Lesa

Hi

Just after some tips and info regarding a two week stay on the west coast. We are from Oz and are heading over the end of September and will be spending 2 weeks on the west cost and two weeks on the east costs.

Are looking at renting a small campervan for our two weeks in the West and touring from Vancouver down to Calgary.

Could anyone suggest a good rental agency and also the availability in parks at the end of September. Also we have noted there seems to be a one way fee of roughly $300-$400 if you drop off the RV in another city, is this correct?

Any suggeestions would be appreciated, we are the outdoors type, are looking to do some sea kayaking, hiking, mountain biking along the way.

Thanks

Lesa

BAK

Try www.goRVing.ca for more information

Judy_in_Calgary

Hello Lesa,

>>>We are from Oz and are heading over the end of September and will be spending 2 weeks on the west cost and two weeks on the east costs.<<<

>>>Are looking at renting a small campervan for our two weeks in the West and touring from Vancouver down to Calgary.<<<

Your description of your timing is vague. Do you mean that you’ll arrive on the west coast of Canada at the end of September, so that your trip in Canada will actually take place in October?

Perhaps I should warn you that the amount of rainfall and the number of rainy days in Vancouver increase quite markedly from September to October. According to the Meteorological Service of Canada, September’s mean total precipitation is 53.5 mm, and there are 8.6 days on which precipitation occurs. In October the mean total precipitation rises to 112.6 mm, and the number of precipitation days rises to 14.3.

You can look up temperature and precipitation averages for cities and major towns across Canada at this website:

http://www.worldweather.org/056/m056.htm

If I’ve understood your arrival time correctly, and if you split your time more or less evenly between the west coast and the Rocky Mountains, I’m guessing you’ll be in the Rockies the 2nd week of October (i.e., 9th – 15th October). If you’re going to be RVing, I think it’s important for you to try to estimate the weather as carefully as possible. Of course no one can foretell future weather, but one can inform oneself about past weather. Let me show you how the weather picture historically has changed over the last couple of weeks of September and over the month of October.

For this, the previous website that gives averages is not helpful. I prefer to go to Trip Planner feature of the Weather Underground website that gives not only the averages but also the highest highs and the lowest lows on a given date over a few years:

http://www.wunderground.com/tripplanner/index.asp#

For some cities the Weather Underground website displays information from 1996 to the present. Unfortunately, in the case of Banff, the information is only from 2000 to 2004. That’s not as large a range as I would like, but it still gives you an idea of how much temperatures vary from year to year. Statistics are as follows (converted to Celsius from the Farenheit numbers that Weather Underground provides):

<b>18th – 24th September</b>
Av hi +13º C (range +1º C to +25º C)
Av lo +0.6º C (range – 8º C to +8º C)

<b>25th Sept – 1st Oct</b>
Av hi +15º C (range +2º C to +27º C)
Av lo +1º C (range -4º C to +12º C)

<b>2nd – 8th Oct</b>
Av hi +13º C (range +3º C to +23º C)
Av lo -2º C (range -10º C to +5º C)

<b>9th – 15th Oct</b>
Av hi +9º C (range -4º C to +18º C)
Av lo -2º C (range -13º C to +6º C)

<b>16th – 22nd Oct</b>
Av hi –3º C (range -18º C to +4º C)
Av lo -11º C (range –33º C to +2º C)

<b>23rd – 29th Oct</b>
Av hi -4º C (range -27º C to +9º C)
Av lo –15º C (range -35º C to +4º C)

If I were you, I would not want to be Rving in the Rockies in the 3rd or 4th week of October, when there would be the risk of experiencing –30º C.

I’m not familiar with the east coast of Canada, but I expect you’ll want to repeat the above exercise with the places you intend to visit there.

More in next post ......

Judy_in_Calgary

&gt;&gt;&gt;Could anyone suggest a good rental agency and also the availability in parks at the end of September.&lt;&lt;&lt;

I’m not familiar with rental agencies. However, as far as the availability of parks is concerned, I saw a post on another forum that suggested that, while the mountain national park campgrounds were a bit quieter in September than they were in July and August, they were still busier than the poster had expected them to be. The person who posted the message said that she found the campgrounds quieter and the individual parking spots larger in Yoho and Kootenay National Parks than was the case in Banff and Jasper National Parks. However, I don’t know in what part of September she was there. I imagine (but don’t know from experience) that the campgrounds would be starting to thin out a little by the end of September.

&gt;&gt;&gt;Also we have noted there seems to be a one way fee of roughly $300-$400 if you drop off the RV in another city, is this correct?&lt;&lt;&lt;

I don’t have experience of renting an RV but, since it’s common for car rental companies to charge drop off fees, it seems logical that camper rental companies would charge them too.

&gt;&gt;&gt;Any suggeestions would be appreciated, we are the outdoors type, are looking to do some sea kayaking, hiking, mountain biking along the way.&lt;&lt;&lt;

I will leave it to the West Coast Fodorites to advise you on these activities in their neck of the woods.
As far as Banff is concerned, you can do a Google search for BIKE + BANFF, and websites of various companies that rent bikes will come up. The same is true of Jasper. But you're attempting to cover a fair amount of ground and such free time as you'll have in the Rockies easily could be used up on hiking.

You could think about an itinerary something like this:

Days 1 - 7 : West Coast
8 : Drive Vancouver - Kelowna
9 : Drive to Yoho Nat’l Park or Lake Louise
10 : Explore area around Moraine Lake and Lake Louise
11 : Drive Icefields Parkway to Jasper
12 : Explore Jasper’s surroundings
13 : Drive to Calgary
14 : Fly to east coast

That’s a lot of moving around. If you don’t want to drive so much, you could skip going all the way to Jasper. In that case, stay in the Lake Louise area, and just go half way up the Icefields Parkway during a day trip.

The more that time passes the more I enjoy seeing places in depth. If it was my vacation, I would spend 4 weeks in British Columbia and Alberta or 4 weeks on the east coast of Canada.

For example, in BC, you easily could spend 2 weeks doing a circle tour from Vancouver, up the Sunshine Coast to Powell River, catching a ferry across to Comox on Vancouver Island, driving down to Nanaimo and over to Tofino, returning to Nanaimo, then driving down to Victoria, then taking a ferry back to the mainland.

Look at the &quot;CirclePac&quot; ticket that BC Ferries sells:

http://www.bcferries.com/News/circlepac.html

and the 4 or 7 day SailPass:

http://www.bcferries.com/travel_planning/SailPass.html

But if you want to do BC + Alberta in 2 weeks and the east coast in 2 weeks, that's your choice of course.

Hope that helps.

Lesa

Hi there, thanks for your information.

Just to clarify, we will be arriving in Vancouver on the 24th of September and will be staying on the West Coast for 2 weeks and then at the moment heading over to the East coast for the last two weeks.

We have a inflexible timeframe for our holiday because of work commitments so this is the only time we could go.

As we are not sure when we will be back as it is quite a way from Oz we would like to see both sides but can appreciate your concerns re timeframes etc.

Anymore info would be appreciated.

Thanks

Lesa

Judy_in_Calgary

Hello Lesa,

Here is some information on campground opening and closing dates.

<b>Banff National Park</b>

Most campgrounds close some time between September 6th and October 4th. The 2 campgrounds in BNP that are open year-round are:

* Tunnel Mountain Village II (3 km from Banff)
* Mosquito Creek Campground (24 km N of Lake Louise)

Here's a website about that:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/visit/visit9_E.asp

<b>Yoho National Park</b>

Hoodoo Creek Campground will be closed for the entire 2005 season. Forest thinning activities will be occurring in and around the campground area for the creation of a fireguard.

<b>Kicking Horse Campground</b>, 3 km from the small town of Field, will be open May 12 - <b>October 10, 2005</b>. Water provided at this campground must be boiled before consumption.

Takakkaw Falls Campground is for tents only and in any case will open only June 24 - September 27, 2005.

Here's the relevant website:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/yoho/vi...p#Hoodoo_Creek

<b>Kootenay National Park</b>

Redstreak Campground, 2.5 km from the village of Radium Hot Springs, will be open May 6 - <b>October 10, 2005</b>.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/kootena...t/visit8_E.asp

<b>Jasper National Park</b>

This park's website is less helpful than the others when it comes to campground information. Here is the info from my hard copy of &quot;The Mountain Guide,&quot; a publication that each carload of people receives upon entering the mountain national parks. This is from the edition we got in the summer of 2004, but the information will give you an idea of what to expect in 2005.

Pocahontas Campground, near east gates of Jasper National Park (not what I would consider the most convenient spot). Has flush toilets. Was open May 21 - Oct 10, 2004.

Snaring River, about 1/3 of the way from Jasper townsite to park's east gates. Has dry toilets. Was open May 21 - Sept 19, 2004.

Whistlers, near Jasper townsite. Has flush toilets, showers, sani-dump. Was open May 7 - Oct 10, 2004.

Wapiti, near Jasper townsite. Summer facilities are the same as the facilities at Whistlers. Summer facilities were open May 21 - 24 and again June 18 - Sept 12, 2004. Winter facilities consist of flush toilets only. Winter facilities are open Oct 11 - May 5.

Wabasso, at the turn off to the Mount Edith Cavell Road (about 15 km S of Jasper townsite). Same facilities as at Whistlers. Was open June24 - Sept 5, 2004.

Mt. Kerkeslin, on the Icefields Parkway, between Athabasca Falls and Sunwapta Falls. Dry toilets. Was open June 24 - Sept 5, 2004.

Honeymoon Lake. Near Sunwapta Falls. Dry toilets. Was open May 21 - Oct 10, 2004.

Jonas Creek. On the Icefields Parkway, about half way from the Columbia Icefields to Sunwapta Falls. Dry toilets. Was open May 21 - Sept 19, 2004.

Columbia Icefields. As the name suggests, close to the Columbia Icefields. Tents only. Dry toilets. Was open May 21 - Oct 10, 2004.

Wilcox Creek. Near Columbia Icefields. Dry toilets and sani-dump. Was open June 10 - Sept 19, 2004.

Space in all national park campgrounds is available on a first-come-first-serve basis. This will not be a problem in late September / early October. The only campground with a reservation system is Pocahontas in Jasper National Park.

JNP's web page about camping is:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/jasper/..._e.asp#Camping

Hope that helps.

sohara

http://www.cruiseamerica.com/

Friends used this company last summer to tour the Rockies. They picked the camber up at the airport (company sends taxi there) and dropped it off there. They seemed very happy with the service.

Lesa

thankyou everyone for your posts, it is really appreciated.

Regards

Lesa