jasper, banff, lake louise ITINERARY

Old Jan 9th, 2014, 01:06 PM
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jasper, banff, lake louise ITINERARY

Hubby and I are planning a trip of 10 days or so in July. It's our first, and possibly our only, visit to this area from Maryland. I've got guide books, and I've read a ton of posts in the forum, but I'm having trouble deciding in what order to visit these (flying into Calgary) and how long to imagine visiting each area. Also, could we stay in Banff or Lake Louise and visit both of those areas from the one base? And then do Jasper separately? All thoughts are appreciated!
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Old Jan 9th, 2014, 01:26 PM
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depending on your flight times, you might want one night by the calgary airport. lake louise is very small with limited hotels and restaurants. it's a good place to stay for a night or two if you are into hiking because there are some nice trails around there or, if you are wanting to drive into yoho national park or onto golden...just for a drive. it's also closer to the icefield parkway turnoff. so...i'd either base myself in banff or do only one or two nights in lake louise. i'd consider 3 nights banff, one night lake louise, 4 nights jasper, last two nights back in banff. other areas you could consider spending a night or two at is kananaskis (between banff & jasper) or if drumheller (south east of calgary).
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Old Jan 10th, 2014, 10:16 AM
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http://www.fodors.com/community/cana...-report.cfm?28

Maybe my old trip report will help you plan.

You can visit Banff/Lake Louise/Yoho from one base location. Then spend a day driving the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. Stay 2-3 days. We enjoy driving back down the Parkway--the scenery is spectacular--and there are some good hikes we enjoy. Then spend your final night back at Banff/Lake Louise. Drive to the airport and fly out your last day.
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Old Jan 10th, 2014, 05:59 PM
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Thank you both very much. I'm going to digest this information over the next few days; I can see how helpful it will be.
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Old Jan 12th, 2014, 10:26 AM
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To LindainOhio - your report was very useful, and now I have another question for you: If you had 10 days for this same trip, would you have stayed in Banff proper at all? Or just Lake Louise and Jasper? or some different combo of places? Thanks a lot.
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Old Jan 12th, 2014, 04:23 PM
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We stay in Lake Louise when we visit in the summer because it is closer to the hikes we like to do, it's easy to get over to Yoho, Lake O'Hara and the Icefields Parkway. When it rains, we do like to go into Banff. If I had more time, I would have liked to have spent another couple days in Banff.

It is nice to stay in Banff. It is a really busy town though in July. Our original reservation was for a place in Banff. I found a great rate a couple weeks before we arrived at the Rimrock, which sits above the town--my other reservation was refundable. It's a beautiful hotel. I would stay there again. I have always wanted to stay at the Banff Springs--even though all the reviews are not great. I know it is suggested that you not book their cheapest rooms. Those are very small.

The most wonderful place we have stayed in the area is the Emerald Lake Lodge. We decided, at the last minute one year, to travel to the Rockies and everything in Lake Louise was booked so we booked a room at Emerald Lake. I loved that place and even though it was about 40 minutes outside of Lake Louise, the drive was beautiful. Their rates seem to have skyrocketed though.
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Old Jan 12th, 2014, 06:05 PM
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Thanks - you have tons of experience and I appreciate your sharing it with me.
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Old Jan 16th, 2014, 04:48 AM
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Last summer I added a couple of days for Banff and Jasper to the end of a week in Glacier NP (Montana).

The intention was to see if I wanted to go back for a somewhat longer trip.

I was there in mid-August.

Photography is my hobby so I had my interests. Wildlife and scenery. We saw plenty of both!!!!

Slept one night in Banff, one in Jasper and then the long drive, with stops back to Calgary.

There's a nice Delta hotel in Calgary airport. It's located right next to the car rentals and across the street from the terminal. Excellent for a morning flight as we returned the car at night and just got up in the morning and walked across the street.

I don't know what you interested are. If you let me know I can tell you what we found in a very short time (and much advance research).

You can see my photos of the trip at: www.travelwalks.com

You'll have to go thru the Glacier photos before getting to Banff & Jasper.

I find U.S. national parks very different from those in Canada. Both good and bad. That's good and bad in my opinion.

Often the Canadian parks have tourist towns inside the parks. That means you'll have a lot of competitive lodging and restaurants. But also, a tourist town means people walking up and down the main street and lots of junk stores.
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Old Jan 16th, 2014, 07:31 AM
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I would agree with LindainOhio

YoHo/Banff/Lake Louise are all accessible from LL or Banff. I always stay in LL for the hiking as well as to cut down on drive time, and use Banff as a rainy day option (some good museums, the hot springs, shopping). But my focus is on the outdoors/hiking, so I'm willing to take the limitations of LL in exchange for the scenery/location. For many, Banff is a perfectly fine option and is well located for lots of hikes & activities. Emerald Lake would also be a stunning place to stay.

If you stay in LL, you can enjoy the lake early or late when the hordes of bus tour groups are gone, and are closer to the hiking trails & Icefields. But the housing/accommodation/dining options are more limited. I've stayed at Deer Lodge which is by the lake, but much cheaper than the Chateau. It's not for everyone, since it is an old building with relevant "charms" of older plumbing etc.

Not sure you'd want to do 4 nights in Jasper unless you have a specific reason. The sites people tend to want to "hit" are Maligne Lake, Maligne Canyon, maybe Pyramid Lake and some of the local hikes. Jasper, to me, has a much more homey/small town vibe than Banff, but options for rainy day activities are quite limited. So if you have a run of bad weather, you're better off spending more time in Banff.

Another option, if you can find an affordable room, is to spend a night at Num Ti Jah or Sunwapta, which are between Jasper and LL on the Icefields. (I wouldn't bother with the hotel at the Icefields Centre). That will give you more time to explore all the sites along the Icefields, and if you desire, a way to get an early start for a trip on the Icefields Explorer (to see the glacier).

I'd probably do 3-4 nights in LL or Banff (you can split if you don't mind repacking and/or want to have a closer base for a day or two of hiking in LL/Yoho), 3 nights in Jasper with the option to spend one along the Icefields and then the last couple back in Banff.

Depending on your trip timing, it's worth remembering that July 1 is a holiday here and hotels book up well ahead of time. The other times to book ahead are on weekends. Note that there are strict regulations about ownership/leasing of houses/apartments/condos in the national parks. As a result, in both Jasper and Banff it is not legal to rent houses to tourists. So your options tend to be hotels or, particularly in Jasper, private home accommodation (renting of rooms or suites in an owner-occupied house, B&B style). In Banff, all legit accommodations are listed on the Banff tourist websites.
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Old Jan 19th, 2014, 10:35 AM
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I thank all of you for your thoughts. Our 4-night stay in Jasper is actually at the southern end of the Jasper area, so we'll be closer to the Icefields, but can still head up to Jasper quickly. We're going to start at LL, then the greater Jasper area, and then come down to Banff for the last 3 nights, which should make it easier to get to the airport. The trip reports and pics are great; I'm looking forward to getting out there.
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Old Jan 20th, 2014, 11:37 AM
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Sounds great!

Note that even the southern "end" of Jasper is likely to be at least an hour's drive to the Columbia Icefields. Jasper is tiny, so you're never more than a 10-15 minute drive from the start of Hwy 93.
Plus, speed limits are between 70-90 kph on Hwy 93 and much slower in the Jasper area (to protect the wildlife)- and it's not an area you want zoom through anyway. Most definitely an 'enjoy the scenery' at a leisurely pace kind of place!

You will also have nice long days, so I suggest trying to avoid driving around dusk or after dark. That will reduce your risk of coming into contact with wildlife or debris on the road. Also, around Jasper, if it's rained recently I've sometimes dealt with a low fog/mist along the road after dark which can be unnerving. It's not thick, but it can fog up your windshield and blur your view of the road markings.

If you do want to do the snowcoach tour on the glacier, I do recommend getting there first thing in the morning. Especially in July, the place is crawling with bus tours, so you can wait quite a while for a space on a tour if you arrive after the bus brigade starts. You can buy tickets online, though I'm not entirely sure whether you can pick a time at that point.
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Old Jan 25th, 2014, 12:56 PM
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If you are flying into Calgary, what I would do is explore Calgary for a day or two, head out to Banff, and stay there.Lake Louise is definitely accessable from Banff, and you probably only need a day there anyway. Then drive the Icefields Parkway to Jasper (one of the most spectacular drives in the world), stopping at the Columbia Icefields on the way for a tour (take a guided tour- every year there is tragedy from a tourist falling into a crevasse). Stay at Jasper about 3 days- I like it much better than Banff- more natural beauty, and not as much of a zoo during the summer.
Then drive to Edmonton (/.5 hours), stay there a night or two and explore Edmonton. Its really an undiscovered Jewel- there is tons to do and see there, and in the summer it is warm and very beautiful. Its about a million people, and is the provincial capital.
Then you could fly home from Edmonton. Virtually every airline that flies to Calgary also flies to Edmonton.
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