UKC

Thinking of going to Canada for a holiday either starting in Vancouver or Calgary and one way road tripping between. Hope is to do a bit of walking, climbing, mountain biking, possibly kayaking, and general site seeing. Can't decide whether to go from Vancouver to Calgary or vice versa. The start of June still seems to be slightly off season due to snow melt so are there any advantages to going certain places later in the trip? We have 3 weeks starting from the 4th of June. Any recommendations on places to visit, things to see, good beers to try?

Well you should definitely visit Squamish for the climbing. I may be free to show you around if you’d be interested in that. Howe sound brew pub has excellent beers, highly recommend that if you head to Squam. Vancouver island is also worth visiting. You can get there in 5 hours from Vancouver, and be in amazing places another few hours later. Vancouver itself is not that interesting in my opinion, but maybe I’m just bitter because I only get 3 weeks holiday here

How do you plan on travelling? Bus, car, motorhome? There are so many good places between those two cities that its hard to know where to start. FWIW, I quite like Vancouver as a city and dislike Calgary but each to their own.

Plenty of opportunity to do the activities you suggest but I would assume you are renting kit, boats, bikes which might limit you a little.

Be prepared for every kind of weather at that time of year.

As for which way to go, it won't really matter although you are likely to have better weather in the mountains later on.

Canada is on a roll atm for craft beers so you won't be disappointed especially if you like North American (think hoppy) IPA's.

Thanks both. Good info. Squamish is on our list. We'll be travelling by car and renting kit (with the exception of climbing gear) where we can. It may limit our options a bit but should still take us to some interesting places. Considered taking our own bikes from the UK but it's expensive and a bit of a faff having to carry them around everywhere.

Watch out for radar-equipped cop cars on the highways. I got stopped by a car that passed in the opposite direction but the equipment worked out my speed. 

Cross to Victoria and visit the Royal BC museum, it's excellent.  Go to Pachena Bay and walk down the first few miles of the West Coast Trail if you can't walk the entire trail from end to end. I suspect you will already have missed booking for this summer.

If you are in Vancouver you MUST see the anthropology museum at the UBC campus. Amazing art from the West coast tribes, mainly wood carvings, that will put you in the right mood for the coastal nature.

CB

Going east to west from Calgary. Canmore has lots of cragging although you miss out going down the Kananskis Valley which I love. Canmore is outside of the park and, I think, a better place to stay than Banff which is a total tourist trap.

You can get good bike rentals in all of the main centres so I wouldn't bother taking yours.

If it were me, I might take a swing down the Columbia Valley (so turn left off highway 1 onto 93 - the Kootenay Hwy) and head for Radium hot springs then swing up and into Kelowna. Then head into Vancouver and on up to Squamish (slowly - obviously ).

We drove from Vancouver to Jasper/Banff (and back again) at the end of May/beginning of June last year.

There were quite a few campsites not yet open and a lot of hiking routes weren't possible. We'd also had a campsite booked and canoeing on Maligne lake but the lake was still frozen so it wasn't possible to access the campsite.  

On the plus side it was nice and quiet and we had great weather and still managed plenty of canoeing/hiking/hot springs and saw lots of wildlife. 

With this in mind, Vancouver to Calgary might mean that more is accessible/possible.

We did a figure of 8 - so Vancouver - Kamloops - Clearwater - Mount Robson - Jasper - Banff - Kootenay - Revelstoke - Kamloops - Whistler - Squamish

Some photos here from that trip - https://www.flickr.com/photos/83246699@N00/albums/72157681989734792

I'm no expert but I thought the Bugaboos were amazing and this is among the best routes I've ever done

Cardiac Arete (5.10d)

I did like Jasper - very laid back. Maligne Lake was fab.

Wells Gray National Park was fun. Then there's Vancouver Island of course....

Yes, we really liked Wells Gray but the mosquitoes were vicious

Yep, they can do that over here.

I'll second the comment about the accuracy of the radar equipped cop cars.  I was out in the back of beyond heading back from Stewart on the Alaska border towards Smithers doing about 120kph on a 90kph limit road.  Cop came round a bend towards me and immediately put on his flashers and sirens.  When it transpired I was a UK pensioner in a rented car, and we were miles away from anywhere, he just gave me a stern warning, and advised me on the folly of travelling so quickly when large wild animals could emerge from the bush without notice, and if we did have an accident, there was also no cell phone coverage in the area!

We drove from Calgary to Vancouver a few years ago when visiting our daughter in Central BC.  Unfortunately it was the year of the floods, so we didn't get to Banff or Lake Louise, however we did plenty of other sightseeing.  The Icefields Parkway is a must, as is the ride up on to the Glacier - if only for the experience of being in one of the monster Glacier buses.  The Athabasca Falls are worth a visit on the way north to Jasper, as is a visit to Maligne Lake - complete with boat trip.  The Glacier trip and Maligne Lake trips are not cheap, however we did not think them a rip off.  From Jasper, head west to the Mt Robson visitor centre. The walk to Kinney Lake below Mt Robson is worthwhile -- especially in June when a lot of the flowers are in full bloom.  Do not underestimate the distances or driving times - especially as speed limits are lower than in the UK - and the cops have highly efficient on board radar in their cars!  Expect to see a lot of trees and little in the way of wildlife apart from Deer (and bighorn sheep).  In 6 weeks and 2000 miles driving we saw 3 bears and one Moose.  ( One of the bears was just along the road from my Daughter's house!) 

From the foot of Mt Robson to Kamloops, there's not a huge amount of interest, whether take the northern route via Prince George or the Southern Route via Kamloops.  Both will bring you to Cache Creek, where you can either take the Sea to Sky highway via Whistler and Squamish, or down the Thompson and Frazer Valleys via Hope towards Vancouver.  Sea to Sky is the most scenic route, and there are a number of good side trips.  Joffre Lakes are highly recommended.  If you follow the Frazer Canyon route, make sure to stop at Hells Gate and take the Airtram.

The next time we go, we will probably go via Banff and take Highway 1 through the Rockies to Golden and the Okanagan before heading north via Kamloops to our daughter's in the Cariboo.

The Wells Gray mozzies are the stuff of legends.  The ones in the Cariboo are pretty vicious as well.  June and July are prime Mozzie season - particularly if there's been recent rain.  

The Helmken Falls are spectacular!

June is pretty early for the higher mountains like Bugaboos, Rockies so it might be better to start on the coast and aim to be further east later on your trip. In general I would let the weather be your guide and stay flexible. But with that in mind you could easily spend 10 days on the coast between Vancouver Island and Squamish. There are some fabulous cragging areas and single-track mountain biking on Vancouver Island and on Quadra Island - I would immediately head to the Cumberland and Campbell River area for both. For a change of scene head out to the west coast to Tofino, but plan that for a couple of mid-week days, avoid the weekends. Strathcona Park is a bit of a sleeper, little visited but stunning hiking and alpine climbing.

Squamish is a given for the quality and number of routes but be warned it's a pretty urban setting with a busy town and highway right through the heart of the main climbing areas. Yes you can find quieter crags and if you haven't been it's a real eye-popper. 

If the weather is rainy head inland toward the Interior: Kamloops and the Okanagan Valley. tonnes of biking, hiking and outstanding climbing at Skaha. Revelstoke and Golden are town to check out but again watch the weather. Due to the successive mountain ranges there are bands of wetter and drier climates. Revelstoke is definitely a wetter place. If you really need to get into drier climes head all the way through the Rockies to Kananaskis on the east side of the mountains, it's a virtual desert with spectacular climbing, biking & hiking.