Last big family hols. Kids (13 and 15) want to do another motorhome one (we did NZ when they were a lot younger). I’m not interested in any package holidays. But we want to drive through the rocky mountains AND spend some time in Vancouver and around. (might sneak a day in the bike park!)..

Can’t decide if to get flights to either Vancouver or Calgary and just accept it’s 600 miles between the two and lose some time driving one way or the other. Or Fly to one and fly out of the other which’ll cost about £800 more.

We’ll hire a motorhome/5th wheel for the rockies bit and then a hire car / bus ourselves around for the rest of the hols. Going to take 3 weeks so working on half of that driving through the rockies.

Anyone done either and can offer any advice?

Morning Al.

Bit busy currently but will try to compose some thoughts.

I’m not sure I would fly to Calgary, spend time near Calgary then fly Calgary to Vancouver and spend time near
Vancouver. Also probably would not drive there and back.. it’s 600miles but it’s not all motorway. The bits through the national parks can be pretty slow.

Some of the best bits of the Rockies and the like are 3+ hours from Calgary which is a long way to retrace your steps.

I would go 5th wheel over motorhome, easier to use just the pickup part to access trailhead and the like. Nothing beats watching a tourist try to park a motorhome in a small car park in Banff NP.

For stuff near Vancouver I would also push you to think about some seakayaking (ideally off Vancouver island) bit of a time commitment but 4 days in johnson strait with killer whales could be very memorable.

Message me if you want more local knowledge.

Mark S (former C1XV) now living in Calgary….

I did a similar thing about 2 years ago but stayed in hotels rather than motorhome and just hired a car. We flew into Calgary having been in Toronto first and then did Banff, Lake Louise & Jasper before heading to Vancouver & a week touring Vancouver Island. Personally I wouldn’t have wanted to waste a day or two driving back to Calgary as there’s more than enough to do-3 weeks won’t feel like enough time.

We booked through Canadian Sky who were mostly okay apart from a few hiccups. They arranged the itinerary I requested rather than sticking rigidly to a package. Feel free to mail me if you want more info.

Thanks Mark. How the blooming hell are you and Liz? 🙂 Yeah the idea of the 5th wheel really appeals as a) we did notice in NZ getting around in town was a bit of a nightmare and b) the 5th wheel means I get to drive an 6 litre V8! I’d be up for a bit of sea kayaking for sure. My youngest (13) has never really got over missing out on swimming with dolphins in NZ as she was too young, so whale watching would be fantastic.

I’ll drop you a mail then….

Thanks MPH – can you both drop me your email to alex_leigh100(at)hotmail(dot)com as yours are not in your profile..

Just to add my 2 pence worth – GO TO VANCOUVER ISLAND 😆 – but on a more sensible note….

Go to vancouver island!!! I have been to canada twice, once when I was 7 and once when 18, both times the highlights have been on/around the island.

When I was 7 (2001), we flew into vancouver and hired a camper, we then spend 3/4 days on the island (telegraph cove being the highlight – amazing semi-remote campsite in own private cove about 500m from the next campervan), we then toured to calgary over two weeks, but out of all my memories of this holiday 75% come from the island.

The second time round (2012) we flew into calgary with the idea to catch the bus straight to edmonton, but we found out that the stampede was on at the time so we decided to go (it would have been rude not too 🙄 ), and it was amazing, mad and spectacular all rolled into two amazing days. We then caught the greyhound bus (another great, if slightly strange experience) to Edmonton where we were booked to do a 5 day canoe expedition on the river Athabasca, this was great fun, we slept wild every night the only downside was we felt the guides weren’t completely in control of the situation (river rising about 3-4 inches a day from a already near flood height – this fear was justified a few weeks later) 😯 – but otherwise a great expedition but maybe look for another company (we used Timberwolf tours)

After this we caught a plane from edmonton to campbell river (vancouver island) – and then drove to quadra island, where we stayed for 2 nights in prep for a sea-kayaking expedition on the johnstone strait, this trip was far far better organised than the river trip, the food was resteraunt standard (all wild cooked and out of tins stored in kayaks throughout trip), the scenery spectacular and best of all the wildlife was amazing, we had days where we saw orcas, porpoises and sealions all within minutes of each other! We slept on islands out in the middle of the strait, some with 360degree visibility over the sea. The only downside of this trip was we saw that telegraph cove and our secret camping spot had been developed into a house. The company we used were Spirit of the West – I can 110% recomend them!

After the sea kayaking we then traveled over vancouver island to Tofino (takes longer than it looks and the locals say it takes), which is a surfers paradise, there was also amazing walking (after a 5 minute boat trip to a remote island just off the coast) and there as also the restaurant SOBO that cannot be missed if you like stonebaked pizza

We then flew from campbell river to vancouver (about 20 minutes on a 19 seater island hopper), and then flew home. 😥

I’m already planning my next trip out there, hopefully do some mountain biking this time and if all the stars align I’ll be doing the BC bike race then a few weeks in whistler/squamish.

If you have any questions feel free to email me, as although I didn’t organise it, I know my parents wouldn’t mind giving me details on anything I can’t remember

lol – just read what I wrote back to myself, and hadn’t realised I had written so much! But I guess that shows how much I enjoyed the whole holiday – I really do need to finish my degree, get a job, earn money and go to canada again! 😀

Al – Sent you a mail.. can you let me know you got it as my server is apparently “unavailable” right now… and I spent a while typing so want to know my work has been succesful.

Done that. Excellent. Flew into Calgary, had 6 nights in Canmore, back to Calgary for 2 nights then drove to Vancouver with an overnight stop in Kamloops. 3 nights in Vancouver then drove back to Calgary for return flight.

In hindsight I would’ve flown back from Vancouver and had an extra night there.

highway 1 from Calgary to Vancouver should take about 9-10 hours so can be done in a day if you can share the driving – but not necessarily in an RV, I did ot in a regular car

We flew into Vancouver, took the 5th wheel and just toured around in a loop for 3 weeks, including the Rockies and back via Whistler. We had maybe 7-8 stops over the 21 days so that we could look around for a bit without having to move on all the time. The pick-up/cab was a hoot to drive when not hitched up. It took a wee while to get used to maneuvering the whole rig, but by the end of the second week I could reverse it into the narrowest of camp spots. We didn’t spend anywhere near enough time in Vancouver, but then I was really looking on it as just another big city to get out of. We did some white water rafting, horse riding (stayed on a ranch for a few nights) and just general sightseeing.

The Mrs and I plan to go back (probably next year) and do a bit more walking, rafting etc.

Camper2 by ScotRoutes, on Flickr

Camper1 by ScotRoutes, on Flickr

Thanks All – Oliver, will drop you a mail when I get a sec

Mark/MPH – thanks for your mails. Replied.

Definitely torn between getting a car or a 5th Wheel. I really like the idea of a 5th wheel. Still I can’t even reverse my little car trailer!

Scotroutes – who did you use for the 5th wheel rental?

We flew into Calgary hired a car then borrowed my second cousins RV we then did a sort of loose convoy with the car leading the way. We drove through the rockies making a number of stops including Banff and then on to Kelowna via upper arrow lake, it was slow but worth it you get to see so much, now for us family commitments to visit relations forced us to go back via grand forks then to Lethbridge but had it been an option we would have much rather pushed on to Vancouver and flying back from there.

If you like road tripping, I don’t think you’d consider driving around BC and Alberta as ‘losing much time driving’, although driving through Langley is pretty boring….

I’ve done a few road trips here (not enough though….) and you can’t go too wrong with flying to Vancouver and then heading north to Whistler, Lillooet, Kamloops, up to Jasper, down the Icefields Parkway (if you don’t do anything else, do this!) to Banff or Canmore, for some prairie action you could swing across to Drumheller, and then make your way back to Vancouver along Highway 3 across the Cascades. You’d get rain forests, mountains, glaciers, desert, prairies etc all in one road trip. Being a typical Vancouverite snob, I wouldn’t bother with Calgary 😛

Not motor home related but for our honeymoon in 2002 we flew into Calgary then bussed and trained it to Vancouver. Went Banff, Lake Louise, Icefields Parkway, Jasper, Kamloops, Vancouver and Vancouver Island. Best part of three weeks at a leisurely pace.

Was great

A few years back we did a fly-drive from Calgary to Vancouver, adding on a few extra days in Vancouver at the end to make a 3-week trip. We have a motorhome back in the UK so did consider renting one out there but decided to give fly-drive a go instead.

The drive from Calgary through to Vancouver is excellent – sounds like the route we followed was quite similar to MoreCashThanDash, although we were driving rather than using trains etc.