Visiting West Canada (again)
 

Hi,

I am going to visit Canada in May/June 2013 for 4 weeks (my second visit - the last one was in 2006 with Toronto - Vancouver - Whitehorse).
Our trip starts at BRU to YEG (via LHR) with our first Business Class flight ever (AC - looking forward to it).

From there we are going via Jasper (hiking) and Lake Louise (hiking) to Kelowna (for Okanagan Valley and a wine tour).

Regarding the next part I have a question, what you would suggest: Our route is currently planned as Kelowna - Castlegar - Cranbrook - Calgary - Drumheller - Edmonton.
From Edmonton we are going by train to Vancouver, are going to stay in Vancouver for 5-6 days and are going back to BRU via YUL).

Does anyone have suggestions about the duration, the stops and (perhaps) hotels? We are particularly interested about our route along the Highway 3 (are there some Hot Springs, where are good hikes, where to get some nice food, where are nice hotels and so on).

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Askartus

In YEG/Edmonton, check out www.metterra.com as a great hotel to stay in on Whyte Avenue.

Weather dependent in Edmonton, check out the hiking and biking in our spectacular river valley www.rivervalley.ab.ca

About 30-40 minutes east of Edmonton on Highway 16 is Elk Island National Park and there you may be able to actually see wild buffalo in their natural habitat. www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/elkisland/index.aspx

If you like casinos, you can also check out www.rivercreeresort.com in Edmonton and it has a Marriott Hotel as part of the complex. Be warned, though, the casino allows smoking whereas all non-Indian casinos in the Province do not. It is also about 5-10 minutes away from West Edmonton Mall www.wem.ca .

Close to Cranbrook - if you are a bit homesick - is Kimberley with an Alpine setting with plenty of beer and schnitzel www.city.kimberley.bc.ca

Since you mention Drumheller, I assume you plan to go to the Royal Tyrrell www.tyrrellmuseum.com

If I were you, I'd skip Cranbrook and most of Highway 3, also instead of Kelowna I'd drive down to Osoyoos or Oliver.

Highway 3 is nice, but once you hit the Creston valley the drive to Cranbrook is not that great. I would scrap Cranbrook entirely, really and drive from Oliver/Osoyoos on Highway 3 to Castlegar, then up to Nelson, Kaslo, New Denver, Nakusp, take the Upper Arrow Lake ferry, Revelstoke, over to Golden on Highway 1 through Glacier National Park and finally to Lake Louise. That will give you a nice and very scenic drive through the West Kootenays. There are hotsprins along the way in Ainsworth (just south of Kaslo), which have a hot pool overlooking Kootenay Lake and local mountains (the hotsprings north of Cranbrook.. not worth it imo).
Nelson is a bit of a special town, lots of tree-huggers and hippies, but nonetheless probably one of the nicest small towns in BC with overall good food.

Sorry for the last answer, I have been too busy to answer. And, to be honest, was gone for a week skiing in Austria (which was also kind of "busy") ... ;)

Thanks PunishedEdmontonian for the hints.
After the flight, we are going to sleep at a Best Western in Leduc, mainly because they have a shuttle service from and to the airport. But for our final stay in Edmonton before boarding the Canadian, we will consider the Metterra.
And Mrs. Askartus is very interested in the Elk Island NP. ;-)

Thank you Migali for the input!

Kelowna is booked because we are going to visit old friends of mine there (working at Mission Hill).
Ainsworth has already caught our attention but it seemed quite lonely to us - is there anything else than the Hot Spring and the hotel? What we have in mind is something like Hanmer Springs in New Zealand which we visited last year.

Cranbrook was my choice because of the train museum. But if thats the only good thing around there ...
What about the road over Crowsnest Pass - is it at least not too boring to drive? Because I am thinking about going along there towards Calgary.

If you like trains, Cranbrook is absolutely worth seeing. Even if you don't, the restored passenger cars are beautiful in their own right.

The Crowsnest is a decent highway, worth seeing I think, take a stop at the Frank Slide. From Highway 3, take highway 22 (The Cowboy Trail) up to Calgary. It's a scenic road.

If you can change your itin slightly, I would recommend going from Jasper-Prince Rupert for a more scenic train ride. The train stops overnight in Prince George so you can check out all the scenery in daylight. From Prince Rupert you could fly into YVR, or take a BC Ferry to Vancouver Island and make your way down to Victoria/Vancouver via bus/rental car + ferry.

This was also our first idea, but the other way round: from Vancouver to Port Hardy, doing some bear watching for a couple of days here and then the inside passage to PR and the Skeena to Jasper.

Unfortunately the Skeena doesn´t allow much more then hand-baggage anymore, so our suitcase weren´t allowed on the train (reason: no luggage car - confirmed by the VIARail support). :mad:

If your traveling in the peak season, the Skeena has a baggage car so 99.9% of luggage will be allowed (certainly anything an airline would accept).

If your traveling non-peak season, the train is usually VERY empty. Sometimes in the single digits of total passengers. The crews are quite good generally and they won't care if you have extra baggage. The baggage rules they came out with are very Toronto centric, they were concerned with people bringing too much baggage for corridor trips between Toronto and Montreal and applied the rules across the whole system ignoring the fact long distance trains have different requirements.

I would seriously doubt you would be turned away if you showed up with reasonably sized luggage. The car has luggage space above your head which is fairly roomy.

http://www.viarail.ca/sites/all/file...omy/index.html

Gives you a bit of an idea of the space available. I believe the economy cars also have luggage racks for larger items.

In the non-peak season, the Skeena is one of the best deals for train travel in Canada. Everyone gets dome access, the fares are cheap and the scenery is fantastic. I hope the baggage issue doesn't scare you away from taking it, if not on this trip than another.