned Rogers Pass. You'll go over it between Revelstoke and Golden, on your drive from Sorrento to Lake Louise.

Towards the end of that day's journey, you pass through Yoho National Park, which is between Golden and Lake Louise. Just before you reach the small town of Field, take the turn off to see the natural bridge over the Kicking Horse River and beautiful Emerald Lake. Just after Field, take another turn off to see Takakkaw Falls.

>>>Tuesday - sleep as above [meaning Lake Louise]<<<

Go to Moraine Lake. Go there first thing in the day, because it's popular and its parking lot fills up. Walk to the top of the pile of rocks at the north end of the lake. Then do the flat, easy lakeshore walk. Moraine Lake is my favourite.

After that go to Lake Louise. There you can do another flat, easy lakeshore walk. A hike that will give you an even better view than the lakeshore walk will do is the one to Fairview Lookout. Admittedly it means walking 1.6 km uphill to the lookout point. However, if you are willing to do that, you'll be rewarded with a good view of the lake and Chateau Lake Louise.

Drive to Banff townsite, about 50 minutes away. Stroll down Banff's main shopping street. If you wish, ride the gondola up Sulphur Mountain.

>>>Wednesday - drive Icefields and Jasper area - sleep in Hinton<<<

Stop to see Peyto Lake, which is another beauty. As Brookwood mentioned, you can ride the Snocoach onto the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefields. However, if the Alaska portion of your trip already will have included a ride on a glacier, I might be inclined to skip this glacier. You have set yourselves an ambitious itinerary for this day.

After the Columbia Icefields, stop at Sunwapta Falls, Athabasca Falls and Mount Edith Cavell, the last one being another of Brookwood's recommendations that I endorse.

There are not many restaurants along the Icefields Parkway. There is one at the Columbia Icefields. However, if you choose not to do the Snocoach ride, you could press on and have lunch at Sunwapta Falls.

After Mount Edith Cavell, drive past the town of Jasper, and ignore it for the moment. Drive to Maligne Canyon, and walk in the canyon for a while.

Return to Jasper and have dinner there.

Drive on to Hinton for the night.

One other point. You haven't said how much time you'll have in Vancouver, after your cruise, but before you set out for the Rockies.

If you have not looked around Vancouver, then spend the morning, before you depart for Sorrento, at Stanley Park. In the afternoon, take the shortest route to Sorrento, via Hope and Kamloops, which will take you about 5 hours.

If you HAVE spent some time in Vancouver prior to setting out for the Rockies, you can get to Sorrento via a longer but more interesting route. At Hope, turn north towards Lytton and Cache Creek. You'll drive through the Fraser River Canyon, where you can do the "Hell's Gate" tram ride. At Cache Creek turn east to Kamloops, and continue to Sorrento.

Hope that helps.

Judy-in-Calgary gives excellent advice as always. The only thing I would stress is, don't be in a rush to get to Hinton. Stay in Jasper until you are ready to settle in for the night. There really is nothing to see in Hinton. On friday, do you have any time in Edmonton? Or do you fly out early? If you have some time in Edmonton, you can, of course, see the Mall, but Edmonton is now in the Festival season and there is lots going on. If you would like some suggestions for Edmonton, let me know your dates.

I forgot to mention Takkakaw Falls. They are spectacular. They are glacier fed, so on a hot day there is more water coming over than on a cool one.

As you drive over Kicking Horse Pass, many people like to look a the spiral tunnels on the Canadian Pacific Railroad. There is quite a story connected with the tunnels and the problems that have plagued the tunnels even in the very recent past.

I don't know if you will have time, but the Whistler near Jasper can be ascended with a Swiss made cable lift. The view from the top is all inclusive.

I am glad Judy included Peyto Lake. It slipped my mind. It is gorgeous. The emerald green color of the lake is unreal.

thanks everyone - I have printed out your answers and will sit with maps this evening -
we will have 1 day in vancouver before our cruise and a few days in edmonton - 18th of Aug - through 22nd -
thanks again

You will be in Edmonton for the Fringe Theatre Festival. It is held in Old Strathcona, on the south side of the river. If you can arrange it, stay right in the area at the Mettera or Varscona Hotels. There will be street performers, food kiosks and outdoor entertainment as well as plays to go to. Kids will love it.

If you are staying that amount of time in the city, you will also want to spend a day at the mall.

You don't mention how old your kids are, but Fort Edmonton Park would be a great way to get a glimpse at Western Canada History, and a great place to spend a day.

Elanatene, if you have one day in Vancouver, the best way to use it would be to stick to the central part of Vancouver and see the attractions there. The best attraction of them all is 1,000-acre Stanley Park. When my kids were younger we spent a day there, and they begged to return for a 2nd day. So Stanley Park can occupy you for few minutes while you drive around it, or you can spend many hours or even a couple of days there. Since you'll have only a day in Vancouver, I think half a day in Stanley Park probably will suffice.

For the remainder of the day, you could see if you can fit in Granville Island Market, Yaletown and Robson Street.

The central part of Vancouver is very walkable, and the whole of Vancouver is accessible by public transportation.

Although it would be quite expensive for a family of four to use it, an easy way to see downtown Vancouver is to use the Vancouver Trolley Company's hop-on / hop-off bus service. It's a private company, run independently of the public transporation system. It repeatedly does a circuit of the centrally located attractions.

A family that lives in Vancouver has created a wonderful web site that describes the city's attractions. If you go to the index of attractions, you can sort them by location and price range. You can use that web site to find out the diversity of amenities at Stanley Park:

http://www.findfamilyfun.com/

There is another web site that describes walking itineraries for Vancouver:

http://www.walkvancouver.com/

Here is the Trip Planning page of Vancouver's public transportation system:

http://tripplanning.translink.bc.ca/...=iTripPlanning

You can plug in one landmark (let's say Stanley Park) as the point of origin and another landmark (let's say Granville Island) as the destination, and the web site will give you instructions on how to get from one to the other:

http://tripplanning.translink.bc.ca/...=iTripPlanning

thank you both so much -