hh619

Hi all,

Thank you so much for all your responses, any tips on where to go are very helpful indeedl!

We are going to Fly out on 20th June 2018 as our wedding is on the 16th June 2018, then fly back to Uk on 4th July 2018. To be honest as we have never been to Canada before we are just relying on views of other people who have done the same sort of trip!
This is what the package company deal also suggested:

Days- 1 - Calgary
2- Banff
1 - Emerald Lake Lodge or Chateau Lake Louise
2 - Jasper
1 - Sun Peaks (is it worth a visit)
2 - Whistler
1 – Parksville (to switch to Tofino following snoopdawg suggestion!)
1 - Victoria
3 – Vancouver (is this too long?!)

If we were going to organise it ourselves, does anyone recommend a particular car company?

Is this too much for too weeks as we dont want to be shattered during our honeymoon?

If anyone has suggestions to the above itinerary or hotel suggestions as based on your responses we are going to look at some different hotels from what the package company suggested!!, that would be very helpful.

Hurlabrick

I have been to Kananaskis 'Village'. It was created for the Calgary winter Olympics and is really just a complex of a couple of large hotels, a small store / post office and a bar. Having said that, loved staying there and loved the area.

Highly recommend one of their top of the line duplex apartments if you can run to the expense. They also had a G8 conference there once and IIRC one of their signature dishes was the one served to the world leaders at the G8 - and lovely it was too!

We enjoyed lunching and watching deer and other wildlife casually sauntering by the large windows.

scilly

IMHO, you may well be trying to plan too much for the time


I also arrange all our holidays and trips myself, and do all my own booking. It takes longer than letting a company do it for you, but you get want you really want, and usually for cheaper! I have to say though that sometimes an agent can get a deal that you cannot get, so it is sometimes worth running the trip you have planned past an agent to see what they offer vs what you can get.

Re the hotels .. we've stayed in a lot of them at various times.

Chateau Lake Louise and Jasper Park Lodge are both Fairmont hotels, they are top of the line, fantastic places to stay but usually expensive to very expensive!!

We stay at Whistlers Inn in Jasper, it's right in the centre of town, across from the train station, and is a funky 1930s hotel, Very comfortable, rooms are clean, beds comfortable, and loads of places to eat close by.

Coast Plazas are OK, but the one in Vancouver is certainly not the best placed.

Sun Peaks is a ski resort, not sure what will be happening in late June .... could be skiing high up, could be mountain biking.

Tofino is quite a long drive across the Island ...... we don't rush, like to stop and check out views, etc, but it took us about 6 hours each way a couple of years ago. We had a friend from UK who really wanted to see the West Coast and was staying with us for 4 days , so we could only stay 1 night in Ucluelet, which is south of Tofino, and a much quieter nicer and more preferable place to me.

You would really want to have more time to do things than we had that time ............ so you'd have to look at spending at least 2 nights in Tofino, allowing 1 full day and 2 days of driving plus ferry each way.

As far as Vancouver is cincerned, I've produced several lists of things to do here for various meetings, and there is a surprising amount, many of them free . despite what others on here will say. But it does depend on what you want to do.

Basically, Vancouver is a North American city in a lovely setting .. not too many "ancient things to look at. BUT if you want to get out and do things . you can climb Grouse Grind (work off some of that weight you'll have put on ), go to Lynn Canyon and walk the forest trails, take a Zodiac Whale Watching tour if you havne't already done it, etc etc.

I could easily plan an outdoors stay in Vancouver of 4 or 5 days for you


Late June and early July is the beginning of the tourist season ....... school holidays usually begin in Canada around June 28/29, so there will be families getting in early summer holidays.

That usually means top prices ............... another reason to check your plan with an agent, just in case.

Aviator

Jasper to Harrison is 9 hours+ driving, no stops. Want to sight see on the way, make 2 days of it. Stop in Wells Grey park.
Wells Gray Country British Columbia - Home - Waterfalls Wilderness and Wildlife

Last time I made the drive was 11 hours with stops for food and gas.

Rather than Harrison Hot Springs Resort (vastly overrated in my view), look at Rowena's Inn on the River, perfect honeymoon spot. http://www.prettyestateresort.com/rowenasinnontheriver/


We live 20 mins from Harrison and it is very touristy, the resort is dated, nowhere near what it was 15 years ago. Irritating elevator music on every floor, all night long! Restaurants have gone downhill. All restaurants in Harrison are expensive and just about average.

Rowena's to Harrison Hot Springs 2o mins. No comparison for quality.

For Vancouver, Westin Bayshore is a good moderate hotel.

Sunpeaks not worth the detour in the time you have.

Whistler and Parksville overrated.

Danny B

Sun Peaks is the baby brother of Whistler. Once you've seen one ski resort you've seen 'em all. I wouldn't bother going to both, and Whistler is much better.

MiniB

I had my honeymoon in June this year and spent time in Wells Gray, really enjoyed it as we had an RV though some campsites have cabins. To offer some ideas, this is what we got up to:

Vancouver
Chilliwack
Wells Gray - Clearwater
Wells Gray - Mahood Lake
Squamish (I have family there)
Vancouver

We're outdoors'y but got some local town and city fun by doing this plan over 2 weeks. Deliberately did a loop to and broke-up the driving with a stop at Hat Creek Ranch plus we got a few km's on the Sea to Sky. When planning it was very tempting to go 'big' but then you can easily lose plenty of time travelling, be careful!

hh619

Hi MiniB,

Thanks for your sharing your ideas, looks fun, we will look at those areas tonight

We are wondering whether we might be planning too much now. We will love driving and seeing the sights along the way, but we definitely don't want to spend too much time in the confines of a SUV/RV, and not having enough time to get out and experience it first-hand.

hh619

Thanks Danny, duly noted! That will help us with not going over-board with our itinerary

hh619

Hi Aviator, thanks for your input

Wells Gray Country looks great and Rowena's Inn would be perfect. I will show the Fiancee later

Oakvillian

I don't know the areas where your itinerary goes at all, so can't advise on specifics, but have a couple of general points:

I think you may be underestimating the size of Canada and the distances (and driving times) between places. You look to be planning an awful lot of driving - have you done a time/distance summary of your proposed itinerary? It may surprise you...

My OH and I did a road trip honeymoon on the other side of the country. We were married in Montreal, so it made sense to go exploring eastwards from there. In 10 days we covered around 3500km in our rental car (an utterly cheesy white convertible), which gave us a couple of long driving days but plenty of time off in between to look around. I wouldn't have wanted to spend much more time on the road.

There were a couple of fixed waypoints on the itinerary, but the rest was fairly flexible as we knew it might end up being a bit weather-dependent. We stayed in a mix of eclectic B&Bs and, in the cities, mid-range hotels, booked direct a day or so in advance as our itinerary firmed up.

hh619

Hi scilly, Thanks for your post

Yeah we are definitely thinking we are trying to cram too much in, we really don't want to exhaust ourselves! You're right with regards to agents sometimes being able to get deals than the public can get, so we will also keep that avenue open.

We have never organised anything like this before! It's very daunting to say the least. We have ideas, but we still aren't 100% sure on what we want to do! We want to experience the amazing scenery, go on long walks, but we also want to spend some time in the city. We need to find the right balance somehow!

We definitely wont be going to Sun Peaks if it's primarily for skiing

Tofino looks fantastic so we may have to spend some more time there Is it really 2 days of driving and Ferry? That sounds like a lot to me lol.

We'd definitely like to have some plans for our time in Vancouver. It's somewhere we haven't ever looked at living (if the move to Canada ever comes to fruition) due to the the massive cost of living but somewhere we've both wanted to visit. So we may take you up on your offer at some point

What are the approx. dates for the tourist season? Also, i assume it stops raining late June in Vancouver right?

Edit: I like to use the word definitely. Apparently.

hh619

I missed this one lol. I'm not sure how being bored of each other and having to spend long periods in a car would work though!?

Haida Gwaii - looks nice! Although, not the easiest to get to

Flossie and Jim

Just throwing it out there but if you have the $$$ what about the Rocky Mountaineer train from Banff to Vancouver. Takes two days with an overnight stop (I think in Kamloops) but you can relax and watch the scenery and let someone else do the work for you!

Aviator

You can do Vancouver to Tofino in 9 hours by road and ferry with a few stops along the way. Alternatively https://www.tourismtofino.com/getting-to-tofino/air We do Abbotsford to Tofino in 50 minutes.

In the time frame you have, not much time to enjoy the locale unless you fly in.

Traveling Canada is more than the destination, there is a lot to see on the way, so lots of stops to see points of interest, viewpoints and explore. If you want to enjoy a west coast beach, go up to French Beach when in Victoria. It is just past Sooke.

Aviator

It is more $$$$$$! Plus no chance to stop and look and points of interest.