Planning for Sept 2009 the 'grand tour' from Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, then south thru Glacier & Yellowstone, probabably returning from Jackson to NYC. Thinking 3 weeks. Drive from Portland to Vancouver, Rocky Mountaineer from Vancouver-Calgary, then car rental again from Calgary to Yellowstone. Advice needed: (1) do-able in 3 weeks?; (2)are car rentals $$ prohibitive w/ US-Canada drop offs (3) is 3 days per city and park appropriate for the top sights? (4) Grand Tetons necessary too or will we have nature burn-out by then? Thanks all

It's doable in 3 weeks. If you rent a car in a large city such as Portland or Seattle and return it there the rates aren't unreasonable. You will pay extra for one-way rental and smaller cities such as you'll find in Montana tend to be more expensive for the car rentals. You would have to check with the company about renting a car in the US or Canada and dropping it off in the other.

Personal choice, I would not miss the Grand Teton National Park

Do you plan to skip Banff and Jasper?

Along the same lines, are you planning to skip all the scenic areas/national parks in OR, WA and BC and just focus on the cities?

I think 3 weeks would barely be enough for just those 3 areas.

Thanks for your input -- we would be renting car from Portland to Vancouver, then boarding the Rocky Mountaineer to Calgary; then getting another car rental from Calgary to Jackson WY (therefore 2 US-Canada pickups & dropoffs). We absolutely will see Columbia River Gorge around Portland,some of the northern coastline to the west, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helen, stay on Vancouver Island few nights, spend a night once arrv'd in Banff or Lake Louise, before heading south to Glacier & Yellowstone. We are 'guesstimating' that 3 nts per city-stop will allow touring in the more lovely environs rather than the cities per se. Would you think that 3 nts each for Glacier & Yellowstone --necessary or perhaps 2 each plus the travel day between the two. Thanks much.