Planning a week in Canadian Rockies, need some help with itinerary !
 

Hello,

We are planning a family vacation for a week in July to visit Canadian Rockies this summer. Our kids are 14 and 10. This is our first trip to rockies.

Here is my rough itinerary ! Flying from east coast to Calgary (round trip)

2 nights in Banff

2 nights in Lake Louise

2 nights in Jasper

I have secured accommodation in Fairmont hotels in all of the locations.

But I do have the flexibility to move the reservations around.

Can someone help me if this is enough time to spend in each location or should I add anything else ?

We are quite an active family, love to hike, bike and other outdoor stuff . But we only have a week or probably can extend it by a day or two.

Appreciate any help !
Thanks
Kush

Which weeks in July? You may have some competition for rental cars in Calgary if it is during the Stampede.
Check out Brewster bus tours if that interests you.
Two nights at each place sounds fine. If you can get one or two more nights go back to the place you liked the best and see something that you missed before.

Planning last week of July.

We don't like bus tours, rather do it ourselves !!:)

Thanks !

Welcome

Be aware that July 30 - Aug is a holiday weekend, and is often the busiest weekend of the summer. If your flight home falls on that weekend, leave extra time for driving to the airport & getting through security (not sure whether east coast means east coast of Canada or east coast of the US). If you are flying back to the US, you will need to clear customs & immigration in Calgary, so plan to be at the airport 2.5-3 hrs in advance.

I would definitely add on the two days if you can. Banff and Lake Louise are about 45 minutes apart, so there's really no reason to do two nights in each. That just adds packing/repacking, which takes away from your time to actually do things.

The big issue I see is that unless your flight is in the late evening, you really should stay in Banff, Lake Louise or Canmore the night before your flight. It's a good 5-6 hr drive flat out from Jasper to Calgary - and that's a drive you want to spend all doing, especially if the weather wasn't good on your drive from Lake Louise to Jasper. Note also that other than Rt 11, between Jasper and Lake Louise, there are no alternative routes, so if there's an accident, you have to wait until the road is cleared.

If you have flexibility, I'd suggest doing either Banff or Lake Louise first, then two nights in Jasper, then come back to the other location (Banff or Lake Louise) for your final nights. Or adding in 1-2 more nights after Jasper.

Love hiking in those areas! You will also find lots of places to stop on the way to Jasper. If you go up don't forget the icefields and Jasper lodge has lots of trails around there. I would say 2 day there ie no travel days

Banff / Lake Louise kind of morph together but if you are going to do some serious trails at Lake Louise such as up to Moraine Lake and around one day and maybe the Tea house the other you might enjoy not having to drive back to Banff.

Banff has a lot to see and do, so maybe just the hike behind Banff Springs Hotel and the town, maybe the lift....if you like hiking you might actually enjoy Johnsons Canyon which is waterfalls and ink pots on the way to Banff but you need a half a day to go up and down so you would arrive in Banff in the evening for dinner type thing and then add a couple days there.

Just some thoughts:)

thanks to all the responses.

We do want to stay in Lake Louise because the hotel is so beautiful and may be enjoy some quite time in the morning by the lake while the kids are still asleep :)

May be I will cut a day in LL and add that to either Banff or Jasper.

Thanks
Kush