lins and Stef McLachlan

Hi Rwin
Thanks for the details about the roads, just the sort of thing you really need to know.
Cheers
Stef

lins and Stef McLachlan

Hi Iain
A very useful tip
cheers
stef

Southcote

We did this a coule of years ago with two children (age 3 and 1) so we tok our time doing it. We're glad we did, as here is some amazing scenery and some great places. We stayed overnight at Banff, Jasper, Kamloops and Whistler. The Kamloops stop was really just to see what it was like. I can fully recommend this trip, it really was fantastic

R I C H

Edited for accuracy

lins and Stef McLachlan

Thanks for your reply, we plan to do one overnighter somewhere en route. Any recommendations re accommodation on the way?
cheers Stef

Judy in Calgary

Any hint as to which town(s) you might want to stay in?

If you go the most direct route, the distance will be 565 miles, which will take about 10.5 hours to drive, not counting stops.

That route would be Calgary - Banff - Lake Louise - Golden - Revelstoke - Sicamous - Salmon Arm - Kamloops - Merritt - Hope - Abbotsford.

If you took that route, I believe a good place to stop for the night would be Salmon Arm. It's on the shores of the Shuswap Lake. I have never stayed in accommodation in Salmon Arm, but have done three houseboating holidays on the Shuwap Lake, so am familiar with the area from that point of view.

We actually rented our houseboats in Sicamous. However, Sicamous is smaller than Salmon Arm. I believe that, although Salmon Arm is not a large metropolis by any means, it would give you more of a selection of accommodation and restaurants.

Salmon Arm would be a little past the half way point between Calgary and Abbotsford.

Another option to consider is to stop in Revelstoke, which would be a little short of your half way point. If you opt for the Revelstoke area, there are two nice places to stay, albeit they are some distance outside of Revelstoke itself. One is the hotel at Three Valley Gap and the other is Griffin Lake Lodge B&B.

Whether you stay in Revelstoke or Salmon Arm, your children may be interested in visiting the Enchanted Forest between Revelstoke and Sicamous (but I don't know what ages your children are and whether or not they would be too old for that).

The route through the Okanagan Valley would add only 15 miles to your journey. According to Map Quest, the most direct route from Calgary to Abbotsford is 565 miles, and the detour through Kelowna is 580 miles. In terms of time, the route through Kelowna would add another 50 minutes or so to your drive. However, since the total drive would be split over two days, I think that would be acceptable.

If you chose to drive through the Okanagan, you could drive Calgary - Banff - Lake Louise - Golden - Revelstoke - Sicamous - Vernon - Kelowna - Merritt - Hope - Abbotsford.

If you chose that route, a convenient place to stop for the night would be Vernon. It's at the north end of the Okanagan Valley, and it would be a little past your half way point in terms of distance from Calgary to Abbotsford. When we visit the area we stay with friends in nearby Armstrong, and I am not familiar with commercial accommodation in Vernon.

If you wanted to press on for about another hour on that first day and drive as far as Kelowna, Iain Mc has provided a link to what looks like a nice B&B with a pool.

If you want to return to Calgary by way of the Crowsnest Highway (Hwy #3), the journey will be longer. The distance is 730 miles. According to Map Quest it takes 14.25 hours, not counting stops. That more or less matches our experience of that route.

If you took that route, the most direct way would be Abbotsford - Hope - Princeton - Osoyoos - Grand Forks - Castlegar - Creston - Cranbrook - Fernie - Calgary.

Castlegar , at the confluence of the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers, would be at the approximate half way point. There also are a couple of towns that you might consider instead of Castlegar. Rossland is in an attractive location in the mountains and is close to the ski resort of Red Mountain. Another option is Nelson, on the shores of Kootenay Lake. Both Rossland and Nelson would involve detours from Hwy #3. Rossland is to the south of Hwy #3, and Nelson is to the north of it. But the Rossland detour would make little difference to your driving time. The Nelson detour would be a bit more significant, but still acceptable.

To help people answer your questions about accommodation, it would help if you would decide which towns you wanted to use for your overnight stops.

I personally think you would get more responses about accommodation at the TripAdvisor forum. Certainly there are people here at BE who know the area and who could give you good information. However, since TripAdvisor is devoted specifically to travel, there are more people on that forum who have travel information at their fingertips.

But the TripAdvisor forum is the same as the BE forum in the sense that the more specific you can be when you make your enquiry, the more useful are the responses that people can provide. It would help if you stated:

• that you were travelling with children (it would be better still if you could state the children's ages)
• that you only wanted an overnight stop as you would be on your way from Calgary to Abbotsford
• that you did not want to take detours to see stuff around Banff and Lake Louise as you would be doing that during a different part of your trip
• which town (or cluster of towns) you were interested in
• what kind of accommodation you wanted (hotel, motel, B&B or whatever)
• what features were important to you (e.g., swimming pool)
• price range

It would be better if you separated your enquiry into two different threads, one about the journey from Calgary to Abbotsford and one about the journey from Abbotsford to Calgary.