Just the two of us! This is a trip we have looked forward to for many years, a bucket list trip that we always planned to get around to once hubby retired. We had originally had everything booked for June 2020 (thanks Covid), and it has taken us a while to feel ready to re-book it. This time however all our accommodation bookings are different, and we have also reversed the direction from our 2020 plans now doing Whistler first rather than last.
We have been booking parts of this holiday over the last 4-5
months, watching flight prices and car hire as well as hunting for accommodation
and researching the places we really wanted to see. Have purchased GyPsy Guide
bundle $34CAD to help us find those fab views etc.
Prices are quite a bit higher this time than our 2020
bookings! We have also decided life is too short so have treated ourselves to
places with better locations and/or better views than originally planned for
example an apartment in Jasper rather than hotel outside of town and Emerald
Lake Lodge. This is an upgrade to the
room we had booked at Deer Lodge, Lake Louise in 2020, we would have booked
this again, but they were not available at all this year due to refurbishment and
now being used as temporary staff accommodation for the nearby ski resort which
suffered a fire recently. At Emerald
Lake we have a 1 bed suite with Lake view booked – very excited about this one.
We have not used AirBnB before but there was very little
available in hotels etc in places like Jasper/Banff, such is the demand I just
couldn’t find available hotels except stupidly high priced, so we had to look
at alternatives. Canmore also seemed a
better option than the pricier Banff.
We are not interested in Vancouver itself or Vancouver
Island at this point so have not included these.
The plan is now fixed as follows (have included approx.
prices for info) :
Air Canada Flights: Heathrow – Vancouver - Economy Direct x
2 (£1575)
Car – Standard SUV, Avis (£570)
Vancouver – 1 night, Holiday Inn in North Vancouver (Booked
with IHG Points)
Whistler – 2 nights, “The Aspens” Slope Side Condo booked
with VRBO (£330)
Clearwater – 1 night, Choice Hotel (£200)
Jasper – 3 nights, Airbnb apartment in Jasper (£826)
Emerald Lake – 1 night, 1 bedroom Emerald Suite at Emerald
Lake Lodge (£420)
Canmore – 3 nights, Airbnb Condo with mountain views (£827)
Revelstoke – 1 night, Best Western (£140)
West Kelowna – 1 night, AirBnB Apartment with views of lake
and town (£187)
Harrison Hot Springs – 1 night, Lodge on Harrison Lake with
lake views (£164)
Flights Vancouver - Heathrow
Hotel costs (£3100)
Driving - Will be in excess of 1275 miles, which will be the minimum
according to Google Maps.
Things we are hoping to do:
Obviously, lots of viewpoints and walks/hikes of the famous
sights incl. Lake Louise, Maligne Canyon & Lake, Icefield Parkway etc.
Lake Louise shuttle – booked on release day, currently
4.30pm, depending on weather nearer the time might look when they release the
rest (I think the day before) to see if something earlier available.
Have booked Athabasca Glacier trip and skywalk for the day
we travel from Jasper to Emerald Lake (11.45am).
Maligne Lake currently showing no availability for boat trip
to Spirit Island on the 3 days we are in Jasper, will maybe see if they have
something nearer the time. (Took our eye
off the ball and didn’t look to book early enough).
Pipeline coaster – either the new one at Golden or the one
at Revelstoke
Also hoping for lots of animal sightings (bears etc will be a big bonus!)
