Self Drive
 

We are visiting Canada in August/September from Australia and are thinking of doing the following itinerary: Vancouver for a few days then 2 weeks with a car before we fly out to Toronto. We were thinking of driving from Vancouver to Whistler then to Jasper (what is best way or place to stop in between?). We need to go to Edmonton and Calgary - is it best to drive from Jasper to Edmonton and back on same road down icefields to Banff area and then Calgary and fly out or Jasper straight down incefields to Banff and Calgary and then up through Red Deer and fly out of Edmonton? we would rather have a scenic drive than just prairies and therefore don't mind backtracking from Jasper to Edmonton if this road is more scenic.
Also do you think we are missing out by not getting to the Okanagan Valley? we may only get across as far as Golden.

Hi KA,

That sounds like a nice time of year for the trip you're contemplating, 2 weeks is a pleasant amount of time to have to drive through the mountains.

Just one question. You say, "We need to go to Edmonton and Calgary." I think it'll help us to advise you if we know why you need to go to Edmonton AND Calgary. Obviously you'll need to go to one of them in order to fly out to Toronto. But, speaking for myself at least, it's not obvious why you need to go to both of them.

Once we have that question cleared up, I think it'll be easier for us to suggest an itinerary.

Thanks Judy, we need to go to both Edmonton and Calgary to visit friends and as you mentioned to fly out from one of them.

Hello KA -
It is best to do a "loop", so I would suggest driviing from Vancouver to Banff, then up to Jasper, then on to Edmonton, and then last to Calgary, staying of course at each place for as many days as you would like.
If you spend a couple of days in Banff you can also visit the Lake Louise area.
The Icefield Parkway from Banff to Jasper is sepctacular so I would suggest devoting one whole day to the drive and stopping at the many points of interest, including the glacier.
Jasper is worth at least one day (take the gondola at Whistler Mtn for a wonderful view - weather permitting - of the Athabasca River Valley, drive up to Mt. Edith Cavell etc).
The drive from Jasper to Edmonton is quite fast, most of it is on divided four lane highway with a speed limit of 110 km/h and it takes about 3.5 hours if you don't make any stops, so even if you left Jasper in mid-afternoon, you would be in Edmonton in early evening (be careful if driving that highway just after sunset, there are a lot of deer around and they like to jump across the highway in search of food at that time of the day).
Edmonton to Calgary is an even faster and easier drive - about 2.5 hours city limits to city limits.
Calgary is only 1 hour away from Banff, so if you had enough time at the end of your trip and wanted to see the mountains again, you could do it in a half day trip.

Oh - you also asked what the best way was between Vancouver and Jasper - well, I would suggest driving to Kelowna and spending a day or two visiting the Okanagan region (the wine growing area of British Columbia), then driving to Banff via Revelstoke, Roger's Pass, and Golden - lots of great scenery along the way.

Thanks for the information - I am assuming then that we would not see Whistler - are we missing out by not taking the "Sea to Sky Highway"???

You can drive to Kamloops via the Sea to Sky highway, and then on to Kelowna.
However, I am wondering what shape it will be in next summer - Vancouver was awarded the winter Olympics for 2010 (? not sure of the year) and there are plans to upgrade it. That means construction in the summer. But I don't know whether it will start as soon as this year. Perhaps someone living in Vancouver has more current information.

Two weeks should be enough time to do it all. But if you don't think that you'll have enough time to visit Kelowna (because you may want to spend that extra time in Edmonton and Calgary visiting friends), then you can simply drive from Kamloops to Revelstoke and on to Banff via the Trans Canada (highway 1), and bypass the Okanagan.

Hi KA, I agree with Borealis. Her suggested itinerary has you driving from Edmonton to Calgary, part of which is what I would regard as quite a boring drive. It would be so time consuming, however, to double back to the mountains to avoid the Edmonton - Calgary route that I simply don't think it's worth it. In any case, the stretch from Edmonton to Red Deer is quite pleasant, rolling countryside, generously dotted with clumps of trees. It flattens out to a prairie landscape between Red Deer and Calgary, but that is only 1.25 hours of driving.

So, in summary, you might consider an itinerary something like this:

1 Kelowna
2 Kelowna (Okanagan Valley)
3 Lake Louise
4 Lake Louise (Johnston Canyon, Banff)
5 Lake Louise (Lady Agnes Teahouse, Moraine Lake)
6 Jasper (Peyto Lake, Columbia Icefields, etc.)
7 Jasper (Mt. Edith Cavell, Whistlers Mountain)
8 Jasper (Maligne Lake, Maligne Canyon)
9 Edmonton
10 Edmonton
11 Calgary
12 Calgary
13 Calgary (Royal Tyrrell Museum at Drumheller, splendid dinosaur museum worth every minute of the 1.5 hour drive across the prairies, IMO)
14 Toronto

To answer your question about Whistler, it looks as if, instead of driving from Vancouver eastwards to Hope and from there on to Kelowna, you could drive from Vancouver NNE towards Whistler and then make your way to Kelowna from there. I've never been to Whistler myself. I've always approached Vancouver from the Hope direction and then departed via Hope as well. But there are really so many mountain ranges between the Alberta / British Columbia border and the west coast that one is spoiled for choice. I think I'd be correct in guessing that just about any route that took you from the coast eastwards would be an attractive one.

Arghhhhh.

KA, I intended to give you a link to a map of British Columbia's highways.

http://www.vanc.igs.net/~roughley/bc...y_summits.html

Yikes. Borealis's and my posts are leap frogging each other. I didn't see her message about possible construction on the Sea to Sky highway. Good point. I wouldn't have thought of that. Yes, it would be good to get information from Vancouverites. While it would be nice to get the information ahead of time, that is not something you would even have to decide now. If need be, you could make local enquiries when you reached Vancouver in August, and you could tailor your exit from Vancouver accordingly.

Thank you for your feedback - it has actually made us rethink our itinerary. Still confused about whether to try and fit Whistler in at all?

KA - Some additional info to help you plan your journey:

There are 3 ways that you can drive from Vancouver to Kamloops -

1. Through Hope and the Coquihalla (toll) highway #5 - this is the fastest way (approx 4 hours driving non-stop).

2. The Trans Canada #1 along the Fraser River from Hope - some very nice scenery this way but it takes longer to drive than the Coquihalla (5 to 6 hours).

3. The Sea to Sky highway, #99, as you had originally planned - this will take the most time, much more than the Trans Canada or the Coquihalla.

So I guess it depends on how much time you would like to spend on that portion of your trip.

Leaving Vancouver and heading up to Whistler then over the mountains east is certainly an option I've done it both ways and that route is mentioned on this Forum a few times a year.
However Whistler isn't anything special in Summer-or Winter either IMO.
Any of the routes mentioned will take you through some gorgeous mountain scenery on roads that are 'somewhat' straighter and easier to navigate than the Duffy Lake road out of Whistler.
Also be advised that delays for construction/road work are a fact of life in mountainous country-Summer is when most work is done because the weather is that much better.
Delays won't be major but can easily add an hour to any drive in BC-be flexible and keep the driver's side of the car beside the centre line!!