We've just got back from 9 days or so of travelling around Western Canada by car from Calgary to Vancouver. It has definitely been the best holiday ever. I'd recommend it to anybody. As usual, a selection of photos are available in my gallery section. Otherwise, read on for a detailed account...

We flew in to Calgary from Heathrow on Air Canada. Another fairly uneventful flight. You get a fair amount of turbulence about half an hour out of Calgary, something to due with the Rockies and air flows and stuff. Air Canada was very good. One of the films was Starsky and Hutch which I hadn't seen yet. That was a bit of a laugh. As well as the usual meals, they served things like ice-cream and pizza as snacks during the flim, which was a nice touch.

After landing, we went to get our bags and had to wait AGES. When they finally turned up, one was knackered so we went to baggage services to report it. We filled out some forms and they advised us to tell Air Canada when we got back in to Heathrow, which we did, and they had a case pretty similar to ours so they just replaced it there and then. So it's always worth reporting if your case gets damaged!

Calgary
Then we went to pick up our hire car from Alamo. There was a long queue, and it wasn't moving very fast, but it was worth the wait in the end. We'd originally arranged to just have the smallest car (this is what they give you by default if there's 2 of you travelling, anyway). But, sadly, they didn't have any. They also didn't have any of the next size up, either, so we got upgraded 2 car sizes! So instead of a Cheverolet Metro (Vauxhall Corsa style) we got a Chrysler Sebring which was by far the largest car I'd driven! Once I'd got used to the left-hand drive, and the automatic gear box, I was well away! It was such a joy to drive, and so comfortable and spacious. Shame the petrol would cost too much over here, or I'd get one! Anyway, the drive into Calgary took about 25 minutes or so. North American cities are fairly easy to find your way around, given their grid layouts - as long as you know which roads are one way, it's a doddle! We found the Holiday Inn Downtown pretty easily. It's a fairly standard run-of-the-mill city centre hotel. Nothing amazing, but ok. After checking in, we went for a walk around to familiarise ourselves with the place. It's pretty typical of North American cities - lots of sky scrapers, big wide roads, the usual stuff. We tried to stay up as long as possible. It's a 7 hour time difference so by the afternoon we were really flagging! So that was the first day over.

The next day I woke up pretty early and just decided to take a walk down to the car. Overnight somebody had decided to run their keys over some of the bodywork on the driver's side! Very generous of them! The Holiday Inn doesn't have a secure car park - obviously a big mistake. If it had been my car, I would've been fairly annoyed, to say the least! As it was, I called Alamo and just asked if it was still drivable, and confirmed that I was insured.

Today was the only full day in Calgary - originally the package we were on would've had us driving out to Banff today, but we decided to add an extra day in Calgary to see a bit of it. It was raining, so we headed for the Glenbow Museum, which has a lot of exhibitions on Native-American stuff, as well as more recent things about the Mounted Police, etc. It's all very interesting, and not expensive, so it's worth an hour or 2 of your time.

After that, we hit some shops, and just generally wandered around a bit to see a bit more of Calgary. In the evening we went to have dinner at the top of the Calgary Tower. We'd done the same previously at the CN Tower in Toronto a couple of years ago, so we thought we'd see what Calgary had to offer. The tower here is nowhere near as tall as the CN Tower, and the lift is on the inside, so you can't see anything as you go up, but the restaurant is very good - the food was excellent, and very reasonably priced. Oh, and it revolve, of course, so during your meal you get to see the view all the way around (it takes 60 minutes to revolve, but they can speed it up a bit to make it take only 45). I'd definitely recommend it.
Something else we fitted in while in Calgary was the Eau Claire Market. This is a small shopping mall which has smaller, specialist shops in rather than your usual department stores. The day we went there was also some sort of food festival going on where restaurants from around the city had stalls setup where you could buy samples of all sorts of different foods - ribs, curries, Chinese food etc. I don't know if this is a regular thing, but it's well worth a look.

Banff and Lake Louise
The next day, we were due to overnight in Banff which is a smart little resort in the south of the Banff National Park. So we hit the road early, and when we got to Banff, we decided to carry on the half hour or so to Lake Louise, as we wouldn't have much time to do this later on. The weather was improving all the time and by the time we got to Lake Louise, the sun was shining and there were a few scattered clouds about. It really is an amazing sight. The water is an arresting bluey-green colour. It's one of those places you just HAVE to visit. Given that this was the height of the summer season, it wasn't very busy at all. There were quite a few people around the end of the lake near the car park, but once you move away from there a bit, you can easily just be walking around on your own. I'd imagined thousands of people crowding round the place, but it wasn't like that at all, as you can see from this picture.

Just up the road from Lake Louise is Moraine Lake which is, in my opinion, just as stunning as Lake Louise, and less busy than its more famous neighbour. We decided to take a canoe out on the lake - it cost about $30 Dollars for an hour. Once you're out on the lake, it's just SO peaceful and serene. Difficult to describe, really. You just HAVE to do it - it was certainly one of the highlights of the trip.

After that we drove back down to Banff where we were due to stay for 2 nights. Our hotel was the Ptarmigan Inn, which is towards the top end of the main street through the town. It was very nice. The room had a balcony, and there were hot tubs etc. downstairs. We had a meal at the hotel restaurant called the Carramba! It was very nice and, as usual in North America, very reasonably priced (do try the trio of Italian desserts if you eat here! It's very good!).

The next morning, we got up reasonably early to get up to the Hot Springs for 9am when it opened. There were maybe 8-10 other people with the same idea, so it wasn't busy at all. It was quite chilly at that height so early in the morning, so after changing it was great to be able to run into the 40 degrees (Celcius) water! Again, this is something I'd definitely recommend!
After a session in the thermal waters, we headed up the mountain on the cable car - the car park for this is right by the car park for the hot springs. It takes about 10 minutes to get to the top. Each car seats only 4 adults, but there's plenty of them, so you don't have to wait long. The views are pretty spectacular and worth conquering a fear of heights for (if you have one, which I don't, but I thought I'd mention it).
In the afternoon, we went up to the stinky sulphurous cave which was good. Even as you approach it, it really smells bad! While we were there we also took a wander round the Marsh Trail, which is just a short walk around the marshes which the sulphurous waters flow into. There's all kinds of weird and wonderful lifeforms living in the gunk, if you look hard enough!.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the town, checking out the shops etc. of which there aren't that many.

The next day we travelled on towards Jasper.

Peyto Lake
On the way we stopped off first at Peyto Lake. Well, not the lake, really, but the lookout spot for it. I don't think you can get down to the lake itself. If you only have time to stop at one place between Banff and Jasper, make sure this is it. It's just the most amazing colour - photos of it don't do it justice. You park about 10-15 minutes walk from the lookout spot itself, which seems to be a common theme in Canada - it stops your photos being spoilt by horrible unsightly car parks full of camper vans and bus loads of Japanese tourists (seriously, a LOT of Japanese tourists visit Canada!).

Columbia Ice Fields - Athabasca Glacier
The next stop before getting to Jasper was the Athabasa Glacier. This and Peyto Lake are well positioned up the road to Jasper - it's almost like somebody spaced them out nicely to give you a break from driving! Anyway, this glacier has been around a zillion years and is the depth of two Eifell Towers, or something. We did the trip out onto the glacier, which runs every 15-30 minutes, depending on how busy it is. It's very well organised - you get a ticket for your time slot, then wait for a bus which takes you up to the edge of the glacier. You then get onto a huge snowcoach thing with rather large wheels which takes you out actually onto the glacier itself. Then you can get out and walk around, take pictures etc. It does get a little chillier up there with the wind blowing off the glacier, so wear something warmer, even in summer!
We then motored on towards Jasper, with but a fleeting stop at Bow Lake (or was that earlier? can't remember now). The lake is right by the highway, so do make a brief stop. It's a pretty stunning lake (as most of them are!), with a very still and reflective surface

Jasper
Jasper itself is similar to Banff, but on an even smaller scale. There's just one main road which goes through the town, and a few back streets where a lot of the hotels are situated, and it's more of a ski resort than anything else. We stayed at the Lobstick Lodge which had more of a motel feel about it. But it had a pool, and outdoor hot tubs, so it was more than adequate for our one night's stay.
Our room wasn't ready yet (despite it being about 4pm) - they were short staffed apparently, so we deposited our bags, and decided to head south the 30 minutes or so to Maligne Lake (rhymes with spleen, btw). It's a nice drive, down the usual deserted tree-lined roads that we'd come to expect. Just before you get to Malign Lake, you reach another lake (not sure what it's called) which is also very nice. The sun was already starting to disappear behind some of the higher peaks, so we didn't stop here. We parked up at Maligne Lake and had a walk around. To see Spirit Island which is possibly the most photographable view in the Rockies, you have to take a 90 minute boat ride, and we just didn't have the time to fit it in, so instead we took a little walk through the woods along the lake's edge and got bitten to death by mosquitos. But it was very pleasant, and there's even a few beaches along the way - worth a gander if you have the time. We then trotted back towards the hotel. On the way back from Maligne Lake, you get an amazingly photographable view, where the road drops away, and you can just see a huge mountain surrounded by pine trees. Sadly, I couldn't get a picture as there is nowhere to stop, but you'll know what I mean if you go this way!
Back at our hotel, we thought the restaurant didn't look up to much, so we decided to walk into town to see what else there was. We happened across a superb restaurant attached to another hotel right in the main street. It specialised in steaks, and we fancied a nice bit of meat by this time, so we went in. They were already quite busy, which is always a good sign. Now let me just take a minute out here and talk about customer service in North America. If you go into a shop in the UK, you're likely to be confronted with grumpy teenage shop assitants who will do the minimum possible (broad generalisation here, but it's normally the case!). Restaurants aren't much better, the waiters/waitresses are usually friendly enough, but somehow it always feels like they've got something better they should be doing. In North America, you're always greeted with the warmest welcome, and it's not over the top or in your face. The waiters (or servers as they like to call themselves) go to great pains to explain the menu and answer all your questions, and generally have a chat if you like. Shop assistants are the same, and will do everything they can to help you out. When GAP first arrived in the UK, they tried to make the staff in their shops act like they would in North America, and it just didn't work. I think this was firstly because the staff just weren't capable of being so friendly, and secondly because the customers didn't know how to react to it.
Anyway, I digress. I ended up having the bison steak and my good wife had beef tenderloin with peppercorn sauce. The beef tenderloin was GORGEOUS (I tried some!). Not an ounce of fat or gristle on it. Pure, succulent, tender beef. The bison steak was something I just had to try. It had a bit more fat on than the beef tenderloin did, but it was very nice. Similar to beef but yet somehow different. It's difficult to describe when you have nothing to compare to! If you get the chance, you should try it. We finished up with the cheesecake (also very nice if you're a cheesecake lover!), walked around the town a bit to work off a few calories, and then went to bed!

On towards Vancouver
The drive from Jasper to Vancouver is about 12 hours and, although the most dramatic scenery was already behind us, you wouldn't really want to do the trip in one go. We had a night booked in the Sun Peaks ski resort which is about 25-30 minutes off the highway, so you have to double back on yourself the next day. On the map, Kamloops seemed to be the more obvious place to choose for an overnight stop, and we wondered why on earth they had sent us on this detour. Thankfull, the next day that question was answered - Kamloops is a real dump! It seems to be some sort of mining town, and a lot of the hills around it are scarred and really messed up. I wouldn't advise staying here!
Wells Gray Provincial Park
Not too long after leaving Jasper, you reach Mount Robson - the highest peak in the Rockies. It's worth stopping for a few photos, but there's not much else to keep you from moving on to the Wells Gray Provincial Park which takes you a little bit out of the way, but we had plenty of time, and our guide book raved about its waterfalls, so we decided to check it out. We're very glad we did. First we went to Dawson Falls which is very simlar to Niagars Falls in shape, but just on a smaller scale. There are two places you can stop, one where you can get a great photo, and another where you can stand right by the falls and hear the full force of the water. The next stop was Helmcken Falls. This is much narrower, but is said to be twice the height of Niagara. It's certainly a big drop and well worth a visit.
After that, we double back on ourselves to get back on the highway, and headed on towards Sun Peaks.
Sun Peaks itself is charming. It's all brand new and modelled on a typical European Alpine ski resort. Obviously, this was summer, so there was no skiing going on, but there were a few people milling around, and the restaurants and pizza takeaway place were all open. Sorry to say, but there were no Japanese tourists here at all. We had a quick walk around, and then a dip in the hot tub at our hotel, The Sundance Lodge. Incidentally, our room here was superb - more of a studio, with a kitchen, huge TV, dining area, and with the bedroom upstairs. The only downside being that, as it's geared for the Winter market, there is no air conditioning, so it was a little bit on the warm side, but they did supply a few fans which helped a bit. (Dinner was a 12" pizza, incidentally! Lunch the next day was the rest of it!).

The last stretch - civilisation!
The next morning we got up in decent time and hit the road straight away. Before leaving the Kamloops area, we decided to go to the wildlife park. It's about 20km east of Kamloops, just off the main highway. It costs about $8, and isn't very big, but it has a couple of bears, a tiger (which looked VERY bored), racoons, monkeys and a variety of other animals. We spent an hour or so here, and then headed on towards the Pacific.
After Kamloops you have two choices of road to take you to Vancouver. There is Highway 5, part of which you have to pay $10, or there is the apparently slightly more scenic Route 1 which is longer, and is not as quick - this takes you by Fraser Canyon and Hell's Gate. By this time we were eager to see Vancouver, so we took the faster route. The scenery is still very nice, and there are some great stopping off points. One thing you notice as you get closer to Vancouver is that you start to see people again! More and more cars appear on the highway, and we even had to reduce our speed for a bit due to the traffic!
Vancouver
In this direction you enter Vancouver through Chinatown, which is apparently the 2nd largest Chinatown in the world (outside of China, of course!) - 2nd only to San Francisco's. However, it's not very nice! Maybe I didn't see it in its best light, but it seemed pretty grotty. Not to worry, because you're soon in downtown Vancouver with its skyscrapers and traffic lights. We stayed at the Marriot Residence Inn. We had a room on the 12th floor which gave us a great view. The room was superb. Again, it had a kitchen and a sofa in a seating area, plus a desk for anybody contemplating some work. They even provide you with a pack of microwavable popcorn for your first night! My only slight grumble was that it was a reasonable walk to the harbour and the bulk of the shops and restaurants - around 15-20 minutes, but I'm just lazy I guess. We hit the streets right away and walked up to Canada Place which is a convention centre built on the harbourfront in the style of a cruise liner with sails on (weird combo, but it seems to work.). The sun was beating down, and the view across the harbour was just gorgeous. 'I could live here', I thought. We got tickets for the Lookout tower in the Harbour Centre which, surprisingly enough, gives you 360 degree views of the whole Vancouver area from the top. It's well worth a visit, and your ticket covers you for the whole day, so you can go back at night and see it again (which we did).
The next morning we had booked well in advance to go whale watching with Vancouver Whale Watch. They seem to be one of the few companies operating out of the Vancouver are - the rest seem to operate out of Victoria on Vancouver Island. They're based in the pretty little fishing village of Steveston. They have a choice of boats - a light craft, which is little more than a white water rafting experience (you have to wear ridiculous waterproof gear, and you can forget taking your camera, unless it's waterproof!), or the more comfortable Explorathor in which you stay dry (more or less!) which is what we decided on.
The first hour or so is spent just getting to where the whales are. At one point it even looked as if we weren't going to see them, but they have 3 boats, all going in different directions looking for them, and eventually they turned up near a different company's boat. We got up close, and cut the engines. Then we just watched. It's a pretty awesome sight to see them out in the wild, and I don't think I'll forget it in a hurry. BTW, these were Killer Whales (Orcas) - you know, the black and white ones.
We whiled away the rest of our couple of days in Vancouver with shopping, trips to north Vancouver on the SeaBus (worth doing, for the great views, and it only costs $2 or something), eating lots of great food, and a quick visit to the IMAX cinema to see the film about Alaska, which is pretty good. Then it was time to leave. Our flight was at 8pm, and we'd already checked out of our hotel and done everything we wanted to do by about 4pm, so we headed to the airport and dropped off the car. When we got to the check-in desk, it was very quiet and we we served straight away. It turns out there was another flight at 6pm and we transferred to that one so we didn't have much waiting around to do. We spent the last of our cash in a few of the shops, and waited to be called. And that was that. The end of the best holiday ever.