The hit-and-run tourism aspect of the trip doesn’t bother me at all. You’re talking to a guy who, when visiting the Grand Canyon for the first time, walked up to the edge, exclaimed, “Holy crap, that’s HUGE,” stared in awe for about five minutes, and then was done. I also once drove three hours from Kansas City to visit St. Louis for the first time, took a “grand tour” and then drove back about four hours later. Would have been shorter had I not gotten sucked into the International Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum that I discovered by accident.
What concerns me are those two very long days of driving. I’ve never covered that kind of ground while traveling by myself before. Come to think of it, even with my wife, I’ve never driven more than ten hours on a single day. I don’t know if I’d be able to do more or less without the company. As you can see from my post in a related thread I started, this particular route was chosen as a compromise between going somewhere new and different, and saving money. But I’ve become rather enamored with the idea of spending time in Canada since then, and I’m not sure how to make it any shorter or more feasible without missing something really cool. And in general, like, Jodi, I really enjoy simply being on the road.
If any of you have any different suggestions, I’m all ears!
Yeah, the long days of driving may be a problem. I wouldn’t recommend more than about 600-700 km for an eight-hour day; that’s Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie or Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay.
On our Great Road Trip out west in '95 or so, we did Flint MI to Minott ND in two days, but that was almost non-stop, 24 hours a day, with three drivers in each car rotating four-hour shifts.
Oh my gosh! If you can add a couple more days to your trip, you might wish to. Or sign up in advance for ‘see the city by bus’ type tours. Calgary is not a small place and traffic, especially at rush hour, can be dreadful. But I can vouch for Mr. & Mrs. featherlou as very pleasant dining companions
We spent 3 hrs at the Science Centre alone! (Edmonton’s is much larger and more interesting than Calgary’s, BTW). And the West Edmonton Mall is big. If you do the waterpark, you’ll be even longer there. Edmonton is also kind of spread out - these are not little burgs by any means.
Check into hotels & motels now. Banff is not cheap - it’s Touristland and then some.
Not gonna happen. You’re going through the mountains; there’s traffic, there’s speed limits - and you really do want to stick to them considering it’s a long way down. We drove Calgary-Vancouver a couple of times - it was something on the order of 10 hrs + Don’t let the small spaces on the map fool you - that’s a long hike. Just divide the distance you have to go by 60 mph (which is faster than you’ll be able to travel through many places) so if you’re driving 1000 miles, you’ll only go 600 miles in 10 hours leaving another 400 miles to go.
Vancouver is huge. And remember not everything is open at night. And second the border crossing remark; there can be very long waits. I’m wondering if it would be better to ferry from Vancouver to Victoria and then to Port Angeles and drive to Seattle. The Coho travels Victoria - Port Angeles several times a day.
This would be a very fun way to go if he had time, but it doesn’t sound like he will. Vancouver-Seattle via ferry is three ferry rides (Vancouver-Victoria, Victoria-Port Angeles, Bainbridge-Seattle), which is itself between 3 and 4 hours on the boats, plus waits (and cost), plus a 65 mile drive from Port Angeles to Bainbridge, at probably 55 mph if he’s lucky.
By highway, Vancouver to Seattle is 117 miles. He could probably wait three hours at the border crossing and be no later than if he took the longer but infinitely prettier and more romantic water route.
P.S. to Asmovian: Having checked the U.S. Customs and State Department websites, if you don’t have a passport you MUST have a certified copy of your birth certificate. You can no longer travel on a state-issued drivers’ license alone (although you must have that too). (Cite.) Though perhaps you already knew that.
Your route is ok, but I have to echo everyone else - your timeline is INSANE! Honestly, you should either add a couple of days to your trip, or cut a few stops out of it. Otherwise you’ll just be driving around Canada and sleeping. Really, Calgary deserves it’s own day (particularly during Stampede - even if you just people watch it’s hillarious!), Edmonton deserves it’s own day, Jasper and Banff are doable in one day, but you’ll probably want to spend the next morning (till noonish) in Banff. Joey Btifspliks (it’s not quite spelled that way) is a great place for a nifty breakfast. Leave at about lunch time and stop somewhere in the Sushwop for the night. Then you’ll get to Vancouver in at least time to have a bite to eat. Otherwise Banff - Vancouver in one day - you’ll get there in the middle of the night and if you have to leave first thing the next morning you may as well not bother - just go directly to Seattle.
Regarding the driving - one year as a holiday I drove from Calgary to Prince George, BC (10 hours) hung out for a few days, drove from PG to Vancouver (about 8 hours if I remember correctly) and then Victoria and stayed a few days, then down to Seattle/Bellingham for a few days. The plan was to drive home from Bellingham to Calgary in one day and I could NOT do it. Even with the few days rest, 14 hours was undoable. Maybe if it had been the first day and I had been fresh it would have been ok, but with all the other driving I had done there’s no way I could have pulled it off. And I’m a seasoned driver. I regularly drive to visit my parents in Manitoba by myself in winter and summer, which is 12 hours, and the 14 hours after all the other travel just wasnt’ going to happen.
I actually did know this (my wife, who is much sharper than I am, made sure I was aware of it). During the single hour of my life spent in Canada previously (crossed the bridge and hung out in Windsor, Ontario for, quite literally, an hour), we used our birth certificates. However, I do intend to go ahead and get my passport – expedited, of course – for this trip because the idea of traveling with my birth certificate without my wife’s responsible hands holding on to it frightens me.
alice_in_wonderland, your comments and the others are making me seriously reconsider this idea. But I just don’t have extra days to spare. The tickets are already purchased for the baseball game in San Francisco, and the idea of cutting my visit with the in-laws any shorter than it already is just seems rude, particularly since seeing them was the original reason for planning a road trip to begin with. I suppose I could leave the Edmonton-Jasper run off and just go from Calgary to Banff (it looks like that would cut of about 10 hours of driving time), but that’s really the meat of the trip right there. sigh
I’m honestly not sure what to do at this point.
ETA: Shryn King, it turns out that leaving Edmonton out but still going to Jasper and Banff doesn’t save me much time/mileage. At least as far as I can tell on the map.
Asimovian, I recommend that you skip Edmonton and Calgary all together.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re nice towns and all, but you’ve got less than a week and you are going to want to focus on the best stuff while allotting enough time to enjoy them.
So, for the “urban enjoyment” portion of your trip, I say focus on Vancouver. As mentioned prior, Vancouver is huge and there is a ton of things to do. In this regard, Vancouver and environs blow Calgary and Edmonton out of the water.
As for Banff and Jasper, you can’t go wrong there.
So, I say get to Banff, head to Jasper, then head to Vancouver via Hwy 5 through Kamloops and Hope. Alternatively, you can alter your course at Kamloops and approach Vancouver from the north via Hwy 99. This an awesome drive that will let you visit Whistler, as well.
This outline makes for an awesome trip and is much more reasonable time-wise.
I would drive to Calgary, hang out for at least a day. Go to Banff, hang out for a day. Leave EARLY in the AM and go to Van and hang out for a day or so and then proceed with your trip. So it will look more like this:
Leave early Sunday morning, July 8, from Elko, NV. Stop somewhere in South Montana (my US geography is not super) Don’t suck it up - go through Glacier Mountain and check out the road to the sun highway - it is REALLY worth it.
Monday morning, drive through Glacier mtn. Arrive in Calgary in the early afternoon. Have lunch, laugh at the locals, have dinner with Featherlou, Dead Pirate Jimbo, Me, Gut if he’s around, Ginger of the North if she’s in town, etc, etc.
Tuesday morning, have breakfast, visit anything I missed the night before. Drive to Banff late morning. Make stops and snap pictures along the way. Spend the night in Banff. (Actually, I wanted to say, if you think you’ll be all “natured out” quick you could leave Banff in the early evening and make it through the mountains so you get an earlier start on Vancouver).
Wednesday morning at the first crack of the sparrow’s fart, drive from Banff to Vancouver. Make sure you have air conditioning and it’s working well. At that time of year the Sushwop will be HOT. Like 38 - 40 degrees and humid. Explore Vancouver in the afternoon/evening.
Thursday morning, possibly explore a bit more, then drive to either Seattle or Portland to spend the night.
You’re suggesting they skip the drive between Banff and Jasper?!? That is madness of the highest order, I tell you!
Asimovian, I also wanted to ask you what condition your vehicle is in. You will be driving hundreds of miles through mountainous terrain and it can be very hot, as mentioned (in degrees C), around Kamloops. You can actually boil your brakes and “bury the needle” on the temp gauge on some of those mountain passes, for example. You probably already know this stuff and I don’t meant to insult your intelligence.
Well, Banff to Jasper and back is about 6 hours round trip, to see a bunch of trees, moose, and perhaps a bear if you’re lucky. So yes, I’m suggesting that **
Asimovian** skip it.
And I’m saying that as someone who’s made the drive more than once, and agrees that it’s beautiful. However, driving on past Banff is going to reveal much of the same scenery, same moose, and same bears and will result in actually having an enjoyable holiday.
No insult taken. The car is just about four years old, in sound mechanical condition, and a diesel, which tends to be able to take a little more abuse. It usually makes the trip twice a year from LA to Vegas going through Death Valley, if that’s any indication. So I’m not terribly concerned about that aspect. However, since the trip (as originally drawn up, anyway) covers about 3,000 miles, I will definitely have it checked out before I get on the road regardless.
alice_in_wonderland, your proposal makes good sense to me, although what I understand to be unique about the drive between Banff and Jasper is seeing the glaciers, and as someone who has never seen a glacier, this intrigues me. On the other hand, going six hours out of the way to do so, especially since that involves going back the same way I came (I have a thing about backtracking) does not intrigue me. Is there a compromise here?
Wow, I’m astonished to hear someone talk like this.
For me, categorizing the Banff/Jasper drive as “a bunch of trees, moose, and perhaps a bear if you’re lucky.” is kind of like categorizing New York City as “a bunch of restaurants, museums, and shops.” But hey, that’s just me.
I’m with Shamozzle, in not quite believing you really mean this. Quoting from another of my guidebooks, the Icefields Parkway is “one of the most scenic, exciting and inspiring mountain roads ever built”. I have no reason to disagree with this.
Death Valley, hey? Well that’s got to be the test, surely.
Yes, it’s a totally awesome drive. Totally amazing. Glaciers and all. Google some pics. And to avoid backtracking, throw in a little Hwy 5, as mentioned.
I don’t mean to post like a demon, It’s just that this thread has got me all excited.
Ok, as an expert in my own mind, this is the portion of the trip I think you should take: link
-Maximum awesomeness tempered by available time
-No backtracking
-The route traverses alpine w/glaciers, sub-alpine, valley floors, semi-desert, and eventually coastal rain forest. And then you end up in Vancouver, an amazing city. This is the way to go.
With a boatload of respect for featherlou, I don’t think this is really doable. Looking at his map (reposted here), he has himself picking up I-15 in Pocatello, ID, and taking it all the way through Montana. That’s the most direct and speediest way. Now, Glacier Park is the green park above “Kalispell” MT on his map (as I’m sure you know), and Going To The Sun Road cuts across Glacier Park from the west to the east.
There’s no interstate from Elko to Glacier Park – literally none. He probably would have to come up through Idaho and Montana on Highway 93, a two-lane road that is neither particularly fast nor particularly safe (Missoula bumper sticker: PRAY FOR ME; I DRIVE 93). OR he would have to cut across from Great Falls to the Park and then back, which will add about 300 miles to his trip.
I would never sell short Glacier Park – one of my favorite places on earth – but the gorgeous scenery he would see is the same type he will see in Jasper-Banff. If he’s set on going to Calgary or Edmonton, much less Vancouver, then I think he has to jet up there quickly and leave the beauties of Montana for another trip.
Well, I’m not actually featherlou however, I’ve only done the trip the other direction - down into Montana through Glacier Park and then over to Idaho. Like I said, my US geography is spotty.
Regarding the Ice Fields Parkway - it’s fantastic, there’s no doubt about it. I’ve driven it a number of times. However, you can’t see everything every trip, ya know?
Asimovian, just as a reference, the last time I did the Banff-Vancouver drive, it was about 13 hours, which included fuel stops and pee breaks, so don’t count on “Vancouver in the afternoon.” Aditionally, you really don’t see much of the scenery while driving on the mountain roads; you have to pay too much attention to the road and other users of it. You’ll see plenty when you stop though, so plan to do that. Yep, mine is another vote for “break it up if you can.”
