Vancouver to Vancouver road trip visiting the Rockies 9 days
 

Hi, my wife and l are 54, we are travelling in British Columbia for our first time and would really appreciate advice on our upcoming trip 03/09/14 to 12/09/14 . We are picking up a hire car in Vancouver and returning it to the same place. Our main interests are taking in the beautiful scenery 1st ,2nd wildlife, some walking ,good food ,wine nice surroundings. Our definates to see are the Rockies, Banff Lake Louise& Jasper. Any further suggestions of must sees, things to do , routes to take etc . Thanking you for your time and effort .
PS we will be looking around Vancouver, Vancouver island and Victoria when we get back from the road trip so please don,t include this in the 9 day road trip.

British Columbia is proud of its wineries, which are concentrated in the Okanagan Valley, in the interior of the mountains, but with a sprinkling of other locations. Google will find plenty of sites, starting with these two: http://www.okanaganwine.ca/wineries.html
http://www.winebc.com/discover-bc/okanagan-valley

Welcome

Nine days is the absolute bare minimum to do a Vancouver-Rockies-Vancouver road trip. It would not leave time for any sightseeing along the way in BC and not give you enough time to see all the sights in the Rockies.

You would be looking at 10-12 hours of solid driving to get from Vancouver to the Rockies, which is generally broken up by a night along the way. By the time you've taken four days to do the driving to the Rockies and Banff, you have only 4-5 fays in the Rockies.

I would strongly suggest flying round trip to Calgary - you will get to see a lot more. If you have to drive, this is a suggested itinerary. You can see that you won't have much time and there's a lot that you will miss.

Sept 3 - drive part way to the Rockies. Stay in Kelowna or Kamloops or other location

Sept 4 - arrive in Banff afternoon, maybe time to walk around town

Sept 5 - Lake Louise, Banff

Sept 6 - drive the Icefields Parkway to Jasper

Sept 7 - Jasper

Sept 8 - drive part way to Vancouver

Sept 9 - rest of the way to Vancouver


Or you could choose to omit Japser, and instead drive half way up the Icefields Parkway and have one day to see Banff & area and another day for Lake Louise/Moraine Lake.

Oops. I shortchanged you a few days. Still very crowded, and will only work if you can get out of Vancouver by midday on the 3rd and have most of the day on the 12th. If you are flying out of Vancouver on the 12th, you need to back there by the 11th. And as I said, you really don't have time to do any exploring on the way to the Rockies - you'll need to do 4-6 hours of driving a day.

Sept 4 - arrive in Banff, mid to late afternoon
Sept 5 - Banff
Sept 6 - Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, other Banff
Sept 7 - YoHo National Park
Sept 8 - drive Icefields Parkway to Jasper
Sept 9 - Jasper
Sept 10 - Jasper
Sept 11 - start back to Vancouver
Sept 12 - rest of trip to Vancouver

I agree this isn't much time for the rockies and interior BC.

- For scenery, take the Gondola up Sulphur mountain in Banff, or alternatively you could hike up 2-3 hours) and gondola back down - this method is free.
- Walk down the main street in Banff
- Tour Banff Springs Hotel (or stay there).
- Go horse back riding around Banff if you're so inclined. I find this way you can take in the scenery
- Hike around Lake Louise (the actual lake) there is a tea room at the far end
- You can take a chairlift up Lake Louise ski area in the summer for panoramic views
- Seeing the Columbian Icefields is very interesting
- Stop at Frank Slide during your drive

Google map Vancouver > Jasper > Banff > Vancouver, and then you will see your route and how much extra driving Jasper adds. You could go through Kamloops one way and Kelowna the other - Kelowna/Summerland is through wine and orchard country and only adds 30 minutes driving time.

Salmon Arm/Shuswap lake is popoular for cottage/cabins and houseboating

Personally I would skip Jasper, but I am from Calgary so I haven't been to Jasper much ;)

If you skip Jasper, you don't get the full Icefields Parkway experience. It's one of the most spectacular drives in North America, so if you are coming all this way to see the Rockies, it makes sense to do it properly. And Jasper has quite a different feel from Banff/Lake Louise - smaller, a bit quieter and less upscale.

Jasper is actually slightly closer to Vancouver that Banff, so you really not adding extra time by doing one leg to/from Vancouver to Jasper. Other than that to see the Icefields Parkway - and you want at least a full day to stop at the pullovers and explore the sights along the way.

(That said, Andrea, I live in Edmonton and seem to spend a lot more time in Banff, Canmore and David Thompson area than Jasper...)

Frank Slide is fascinating in a grim kind of way, but a bit of drive from the likely route of this trip. And given the short time frame of this trip, I'd stick to the national parks area (Jasper/Banff/Yoho).

+1 for the hike around Lake Louise -there are two tea houses - to see one takes a couple of hours, but you can make a whole day out of the loops and various hikes in the area.
T

The Columbia Icefields are interesting - you can do a very short hike to the toe of the glacier on your own, but do NOT go on the glacier yourself. The only way to go on the glacier is with the Icefields Explorer tour or one of the half/full day glacier walk tours.

Thanks for the prompt reply its appreciated we will take your suggestions on board and any further input would be most welcome.

leave vancouver and spend 3 nights in the okanagan area - i like penticton (nice beach in town and check out sun-oka beach in summerland, check out narramata, there are wineries in the area, kettle valley rail), then banff for 3 nights, drive the icefield parkway, 3 nights in jasper and then plan a long day of driving and head back to vancouver.

My favorite way to arrive in Jasper is on the ViaRail Canadian which originates in Vancouver. It arrives in the afternoon and there are rental car agencies within walking distance of the train station. Brewster (bus tour) has a desk in the east half of the train station in Jasper.