Western Canada Honeymoon

locky76

hi all, first time poster, my fiance and i are getting married on the 6th of june this year and are heading to Canada on our honeymoon, we arrive in Vancouver on the 9th of June and fly home from Calgary on the 27th of June. Any advice on things to do in this time would be greatly appreciated!

locky76

any ideas out there?

locky76 wrote: »

hi all, first time poster, my fiance and i are getting married on the 6th of june this year and are heading to Canada on our honeymoon, we arrive in Vancouver on the 9th of June and fly home from Calgary on the 27th of June. Any advice on things to do in this time would be greatly appreciated!

jimbobjones40

I think your best bet is to spend a day or so in Vancouver. Vancouver's Chinatown is probably only second to San Francisco's Chinatown for its cultural diversity.

Then head out to Vancouver Island. Lots of very high quality resorts with spas and the like.

If getting pampered isn't your thing the Pacific Ocean offers more adventurous activities like scuba diving, sailing etc

rossie1977

i am planning on doing this trip either this or next summer for about 3 weeks, here is what i plan on doing, few days in vancover, bus or drive down to seattle its about 2hr drive, explore nearby national parks of mount rainer, olympic and mount st helens (that part of the trip should take about 7 days)

make my way back towards montana, its very cheap to fly more than half of the way to boise from seattle ($40), yellowstone national park in southern montana should be a top priority for anyone flying from calgary, its about 500 miles south of calgary (very close in the vastness that is usa/canada)

calgary itself has the national parks of banff and glacier on its doorstep

lost_for_words

You are going at a great time of year, Vancouver is beautiful (and less rainy) in the summer. Give yourself a few days in Vancouver itself there is loooads to do. I lived there for nearly a year and still think of things I should have gotten around to.

I'd reccommend a few days in Vancouver, then out to Vancouver island. Head to Tofino for a good mix of luxury accomodation and also tonnes of outdoor activities. It's the place to go for people from the mainland. Even though it's only a small village, it's the what the great outdoors offer around it. The drive there is lovely too.

You can head from Tofino to the north of Van Island and take the ferry (public) along the Inside Passage which is one of the most beautiful routeways in the world. You leave from Port Hardy and arrive in Prince Rupert or in summer time there are connections to Queen Charlotte Islands and also Alaska. You can do all of this on public transport but I'd reccomment renting a car so you can stop as you please to take it all in. Prince Rupert is a fair distance from anywhere but again in a stunning area. You could drive from there to Prince George, stay overnight and then on to Jasper and down through the Rockies (which is amazing) and on to Calgary. Most car rental companies allow you to drop off the car in other cities.

If this is all too long and involves too much driving for you, then you can always base yourself in Vancouver, go to Whistler, vancouver island and take the rocky mountaineer train to jasper (or banff) and rent a car for a few days around the rockies. West Jet are a sort of cheap airline too which fly to Calgary from Van and you can get good deals with them. Seattle isn't far and maybe worth a daytrip but I wasn't a big fan of the place. Around Washington state is lovely though. There is a ferry that you can take from Victoria on Vancouver island to Seattle that might be of some use to you.
The current issue of the new Lonely Planet magazine has a good article on British Columbia so it's worth a read.

Hope some of this helps.

ncmc

locky76 wrote: »

hi all, first time poster, my fiance and i are getting married on the 6th of june this year and are heading to Canada on our honeymoon, we arrive in Vancouver on the 9th of June and fly home from Calgary on the 27th of June. Any advice on things to do in this time would be greatly appreciated!

Hi locky76, I wanted to do a similar trip, but finances wouldn't allow! I had it all planned though!

My plan was to fly in to Vancouver, but then go atraight across to Victoria, spend a couple of days there, then return to Vancouver, spend a few nights there, then on to Kamloops, Jasper, Lake Lousise, Banff and Calgary, spending a couple of nights in each. There is quite a bit of driving involved, but I believe it is worth it.

Ah maybe one day i'll get there! In the meantime, congratulations on your wedding, that sounds like a beautiful hooneymoon you have planned!

locky76

cheers to all who replied,
yeah we bought the lonely planet and are thinking of the following iteniary:
spending a few days in vancouver,
getting a seaplane to tofino, on vancouver island, for another couple of days,
head up to port hardy and get the inside passage ferry to prince rupert,
get the skeena train to jasper via prince george
hire an RV in jasper and wind our way down to calgary over ten or twelve days
spend a night in calgary and fly home
any thoughts on the above would be appreciated!

Sidney77

whistler whistler whistler

i lived there for a year, definitely worth a visit amazing scenery, can still summer ski/board but its not great, popular activities are biking, hiking, white water rafting or you can take a lift to the top and see spectular scenery,

i also see you are flying home from alberta, dont bother with edmonton

locky76

cheers for that sydney,
we'll have to check out whistler
we can squeeze in two days at the begining alright!

Sidney77 wrote: »

whistler whistler whistler

i lived there for a year, definitely worth a visit amazing scenery, can still summer ski/board but its not great, popular activities are biking, hiking, white water rafting or you can take a lift to the top and see spectular scenery,

i also see you are flying home from alberta, dont bother with edmonton