Canadian Rockies Adventure

Welcome to Canada! After your independent arrival in Vancouver, make your way to our centrally-located hotel where you'll meet our Western Canada Tour Director in the lobby. Depending on your arrival time, our guide can provide suggestions for how to fill the afternoon! This evening, we'll meet our fellow travelers during our welcome dinner.

Vancouver is known as the "jewel" of North America's Pacific Coast with its magnificent sea, beaches, harbor, and steep Coast Mountains. This morning, we'll enjoy a sightseeing tour of Vancouver with highlights including Stanley Park to see the collection of totem poles, popular English Bay with its little beach, and trendy Robson Street filled with shopping, cafes, and restaurants making it perfect for window shopping! We'll also see iconic Canada Place with its fabric roofs that resemble sails; Cruise Ship Pier; Granville Island with its many shops and boutiques; Gastown, known for its Steam Clock and historic charm; Chinatown, and many other points of interest. After our tour, we'll have time to explore Vancouver independently.

Today we'll travel via the Sea to Sky Highway, Shannon Falls, and the lumber town of Squamish to Whistler Village Resort. This resort, an internationally acclaimed ski station, is equally popular in the summer months. We'll spend some time at the Village Square, a carefully constructed pedestrian village, located at the base of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. With many restaurants, gift shops, and specialty clothing stores scattered throughout, Whistler offers something for all ages! Later today, we'll follow a breathtaking route through the wilderness mapped by the gold-seekers. We'll pass the supply center for the Cariboo Gold Rush of the 1860's, Lillooet, and continue to the "Cowboy Country" ranch land of Kamloops, which is the anglicized version of the Shuswap word for "where the rivers meet". Founded as a fur trading depot in 1812, this later became a supply center for the Cariboo Gold Rush. The city today serves as the transportation, retail and service center for the cattle and sheep ranching industries in the southern interior of British Columbia and also as the northern gateway to the Okanagan vacation region. Later we'll check into our hotel in Sun Peaks.

Today we'll travel north to Clearwater and experience the stunning vistas of high mountains, deep canyons, volcanic cones, brooding old-growth forests, thundering waterfalls, and raging white-water rivers of Wells Gray Park (including a chance to view the 135-meter high Helmcken Falls). After our visit, we'll travel to Mount Robinson, for a photo stop on the snowy peaks of the highest peak in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The Yellowhead Parkway takes us to Jasper this evening. A year-round recreational center for tourists, the town of Jasper is set in Jasper National Park among awesome mountain peaks, centuries-old glacial ice, flower-carpeted meadows, and mirror-like lakes.

Jasper National Park is a sweeping expanse of scenic beauty from its awesome mountain peaks to centuries-old glacial ice to flower-carpeted meadows to mirror-like lakes. Today's sightseeing highlights include a walk at Maligne Canyon, Maligne Lake, Medicine Lake, and visits to Patricia Lake and Pyramid Lakes. After lunch, enjoy some leisure time this afternoon in the village of Jasper or consider an optional Malign Lake cruise.

Today's journey might just be the highlight of our trip! We'll travel south today along the Icefields Parkway to experience a wealth of breathtaking scenery. Crystal blue-green lakes, fresh mountain streams, deep forests, and snow-capped mountain peaks are the order of the day. Upon arrival at the Columbia Icefield, we will depart on a specially constructed snocoach that will take us to the surface of the Athabasca Glacier. We've also included admission to one of the area's newest attractions - the Glacier Skywalk! We'll continue to Banff, one of Canada's top mountain resorts. During our orientation tour, we'll visit the landmark Banff Springs Hotel, Tunnel Mountain, Bow Falls, and much more before we check into our hotel.

Banff is the first and most famous of Canada's national parks and is an incomparable combination of towering peaks, high meadows, emerald lakes, and keen mountain air. These - and the sulphur hot springs - have made Banff National Park one of North America's most spectacular scenic and recreational areas. Early today we'll travel to Lake Louise - one of the most photographed scenes in Canada. We'll make a brief excursion to nearby Yoho National Park, which represents the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains region, and is also a Cree expression of awe and wonder for this place of rock walls, spectacular waterfalls, and soaring peaks. In the shadow of the Great Divide, Yoho holds the secrets of ancient ocean life, the power of ice and water, and unique plant and animal communities that continue to evolve today. Highlights include Natural Bridge, Emerald Lake, and lower spiral Tunnel Viewpoint. We'll enjoy a farewell dinner this evening at a local restaurant.

This morning, meet with a retired Member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in a traditional, red uniform. Learn about the history of the RCMP and hear about his experiences as a Mountie. Afterward, we'll have some free time to explore independently or consider an optional gondola ride. Later, we'll leave behind the majestic Canadian Rockies and follow the Trans-Canada Highway to Calgary - home of the famous Calgary Stampede. We'll stop at Calgary Olympic Park, the site of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, and then enjoy the highlights of Calgary with a sightseeing tour including the downtown core, Chinatown, a view of Calgary Tower, the Stampede Grounds, the Pengrowth Saddle Dome, the financial and shopping districts, and many other points of interest before we reach out downtown hotel.

Today, we bid farewell to Canada. After breakfast, checkout from the hotel and make your way home.