helinuk

Before we head off to OZ we have decided to do a trip hubby has always wanted to do, to "The Rockies". So is there anyone out there who could give us a few tips please?

We are going to fly to Calgary, drive Banff- Jasper. And so the boss can enjoy the scenery without doing all the driving we thought a few day tours from those 2 places might be good- any ideas?
Then we get on a train to Vancover, again we have choices of day tours. He fances the Victoria day trip, any other "must dos".?
If you have used the Rocky mountaineer train was the "red leaf" view good enough? The gold leaf is £400 each extra
What can we expect to pay for meals in local restaurants as opposed to the 3 star hotels we will be in? expensive or same as UK?
Any advice welcome.

thank you
Helinuk

Alberta_Rose

Firstly don't underestimate the time taken to drive up the Icefield Parkway. Athabasca glacier is a ride worth taking though, and there are numerous other beautiful places to stp and explore if you have the time.

Spend an overnight in Victoria and go whale-watching?

We found restaurant meals very good value compared to UK, even in touristy places like Banff.

You do realise you will change your minds about moving to Oz after seeing these places, don't you!??


Enjoy!

helinuk

Hi thanks for the tips
oh yes I know the risks of going to Canada on holiday! Hubby used to say he wanted to live there, its a bit cold for me. Interesting though Vancover and Melbourne were equal in the " most livable city in the world" survey.

Judy in Calgary

I strongly recommend against day tours. I've seen the buses let their passengers out for a photo opportunity. Then they load everyone up again and they're off to their next photo op. The passengers don't have any discretion to linger longer at one spot, stop where they like, etc.

The driving is not that onerous anyway. The scenery is really beautiful and, to do justice to it, you need to stop from time to time, get out, do a walk or a little hike, then get back in the car and carry on for a bit. I just cannot state strongly enough how much I disagree with the idea of day tours.

In any case, even if you do want to do a day tour, you don't have to decide about that now. You can book one on the spot if you really want to do one. But if you rent a car and start driving I bet you won't even want to do a day tour.

There are some very specific, short "tours" that are worth doing, e.g., the ride in the Snocoach on the Athabasca Glacier that Morwenna mentioned, the ride in the gondola up Sulphur Montain just outside of Banff townsite, and the cruise across Maligne Lake to Spirit Island near Jasper.

Victoria is a day trip but, again, you don't have to do it as a day tour. You can do it independently.

If you spend only a single day doing it, it makes for a very long day. If you go by ferry, it takes between 3.5 hours and 4 hours to get from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria. The voyage itself is 1.5 hours, but you have to drive to the ferry terminal, embark, disembark at the other end and drive into the city at the other end. Needless to say, if you spend between 7 and 8 hours on getting to and from Victoria, it doesn't leave much time to do justice to Victoria itself.

You can cut down on the time by taking a 40-minute ride in a seaplane from Vancouver Harbour to Victoria Harbour. But the seaplane is considerably more expensive than the bus / ferry option.

I agree with Morwenna's suggestion of an overnight trip to Victoria, if you can possibly spare the time.

Yes there are. Sorry, I don't have time to list and describe them. I've created a web site that provides travel information about the British Columbia coast, the Canadian Rockies and Calgary. It describes how you might use your time in Vancouver if you have one day, two days, three days, and so on.

My web site also provides suggested itineraries for the Rockies. They vary according to how much time you have. There's a one-day itinerary, and they go all the way up to 3 weeks.

I have never been on the Rocky Mountaineer. I have seen only rave reviews by people who have travelled Gold Leaf. But Gold Leaf is, as you say, expensive.

I have seen several unfavourable reviews by people who have travelled Red Leaf. They said they were accommodated in crappy motels, 40 minutes' drive from the train station. (However, I understand you can opt out and arrange your own motel.) You get cold (reportedly crappy) food, served in your seat (as opposed to the hot meals that Gold Leaf passengers get in a dining car). Red Leaf passengers don't have the use of a domed observation car.

The other train option, VIA Rail, is one that I don't recommend. First of all, it travels from Jasper to Kamloops, and doesn't have an option of Banff / Lake Louise to Kamloops, which I regard as the better scenery. Secondly part of the journey takes place at night, so you miss some of the scenery. Thirdly, I've seen very mixed reviews. Some passengers have reported that they had a great time. Other passengers have reported nightmares, toilets that didn't work, etc.

Consequently the only train that I believe is worth taking is Rocky Mountaineer Gold Leaf from Banff to Vancouver, but only if you can afford it. I wouldn't contemplate it for a second. It's way out of my budget.

The other sensible choice, actually the most sensible choice in my opinion, is to drive.

Some London, UK friends visited us in early May 2005. Their feeling was that, if a main course cost 30 CAD in a Calgary restaurant, the same course in a London restaurant of equivalent calibre would have cost close to 30 GBP.

If you read my web site, I recommend reading the "Weather Notes" and "What To Pack" pages, which you can access from the TIPS section.

We lived in Melbourne from July 1997 to January 2000, and I loved it.

Hope that helps.

helinuk

Yes that help hugely- thank you so much for taking the time to reply!
Will go and read your website now.

helinuk

We lived in Melbourne from July 1997 to January 2000, and I loved it.

Hope that helps.[/QUOTE]

Judy
Fantastic website thank you!

I know you are in Calgary but briefly, how would you rate lifestyles -Melbourne against Vancover?
H.

Judy in Calgary

Oh my gosh, helinuk, answering that question would be trying to split the unsplittable hair. I believe both cities provide a good quality of life. As you say, the two cities consistently rank close to each other on those "most livable city" surveys.

I think some of Vancouver's advantages for a Brit would be:

- cheaper, shorter, non-stop flights available to the UK

- seasons are in synch with each other, so family members' summer holidays occur at the same time, which makes it easier to hook up with each other

- cars, electrical appliances, and some other goods are cheaper in Canada than in Australia

- easier access to high quality downhill skiing

I think some of Melbourne's advantages for a Brit would be:

- more cultural similarities (cricket, rugby, terminology, etc.)

- last I head Australian vacation entitlements were still much longer than those in Canada

- easier access to tropical latitudes (the Great Barrier Reef - yes!)

- same voltage of electricity, and I think the television formats are the same as well, so I imagine you could take most appliances with you (but don't take my word for that, as I myself have not moved from the UK to Australia)

- drive on the same side of the road, so that would not require any adjustment, plus you might be able to take your British car (but again don't quote me, as I have not gone through that exercise myself)

I like Australia very, very much. I think it was Jeremy of this forum who said that Australia offered the best of Canada and the United States, a social safety net that was similar to Canada's and a climate that was similar to that of the U.S. There is a lot of truth to that.

However, Australia's distance from the UK and its out-of-synch seasons are something to think about. My husband's and my families are in South Africa, and I can attest to the fact that those factors are not insignificant in a family's life.

I don't know if that helps. I imagine you've already thought about all these points, and I don't know if I've made it any easier. Actually I don't think the choice can be made that much easier. The reality is that Vancouver and Melbourne both have attractions, and those attractions would carry almost equal weight according to many people's value systems, I would think.

In an earlier post in this thread you said Canada was a bit cold for you. Well Melbourne is not that warm in winter. It actually gets some rather cool, wet, windy weather. It also gets some horrifically hot days in summer, over 40 deg C. Its springs are very unstable. You get some lovely spring days, and some cool, wet, windy ones. Sometimes summer doesn't arrive until New Year. That would be like summer not arriving till July 1st in the northern hemisphere.

Melbourne weather is extremely changeable. Literally three days before Christmas, when you want to buy your turkey and decide what sort of meal you're going to serve, you don't know if it'll be 15 deg C or 40 deg C on Christmas Day. My next-door neighbour told me to watch the weather reports for Perth, as the weather fronts usually went from west to east, and that would give me some idea of what I could expect on Christmas Day. The most stable time of year in Melbourne usually is March - April. The autumns usually are lovely.

When Melbourne has a beautiful day from a weather point of view, it really is fabulous. But, as you will have gathered by now, there are many days on which the weather is nothing to write home about.

Even after saying all that about Melbourne's weather, I still enjoyed the place. It is a very user-friendly, livable city.

And of course Vancouver's winters are wet and cool too, kind of like the UK I'm guessing. But a glorious summer day in Vancouver is so heavenly that you'd almost be willing to endure a lifetime of rain for that one perfect day.

So, helinuk, I don't know. Even as I've been typing this message, trying to clarify the choices for you, I've only been growing more confused.

Something that might help you and your husband one way or the other is the readiness with which Australia might accept your qualifications and experience. I don't know what the career transition is like for a Brit moving to Oz. One of the complaints that comes up on this forum is that there are so many areas in which Canada does not accept non-Canadian credentials.

Hope that helps, at least a bit. Arghhhhhh.

helinuk

[QUOTE=Judy in Calgary]Oh my gosh, helinuk, answering that question would be trying to split the unsplittable hair. I believe both cities provide a good quality of life. As you say, the two cities consistently rank close to each other on those "most livable city" surveys.


Judy
wow thats a great summary of the 2 places. Lovely to hear your views and "meet" someone who has lived in both places. Wish we had longer in Vancover (only 3 days) but it will give us a taster.


We booked the holiday up this morning with your recommendations in mind - so thank you for your input

Helen