First time in Jasper / Banff
 

Would please post your comments on our trip schedule ?

Arriving by plane in Vancouver, staying in 2 days

Heading Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff, staying 1 1/2 day at each place, then heading Calgary to take plane to Los Angeles.

Thanks for your help

How are you traveling?
If you drive, it will take all day to reach Jasper from Vancouver.

There is plenty to see at each place.

If you are are driving, another full day will be spend on the Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Lake Louise.

Your schedule will be tight, but 5 days in the Canadian Rockies is better than none!!

Thanks Bob !
We will travel fm Vancouver to Jasper by car, is there any worth visiting place between these cities ?

Tks .

a typical route can be:
day 1 Vancouver - Whistler
day 2 Whistler - Wells Gray PP
day 3 Wells Gray PP - Jasper NP
day 4 Jasper NP - Banff NP
day 5 Banff NP - Calgary

Lake Louise is located close to Banff and you can deceide, if you prefere to stay in Banff or Lake Louise or if you split your stay.

This schedule will give you some room to explore an area more depending on the total number of days available for your trip.

Given the scenic splendor of the Canadian Rockies between Jasper and Banff, I would not waste time between Vancouver and Jasper. I think the time spent in the Rockies will give you far more scenic views than anything I know of outside of the Himalayas.

If your time was not so short, I think some of the options are quite good. But, your time is limited.

If you have a map of British Columbia, I recommend taking the route to Kamloops via the Coquihalla Freeway, which is a toll road -- driving it is not free of charge.

Kamloops take Highway 5 to Valemount and then to Jasper. This route takes you in by Mt. Robson, which is spectacular on a clear day.

From Jasper, take the Icefields Parkway south to Lake Louise and Banff.

Given your limited time, I recommend that you fly from Vancouver to Calgary.
The cost to drop a rental car at a different city is very expensive.

From Calgary, you can easily drive to Banff in a few hours and see Lake Louise and then go north along the Icefields Parkway.

Driving from Vancouver to Jasper can be done in a day, but it is a long day. I have driven it, and the scenery once you leave Kamloops is not very great until you reach Mt. Robson.

In fact the whole route is not very scenic on a relative basis. I would select the area around Jasper for scenery over anything between Mt. Robson and Vancouver!!
The distance from Vancouver is 800 kilometers, or 500 miles. It is quite doable in a day.

I agree that some of the areas of BC are very scenic, but the Icefields Parkway and other sites in the Canadian Rockies are more spectacular in my experience.