Vancouver to Calgary
 

Hi, We will be two couples travelling together from New Zealand and are making early plans for our trip through Canadian Rockies next year. After finishing with Alaskan cruise we have 3 days in Vancouver before picking up a rental. We will have 6 nights in the Rockies then fly out of Calgary on day 7. Our initial itinerary is
1 night enroute to Jasper
2 nights Jasper
3 nights Banff or Canmore
(day trip to Lake Louise etc. from here)
Fly out of Calgary on the 7th day
We thought of driving straight to Jasper on first day but decided this could be a bit much, not sure how long it will take to pick up rental and then find our way out of Vancouver.
So would like help on deciding between an overnight in Kamloops and taking direct route to Jasper next day or could we make it to Revelstoke for overnighter and take what sounds like the more scenic route to Jasper.
As far as accommodation is concerned I think we will opt B & B's, so which is the better choice, Banff or Canmore? As we would like to spend our last night in the Rockies, is it feasible to make an early start from Banff/Canmore, drive to Calgary airport, drop off rental and make a 12.15p.m. flight to Denver? Thanks.

Hello Patricia,

You don’t say when you'll be doing this trip -- the northern hemisphere summer, I hope.

Your itinerary is tight, but I think it can be done.

Yes, I think it's worth going via Revelstoke. So, you might consider something like this:

1 - Vancouver - Revelstoke (6.5 hours' drive, not counting stops)

2 - Revelstoke - Lake Louise - Jasper. This is a tough drive to squeeze into a day, because there is <b>so</b> much to see along this route. Revelstoke to LL nominally is 3 hours. <b>But</b> you would be advised to stop and see Emerald Lake, the natural bridge over the Kicking Horse River, and Takakkaw Falls. It would be easy for your 3-hour drive to turn into a 5 hour drive.

LL to Jasper nominally is a 3.25 hour drive, but again, there is heaps to see along the Icefields Parkway. I would not advise you to stop at the Columbia Icefields to ride a Snocoach on the Athabascia Glacier today. If you want to do that, aim to do it on your return drive, as it will bite too big a time chunk out of today. If you can, go to the Peyto Lake Lookout, and stop to see Sunwapta Falls and Athabasca Falls.

A complicating factor is that you will lose an hour between Revelstoke and Golden when you cross from the Pacific Time Zone into the Mountain Time Zone. Luckily it stays light until late in summer.

3 - Explore Jasper's environs, e.g., Angel Glacier / Cavell Meadows hike, walk in Maligne Canyon

4 - Jasper - Canmore (see the stuff you missed on your previous drive along the Icefields Parkway, and you may even have time to walk into Johnston Canyon, which is on the Bow Valley Parkway between LL and Banff townsite)

5 - Canmore (a better choice for B&Bs; also has lots of self-catering accommodation) - explore Moraine Lake and Lake Louise from Canmore - go to Moraine Lake first, because the parking lot fills to overflowing later in the day

6 - Canmore - go to Johnston Canyon if you didn't manage to do so before, and explore Banff townsite from Canmore

7 – Leave Canmore at 7.45 a.m. (This is based on 1.5 hours to drive from Canmore to Calgary Airport, 2 hours to check in, 1 hour to spare in case you run into a snafu. Checking in 2 hours prior to the flight is not a joke. You really have to do it. The advantage is that you clear U.S. immigration formalities in Calgary, and your flight is treated like a domestic flight when it lands in Denver.)

Drive east from Canmore on Hwy #1 (TransCanada Highway). At the first set of traffic lights that you encounter when you reach Calgary’s outer limits, turn north onto Stoney Trail. Turn east at Country Hills Boulevard. This will take you all the way to the airport. Thanks to Ltt for recommending this route to the airport.

This itinerary is not the most convenient. If I was trying to make it convenient for you, I would suggest you stay in Lake Louise for a night or two. However, Lake Louise is expensive. So the work-around is for you to stay in Canmore. If I haven’t interpreted your wishes correctly, you can always change this draft itinerary.

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and

http://www1.travelalberta.com/cfforms/freestuff/

Hope that helps.

Check with the car rental agency about a drop off fee for your car. There is usually a $500-600 fee if you don't return it to the place you picked it up from.

Patricia, Tanya's warning about drop off charges is valid. However, even a sort of worst case scenario, let's say a $600 drop off charge, would work out to only $150 / person if it was shared amongst 4 people. If you are adhering to as tight a time frame as you are, something has to give.

Also, I'm guessing that you may be travelling on some sort of round the world ticket that obliges you to keep moving from west to east. I have no evidence for that other than the fact that I've known of other Kiwis and Aussies who have done this. The car drop off charges have to be weighed up in the overall context of the larger trip.

Also, Fodorites have compared the price of picking up in Calgary and dropping off in Vancouver versus picking up in Vancouver and dropping off in Calgary. There can be a price difference between the two directions.

Okay, I don't know your travel dates, but here's what a few enquiries at Avis's website indicate. (I'm not claiming there's anything special about Avis. I'm just using them in this experiment.) I looked up the price of a full sized, 4-door car to be picked up on June 15th and dropped off on June 22nd.

Pick up at Vancouver Airport, drop off at Calgary Airport costs 540 CAD.

Pick up at Calgary Airport, drop off at Vancouver Airport costs 600 CAD.

Pick up and drop off at Vancouver Airport costs 278 CAD.

Pick up and drop off at Calgary Airport costs 278 CAD.

Then I changed the dates to July 15th and July 22nd respectively, and received the same quotations.

So the difference between picking up in Vancouver and dropping off in Calgary versus picking up and dropping off in the same place is 262 CAD. Divide that by 4 people, and it works out to a penalty of 65.50 CAD per person.

Hi again,
Thanks Judy and Tanya for all the info so far. On this trip we are only doing Canada and USA, arrive Seattle on 19th August, fly out of San Francisco on 5th October, I did say we are making early plans but thats half the fun for us!! Our cruise is round trip out of Seattle, then the plan is Vancouver for 3 nights before doing the Rockies. As we have to be in Colorado Springs for a special celebration on 6th Sept., it seemed the best idea to leave Banff/Canmore early morning on Monday 5th Sept. which is Labour Day (we figured not so much traffic) and get 12.15pm flight. However I guess we could leave it until the morning of the 6th, there is a United flight at 7 am which would mean driving into Calgary late on the 5th and then overnighting in Calgary, I don't really think we will be achieving very much but food for thought. Judy,assuming we still stick with 6 nights, to cut down on some of the big driving days what do you think of:
First night Kamloops or Revelstoke
1 night Lake Louise
2 nights Jasper
2 nights Canmore
The one way drop off fees are a bit hefty especially as we only have the car for 6/7 days but I don't see a way round it but open to suggestions. Just one more question, could you give us idea of what sort of weather and temperatures to expect in the Rockies at the beginning of Sept. Thanks,
Patricia

Hello Patricia,

About the weather, you could expect daytime highs to be something like 18 deg C and night time lows to be around 5 deg C. That said, the actual temperature on a given day can be considerably higher or lower than the seasonal average.

It is not uncommon for the mountains to get a dusting of snow at the beginning of September.

You should bring light hiking boots and layers of clothing so that you can add and subtract layers as needed. Your outermost jacket should be waterproof or at least water resistant.

Your suggestion of doing Kamloops / Revelstoke - Lake Louise - Jasper - Canmore is a good one.

I think you're better off leaving your departure from Calgary as it is, i.e., 12.15 p.m.

There is quite a heavy demand for accommodation in the Rockies on the Labour Day weekend. Also there is quite a lot of traffic on the highway to Calgary on the afternoon of Labour Day, as families return from their last big outing of the summer. However, if you travel that route in the morning, you should be fine. I would expect Calgary Airport to be a bit on the busy side, for the same reason. But I don't think the level of road or air traffic is anything to worry about.

Hi Judy,
Thanks again for the info. We've tossed around various options and decided that as long as we get to Colorado Springs by late afternoon we should be okay so I think we will take the 12.15p.m. flight from Calgary on Tues 6th. This will give us a complete extra day in the Rockies so my question is where do you think would it would be best to spend this extra day??
Patricia

Hello Patricia,

If you have an extra day to devote to the Rockies, I would suggest spending it in the Lake Louise area.

I don't recall your mentioning the date you would leave Vancouver, so I've extrapolated it from the other information you've provided.

Am I correct in thinking that your latest itinerary looked like this?

30 Aug - Kamloops or Revelstoke
31 Aug - Lake Louise
1 Sep - Jasper
2 Sep - Jasper
3 Sep - Canmore
4 Sep - Canmore
5 Sep - Fly out of Calgary

If you are willing to add a day to Lake Louise, I would suggest this:

30 Aug - Kamloops or Revelstoke
31 Aug - Lake Louise
1 Sep - Lake Louise
2 Sep - Jasper
3 Sep - Jasper
4 Sep - Canmore
5 Sep - Canmore
6 Sep - Fly out of Calgary

Hi Judy,
Yes you are correct our first day in the Rockies is 30th Aug., the big decision is made and we will follow your itinerary and put the extra day in at Lake Louise. This will be our first trip to Canada and we are really excited about it, just wish we had longer.
Thanks so much for all your help and we wish you a very Merry Christmas from New Zealand.
Patricia