Hipster Contrarian

(Is this the right board for this?)

I was hoping that some of you might have some ideas for how to spend my next holiday in B.C., which will be in October, for 11 days. We'll be flying into Vancouver, and obviously we'll want to spend a couple of days there, but not the whole holiday. We'd also like to spend a day or so in Victoria , but if we can't, no biggie.

Bearing in mind that we'll be flying back out from Vancouver (the flights are already booked), can you recommend some good places to visit? I've bought various guides which are quite helpful, but I'm still a bit stuck on what to do to make the best of our time there. I like the look of the Okanagan Valley and have found good reviews for a couple of B&Bs there, for example, but what's it likely to be like in October? Would we be better off heading inland to the mountains? I really do want to pay a visit to Banff or the surrounding area and do a bit of walking, but is that realistic? Would it be a silly idea to plan to go in a sort of loop, taking in the Okanagan (some of it!), Banff (ditto) and so on before heading back to the city?

This brings me to another question: car hire. Is it cripplingly expensive? I'm guessing that if we want to see any of the places listed above, we'll need a car (is that right?), but I'm a bit clueless about car hire, and Google isn't really helping much. I can't seem to get an idea of the cost.

Oh, and we will just consist of two able-bodied adults, late 20s, so don't worry about child-friendliness. In fact we prefer places not to be on the whole . Budget is reasonable but we're not looking for luxury!

Any advice will be very gratefully received. The trouble we're having is that there are so many places we want to go round there that we can't seem to narrow it down and come up with an itinerary!

Thanks in advance.

Danny B

I hired a Ford Explorer (4x4 thing) from Budget for 7 days and it cost me $550 with unlimited mileage. The insurance that they add on top is the killer though...that $550 was all inclusive.
These people are good http://www.holidayautos.co.uk

As for a scenic route, I'll let someone else answer that in more detail but you are along the right tracks. Vancouver > Okanagan > Calgary > Banff > Kamloops > Vancouver.

fuschiagirl

Try www.cheap-car-rental.com - it is actually Thrifty.

We have hired from them twice and they seemed to offer by far the best deal, all insurance, 2 drivers covered AND a full tank of petrol at pick-up - take it back empty.

Joanne

ann m

We've done 'the loop' a couple of times, but each holiday was over a leisurely 3 weeks - so 11 days might consist of a lot of driving and/or less stop off points - but you can certainly cover a fair distance in that time frame.

Is this purely a holiday - or a proper recce?! You might want different things out of your journey - and therefore might be guided to different locations by our BE panel of experts

printer

It's certainly a difficult one. We did that kind of trip in summer 2004 but had 17 days so bit more time. It depends how much you enjoy driving, B.C. is pretty easy as far as traffic goes so you can certainly cover some mileage if you want to.
We started our trip in Vancouver then did Harrison Hot springs, Penticton, Kelowna, Vernon, Revelstoke, Banff, Canmore, Calgary, Jasper, Clearwater, 100 Mile House, Squamish, Vancouver. We didn't spend the night in all these places, some were just brief stop offs for food and legs stretching.

Never got time for Vancouver Island so that will have to wait for another day.

Rob_999

Banff is a long way - about a 10hr drive straight from Vancouver. You could make it to there, but it’s going to be a lot of time spent in the car... Weather wise October has been nice the past couple of years, but it could be doing pretty much anything!

If it was me then I'd spend a few days in Vancouver, then visit 2 or maybe all of the below:

Okanogan - Wineries & lakes. If you're into hiking go via highway 3 and stop in Manning Provincial Park on the way. There are some stunning day & overnight hikes here.

Vancouver Island - Tofino is always popular, and great for kayaking & wildlife spotting. Also try and visit one of the gulf islands as well if you have time, would recommend Galliano - hire bikes or kayaks and explore, simply awesome. IMO Victoria is nothing special, and not really worth seeing.

Whistler - tourist central, but a fun place to visit. There's loads to do here - really good alpine hiking, with the benefit of a gondola to take away all the hard work. It’s easy to get away from the crowds up on the mountain.

AlexInBC

I'd agree with Rob... Trying to do a loop from Vancouver to Calgary and back in 11 days would mean that you don't have time to appreciate any of the stop-off points. I'd still advise you to do a self-drive loop, but one that stayed within BC (maybe coming as far as us as it's beautiful here and I can recommend a nice, cheap B&B ). Save Alberta for a separate visit.

HTH,
Alex

Rich_007

Warmer than the mtns. Late season, very quiet all the 'Bertans have gone, may have the odd warmer day & some rain but fine for getting aroud seeing stuff. Not as many outdoor opportunities as the season is all but over, restaraunts wll be quiet. Can still hike and such. Nice to just mooch about at that time of yr.

Weather not guaraneed to play fair.

Rich.

bazzz

If you've got a gold credit card, you won't need to pay for this insurance as it's included as a benefit of the card. We upgraded our HSBC card for this reason alone. Well worth paying $60 for.

JimandNic

I agree - that's a whole lot of driving for 11 days.

If you're keen to do all these stops and aren't on a strict budget - have you considered getting a flight from Vancouver to Calgary and then hiring a car for the one-way trip back to Vancouver?

The Westjet autumn seat sales usually kick in around this time so you could pick up a relative bargain.

Otherwise, I'd agree with other's suggestions to cut the itinerary shorter and concentrate on BC for this trip -the Okanagan will still be lovely at that time of year and much less touristy (always a bonus!) Maybe spend longer on VI and explore further north outside Victoria. (we just returned from a short break to Tofino which was absolutely brilliant - that would make a great relaxing place to end after a road trip in BC).

Hipster Contrarian

Thanks everybody, I really appreciate it. Lots to think about there!

I wish we had that long. Unfortunately work is causing problems for us (which is partly why we're not going 'til October!) so that's the most we can get. We definitely don't want to spend the whole time driving, not least because I don't drive myself and I don't want my boyfriend to get stuck with a really crappy holiday playing chauffeur.

This seems like a very tempting option, actually, not least so we don't overstretch ourselves by trying to see everything. The trouble is that there are so many places we want to see that narrowing it down is really hard! There are a couple of mentions of Tofino here, so when I get home I'll dig out my guidebooks and have a good look, thanks.

Another tempting idea! I'm going to need about 4 holidays for everything I want to do. I know, I'll think about moving there .

I think this is what I'm leaning towards now. We want to be able to relax, not spend hours bickering over maps . So would you all say that the Okanagan is nice to visit? I'm worried that October is too late to see it really, but as I said, we're tied in by work so it has to be then. Will the B&Bs still be open around then? I don't want to turn up and find everything closed for the season!

Also, I know this is a bit "how long is a piece of string?" but how much would you say we should expect to pay for a reasonable B&B? It just needs to be clean and with a private bathroom if possible. I know what my budget is, etc. but it would be interesting to hear what locals think is reasonable.

It's mostly a holiday. We still have a long way to go in the queue so it's probably not worth doing too much of a proper recce just yet (I think?). We have narrowed down where we want to live anyway (Downtown/Yaletown), and we don't have to worry about checking out schools or anything like that as it will be just the two of us, so I think a holiday and a chance to get more of a feel for the place is what we're looking for. We live in London so a little light wilderness would not go amiss either !

Thanks again everybody. Please keep it coming if you have anything to add- especially if you can recommend a B&B in the Okanagan!

printer

Just to add this link. It is a useful mileage chart which allows you to type in names of cities/towns and gives you mileage and approx driving time between them.
I found it useful when planning our trip.

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/popular-topi...calculator.asp


Printer.

hot wasabi peas

I believe that the Okanagan Fall Wine Festival and the Vancouver International Film Fest are usually in October. And there is always Thanksgiving/harvest/farmers markets type stuff, gray whale migration off the west coast of Vancouver Island too. Oh and the salmon start spawning... strangely hypnotic, imo.

Kabel

www.bbcanada.com is a good place to start for B&Bs. Also good idea to try some of the travel guide websites as some of them do useful reviews. We thankfully got steered away from some of the B&Bs on our original shortlist.
Trip advisor was the one that we found handy when booking a short trip to BC at the end of this month.

Someone also suggested www.rates2go.com to us as an alternative, as B&B's can sometimes be expensive. It's a last minute hotel reservation site, but it depends on how organised you like to be and whether you like to do things last minute (and obviously risk not getting anything). It wasn't any good for us though as I'm far too much of a control freak and like have everything sorted

Hope this helps
Kabel

JimandNic

During one of our trips we stayed at the following B&B in Kelowna.
http://www.capsoncadder.com/home.html

It's so good there. we cannot recommend it enough. It's not all frou-frou like traditional B&Bs, much more airy and modern - we stayed in the garden suite, with a King Size bed (bliss) and a separate entrance. The food was FANTASTIC - best breakfasts we've ever eaten - the owner Dee Capozi, runs it for fun/meeting new people/love of cooking - and it really shows! When we arrived we were welcomed with a long chat a glass of Okanagan wine and nibbles (depending on how private a couple you are this is either lovely or a bit of nightmare .)
The prices range from $99-$140 depending on room and season. (we thought this excellent value for the room size, location and quality of food)

Oh yeah -and when we read the guest book, we LOL at one of the guests who wrote that they had been introduced to another guest there and only realised afterwards that it was the real Shania Twain - classy place eh

Also when you get to that stage in your application/if you ever need any info on downtown Vancouver/Yaletown, feel free to PM as that's where we live.