16-21 days in Canada - hit me with it!

tlrBeta

tlrBeta

tlrBeta

Soldato
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Hi all,

I'm planning a Canada trip in April 2025 with me and the family and I'm looking for any experience on the most do's :)

My initial plan is to visit both sides, starting East then heading over West. We would also like to get up into BC and Edmonton (we have some friends there). Travelling will be me, my wife and 2 kids (9 and 7 by the time we go) - they are well used to travelling, however still need some fun spots / things to do :)

Lots of stuff online of course, but any guidance or experience is more then welcome (particularly those that have done it with young kids) :)

Thanks in advance :)
 
My 2p from when I visited last May. Vancouver is brilliant, such a nice city, if you get the chance to go. Lots to see and do. Granville Island is fantastic, lots of food on offer. Stanley Park is huge, but the seawall walk is a good way to waste a few hours. Whale watching boat trips, while expensive, are worth it. Saw Humpbacks, Orca's, sealions, the lot.

From there to the rockies, there are a few gems, for me namely Seton Lake just outside Lillooet (a stopover place when we RV'd). Crystal clear lake, lots of parking, and a beach to swim, but might be too cold when you visit in April. Clearwater, again, was a stopover town. Campsite is right on the lake, with pontoons that you can jump off. Painted turtles swimming around while you are in the water (we stayed at Dutch Lake Resort & RV Park)

Banff was nice, lots of places to eat and drink, and a lot of places (gondola, hot springs etc) are a short bus trip from the centre.
Jasper, again, very nice, our favourite thing we did was the Mile 5 white water rafting experience with Jasper Rafting Experiences.
Lake Louise was slightly overrated to me, just a clear lake with a mountain backdrop and a huge hotel behind you.


All depends on what type of trip you are after, leads to what type of activies are do-able.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Personally for 16-21 days, pick one side and stick with it. The country is ginormous.
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2nd largest country in the world , with a population almost half the size of ours. Which goes to show just how much of it is open , empty land.

If you stop at Banff, I highly recommend eating at Tooloulou's
 
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Start somewhere like Edmonton if you are visiting there, Calgary better but that adds a weird leg to it if you want to do Edmonton, road trip Jasper/Banff through to Vancouver, unless you are specifically interested in visiting stuff in the east IMO do it another time or pit stop Toronto/Niagra on the way over. Personally didn't find the east that interesting, while you can easily use up 2-3 weeks on the west side.
 
Tombstone said:
2nd largest country in the world , with a population almost half the size of ours. Which goes to show just how much of it is open , empty land.

If you stop at Banff, I highly recommend eating at Tooloulou's
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True but BC alone is 4X the size of the U.K. and spreading yourself too thin will just mean you’ll spend a lot of time traveling between stuff rather than actually doing still in such a large country.

If you want to just visit cities, you may also want to consider say sticking to the west side and dropping into the US via Seattle and Portland after BC.
 
We did a fly drive few years back now from Calgary to Vancouver, its a well trodden path and was incredible. If you like scenery, lakes, mountains etc. then its an awesome trip. Calgary -> Banff -> Lake Louise -> Jasper -> Kamloops (more of a transit stop) -> Whistler -> Vancouver Island -> Vancouver

Banff, you can go up the mountain in a gondola, see bow falls and lake Minnewanka
Despite what was said above Lake Louise and Moriane Lake are beautiful. We stayed at the Fairmont which is the big hotel on the lake and hiked around the lakes
The Athabasca falls, glacier and skywalk are worth visiting on the way to Jasper
In Jasper hike around the national park
Whistler, theres the Sasquatch zipline which is insane if thats your thing https://whistler.ziptrek.com/tours/sasquatch/ or go see some bears, or try axe throwing, or mountain biking
Vancouver Island we went whale watching, explored Victoria
Vancouver Grouse mountain and the Capilano suspension bridge tour, wander round the city

Thats some of the things we did, probably a lot more Ive forgotten about
 
Ice hockey hall of fame in Toronto.

Get drunk in a bar and watch hockey.
Go to live Hockey game.

Look at mountains, think meh and watch more hockey.

Canada is a great place.
 
My wife and I spent some visiting Canada last year, unfortunately some of our planned trips were curtailed due to the appalling wild fires they experienced . . .

We landed in Calgary and drove through the Rockies to Vancouver which is roughly a 12 hour drive, we done this over a week in order to explore and take our time. We stayed with my wife's relations in Delta which is about an hour outside of central Vancouver. I can certainly recomend the drive through the Rockies as the scenery is stunning. Vancouver itself is a fantastic place to visit and their public transport system is so much better than ours here in the UK.

If there's anything I would say to avoid it would be the Richmond night market, the queue to get in was substantial and certainly wasn't worth the cost. It's basically a food market aimed at ripping off tourists and it's cash only . . . . .

I can recommend a visit to Hell's Gate which is where the Fraser River narrows as the scenery is simply spectacular. Also, we found Grouse Mountain to be a very worthwhile visit while aimed at tourists it wasn't overly expensive, the lumberjack shows they present are amazing and the views from the top are breathtaking.

We're hoping to return again next year when we can explore further as we didn't manage Whistler, Peak to Peak, Banff or Lake Louise due to the fires.

Also if you're planning on visiting America from Canada prepare yourself for the most meticulous and intense border crossing you've ever experienced. We crossed over to Point Roberts just to spend a few hours in USA where we had lunch and the grilling they gave us in order to gain entry was ridiculous.
 
Tombstone said:
2nd largest country in the world , with a population almost half the size of ours. Which goes to show just how much of it is open , empty land.

If you stop at Banff, I highly recommend eating at Tooloulou's
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Even moreso when you consider almost 10% of the population live in Toronto.

I intend to go back and do a big trip, been years since I was there and was only out East.

OP one bit of advice from personal experience, when visiting Niagara Falls don't arrive desperately needing the toilet. It doesn't help.
 
Sonea Fifer said:
Also if you're planning on visiting America from Canada prepare yourself for the most meticulous and intense border crossing you've ever experienced. We crossed over to Point Roberts just to spend a few hours in USA where we had lunch and the grilling they gave us in order to gain entry was ridiculous.
Click to expand...

I didn't have much trouble myself but they turned my friend's car inside out.
 
I went to Montreal and Toronto in 2022.

I would definitely not go back to those places. Cities now just bore me, all 'feel' samey. I found the open drug use in Montreal to be disgusting.

If I ever go back to Canada it will be way west for sure.
 
We went to Banff, Jasper and Vancouver in 2022, also tagging on Whistler after we had to leave Jasper early due to wildfires. It's a stunning part of the world and great if you enjoy hiking. In April I would be concerned that it's still very wintery though, so bear that in mind when planning any activities.

We thought Vancouver was a bit underwhelming. Granville market and Stanley Park are great, but after than we were struggling to find things to do. It also had the worst homeless problem of any city I have ever visited, which includes all of the big cities along the US west coast. I would still recommend to go (especially as it's likely a transit stop anyway), but 1-2 days is all you need.
 
Sonea Fifer said:
My wife and I spent some visiting Canada last year, unfortunately some of our planned trips were curtailed due to the appalling wild fires they experienced . . .

We landed in Calgary and drove through the Rockies to Vancouver which is roughly a 12 hour drive, we done this over a week in order to explore and take our time. We stayed with my wife's relations in Delta which is about an hour outside of central Vancouver. I can certainly recomend the drive through the Rockies as the scenery is stunning. Vancouver itself is a fantastic place to visit and their public transport system is so much better than ours here in the UK.

If there's anything I would say to avoid it would be the Richmond night market, the queue to get in was substantial and certainly wasn't worth the cost. It's basically a food market aimed at ripping off tourists and it's cash only . . . . .

I can recommend a visit to Hell's Gate which is where the Fraser River narrows as the scenery is simply spectacular. Also, we found Grouse Mountain to be a very worthwhile visit while aimed at tourists it wasn't overly expensive, the lumberjack shows they present are amazing and the views from the top are breathtaking.

We're hoping to return again next year when we can explore further as we didn't manage Whistler, Peak to Peak, Banff or Lake Louise due to the fires.

Also if you're planning on visiting America from Canada prepare yourself for the most meticulous and intense border crossing you've ever experienced. We crossed over to Point Roberts just to spend a few hours in USA where we had lunch and the grilling they gave us in order to gain entry was ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, yes that's a special one :) Much easier when you show them your Army ID card, you learn the hard way first time though.
 
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