Hello
Me and my wife are planning to drive the famous Vancouver to Banff route and back in 7 days. We are looking for any help from the experts on an itinerary including some of the best places and best activities. We are Ok for hiking 4-6 hours (easy to Moderate level of difficulty). We are planning to start on 8/30 in the morning from Vancouver and return to 9/5 (Sep5) night. Since this will be coinciding Labor day weekend in USA, accommodation could be expensive. Any reasonably priced accommodation would be OK with us. If we move this date by a week, will things be better? Thanks

It's Labour Day in Canada, too (Sept 1), so I'd plan on it being very busy. We've driven it a number of times and taken a couple different routes, usually stopping overnight in the Okanagan or around Salmon Arm. Technically, you can make the drive one way in a single day, but then you wouldn't be able to stop and enjoy the beautiful scenery, take some short hikes, etc. A bit pointless. The road is not like a U.S. interstate, and often is a single lane in each direction with only occasional passing lanes, so that will slow you down as well.

Yes, I'd move it a week out into mid-September if it was our trip.

Banff is in the province of Alberta, and it's one time zone east of Vancouver, which is in the province of British Columbia (BC). BC is larger than California, Washington state, and Oregon combined. When you drive between Vancouver and Banff, you'll be driving up and over three different mountain ranges just to get there (starting in the Coast Mountains, then through the Cascades, then the Columbia mountains before the Rockies).

You'll be bypassing so many wonderful mountain wilderness parks (like Manning Park in the Cascades, the rugged mountain parks in the Kootenays like the Purcells and the Bugaboos, and the hundreds of hikes around Vancouver in the Coast Mountains) when you drive from Vancouver to Banff. You'll be missing the wonderful BC wine regions like the Okanagan Valley or the Similkameen Valley, past dozens of summery arid California-like lakeside resort towns in the Okanagan Valley like Penticton, Osoyoos, and Kelowna, whizzing past all sorts of charming historic mountain towns in the Kootenays like Revelstoke, Rossland, Nelson, Fernie, and Naksup, past small cities like Kelowna and Kamloops, and blitzing pass hundreds of lakes, beaches, scenic lookouts, waterfalls, hiking trails, picnic sites, provincial parks and national parks and what not. It's sort of like flying into San Francisco to go hiking in Utah, or flying into Seattle to go hiking in Montana.

If you haven't been to Vancouver before, three full days is always a good minimum, or more if you're into hiking. Vancouver's famous for being a nature lover's city. And then a three hour drive east of Vancouver, you could spend a night in Manning Park, and then drive a few hours further east and spend a night in the Okanagan like in the Penticton, and then a few more hours further east to spend a night in Nelson in the Selkirk Mountains in the Kootenays, but it would be a tease and then you'd arrive in Banff and wish you had more time. And that doesn't give you any time to hike in Banff and also drive back to Vancouver.

For Banff, if you have a week, fly into Calgary. It's only an hour drive away from the Rockies. Book your accommodation now. Banff is the most in-demand mountain destination in all of Canada and the majority of hotels are going to be 3-star properties priced at 5-star luxury prices. AirBnB condo/house rentals are forbidden so that won't be an option in Banff. As previously mentioned, it's going to be the Labour Day long weekend in Canada as well, with all the local kids out of the school (they return the Tuesday after Labour Day), but even so, September is still one of the most popular months for international tourists to visit Banff. So my recommendation is just fly into Calgary, rent a car there, drive the hour and a half to Banff. Spend 3 nights in Banff, drive up to Jasper National Park, spend 3 nights there in Jasper, then drive back to Banff, spend your last night there and the next morning drive to Calgary for your flight home.

Moving your trip by a week won't make any difference to be honest.

If you want to fly in and out of Vancouver with 7 days, my suggestion is to just make the trip about visiting Vancouver and hiking in the Coast Mountains (Garibaldi Provincial Park, Mount Seymour, Cypress Mountain, Golden Ears, etc.) and the Cascades (i.e. Manning Park). Or if you want to drive 10 hours east to Banff, give yourself two weeks.

Thank you so much. I gather the same about Vancouver to Banff and around Banff and Jasper. So, Have changed my dates to mid Sep to End of Sep. Hopefully weather will be nice enough to do a lot hiking and outdoor activities.
Thank you once again.

End of September is larch season in the Rockies (Banff area), so the popular larch hikes will be very busy. Snow starts falling on the mountain peaks in the Rockies by mid-September, so just be mindful that the later you come in September, the more chance you may encounter snow in high elevations and colder overnight temperatures. The Rockies have an extremely short snow-free hiking season (which partially explains why it's so busy all summer). Elsewhere between the Rockies and Vancouver, it'll be summery still, but the Rockies have their own climate that seems to get winter weather earlier than elsewhere.

best places and best activities. We are Ok for hiking 4-6 hours (easy to Moderate level of difficulty). We are planning to start on 8/30 in the morning from Vancouver and return to 9/5 (Sep5) night

I think it depends on how easy you want your drives. I love the route Van - Whistler (this part is busy and fast) - Pemberton - Lillooet - Cache Creek, but it's a windy, single lane with passing lanes only when available. You get a true sense of the coastal mountains, going from rain forest to desert. There are many short hikes along the way. But this is a 5 hour drive, without stops. All of the towns along the way are worthy of visits and have great hikes.

Next day - Cache creek - Revelstoke, stopping around Shuswap lake for hiking. I would bypass Kamloops, just my opinion.

day 3 - Revelstoke through Golden to Banff with stops at any of Emerald, Moraine or Lake Louise. Too much beauty to take it!

Day 4 in Banff and area.

Day 5 Banff to Cranbrook - kootenays area is beautiful, lots of hikes and hot springs.

Day 6 - Cranbrook to Osooyos - enjoy fruit and wine country

Day 7 Osooyos to Van

The thing is, each day has 3 - 5 hours driving and so many things to see along the way. I think it's too fast of a trip to really enjoy all that southern BC offers. But I do love a road trip, so if you do as well, you might enjoy this route.