As mentioned above just want advice on which destination would be best or if a combination of a couple would be. We have a wedding in Banff on August 14 and would be leaving from there and have until the 22 to be back home in sask. It will be My wife, 11 month old baby, and I. We are interested mostly in unique or must try dining, Golf, water/ amusement parks, petting zoos, cool museums, sight seeing but not long hikes or things that cost you lots of money and aren't interactive, maybe mix in a little shopping and accommodation recommendations. Any help and tips would be appreciated.

I'm not sure that the entire parameters of your query made it into print.

I DO understand taht you will leave from Banff at about August 14 and have until August 22 to be back in Saskatchewan (we can't even tell whether that is Saskatoon or Saskatchewan)

We'd also like to know what you've seen before?

Such as, have you previously driven north on the Icefields Parkway?


Have you ever been to Edmonton? The West Edmonton Mall???


some more parameters would help you to get more answers.

We initially wanted to dip into the northern states but covid has taken away that option. Have been to edmonton/ west ed many times and would like to stay there the last night on the way home. Have been to calgary and through to banff many times and downwards to kimberely once. Would like to explore vernon/kelowna or kamloops area mostly and have only ever driven through kamloops before

Not sure I am familiar with ice fields parkway and return destination is northern (meadow lake) saskatchewan.

The Icefields Parkway is the highway between Banff and Jasper and is incredibly scenic and one of the main reasons people come to the Rockies in the first place. If you've never done that before than spending a day driving it's length and going on top of the glacier should absolutely be top of your list. Add in another day of sightseeing/hiking in Jasper National Park itself. If you like water parks and amusement parks than West Edmonton Mall is an obvious stop so another day or two there. As for interesting child-friendly stuff in Edmonton to do that's not the mall the only thing I can think of is the High Level Bridge streetcar and Fort Edmonton Park. (The streetcar was more of highlight for me than the park itself)

Elk Island National Park just east of Edmonton is a seriously under-rated national park in my opinion, and is worth atleast half a day. The drive from Edmonton to Meadow Lake is about 4-4.5 hours, so you could maybe throw in 3-4 hours in Elk Island as a stop along the way if you don't mind a long-ish day. Near Elk Island, there's also the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, which is an interesting open-air museum. You could combine all three in one day even, if you don't mind getting back home fairly late in the evening.

Sorry, I don't know about any petting zoos in the area, but I'm sure they exist. However, I imagine many of them will be closed due to Covid.