The Ultimate West Canada Road Trip: Vancouver To Calgary

Taking a road trip within Canada has been a dream of mine for most of my life. My parents spent a year abroad in Toronto in the late 90’s, and I grew up hearing all sorts of stories about it. From snow covered cars, to bright blue lakes and glaciers, Canada had a special place in my heart, despite never having traveled to it.

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Early last year I had the awesome opportunity to travel there with my best friend Keely from the USA and another friend from NZ. I’d just finished up studying in Queenstown (you can read more about this here), and had a little bit saved up to splurge on my first overseas trip since the 2019. Not to mention it would be the first overseas trip without my parents.

Originally, our family had planned to travel to Canada and do a similar route in 2020, but hey, we all know what happened that year.

So, if you’re planning on packing as much as possible into a short trip to the Canadian west coast, this is the place for you. My friend and I spent a week in Vancouver, and this felt like a good amount of time to spend in the city, however I’ve compressed the main activities we did into two days.

Day One & Two – Vancouver City

Accommodation

We stayed at a homestay for the week in Port Coquitlam. Most of the hostels and budget options were over $1000 for the week for one person! That’s enough for 100 Tim Horton’s BLT deals – I couldn’t justify spending that on a hostel. Instead, I found our homestay with the website Homestay.com. We ended up staying with a wonderful woman who owned two beautiful dogs, which cost us only $400CAD ($297USD/$481NZD).

Activities

Aquarium

The aquarium is one of the more costly activities that we did, but the $42 entry fee was absolutely worth it. From jellyfish to frogs, birdlife and otters, this aquarium has it all. We spent a good couple of hours here and the best part is that it is only a short walk away from the famous Totem poles!

Cost – $40-$50CAD (depending on age and day)
Location – Central Vancouver

Totem Poles

The famous Totem poles are a must see in Vancouver. The area is well on the beaten path, but the stories and history behind the poles is really interesting. These were high on my list, as my Dad took a photo in the 90’s that I wanted to recreate, pictured below.

Waterfront Walk

If you want to save some money on transport and enjoy the views of Vancouver, walking along the waterfront from the CBD to the Aquarium is worth your while. It’s a long walk, but is great way to see the city and will take you to both the aquarium, the Totem poles and Stanley Park. If you feel like exploring a little further, Stanley Park also does horse-drawn cart adventures around the area too!

Capilano Suspension Bridges

Like the aquarium, these bridges are worth the money if you’re not worried about following the beaten path. The Capilano Suspension Bridges free shuttle bus takes you from Central Vancouver to the North Shore, up into the forest. There they have a network of bridges there as ell as a selection of birdlife such as owls and falcons. There is a lot of history to learn on the walk, and the 140m long bridge is pretty fun to walk over!

Cost – $60CAD
Location – North Shore, Vancouver

Flyover Vancouver

This is an epic little excursion in the centre of Vancouver. It’s like a rollercoaster ride but indoors and focused on the natural beauty of Canada. It would be a great thing to take kids to, or an activity to do in the evening before a dinner on out on the town. I wouldn’t call it an essential Vancouver activity, however.

Cost – $23CAD
Location – Vancouver CBD

Skytrain

The Skytrain is absolutely one of the best ways to get around Vancouver. My friend and I took this from the airport to the CBD with ease. Throughout our nine days in Vancouver, we got one of the Compass cards, which allowed us to load money on each day and use.

We got by using the day pass to travel from Port Coquitlam to the CBD each day. This costs $11 per day and allows you to use any network as many times as you want for the single price. It meant that overall, our transport costs for the week of being in Vancouver came to only $80CAD!

Cost – Varies by pass, $11 for the day pass
Location – Accesses most of Vancouver

Other Activities

Some other activities that are worth doing if you have more time are the Museum of Vancouver, The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and Kitsilano Beach.

Day Three – Porteau Cove 

Once Keely met us in Vancouver, we drove the hour and a half up to Porteau Cove, along the sea to sky highway. This little campsite has an awesome lakeside spot, complete with facilities and firepits. We had a pretty fun time trying to set Keely’s massive dome tent up the first night, and enjoyed a nice pasta dinner afterwards. I even got to see my first raccoon, though we were sure to pack all our food up well after that.

Campsite Cost – $43CAD

Day Four – Paul Lake

Day two of the road trip itself was a big day! We drove up through Whistler, stopping at Forged Axe Throwing on the way through. It was here I found out that I am not, in fact, coordinated with these things and should probably just stick to using them for chopping wood.

After leaving Whistler, we drove 6 hours to Paul Lake campsite near Kamloops. This campsite was set into the woods a fair bit, and didn’t have any cell coverage, so it’s good to keep this in mind. It had a little fire pit and accessible facilities.

Campsite Cost – $32CAD

Day Five – Revelstoke 

On our way to Revelstoke, we stopped in Salmon Arm at a place called Quesada- disclaimer, habanero mayo is in fact, hot. Don’t underestimate and/or pair with jalapenos and salsa. We stayed at Williamson lake Campground, which had an awesome wharf and pontoon to jump off. The showers and facilities here were awesome.

Campsite Cost – $35CAD

Day Six – Lake Louise 

Today we drove from Revelstoke to Lake Louise. We stopped in Banff for a little wander around, but didn’t stay as prices were higher and there was less availability. When we arrived, we drove straight to the lake. The photos make it look like a pristine untouched paradise, but man, it was crowded. If I had more time, I would have made more of an effort to explore around for more spots, but when on a budget!

Our campsite was close to town this night, so we went into one of the bars for dinner and some drinks before turning in.

Campsite Cost – $50

Day Seven – Johnston Canyon 

We got up early today and drove back up to the lake. In the 90’s my parents had done a hike to the Tea House. Whilst I wanted to follow in their footsteps, this hike was an awesome way to see some beautiful views of the valley and surrounding mountains. It’s a moderate hike that took about two hours, but more than worth doing.

After hiking Lake Louise, we drove to Johnston Canyon, which had a beautiful riverside hike up to a waterfall with a cave to view. Best thing about travelling in summer was that it didn’t matter whether we arrived after dinner, there was still plenty of light left to see the sights. And a lot less other travelers!

Campsite Cost – $50CAD

Day Eight – Bow Valley

We got up early today to drive to Moose Mountain adventures. We’d booked a two hour horse trek that took us through the hills of the valley, before driving to a riverside campsite to stay for two nights. We did also have a slight hiccup, we were meant to go river rafting, but messed up where the base was and ended up missing out. Always look at the email for the location, not Google!

To make up for our extra day, we drove in to Calgary and spent a few hours browsing the shops, including a western shop where I had to get a pair of boots and boot-cut jeans! Glad to say that now that I’m back in Idaho, I’ve put them to good use.

Campsite Cost – $31CAD

My NZ friend flew out of Calgary the next day, and Keely & I continued down into Idaho back to her hometown. Canada lived up to and exceeded all expectations I’d had of it. I plan on doing the 2 year Working Holiday visa in the future, but until then I’ll be looking back on photos from this trip and waiting for the day!

I hope the experience I had here helped your travels in one way or another and I look forward to writing more!

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