moovet

Hi everyone,

I have trawled through a number of similar postings and have come up with a provisional itinerary I would like help with please.

We will be in Vancouver for a conference in July then have 13days for a bit of self-driven travelling.

We will have my wifes parents with us who will be babysitting our 2yo whilst at the conference.

As we have had a week in Vancouver already we want to head east to the Rockies and back as we are wildlife and scenery obsessed. We would love to do some big hikes but will only be able to do short walks with the little one in a backpack so a lot of scenery will be observed en route!! However we will still have our "Babysitters" with us ; )

Our boy is already a seasoned traveller in the car and is very tolerant of being shut up for long trips. However having short walks and kids playgrounds along the way will be great if anyone can recommend some.

Our itinerary is pretty flexible but we want to maximise the amount of time in the national and provincial parks. Here is the current plan in terms of route

Vancouver
Kamloops area (1 night)
Revelstoke (1 night)
Golden (1 night)
Jasper (2 nights)
Banff/Calgary (1 night)
Drumheller (Grandpa wants to see the Rock formations) (1 night)
Cranbrook (1 night)
Nelson (1 night)
Oliver/Penticton (1 night)
+/-Princeton (1 night)
Vancouver
We have an extra night to spend somewhere

We may actually look at doing this in reverse so we can stock up on fruit and wine at the start of the trip and maybe go against the traffic back along the trans-canadian.

We would appreciate some help fine tuning this itinerary as we imagine at this time of year, we are going to have to book accommodation in advance.

We would also appreciate recommendations on places to stay in or near these locations that might have family rooms at a reasonable rate. We are all happy to stay in Backpackers. We were going to hire a campervan but the expense has put us off and we can get a good deal with a large car which will be able to cover the distances quicker as well.

In terms of scenery and time for the return journey from Drumheller should we:

1) Just come back the way we came along the TransCanadian
2) Take highway 22 down to Highway 3 then across
3) Go back through Banff and take Highway 93 down to Cranbrook
4) Go back to Revelstoke and then down Highway 31 or 6 to Nelson (we have been to Nelson before)

Any help as always appreciated.


Cheers,


Geoff

ShelliDawn

There is no "going against the traffic" on the Trans Canada (#1) highway in the Rockies during summer time. Most of the highway west of Lake Louise is single lane with occassional passing lanes.

I'm not sure why you're planning on stopping in both Revelstoke and Golden. Unless you are wanting to see something specific in both of those places, I'd pick only one and give yourself an extra day in either Jasper or Banff. Or even skip both and have yet another extra day for Banff or Jasper.

Don't plan on spending a night in Calgary, stay in the mountains. It's only an extra hour on your drive to Drumheller.

Although higway 93 is a lovely drive, since you'll have spent so much other time in the mountains I'd recommend taking highway 22 south on your return. It's a lovely drive with views of the mountains as you travel through the foothills and is different from the mountain/BC drives. The drive between Calgary and Drumheller is mainly flat prairie (not so scenic).

Eschew

I have posted a recommeded 13 day round trip Vancover on this thread. You might want to take a look thorugh it.

http://www.fodors.com/community/cana...d-edmonton.cfm

krp329

I'd skip Kamloops and go straight to Revy, and skip Golden. The route from Kamloops to Jasper via highway 5/16 is faster than 1/93 - you could always head straight to Jasper (o/n in Clearwater instead of Kamloops and visit Wells Gray Provincial Park). Then head down 93 (the Icefields Parkway) to Banff. Take the TCH#1 west after Banff.

Your route is basically a whistle stop tour - that's a LOT of driving with a small child, even a tolerant one - I would cut out the Kootenays (Cranbrook, Nelson) and concentrate on the Rockies with a stop in the Okanagan if that's of interest.

qwovadis

Banff and Lake Louise are the prettiest areas. "Banff/Calgary 1day" seems not doable might expand more there and along the Icefields parkway skip Calgary entirely just another big city
pretty far from Banff will eat up too much time.

Have fun!