First Trip to Canadian Rockies/Vancouver
 

Message: Hello,
I am new to this particular forum. I thought I would post here as well as Alberta to get more of a response. My husband and I are trying to plan a 9-10 day trip in either August or September. We would like to Fly into Calgary and travel throught the Canadian Rockies Spending lets say for now 2 nights in each area Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and then taking the train to Vancouver and flying home(The States,DC) from there.
First off is this a Do-able trip in the timeframe we would like? Any preference as which month? Anyone take the train and how long did it take??Anyone ever CAMP in the Canadian ROckies National Forest campgrounds?Thanks for any info. I've been looking through the posts but its my first time posting.

Hi - I just answered your other post. There is no separate "Alberta" board - all Canada posts go on the same board; they just put the Provinces in as a search function (same on the Europe board - nothing separate for Italy, France, etc - it all goes into Europe).
A common mistake for new posters. :)

And FYI - clicking on your name in the top l.h. corner will bring all your posts up in the left hand column if you ever want to check the status of a post and its thread has sunk low in the list.

thanks for notifying me about the boards-I'm usually on the Europe boards and they work a bit different. Thanks for all of your suggestions. We may pack our tent and gear. We have compact gear and we can be very light travelers when we pack. So are you saying to take the train from Banff to Vancouver and that is a more scenic route? Any idea on duration/ Thanks again!

>>>So are you saying to take the train from Banff to Vancouver and that is a more scenic route?<<<

I do NOT recommend the train.

Also, to avoid having two concurrent discussions about the same trip, I will post the rest of my thoughts on the other thread that you started.

Unlike Judy, I like the Canadian trains but I'm a train buff.

To answer your questions, there are two different trains you can take from Jasper to Vancouver. How much time they take depends on which you use.

ViaRail's Canadian is the cross-country train that runs between Toronto and Vancouver with a stop in Jasper. It is scheduled to depart Jasper in mid-afternoon and arrives in Vancouver at around 9:00 am the next day. Its advantages are it costs less and takes less time than the other option. The disadvantage is that it passes through much of the Rockies in darkness and you miss a lot of the scenery.

The other option is an excursion train known as the Rocky Mountaineer. It departs Jasper mid-day and travels to Kamloops. In Kamloops, you get off, stay overnight at a hotel or B&B of your choosing, get back on the next morning and continue the trip into Vancouver. Its advatages are you see the Rockies by daylight and you don't have to sleep on the train. The disadvantages are it costs significantly more than ViaRail and it takes longer enroute.

I've ridden both and, given my choice if money and time were not an issue, I'd choose the Rocky Mountaineer but both are excellent trips.

I will defer to the other posters regarding train logistics, etc. but I would advise taking the trip in September if you have a choice. School is back in session and it is less crowded at the time as well as a bit cooler.

And joolleeb, the Europe forum works the same way as this one... ie posts made under what you think are separate countries all go into the one forum. Ireland, Germany, UK etc all go into "Europe".

thanks again! I have found that all of the boards have their own sites-for instance we posted on the Ireland board and got much more of a response than just posting on the general Euorpe board.

jooleeb: I don't think you have understood what the others have been trying to tell you. There is no Ireland board, simply a Europe board. "Ireland" is simply a search feature. Similarly, there is no Alberta board, only a Canada one.

joolleeb - click on your name to bring up all the posts you have made. The list will come up on the l.h. side, with the boards noted. You will see that you have posted on the "Europe" board and the "Canada" board. As lavandereye notes, the individual country boards are only a search feature. Trust me - I post on both boards. You might think you've posted on an "Ireland" board but all the Ireland posts get dumped into the Europe forum (board).

Gosh I'm sorry laverendrye - misspelled your name rather badly!

Thanks, I do understand the search function. I have been using the boards for over a year and planned my honeymoon this way. When I post a new message I often found it easier on the Europe board to first click on the search option"Pick a topic of Interest" I would either pick Italy or Ireland since I have was planning trips to both. It was recommended to me from various posters on the Europe board to do this because the board is so busy. That way when you log on to Talk/ Europe and search Ireland all of the posts come up specifically for Ireland and you can respond directly from that site. It was just easier for me to do it this way and I got responses faster without having to click on my name to search for my question. Since the Europe board was so busy. I won't make the mistake of posting the same question twice again on the CANADA board sorry this has generated these responses-I do get how it works-I just need answer to my travels questions and so far everyone has been helpful. I trust this will be the last post on "how the boards work" for me. thanks

joolleeb now I understand. You've been, in effect, using the "search" aspect of the Europe board and accessing posts only on the topics of Ireland and Italy.
Most people look at the board as a whole. Because the Europe board is so busy if you're looking only for info on one country it makes sense to do what you did. Lots of us look at it as a whole and do it for entertainment, not just travel info. :)
The Canada board is far, far less busy... so much so that I don't think anyone here only looks at the individual province search results.
I didn't realize you knew about the whole clicking on your name thing... lots of newbies post twice ont he same forum and I assumed you were one - my mistake.

At any rate I hope you get the info you are looking for.

By the way, there was just a derailment of the Via train this afternoon, west of Edmonton - it collided with a logging truck. No one was seriously hurt. But what a scary thing!