This trip is the first time I have let someone else do the planning - all arranged through Trailfinders in the UK.
Wednesday 3rd
Drove to Heathrow and parked in the long stay car park. Caught the bus to terminal two, checked in, cut my finger on the luggage label, dragged the case over my toe, then had coffee.
The ten hour flight was OK, but I didn't sleep. Long flights seem to be becoming a bit harder than they once were. I watched three films and listened to some stories on the way over. K managed to get a few hours sleep. Immigration in Canada is pretty much automated and worked well. It took about an hour from when we landed to get out of the airport.
We took a taxi from airport to the city centre
Sandman Hotel, which was easy and cost $35.00 inc. tip. We arrived at about six o'clock. It was a small room - a bit like Holiday Inn Express. If you follow the web link above, the site makes it look a lot better than it actually was. There was a bath & shower. We walked out for a bit of an explore and some fresh air and bought a pizza slice for me and some pepperoni for K to eat - we had eaten lots on the plane, so weren't too hungry. We were in bed by nine.
Thursday 4th
Up by eight and a big breakfast at
Moxie's - which is the restaurant within the hotel. I had veggie huevos rancheros, K had gluten free roll with smoked salmon and avocado. We bought hop on off bus tickets from a little shop attached to the hotel. Explored - various places. Did Skytower, Gastown, Stanley Park, etc. Back by 4.30pm. Rested, then found a 'Delicious Pho' noodle place for food about six. Bed by 8.30pm. We were feeling a little jet lagged - but not too bad.
Friday 5th
Up at 7.30am. Breakfast at Moxie's again. Got ready to pick up the car and took a taxi to the Pan Pacific Hotel - where the Alamo Car Hire Desk was. Had a few problems understanding the chap at the desk - wasn't very clear. He seemed to want to add lots of things to the contract - which I thought were already included. Signed my life away on the contract and declined all the extras. We got the car - a
Chevrolet Malibu - big thing, although they called it a 'mid size' car - massive boot (or 'trunk', I suppose). The extra fee for a sat nav was prohibitive, so decided to use Google Maps as a guide - downloading the next leg of the journey into my phone whenever we had internet. I had done this at the Sandman Hotel. The car could use '
Android Auto' - which was a bonus. Once I had plugged my phone in we were set. I could even play the music from my phone through the car - pretty good.
I used Google maps to get to the British Columbia ferry port in plenty of time. We saw a bald eagle sitting on top of a a lamp post just outside the terminal. The crossing was smooth and took about an hour and a half. Bought some rubbish sushi and other bits. Once off the ferry drove down to
Victoria and checked in to a very nice hotel -
The Chateau Victoria, where we had a suite.
Very posh. It was raining quite a bit, and we were fairly tired, so we just had dinner in the hotel - one of the top floors, overlooking the City - and then had an early night.
Saturday 6th
Awoke to a lovely day. Had a bit of a food hangover from the meal the night before - I blame the chocolate torte - so we just had a drink before going exploring. Saw lots of things in
Victoria. Lunch in
Frankie's Modern Diner. K had a gluten free turkey club sandwich, and a mimosa (prosecco and fresh oj), I had veggie lasagne and a fat tug beer - very nice. Some pictures from around Victoria:
Walked for a while and sat by the Empress hotel for a bit, people watching, then walked around the harbour up to
Fisherman's Wharf, spotting a seal on the way, and saw the houseboats.
We caught the
ferry back to Empress dock, seeing a sea otter on the way, then walked back to the hotel via a 7-11 where we picked up something light to eat, and breakfast for the next day.
It had been a long day (out at ten, back at six), so we had a quiet evening, and early bed at about nine.
Sunday 7th
Up, light breakfast and off to the ferry port - different one this time.
Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver. Sandwich for me, popcorn for K. Coffee for both. Took an hour and forty minutes - raining all the way. Guided by Google maps again.
It was still raining. We got off the ferry and drove to
Whistler - which took about three hours, with two stops - Including '
Brandywine Falls' - which were impressive.
Arrived at
Crystal Lodge Hotel just as a coach load of Chinese tourists were checking in...
Checked in, got room, parked car, ate at
The Old Spaghetti Factory - a chain of restaurants - food was good, and K had gluten free penne. Glass of local white wine for K, beer (
Molsons) for me. Back to room, watched some news, bed by 9.30pm.
Monday 8th
Thanksgiving Day. Up about eight. Coffee, banana and a biscuit for breakfast. Then off to explore Whistler. That didn't take too long. We had lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory again after the explore, and were still back in the room by one o'clock. From the hotel room window we could see a constant stream of people taking the chair lifts up the mountain along with their mountain bikes strapped to the back. Then we see them hurtling back down the mountain at breakneck speed.
There's a mist on top of the mountain. We could take a gondola ride up there - but we're pretty sure we wouldn't see too much - and the ride costs $65 each - which is quite a lot.
We're sat in the room. K is watching a film on her phone whilst sewing, I'm doing this. I have also been working out the route for tomorrow, and also working out that I could have probably arranged this trip for less money. It's just gone three o'clock. Tempting to go down to the pub for a drink. Suppose I'll watch some news, or something on my phone.
We went out for a short walk again and bought some shopping for the ride east tomorrow. Back to the hotel, then I went for a walk again before we went down to the bar for a drink and something to eat. Sweet potato fries and broccoli with butter and mizithra cheese.
Back in the room by just after eight we decided to do some washing, seeing as the machines are quite close. The machine was in use, so had to wait. Then found that it had been used to wash bikers clothes - so was covered in mud. Used the bin from our bathroom to pour water into the machine. That helped, so we tried a wash. The water seemed to work a bit - the clothes didn't come out muddy.
Stayed up until the clothes were washed and tumble dried, so this meant that we didn't go to sleep until nearly eleven - a record for this trip so far.
Tuesday 9th
Travelled to
Sun Peaks today. Took about seven and a half hours in total - lots of driving. We didn't rush, and stopped a few times to take photos, and once for coffee and something to eat. Filled up with fuel - only took about $35 to fill the over half empty tank.
When I stopped to take some photos we saw some black bears eating berries from a bush close to the road - mother and cub, but the cub was quite big. We were close enough to see them clearly.
We stopped for lunch at a place named
Lillooet, on the Fraser river. Just had what we brought in the car, along with a coffee bought from a petrol station.
Got to Sun Peaks as the light was failing and checked in at the
Sun Peaks Grand Hotel. Given quite a big room with a view of the mountain. We were hungry, so went down to the
restaurant, named 'Mantle's', and had food. I had fish & chips, K had pork belly.
The food was quite good but expensive. I had a local beer, and K had a mojito (which was actually less expensive than a small glass of wine...)
Back in the room I managed to make the USB stick I brought with me work with the TV, so we watched a film before going to sleep about 9.45pm. The air conditioning makes a hissing noise even when off, which is quite annoying.
Wednesday 10th
Awake at about six, listened to an audio book for a while, then up at eight thirty to have a bath - I had a bit of backache - maybe from driving yesterday. We had a simple breakfast in the room - I had coffee, a bagel and a banana. K had a gluten free roll and jam and green tea.
We sat about and watched some news before going out to explore the area. That took about ten minutes. Then we went to the local shop and had a chat with the lady running it after looking at all the goods. Bought some biscuits and chocolate.
Walked back to a cafe bar that we had passed earlier for lunch. We both had burgers - K had her 'BC burger' without the bun. I had a veggie one they called the 'tree hugger' - very nice it was too. We had good coffee as well, and happened to sit next to the Town Mayor and his wife, who were in for coffee. The lady and I had a good chat, whilst I was trying to eat the burger. We headed back to the hotel at about 1.45pm.
It's now 2.15pm, and K is sitting in a chair near the window doing some sewing and listening to an audio book, whilst I sit on the bed and write this. I went for a walk to take a few more pictures, as the phone was playing up and I lost some.
We sat about for a while after I got back, then went to eat at the pub '
Morriseys'. Returning to the room about eight, we watched TV news about Hurricane Michael hitting Florida, then the film Red 2, packed and went to bed.
Thursday 11th
Set out for
Jasper at about ten thirty. The weather was cold, there was a frost, but otherwise OK. Stopped for fuel and coffee at an A&W after a couple of hours, drove for a while longer then stopped for lunch at
Don's Social House, in Valemont, BC. We both had burgers - mine, veggie, K's bun free. Coffee to keep us going. After that, drove all the way to Jasper -
Pyramid Lake Resort. Had to pay to enter the National Park - about $70 for the two of us for four days.
Found Jasper OK, and the road up to the lake. Saw what we thought were very big deer on the way up, turns out that they were elk. We were checked in by an Australian guy named Shy, who was very nice - came from Perth. He changed our cabin for one with a better view, which was good of him. We changed time zones on the way, so the sun set about seven there.
The scenery was great, lovely lake and mountains all around. The cabin was also great - separate kitchen and bedroom, and even had a gas log fire. Very toasty. Very quiet - we thought. We had a wander around, then a snack and settled down to watch a film, Chinatown, as the USB stick worked on the TV. Bed about ten, in our normal sized bed.
Friday 12th
Lovely cabin, except you could hear when people upstairs used the bathroom. Didn't keep me awake, but woke me up at six. We had breakfast in the cabin - just coffee, bananas, GF bread, jam and a bagel for me.
Shy had recommended an easy trail down to the island in the lake, so off we went. Saw squirrels eating nuts and/or cones on the way. Found the island, and the views were great - though the mountains were a little misty.
Back to the car and off to
Maligne Canyon - another recommendation - about ten minutes drive away, seeing another deer on the way. Lovely surroundings again. Beautiful mountains in the distance, rushing river, rock formations, lovely trees.
We spent a couple of hours walking the trails, then back to Jasper for a late lunch at the
Sunhouse Café, where the coffee was great, and the food interesting.....
A little shopping later (breakfast groceries and wine), we headed back to the lake to watch the sun go down. We saw some more elk by the side of the road, having a late afternoon munch.
Had a snack for evening meal - we were both still quite full. It started to snow gently as the sun went down. Beautiful mountains all around. Drank some wine and watched 'City Heat' - silly 1984 film with Clint Eastwood. Had to ask a bunch of Chinese people who had arrived upstairs to keep the noise down - they seemed to be having a big argument.
Went to bed about ten thirty, the Chinese upstairs seemed to each want a shower - it was way past twelve before the noise stopped! I had a bit of a restless night, and woke again when the toilet started flushing about six.
Saturday 13th
We had a good breakfast of cereals, with eggs etc. to follow. Making the most of the small kitchen. The snow had settled a bit outside. We packed up and were on our way by about ten forty five. As we left Jasper the snow got a bit harder, and as we climbed into the Rockies towards
Banff, the road was quite hard going, with lots of snow and slush. Quite scary at times. The early viewpoints were snowed in, and the mountains were hidden by mist and snow.
We persevered slowly, and the snow gradually got less until, by the time we were at the
Athabasca Glacier, the road had improved a lot. We stopped for coffee and were surprised by the number of people who were at the stopping point - but it was also a hotel and tour starting point.
The road from there onward got much better, though it was still very cold with a persistent wind. The route was truly beautiful and very dramatic. I stopped many times to take pictures as there were amazing sites around every corner. Lunch was taken whilst in the car, sat alongside another great view.
We stopped at
Lake Louise, along with many others, to see the lake. It was very pretty.
Onward to Banff, and we arrived at the
Rimrock Resort Hotel at about six, to be met by a bellhop in a top hat and tailcoat, asking if we wanted valet parking.
I declined, and we parked temporarily to check in. The foyer had a large seating area with someone playing the piano. Very sophisticated. We checked in and found our - large - room on the fifth floor (two down from the lobby). I returned and parked the car, then we changed and went to find something to eat. We sat in the lounge where the piano was playing to eat.
Afterwards, we found the 'Divas' cocktail bar, and K had a 'Marilyn Monroe'. I had a local beer. There was a young lady playing guitar in that place - very nice. After a while we returned to the room, and bed.
Sunday 14th
We arose quite late and after coffee and something to eat headed to the car and off to look at the
Banff Gondola. Although fairly pricey at $75 each, we decided to go up, and took a package which included lunch.
The ride up took about ten minutes, and we were in a gondola on our own. Amazing views once again. From the top of Sulphur Mountain the views were truly spectacular. The temperature was very cool, and there was quite a wind - but the sun was out and it was great. Many pictures were taken!
Lunch was a buffet, and was very good. We were surprised just how much food some people were taking - just being piggy. We had one plate. Some had three plates, soup, pizza etc. Just taking advantage. We enjoyed ourselves, had another good look around, more pictures, then down the mountain and back into the car and down into Banff.
We parked up and went shopping for some gifts.
Back at the hotel we stopped for drinks, then had a bite to eat in the restaurant before retiring to the room for a fairly early night.
Monday 15th
Usual breakfast things. I left behind a pair of trousers that I had bought - only worn once, but didn't like them. Hopefully they will be recycled. We left the hotel by nine thirty, heading for
Kelowna. Many roadworks made the going quite slow. Stopped at a place named Revelstoke for lunch and saw some lovely trees changing colour. Lunch was in a local diner and was good and not expensive. We had burgers and fries again - they don't short change you on the fries!
On the way we stopped at a rest area that had signs telling us of the '
Skunk Cabbage' that grew in that area - quite rare it seems.
We went on the boardwalk for a while, and spent about an hour there looking at things. The cabbage had been hit by frost, so wasn't at it's best. We also saw a beaver lodge, but no beaver. Saw a blue jay really close - it was sifting through the leaves looking for food. We had a snack from the boot of the car before moving on.
Arrived at the '
Delta by Marriott' hotel at about five thirty (but we had lost an hour by coming through the time zone). Put the bags in the room and then had a drink in the bar/restaurant, and something to eat a bit later. I was very tired. Went to bed by ten - slept through to nine thirty.
Tuesday 16th
Had breakfast in the room again - nearly using up the things that we had bought - only one morning to go. After this we went for a walk around Kelowna. It is on the shore of a massive lake -
Okanagan - so big that it looks like the sea. It is over eighty miles long, but seems even bigger. There are beaches and everything - seaplanes land and take off regularly. We walked along the edge of the lake and then into town. We saw a fair few homeless people, some of them disabled. On the whole in Canada there seems to be a bit of a homeless problem because we have seen quite a few in the towns and cities that we have visited (not the ski resorts).
We found a cafe for lunch -
Molly's Cafe - and sat outside in the sunshine. It was a good cafe, with fair prices and a swift service.
An after lunch stroll took us through the '
historical' district, where there were lots of timber clad houses dating back to when Kelowna was founded. As modern Canadian history stretches back less than two hundred years, they didn't seem that old to us. Obviously the 'First Nations' had been there a lot longer, but their modern history starts when the Europeans arrived and started taking over (same old story). The weather was a little chilly, but lovely and sunny, so we walked back to the hotel and sat outside in the sun and had a drink, overlooking the lake. The time was about four thirty.
Back in the room later I decided that I would go out for another explore. K stayed in the room and did some sewing. I wandered far and wide and found some interesting things - like the
Okanagan Military Museum, with a First World war Gun outside it.
I ended up at an Irish bar for a drink, before returning to the hotel. We ate dinner in the restaurant again before returning to the room and watching the -very large screen - TV. There wasn't anything on that we wanted to see, and my USB stick didn't work, so I subscribed to Netflix for $3.99 - a trial month, and we watched Guardians of the Galaxy.
We packed the cases later, and went to sleep about eleven.
Wednesday 17th
We wanted to be on our way before nine, so were up by seven forty five, showered and using the last of our breakfast goodies. We left the things that we didn't want in the room. We had to be at the car rental place at
Vancouver Airport by three o'clock. We managed to leave the hotel by eight thirty - after paying not only for parking, but also a 'resort fee' which I didn't know about of about £45 per night - madness. If I wasn't in a rush I would have caused more of a fuss about it. Still not sure what it was for. Have to look it up.
The trip took a while, and we didn't stop apart from lunch - taken at a nice roadside diner -
Home Restaurant, Hope. Once we hit Vancouver things slowed down a whole lot. The road system is not great and it was touch and go whether we would make it on time.
As it turned out, we made it with about twelve minutes to spare, and turned the car over without any problems. I enjoyed that car - it was good to drive, and served us well. Only problem was that it was a bit too big for K to drive - she couldn't reach the pedals properly. If I did this again, I would have a smaller car, and it would be a four wheel drive SUV - especially at this time of year.
We had some snack food and coffee at the airport, and started boarding the plane at five forty, ready for a six thirty take off. It was an overnight flight, and we would land at Heathrow about eleven thirty the next day.
Thursday 18th
I managed to sleep for a bit on the way back, and so did K. Not enough though, and we were quite jet lagged - as we found out over the next couple of days. I did manage to drive back from Heathrow though with no problems. We stayed awake and went to bed about ten - but felt lousy the next day.
Thoughts about the trip
- British Columbia and Alberta are fantastic places to visit
- Canadians are friendly and welcoming
- The areas we visited seemed very multicultural
- A SUV car would have been a good idea
- The price you see on things doesn't include tax or a tip (of about 20%)
- It's a long distance between places
- Fuel is relatively cheap
- Food is about the same as it is in the UK
- Eating out isn't expensive
- Ski resorts out of season may not be that great unless you are a hiker or mountain biker
- Beware of 'add-on' costs - like car parking or 'resort fees'
- I would go again, but arrange the trip myself next time
