Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Hi all,

My fiancée and I are planning a honeymoon road trip in Canada next June. We are using a company in the UK who will be organising the whole trip.

We’ve never done a road trip like this before, but both thoroughly enjoy outdoor activities and love scenic views, etc.

The locations below are new to us but were highly recommended by the travel company (of course!), so would love it if we can have some feedback as to whether they are good choices, or are there better locations? Also, what are your thoughts on the price?

Duration 13 days – Price £4000 includes Ferries, rental car & insurance. Excursions, etc. are not included.

Day 1 – Calgary –Coast Plaza Hotel & Conference Centre
Day 2 - Kananaskis Village – Delta Lodge at Kananaskis
Day 3 & 4 - Banff - Modern – Elk and Avenue Hotel
Day 5 & 6 – Jasper - Chateau Jasper
Day 7 - Harrisons Hot Springs – Harrison Hot Springs Resort
Day 8 & 9– Parkville - Tigh Na Mara
Day 10 – Victoria - Harbour Tower Hotel & Suites
Day 11 – 13 – Vancouver Century plaza Hotel & Spa

Thanks!

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Wow, that seems crazy expensive to me! Does it include flights? Or any food? If not the I can't really see what you're paying for tbh, the hotels are very nice ones but have you costed it up to see what they'd total if you booked direct and just hired a car?

I am the queen of bargain holidays (my usual budget is no more than £2000 for the four of us, and we always have fab holidays, in school holidays - including several road trips), so that price is making my stingy side wince. :lol:

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

It sounds like a bespoke package deal - so including flights, hotels, and car rental, so that is £1,000/ person/ week, of which half may be the flights, or around £70/night (excl flights) which seems pretty cheap, IMO. I certainly wouldn't compare it to staying in someone's spare room using Airbnb, and I am not even sure you'd save a whole lot anyway, without giving up a lot of the "luxuries" of conventional hotels.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Do you know which ferry terminal you will be arriving in on Vancouver Island? It might be worth swapping around days and 8,9 and 10. The Century plaza is nice but is not high end and is right next door to the main emergency room in Vancouver, might be a bit noisy with sirens!
It does seem a little pricey, but the flights alone can be half of that!
Enjoy!

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Have to agree with Christmas, I love arranging travel, love road trips but your trip seems a bit expensive- even for me and I like spending! It also seems poorly thought out.
On the rare occasions I have let others arrange anything for me, there have been issues. I like to be hands on- its so easy to research everywhere now.

So a few comments.
Huge distances in 2 weeks.
2 nights in Parkville!!!! Switch to Tofino and miss Kananaskis- lovely place ,but its not as good as Banff/Jasper so save for another trip and then join with Waterton ( if there is anything left after the awful fire).
Harrison is supposed to be nice if you want a hot spring- never been. Its a 7 hour drive from Jasper to Harrison though.
I personally would spend a night at Clearwater for a brief jaunt into Wells Grey NP,( Helmcken falls is worth a stop) then a night at Whistler, then over to Tofino and back to Vancouver- I assume you fly in YYC/out YVR. If you want outdoors I would miss Victoria. I love Victoria but its a small city - great for a weekend when you move over.
But the hotel in Victoria I have stayed at because it has apartment style rooms and I was catering for 7! Nice hotel, great views- fairly central.

Another place to consider:
Emerald Lake- stunning, lovely resort, busy during the day ( coach tours) but at night and early mornings it is beautiful. Not cheap but worth the money.

But you say you want to be outdoors and want views- so why not rent a small RV.
The views, smells, sounds as you wake in the morning in a forest will stay with you forever.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

+1. We all did 2.5 weeks around California/Nevada in an RV last year and just had the best time. Magical.

OP, you didn't mention flights as being included so I'd assumed they weren't - if they are then the price isn't so bad (although still a lot more than I'd spend, but then I'm not a high end hotel kind of girl - give me an RV or a self catering apartment any day!).

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Hi Tootlepootle, thanks for the advice! I would definitely find sirens quite annoying, so i guess that hotel is crossed off :)

The itinerary says Parkville (Ferry – Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo) and then Ferry – Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen. I'm just looking at google maps to figure out the locations of these!

Sorry, as Pulaski mentioned, It does include flights. We'd definitely enjoy a road trip in an RV and self catering, but thought as it will be our honeymoon that we would go a little more extravagant. Although, i still think we will take a look at that option :)

Hi snoopdawg. Thanks for the great advice! We are researching those areas now :) We do love the outdoors, but we also thought Victoria would be nice to have a look see and it's super close to Vancouver.

Correct - in YYC/out YVR. We are going to look at the RV option now too. As you've suggested, i think we might just research and plan this ourselves. It will be more work, but with the help of the suggestions in this thread i'm sure it will be better and hopefully cheaper in the end :)

Thanks all.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Horseshoe bay -Nanaimo is perfect for Whistler-Tofino!
Swartz bay is about 25-30 mins north of Victoria- thats perfect for an easy trip to YVR.

Just come back with your thoughts. I think as so many of us live here and have travelled around , we can help you plan the perfect honeymoon!

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Have been to Harrison Hot Springs twice - it's a pleasant spot (lake, mountains etc. with a nice walk by the lake shore) but not mega-wow in a Swiss sort of way, and both hotels we stayed in were pretty mediocre. We didn't dunk ourselves in the hot springs so can't comment on that. My abiding memory is of a dead bat falling on my head when eating dinner, but I guess that's fairly unlikely to happen to you!

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

A honeymoon? I'd wait to do a trip like that after about three years into your marriage when you're bored stiff of each other. Plus if you're coming all this way you might want to consider visiting Haida Gwaii.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Love that! I was "attacked" by a bat once in Vancouver before it fell into a bush- I often wonder if it had rabies.

My issue with hot springs are the number of people I see afterwards with unpleasant rashes, I see them as giant bubbling petri dishes :unsure:

Just a thought re Victoria- it is lovely, small, easy to walk round. Lots of great restaurants. Vancouver is large, very spread out- so why not miss that in favour of Victoria, then ditch the car at YYJ- fly straight to YVR- its 15 mins.
I changed this after Stinky pointed out you had more than 1 night in Vancouver, which I'd missed.
Re Haida Gwaii- I think we would all like to go there, but not practical on a road trip like this.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Coast Plaza Hotel in Calgary seems a weird choice to me. Its in the NE fairly close to the airport. Would you not prefer something downtown at all? You could at least then walk to the tower, glenbow museum, get a ctrain to a mall, etc. There are lots of nice hotels - Fairmont Palliser, le Germain, Marriott, Hyatt, Sheraton, and pretty much most of the chains.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Elk & Avenue Hotel in Banff was newly refurbished in the last year. Haven't stayed myself yet but its getting pretty good reviews. it used to be called the International. Its a really good location - its the first hotel on the long strip of hotels and is closest to the main street in Banff so not far to walk for all the stuff you need.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

I also think you could book all this separately yourself and save a lot of $$$$$ :)

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Why not give us your dates, the absolute must see/do places, and see what we can all come up with!

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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!:confused:
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? :blink:

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.:thumbsup:

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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 :eek: , 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 :rofl: ), 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 :nod:


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.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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!

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Hi Aviator, thanks for your input :)

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

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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 :p

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 :nod:

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

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

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

I missed this one :p 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 :ohmy:

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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!

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

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

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

IMHO ...... Rocky Mountaineer is a tourist thing to do, and terribly expensive.

You're thinking of several thousand dollars for 2 people for the 2 day trip from Vancouver to Banff, PLUS hotel in Kamloops PLUS either paying for one of their events that evening or for dinner on your own. You're also just looking, not exploring anywhere that looks as if it might be interesting

We did this trip back in 2003 when they ran 2 trips in winter, I think that is the first and only time they've done that. It was quite fun, we saw some parts of south-eastern BC that you don't get to by road, but I honestly and truly felt that the approx $850 each that we spent was a good price ......... and that was half the cost of the then summer price for the trip.


Matt ............. If you want to do a good job of seeing the Rockies and Wells Gray Park, I honestly and truly would think of NOT going to Vancouver Island.

You're going to be doing a lot of driving, and rushing around, and be exhausted when you get back home.

Don't forget that you will have at least some jet lag on arriving in Canada and when you get back to UK.



Tourism season basically in western Canada and the Rockies seems to be from end of May to end of September/October ............. older couples and people without children in the earlier and later periods, families with children from end of June to Labour Day (first Monday in September). Peak fares and hotel rates tend to be from end of June to about beginning or middle of September. Your buses for foreign tourists are a constant from May through until late September.


Weather in Vancouver is impossible to forecast for the long distance. This year it rained almost constantly from March to June 20th (before that it was freezing and snow on the ground). Then we had no rain at all until near the end of August (a few drops), and high temperatures through until last week

Usually ...... it can be rainy in June

All who live here have wet weather gear for every season!

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

You might find this trip planner of use - https://trips.furkot.com/

:)

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

I think one more thing needs to be said ......

..... people have been suggesting that you rent an RV for your trip.

You should be aware that National and Provincial Parks in the Rockies and in BC all now require advanced reservations for sites, and booking for those opens in February or March. Some sites are left "open" for non-registered visitors, but they soon go.

It is no longer a matter of turning up at one of the National or Provincial Park around 4 pm and having a choice of sites.

That means the choice is either Forestry sites, which are lovely but have few services on them, or private campgrounds who usually charge more than the Parks, but do usually have showers and flush toilets, and maybe a small shop, although the "ambience" is very different.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Forget the RV! Pain in the arse. You have to go shopping for groceries, as scilly stated you need to find a campground every night. Shopping may be limited to Walmart, who seem to welcome RVers to part in their lot. Drives a car, stay in nice hotels and eat in restaurants, much more civilized.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Hi all,

Apologies for the late reply, i haven't been on here much as of late due to personal circumstances.

We've now booked 10 days in Vancouver! We are going to stay at L'Hermitage and are planning various day trips. In the end we thought that the road trip might be too exhausting for a Honeymoon! We are planning on doing one, but that might be on the cards for 2019 instead!

Has anyone stayed at the L'Hermitage? We are trying to cram in as much as possible in and around Vancouver. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

So far:

- Whistler. I think this can be done in 1 day? If not, we will go back for a second visit.
- Chilliwack
- Possibly Victoria?
- Whale Watching.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

What you gonna do in Chilliwack? Ain't nothing there but farms and a strong stench of manure :lol:

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Thanks Aviator.

Think these looks like good choices! I will research them a little more.

• Britannia Mines/Squamish/Whislter
• Float plane CYHC to CYWH (Victoria) - Depends if the Fiancee can cope with the heights, i'd enjoy it!
• Fort Langley - Half day
• Steveston harbour/cannery and whale watching
• Grouse mountain - Sounds like a good day out, might even try the hike.. :)
• Downtown/Gastown/beaches/Stanley Park. - Full or part days
• Harbour dinner cruise to Indian Arm - Evening
• Golden Ears Provincial Park (not on the weekend) - Full day
• Pinecone Burke Prov. Park - Full day

• Find the 9 o clock gun, get the wife to pose for a photo of the harbour by the gun at 8.58. Never fails to surprise! - Sleep on the couch that night

LOL had to google this! that would be hilarious :D - but not a risk i'm willing to take :P

HAHA what the hell is that pic!! If the locals look like that i think we might avoid :P

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20061130083842

It was originally suggested by MiniB, does look scenic! *I'll do more research*

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

Cultus Lake
Chilliwack Lake
Elk Falls
Bridal Falls
Harrison Hot Springs
Harrison Mills/Rowenas Inn on the River

Although on a first trip to BC, Chilliwack is not the obvious tourist destination.

Re: Road trip, advice needed :)
 

I thought it humorous, OH was not so impressed!