Fly Toronto > Calgary; Drive to Vancouver; then do it all in reverse

[daaave]

looking to go visit family this summer in vancouver for 10 days. since the two of us have not been out west before we are thinking of flying into calgary, renting a car and then driving through the mountains, stopping at some parks, etc, and ending up in vancouver. then do it all again in reverse and flying home from calgary.

just browsing around westjet, is it really that expensive to fly toronto <> calgary and back? the website gave me a price of almost $1300 for the two of us. (we are flying to europe and home from the uk for cheaper than a roundtrip to calgary)

as for renting a car, we wouldnt need it for the whole week, just the drive from calgary to vancouver and back. unless it would be cheaper to rent it for the week?

any tips or suggestions? is there anyway to fly cheaper?

[Pete_Coach]

Toronto - Calgary return for 2 for $1300 is pretty good. $650 per person with all taxes in is good. You can do TO to London, all taxes in, for 2 for that?
Renting a car in Calgary and driving it out and then renting another car in Vancouver and driving it to Calgary is way too expensive. The drop off charges would be over $700 each time. Rent a car for the whole duration, Calgary - Vancouver- Calgary is much cheaper. Get a rental with unlimited mileage of course.
You could fly to Calgary, rent a car and drive to Vancouver, then drop off the car and fly back from Vancouver. You gotta do the math for that one but it is an option.

[IMHIP2]

When are you traveling to Calgary? Any time from July 1 to July 17 will be expensive I would think as the Stampede runs from July 6 to 15 this year.

I would consider flying to Vancouver, rent car and then drive to Calgary etc and then back to Van and fly back from Van. Flight is only 30 minutes longer or so and cost is usually comparable. You would have the additional HST on the rental car over just the GST doing this though

[Arrgh]

Consider flying to Calgary, drive slowly to Vancouver, and fly back from there.

From Calgary, it's downhill from the high mountains to Vancouver. Take your time, and stay some time around Banff/Lake Louise area. Maybe even 1-2 days driving the Icefield Parkway to Jasper and back, as it's beautiful. Around Revelstoke, can take a couple of hours to drive up the mountain, and see the change of what grows at a higher elevation and temp. Then take either the northern route to Kamloops, or the southern route to Kelowna, then to Vancouver. I like the Kenowla route, stopping to take pics with Ogopogo and maybe visit some wineries in the Okonagan Valley. Before Vancouver, take a detour to the Hell's Gate Canyon and learn about the Salmons' yearly trail back home. They have great Salmon chowder there.

Yes there'll be one-way rental drop off fee. But you save the time and gas to drive all the way back to Calgary, mostly uphill.

[Ducky]

When r u flying? Wait for a seat sale...

[AzureD]

I did this trip 2 years ago and I recommend you to do the reverse since there is nothing to see in Calgary (fly to vancouver, drive to banff, go to jasper, go to whistler then back to Vancouver)
Lots of tips here:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/vanco...d-trip-886913/

My route complete with the areas to visit:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=%40...ra=mru&t=m&z=6

[daaave]

thanks for the advice! looks like we are going to be travelling the last week of june instead of in july.

[l69norm]

Sunwing runs cheapie charters between Toronto and Vancouver over the summer for about $500 taxes in. See the thread in hot deals

[mailini]

That's a lovely place ,We expatiated through the beautiful country last year

[Pete_Coach]

That's a lovely place ,We expatiated through the beautiful country last year

Please help me...what does this mean, "expatiated through the beautiful country". Running rampant through the thesaurus?

[daaave]

oh ya, the only reason we were planning to fly into calgary was because we have enough airmiles to two return tickets to calgary. we dont have enough for vancouver.

[feet_]

check again. i ve been tracking t.o to calgary flights.
but if you have airmiles why do you care how much it costs.

but the prices dropped again. $450 pp taxes included.

one thing to remember PHOTO RADAR!!!!!!
do not get nailed, cops are sneaky in BC/AL.

you come around a bend and realize you are in city limits (50km/hr) with a cop staring at you with his radar.
you lose track how fast you are going since it is up/down like a roller coaster. not like flat t.o.

also dbl check the brakes / brake fluid,on the car. last thing you want is failing brakes on that hwy.
if brakes start getting spongy, and the pedal is getting closer n cloeser to the floor, pull over and let them cooldown, while you admire the mtns.
the brake fluid is starting to boil.

its the best hwy , apart from vancouver - whistler, i've ever traveled.
good luck

you plan cal-van-cal is a good plan.

[feet_]

another option is the via rail cal-bc.-cal
but you d have to do the cost comparo.

[matdwyer]

Interesting - I'm planning on doing the same thing next year (preliminary plans) and debating wether to make Vancouver or Calgary the home base. To me, the difference would be more time in whistler or more time in Banff.

Our trip will revolve around hockey games, so we'll likely need to be in Calgary Tues, Edmonton wed or thurs, and Vancouver Saturday.

My thoughts are:

•*Fly into Vancouver 5 Days before the Tuesday Game
•*Possible 36 hour trip to Vancouver Island (Victoria)
•*Drive to Kelowna, Ski @ Big White
•*Drive to Banff (or Golden, or both), Ski @ Kicking Horse, Cat skiing, banff village, fairmont?
•*Drive to Calgary day of the game (I hear calgary is a bit boring from friends that live there).
•*Next morning drive to Edmonton, go to the mall, find something to do, hang out with friends, see hockey game
•*Drive through Jasper to Kamloops. Stop at all the nature sights. Probably don't have time for skiing since we need to be in Vancouver for next game
•*Next day drive to Vancouver, hang out there, see game, see sights
•*Finish up the rest of the time skiing at whistler

Should take 2 full weeks - Looks like a car rental is in the $400 range for that (for a decent size, station wagon, etc). Get world class skiing in, see the nature, see the leafs lose three games, and drive a crapload (I'm used to that one!). Weather could screw us, but that would also mean fresh powder which would be sick.

Most expensive part of this will be ski tickets I think - it's like $75 to ski for a day at most places, so need to keep an eye out for deals on that. Flights I'd expect in the $500 range, and hotels average at $90 a night (between friends in a couple places, priceline elsewhere, points where possible, etc) Would be sick to stay at the fairmont but won't break the budget for it. Will be checking AirBNB for a number of places as well - places like this http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/242554 for $90/night are better then $250 on the hill to me!

Would be nice to go to Seattle, as I don't think I'll ever make a specific trip to Seattle, but I'm sure I'll be back. Same goes with Victoria, would be a maybe.

Sorry if I steered your thread off a bit, perhaps I gave you some ideas.

[Arrgh]

another option is the via rail cal-bc.-cal
but you d have to do the cost comparo.

Do NOT take rail. You won't see much. There are lots of tall trees that'll block your view. You're travel mostly in valleys. You won't go to the good sites where you can stop and enjoy the scenery and hike. It's one way to travel, but not the way to enjoy the beauty of the Rockies.