How to Plan an International Trip: Travel Tales and Tips : How to Plan a Trip to Canada

STEPPED INTO A PAINTING!

Canada is an awesome tourist destination with picture perfect lakes, mountains, glaciers and charming cities as well as the mighty Niagara falls.

We had the good fortune to enjoy the lovely country recently. We felt as if we had stepped into a painting by a maestro like Monet!

Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park

Lake Louise

Moraine Lake

Herbert lake

Bow lake

Peyto Lake

The gardens are fabulous too!

Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver

Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC

Butchart Garden, Victoria, BC

Botanical Garden, Niagara Falls

Canada is celebrating their 150 years of Independence (2017) and entry to all national parks is free.

I’m sharing the report of our trip here. This is the intro and as usual there will be detailed report of each day following this.

What to see?

Rockies have been on our wishlist for quite a while. Banff national park, Jasper national park and the Icefield parkway are so popular and were first on our itinerary. YES, we drove the Icefield parkway twice over south to north and then north to south as recommended and it was AWESOME!
We included Yoho national park as well which is as spectacular as its more famous cousins.
In western Canada, along with Rockies in Alberta, we included a bit of British Columbia driving down to Vancouver. Our stopovers for the night were Lac le Jeune in Kamloops on the way to Vancouver and three valley lake at Revelstoke… both so scenic! In central Canada, Toronto and Niagara falls were our choices. The rest of scenic Canada awaits future visits.

Below is the map of the places we visited. You can zoom in and read my notes on the bubbles as the travel research shaped up.

When to go?

Driving windy mountain roads is best avoided in snowy winter conditions. As a personal choice, we like to avoid peak tourism season which is July-Sep for Canadian Rockies. We would have loved a spring visit but our work scheduling did not oblige. We could spare 17 days during Labor Day holidays, so Aug 25-Sep 10, 2017 was the period of our visit. Thankfully, we could enjoy all the sights without crowds.

Wild Fires:

Canadian summers do see wild fires in some provinces. This year there is a big fire in Okanagan valley due to a lightning strike during a thunder storm and many ongoing other fires also. Our heart goes out to all those affected by the fires. Wind carries dense smoke in any direction and Smoke levels were part of daily reports for all places. Tourists hope for clear skies to enjoy mountain and glacier views and those with pre-existing health conditions have additional worries.

As these are beyond our control, we kept our fingers crossed and hoped for a good outcome for all concerned. As it turned out we had one full smoky day on our drive from Revelstoke to Calgary airport on Sep 5. Also a bit of a haze in the late afternoon on Aug 29 and full day of Aug 30.

On the whole, weather and conditions were GREAT!

Flights:

Return trips or multicity trips as in our case were all priced as individual components on the air line sites, so we bought all our tickets as single legs. Our flights were booked separately as follows:

Aug 25, Friday 8.30 pm: Houston-Calgary

Sep 5, Tuesday, 7.10pm: Calgary-Toronto

Sep 10, Sunday, 12 noon: Toronto-Houston

Car Rentals:

We booked car rentals from Enterprise to avail a corporate discount. We checked out rates for hiring from the city but went for hiring from the airport. The rental company gave us free shuttle rides for pickup and dropoff at Calgary. For Toronto the rental office was right at the airport, so no worries.

Calgary Airport car rental:

Scheduled pickup at 9am Aug 26 and drop off before 5 pm on Sep 5^th.

Toronto airport car rental:

Pickup sep 6^th morning, drop off sep 10^th morning.

Our plans changed a bit because of Hurricane Harvey which struck the Gulf of Mexico.

Aug 24, 2017, Hurricane Harvey:

We were scheduled to take the United Airlines flight (code share Air Canada express) at 8.30 pm from Houston on Friday Aug 25^th when torrential rains were predicted. The office got closed early on Thursday evening (and reopened only the next Thursday). We were taken aback by these developments and wondered if we’ll be able to fly out for our vacation. We rang up Air Canada and they directed us to contact United. That night’s flight was full but they could accommodate us on the next morning’s flight (Aug 25) without any extra charges.

Aug 25, 2017:

We opted for the direct flight at 9 am and made it under cloudy skies and light drizzles! Later of course, the Houston airport will be totally flooded and the city also pummeled by torrential rain.

We were in Calgary by noon instead of later at midnight as planned. Got the shuttle to the hotel, checked in, called up the car rental and scheduled pickup in the evening instead of next morning. So everything got sorted out. Thankfully our home area did not have any impact because of the hurricane. Our heartfelt wishes for all the victims for a quick recovery!

Itinerary:

Our itinerary played out like this:

Aug 25, 2017: Landing at Calgary, collecting car.
Hotel: Hampton inn, Hilton, Calgary airport (1 night).

Aug 26, 2017: Driving to Banff,

Hotel: Red Carpet Inn (3 nights).

Visited the Bow Falls, a stone's throw from our hotel...

Bow River

No parking was available at Johnston canyon at 11.45 am.

We attempted to drive to Lake Louise gondola for their free shuttle, got into an overflow parking lot with free shuttle to Lake Louise; lovely visit to Lake Louise (Plain of 6 glaciers hike).

Aug 27, 2017:

Arrived at the parking before 9am. Lake Moraine rock pile trail.

Next was Yoho National Park:

Spiral tunnels (saw a train snaking in! Have posted the video; link below at end of this post).

Takakkaw Falls was nice.

Emerald lake was FANTASTIC.

Confluence of 2 rivers( Kicking Horse river and Yoho river) was beautiful.

Misses: Wasted a lot of time driving upto Wapta falls trailhead, turned back as the road was gravel and we were rattled by the warnings at the parking place.

Aug 28, 2017:

Arrived by 8.30 am at the main parking lot, did Johnston canyon lower and upper falls hike including cave visit.

Had a ride on Lake Louise gondola (lovely views, no sighting of grizzlies, guess morning visit would have been fruitful in this regard).

Aug 29, 2017:

Checked out of hotel.

Icefield parkway drive to Jasper.

AWESOME! I've posted more pics in the day reports that come after this post.

Crowfoot glacier

Bow lake

PEYTO LAKE

Weather turned a Little hazy at and after Sasketchewan glacier view. Thankfully we had clear skies on our drive back 2 days later!

Stay: Checked into Cozy Crystal home, Jasper (2 nights).

Aug 30, 2017:

This was a hazy day. Activities:

Medicine lake

Maligne lake

Maligne canyon hike

Sighting of black bear.

Aug 31, 2017:

Drove north to south on Icefield parkway from Jasper to Lake Louise. Clear skies, great day!

Little bit of smoke in a few pockets on the way near Kamloops, clear skies at Lac le Jeune where we stayed.

Lac le Jeune

Hotel: Lac le Jeune resort and nature center (1 night)

Sep 1, 2017:

Drive from Lac le Jeune to Vancouver

Stay: Kings corner (3 nights)

Visited Queen Elizabeth park, Blodel bird conservatory. Fabulous!

Sep 2, 2017:

Sea-tto-sky highway drive (Shannon falls, Brandywine falls, Portman cove).

Peak to peak gondola... Whistler, Blackcomb mountains are awesome!

Saw Alexander falls on the way back.

Views are better on the way back from Whistler to Vancouver as Howe sound is on the side we drive on!

Sep 3 2017:

Day trip to Victoria on BC Ferries. We had reserved tickets for 10cad each way just a week before for the ferry, 8am departure from the pier at Vancouver and 6pm departure from Victoria.

Visited the FABULOUS Butchart gardens.

Miniature world was MAGNIFICENT!

Sep 4, 2017:

Drive Vancouver to three valley lake, Revelstoke.

Stay: Chateau, three valley lake gap (1 night)

SEP 5, 2017:

Drive back to Calgary airport. Fully smoky day.

7.10 pm Flight delayed to 8.30 pm.

With the 2 hour time difference in the zones we landed at 3 am Toronto time. Hotel shuttle was so delayed and we reached Best Western Plus Dixie road at 4am!

Stay: Best Western Plus Dixie road (1 night)

Sep 6, 2017:

Collected car rental from Toronto airport after 1 and drove to Niagara falls avoiding toll road 407.

Stay: Hilton Falls view room (2 nights)

Walked to table rock for view of the falls.

Skylon tower observation deck had great falls and sunset views.

Sep 7, 2017:

Breakfast at Hilton Watermark Restaurant, with falls view.

Hornblower cruise.

Butterfly garden

Botanical gardens.

Bird kingdom,

Drive to Niagara-on-the-lake.

Smallest chapel in the World

Sep 8, 2017:

Drive to Toronto again avoiding toll road 407.

Stay:All days hostel, downtown.

Drove to zoo, but it was closing at 4.30, so bought the Toronto City Pass, drove to downtown.

Visited Ripley’s aquarium (live rock concert along with the fabulous display of fish). I've posted a 20 minute video, link at the end of the post .

Went up CN Tower and had great sunset views.

Sep 9, 2017:

Visited Casa Loma as soon as it opened at 9.30 am.
.

Next was the Zoo (rode the zoomobile to reduce walking, particular emphasis was on pandas, grizzlies, polar bears). Polar bears put up a great show and I've posted the video.

Sep 10, 2017:

Returned car at airport. Took flight back to Houston.

Wild life sightings:

We had several close encounters with the famed wild life of Canada and took lovely pics! Ha ha!

Actually we met up with a bear jam on the road on the way back from Maligne Falls. We have a hilarious video of people running through bushes chasing a poor bear which was trying to have its brunch! Could not catch the bear in a pic as we did not want to harass it by approaching close!

Saw some caribou and mountain goats on the road.

Toronto aquarium was awesome, so was the bird conservatory in Vancouver Elizabeth park. The polar bears put on quite a show at Toronto zoo which we caught in a video. Truth to tell, we were relieved we did not encounter grizzlies on hikes!

HOW TO ENSURE SEEING "TURQUOISE" LAKES:

Main goal is to enjoy the turquoise color of lakes. So of course, avoid the period when the lakes are frozen. The usual "ice off" date for Lake Louise falls between May 25 and June 9th.

Peyto Lake would normally thaw shortly after Lake Louise. Of course each year plays out differently...

The color of the water is from refracted light due to the fine glacial till (fine sand) that is suspended in the water, you do see significant changes due to available sunlight and cloud cover.

There is some change in the color of the water through the season, as the amount of "rock flour" suspended in the water changes with the amount of glacial run-off. Colors tend to be more vivid early in the season (and the water "milkier") whereas the water is much clearer in the autumn, when melting slows down and there is less silt.

TIPS:

Don't visit the lakes late in the afternoon or early evening (glare).

Go from 7AM to 10AM when the sun is behind you or the sun is facing the mountains not behind the mountains assuming you are at the main "entrance" part of the lakes.

The higher you see the lake from - the bluer it seems! it is to do with the angle of the sun/light as it hits the water/sediment.. Some hikes gain more elevation than others, for example the hikes up above Lake Louise & Lake Moraine (which can be quite strenuous). However the hike to Peyto Lake is a short and gentle 10 minute journey with incredible rewards.

A good way to see the impact of run off is to get a good view of the far (non Chateau LL) end of Lake Louise. You can usually see a gradient of colors where the glacial run off feeds the lake.

It has been a terrific trip and I’ll be giving day to day reports as usual.

Detailed Report of day 1 and 2 continues here:

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/09/canada-trip-report-day-1-calgary-day-2.html

VIDEO LINK:

I’ve processed the numerous videos and the videos are posted at this link:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/oMmiqIX50BdgpOeY2

Individual video links are as follows, some have music , others original sounds, all are captioned:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/elpZjuz1aqHRajP42

Bow falls, lake Louise, Moraine lake, Yoho NP, Spiral tunnels, Takakkaw falls, Natural bridge over Kicking horse river, Johnston canyon hikes, Lake Louise Gondola

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eLGIouuKUnfn5CRj1

Icefield Parkway

Banff to Jasper

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2CUCABcVTUALncUT

Jasper to Lake Louise to Golden to Le lac Jeune

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xhAz06yYygk4hvRk2

Alberta drives

https://photos.app.goo.gl/79U0AcoRG4DmqOye2

Sea to Sky Highway, Vancouver

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1nBKSRJhPGqkwMD33

Vancouver(Queen Elizabeth Park, Blodel),

Victoria(Butchart, Miniature world),