Is three weeks enough time for our itinerary?
 

We would appreciate any help and advice on whether our planned trip is feasible over three weeks. We are flying from the UK into Vancouver staying for three days, then to Victoria for two days. The next stage of the trip is by train to Jasper on an economy ticket. We will pick up a car and spend six days with overnight stays at various places at the lakes on the the scenic route down to Banff, where we will stay for two days. We plan to drop off car and spend one night in Calgary before flying to Toronto. We want to see the Niagara Falls and spend time in the Toronto area for the rest of our stay before flying back to the UK. Are we trying to do too much? Would appreciate some help here to ensure we try to get the most out of three weeks to include both the Rockies and Niagara Falls. We are both in our early sixties and the trip is in celebration of our retirement.

I fear that the drop off fee for a car rented in Jasper and returned elsewhere will be large, if even possible.
Unless there is a good reason to go to Calgary, I would take the car back to Jasper and ride the train to Winnipeg or Edmonton for your flight home. I have ridden the Canadian several times and have rented a car in Jasper. The drop off fee might be more than an economy ticket from Jasper to Winnipeg or Edmonton.

If we return the car to Jasper, then take train to Edmonton, is it then feasible with time permitting to fly to Toronto to do the last stage of our trip to the Niagara Falls? Thank you for the information regarding the cost of car drop offs.

Yes, fly from Edmonton to Toronto. The Amtrak Maple Leaf leaves Toronto every morning at 8:30. It arrives at the Canada/US border at 10:35 AM. If there are no problems with anyone entering the US you will be at Niagara Falls and getting off the train at 10:44.
Your choice if you want to ride the train from Niagara Falls to Rochester or New York or fly back to Newark from Buffalo.
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/Conten...mtrak/HomePage

I dont think she is suggesting going to the US Tom.
You would probably be best to take a site seeing tour from Toronto to the Niagara region. This is available as a day trip from most of the hotels in the main Toronto area. Or there is Go Train transportation as well. Or a car rental. It is only about a 1 hour drive.
The best view of the falls is from the Canadian side. Then I suggest a drive down the Niagara gorge to Niagara on the Lake.

Thanks for your help. It looks like we will be taking the train from Jasper to Edmonton and then flying onto Toronto. Good to know that there are trips out to Niagra Falls from Toronto. Any other suggestions you may have would be a great help to make this trip memorable. Thanks

Well, remember that it is possible to get conflicting advice.

Like,for instance, a comment that your origianl plan made pretty good sense.

The Vancouver - Victoria part is fine. You can take a big bus to Victoria, you can rent a car and drive over, or depending onbudget, you can fly over in a seaplane, taking offfrom Vancouvr harbour and landing in Victoria harbour.

The big advantage of renting a car and driving is you get to see lots of things on the way. Drive north out of Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay to take the car ferry over, and then take a more southern route back. This would even place you near the airport.

My suggestion is spend a couple of days without a car in Vancouver, and then get the car a day before you leave for Vancouver Island / Victoria,and see the sights that are easier to visit by car.

Check with some car rentalcompanies about drop off fees. There's lots of dropoffs backandforth between Jasper and Calgary in the summer time and it would be terrible to mess up your holiday trying to save a few dollars.

Backtracking to Jasper, then getting the long distance to Edmonton, and missing Calgary ... it's all not what I'd recommend.

Take a look at a map: Banff to Calgary is short, and interesting. The Rockies run up on an angle, and it is a long, boring, trip from Jasper to Edmonton.

Six days from Jasper to Banff is a lot more time than is necessary, unless you really want to just stay some place in the mddle of nowhere and wander around for a couple of days.

And there are not that many places to stay.

It's a reasonable day's drive,with lots of time to stop and seethe most beautiful vistas, from Jasper to Lake Louise or Banff.

You can stay in either Banff or Lake Louise, and enjoy both towns. Lake Louise is not much of a town, but the hotel and lake are beautiful. Banff is a real town, has interesting shops, a little museum, the giant hotel, and lots of interesting places to visit within an hour or so in several directions.

And yes, Calgary's worth a day.

Depending on the season, and the day of the week, you may find a small town rodeo in the Calgary area, and that certainly would be worth a visit.

The Niagara REgion has two urban commnities. The city of Niagara Falls is where the actual falls are. Right downtown. Can't miss them. And a casino.

And down the river is the town of Niagara on the Lake. This is a theatre town -- Shaw Festival -- and home to a lot of wineries.

Either place is less than two hours from Toronto. You could stay in Toronto, go to Niagara (both NF and NotL) for the day, and return to your Toronto hotel at night, and manage to see lots of interesting things.

People drive down for a play, and return to Toronto aftewards.

Or you could stay in either place overnight, and enjoy the area for longer.

Niagara ont he Lake has wonderfulold homes. I did the photographs for a book about the buiuldings, and it was fun to go up and down the sidestreets.

Is WW II part of your heritage? At the Hamilton Ontario airport -- more or less on your way to or from Niagara Falls -- there's Canadian Warplane Heritage, a museum devoted to, obviously, warplanes. There';s a Lancaster that actually flies, severl other WW II planes that fly, a Spitfire, and dozens of other aircraft.

The sightseeing buses from Toronto cost, for two people, more than renting a car, but are easiest. The national passenger rail system, VIA Rail, has a couple of trains a day. The Toronto area commuter trains have many trains a day in the summer. And the commercial bus company has several trips a day.

All but the tour buses require you to get around NF on your own, but there is a good local tourist bus system.

Best bet, for two, is renting a car so you can go wherever you want.

Hope this is helpful -- I have lived in Calgary and Edmonton, had clients in Vancouver and Victoria, taken the train both ways into Jasper, been to Niagara a hundred times...

BAK

Six days in Banff/Jasper area - I've stayed 5 and didn't do/see everything. I would make hotel reservations now.

I thought the GO trains from Toronto to the Falls only run on weekends in the summer.

Sightseeing trips Toronto to the Falls http://www.niagaratours.ca/

Original plan: In Jasper. Then six nights on the road. Then two nights in Banff

Go Transist - point was raised about days of the week. Right now, it is train to Burlington, bus to NF. This will change in the summer, with train all the way, at least some of the time.

But I do not know the summer schedule.

Banff is only 1.5 hours from Calgary in your rental car. It's certainly possible to make a day trip from Banff. If the drop off fee is less than the fare from Jasper to Edmonton on the train then it comes down to the airfare from Calgary or Edmonton
to Toronto. There are several options to see Niagara/Horseshoe Falls from Toronto.

Thank you for all your responses. Really great information. Found out that the drop off fees for car rented in Jasper and returned to Calgary is only £10 more than the cost of train to Edmonton, so it looks as though we can drive from Jasper down to Banff and then Calgary staying several places enroute over five days.

Horseshoe Bay ferry does not go to Victoria. You need to take the Tsawassen ferry to Victoria. That would be a very sceanic tour from Nanaimo to Victoria but add a couple of hours to your travel time.