Hey you guys Phoebe here from Little Grey Box now Matt and I did an amazing
canadian rockies road trip and after we did it we realized we had learned a lot
about what went well and what didn't so today i wanted to share with you
everything that we learned to help you plan an amazing Canadian Rockies
roadtrip all of your own
This is the itinerary that we followed and we really loved it
so I'm gonna share that with you and then I'm gonna give you a little bit of
insight on things we wish we'd done differently
we started in Vancouver then drove up the coastline to Porteau Cove then we
headed over to Whistler followed by a really long drive to Clearwater and
Wells Gray after that we made our way down to Jasper from there it was on to
Banff followed by a brief stint in Canmore a quick visit to Calgary and then
we made our way all the way back to Vancouver with a quick stop in Merritt now
the thing about Vancouver as we found with a small budget good quality
accommodation was around 200-300 hundred dollars a night instead we went
with an AirBnB in North Vancouver and we absolutely loved it it was fantastic
having our own little apartment with a kitchen washing machine and lots of
space to spread out and with a hire car it was so easy for us to get around of
course with any new destination you want to have as much time there as possible
but if you are short on time like we were two days in Vancouver is definitely
going to be enough I would recommend you need to download the Maps.me app if
you don't already it is a free map app and you download a map for a region and
then you can star all the places that you want to go and use it offline after
two days in Vancouver we drove a short way up to Porteau Cove which is along the
coastline and maybe about 45 to 50 minutes north of Vancouver the
campground here is Porteau Cove campground and we booked a walk in site
we absolutely loved it it gave us the chance to see so Stawamus Chief
Shannon Falls and really enjoy the beauty of Porteau Cove
now if Porteau Cove isn't exactly on your dream bucket list or you don't feel
like you need that much time in Vancouver then I would recommend you
head to Whistler a day early we spent one night in Whistler but could have easily spent
two there is so much to see and do there it's not even funny and it's only an
hour's drive from Porteau Cove we set up at Riverside Resort campground and
then we went out and we did some amazing activities like ziplining and an ATV
ride like a razor thing it was so much fun there are some great restaurants and
plenty of ways to fill your time after two days in Whistler we headed out to
Clearwater and Wells Gray Our maps said that it was gonna
take about five hours and it ended up taking nearly seven hours and what we
found was when we got there it was beautiful at Clearwater it was stunning
and we really wish that we had have had two nights instead of the one
so again if there is some room for movement in your itinerary I would
recommend giving yourself two nights there because there's so many great
hiking trails and things to see and do in the area that arriving there that
night, late at night just isn't going to give you enough time also in this area
is where you will find some beautiful waterfalls like Spahuts, Dawson Falls
and of course Helmcken Falls now these places are gorgeous so you really don't
want to be rushed and you also might want to do a spot of canoeing on
Clearwater or Azure Lake and a really popular hiking spot is the Joffre Lakes
after leaving Clearwater and Wells Gray we headed to Jasper and along the
way I made Matt stops at the Mount Robson Provincial Park because there is
an incredible hike there the Berg Lake Trail which is just beautiful if you
watch this channel or read our website you will know I always say I hate hiking
I enjoyed this one it was beautiful it was gentle and rolling and when you get
to the end the lake is just stunning we sat and had lunch and it was an amazing
experience now the drive from the world's great Provincial Park to Jasper
is going to take you about three and a half hours so you definitely do have
time to stop and do that hike but here's the thing when we go to Jasper we
realize that we probably needed one extra knife we
say dat whistles campground don't get that confused with stayin in Whistler
whistled the place and whistlers campground are very very different but
look we love staying at mrs. campground it was really nice the showers were good
spending a night in Jasper we hit the ice field hoc way and we were both so
excited because it is notoriously beautiful and scenic and great for
spotting affairs which we did get to see with very exciting but here's the thing
about the icefields pkway you cant pre-booked any of your campsites so what
you have to do is go to these campsites where you self register and you fill out
these little homes where you put your credit card details and say how long
you're staying there for and you pop the slip in a lock box so it's an honesty
system now we had a little bit of a fail in this one / a really decent baler we
kind of panicked and we just chose to stop at the first campground we saw
because we were worried we wouldn't get a spot otherwise so we stopped at Wilcox
campground which is right next to the Athabasca glacier I'm sure you can
imagine Glacia sarn't notorious for being warm sunny cozy places it was
freezing and then we thought well we'll drive a bit and we'll go and see some
more places along the icefield parkway and then we found the rampant Creek
Campground and it was like an oasis it was beautiful that was sunny there was
no fire man it was magnificent so then we had to go all the way back and get
our stuff from Wilcox and move to ramp it darn panic there are plenty of
campgrounds and plenty places to stay just make sure you mark your campsite
with something because I didn't hear from some other campus that they can be
a little bit of fighting if you don't mark your campsite properly and then you
come back and somebody else is set up there and you've lost your spot now the
drive from Jasper to the campground where we stayed is about an hour and a
half to two hours so it's not a particularly long drive which means
you're gonna have lots of time for sightseeing make sure you've got a great
Drive print play this plan for yourself and next up was Ben and I have no doubt
you'll fall in love with Ben just like
now we spent two nights there but honestly there is so much to see and do
you could spend a whole week there we stayed at the Tunnel mountain campground
and it was fantastic there was no fire ban there so we were able to have really
nice camp fires every night and cook out some really delicious food there is so
much sightseeing to be done in Banff it's not even funny
you can Jam pack a day off the day off the day but having a car is really going
to be your best friend here because all of the great things are a bit of a drive
away now we have a really really good friend of ours who lives in Kenmore so
after going to BAM we drove to camera and it is a beautiful place I mean if
you've never been before and you want to do something a little bit different and
you've got the time there's some great restaurants the mountains surrounding it
absolutely beautiful blue pools out there a beautiful and there are some
amazing hikes to I never met and maybe did an incredible hike up to the top of
this man's and they just I don't even know how they made it up there from
Campbell we went to Calgary now it's about an hour's drive from camel to
Calgary if you were driving from 5th to Calgary it would be about an hour and a
half you could easily just spend one night there if you did feel like you
needed more you could do it but we were kind of happy with one night from there
we could easily have flowin out from Calgary back home which is something you
can definitely do but the lights worked out cheaper for us if we flew in and out
of Vancouver and they would direct flights for us so it was really a
no-brainer so to get from Calgary to Vancouver we
decided we would break it up but do the bulk of the driving in one day so we
drove nearly eight hours in one day from Calgary to America where we just booked
a cheap hotel so we could repack all about here get organized for a flight
home the next day and of course our last day was from
Merritt back to Vancouver which is about two and a half hours give or take and it
was a really easy Drive we were just able to drive back in drop the car back
at the airport and get inside for our flight now when we first started
planning our Rockies road trip we really quickly realized that budget was going
to be a very very big factor it was really overwhelming when we first
started and we realized the cost of thing
and then we were trying to figure out what's the best way to do it what's
still going to be fun but we're still going to have an amazing time but it's
not going to break our budget and it's part of my planning because I'm just
that person I went through and I calculated the cost of three different
scenarios and then we compared them and that's how we decided which one was
going to do this for us now in peak season the average price for one night
in the hotel is going to be somewhere between 130 and 300 dollars and that's
just for a decent hotel that's nothing fancy I estimate that if you were going
for around two weeks and you're going to stay in mid-range hotels it's going to
cost you around four thousand dollars so if that's within your budget have a
great time it was nothin in your budget let's try that option right out now and
if you are going to stay in hotels there are a couple of things you need to
factor in but first being parking and not all hotels include parking
especially in places like Vancouver another thing to consider is that you
won't have the luxury of preparing any meals in your hotel room unless you are
able to find an Airbnb with a kitchen or a service department I just assumes that
an avi or camper van was going to be far cheaper than hotels and will probably be
the most cost effective way for us to do it you've got your kitchen you've got
your bed everything's on wheels it's easy to get around no worries there were
a lot of cost that I just didn't realize were involved in hiring a Motorhome now
your initial higher costs are going to be about two thousand Canadian dollars
and that is for two people in a 22 to 23 foot motor higher standard higher
probably doesn't include mileage at all fuel and remember it is a big big
vehicle you're going to need to pay for a campsite
each night which is often for an RV twice the price of a tented side are
also optional insurance costs add on the GPS and there is a mandatory four
thousand dollar Canadian bond hold up when I added up the costs to hire Amana
home was around four thousand six hundred Canadian dollars plus the four
thousand dollar bond on top of it yikes this is by far your cheapest option and
I have to say right up front we loved it I hate
camping I have made no secret of it and I said to Matt all right let's go to
Canada let's do it and we realized how much it was going to cost camping was
the only option I thought you know what let's just do it now obviously if you
have flying over to Canada like we were you and not going to be able to bring
all of your camping equipment with you we brought our own sleeping bags and
pillows but other than that we bought everything we needed when we arrived we
spent about 200 to 300 dollars on everything out a mattress a pump air
mattress tents propane bottles a single burner cooktop and then we went and got
an esky some cleaning essentials a lighter collapsible water bottle tops
some straps and we went to a thrift store where we were able to pick up some
really really good quality cookware and a little camp kettle now the turtles
spend for us four campsites and i--i permits for our entire road trip was 260
dollars on top of that where our food expenses two hundred and forty eight
dollars according to my records so all up the camping portion of our trip cost
us seven hundred and ninety eight dollars we hide a little SUV which is
what I would recommend everyone does it was just a really good size for us I
think anything smaller like a little micro kind of size just wouldn't be any
good you need something with a little more go to it so you can pack all of
your camping here in the back a higher cost of work I was five hundred and
twenty-two dollars now Matt accidentally said yes to a fuel charge
refill which is $85 service charge in taxes at 120 and our total fuel spend
was 374 there was a mandatory $200 bond all of our car hire costs were $1100 you
need to pick this up on your way into the national parks we did this outside
Jasper National Park and it's really important that you know how many days
you need your parks pass to cover you or if you were just driving through the
national parks and you're not stopping then you don't need
to get one but if you are going to stop and do anything do any sightseeing
you have to get one we were there for four days and ours cost us $78 just bear
in mind when I was calculating these I had to include our air fares as well
which were 1,200 per person for our return flights from Brisbane to
Vancouver so if your plates aren't going to cost quite as much as that simply
take the total and duct our $2,400 from it so for camping all up it was around
the 4600 dollars for the 14 days for an RV can man it was around seven thousand
six hundred dollars for the 14 days and don't forget on top of that you have to
be able to pony up a four thousand dollar bond and four hotels it was about
eight thousand eight hundred dollars now all of those totals are just my
estimations based on my research and there are a lot of variables like the
time of year you visit the type of vehicle you hire and how much you spend
on food and so on but hopefully that gives you an idea of the different cost
points and maybe helps you figure out which one is going to be best for you
this is a real thing and you are going to need to be bear aware while you are
camping or just traveling around Canada in general the most important thing that
you need to do is make sure you don't leave anything with a scent in your tent
at night that is so important you cannot have food perfumes body moisturizers
shampoo and conditioners anything with a scent needs to come out of your tent and
it needs to be look safely in your car away from you otherwise that bear is
going to claw its way into your tent because something smells delicious when
we were driving we saw so many people spot a bear pull up and then get out of
their car and approach it most of the time with an iPad held up if that bear
attacks you I'm pretty sure the way it works is that it gets put down I think
that bear loses its life because you got out of the car and approached it they
are wild animals do not get out of your car do not look over to the mayor stay
in your car and be respectful observe from a safe distance away and do
not disturb it it is in the middle of doing some very important bear business
it's also important just to drive it safely around wildlife in general and
behave safely around wildlife in general - you're going to see lots of signs up
as you go around because in Canada you cannot be in the wildlife it can be seen
as animal cruelty and in some cases some of the signs I read so that you can be
charged and find the animal cruelty what happens is the animals become very
unhealthy and they become dependent on humans for food and it's just a bad
situation and also recommend that you don't underestimate mountain weather one
minute it can be blue skies warm and lovely and the next it can be chilly and
pouring rain and that is part of the beauty I would recommend you always have
some kind of way of staying dry with you whether that is a waterproof jacket or
an umbrella if you are planning on doing some hiking and make sure you are
properly prepared if you need to register if you need to register for the
trails please make sure you do that and just adhere to all of the warning signs
now tipping is a part of Canadian culture so please make sure that you tip
your servants the customary tip in Canada would be about 15 to 20 percent
of your total bill if you were really happy with your service of course more
if you would like to know please don't underestimate Canada's border security
I'm pretty sure Chris Brown and gez have learned the hard way that if you do have
some criminal offenses in your past you may not be allowed entry into Canada so
make sure you answer all of their questions honestly up front and you
might want to check the entry requirements before you go booking
anything if there's anything you're even remotely worrying about it's also very
important that you are respectful of Canada's First Nations people using
terms like Eskimo Indian or even Native American aren't the right way to go
about it please make sure that you are respectful of all the First Nations
sites and that you refer to them in a respectful way
do not leave rubbish behind if you see well they should be a good person and
pick it up and make a difference but please make sure you are respectful of
Canada respectful of the people and don't leave a mess
leave things just as you found them all better and before you fly you are going
to need to get yourself an ET a that is an electronic Travel Authorization and
you're going to need to do that online before you go there's a proper official
website where you can apply I did mine it was instant and it was really easy
and when it comes to packing for your Canadian Rockies Road Trip you are going
to need to pack quite an array of clothing because we found in places like
Vancouver and Whistler it was really really warm we were wearing shorts and
t-shirts and as we moved to Jasper in the icefields pkway and then it was
really cold and we needed thermals beanies jeans woolly socks and really
thick heavy water perfect carts as I mentioned earlier mountain weather is a
real thing so you need to be prepared to be able to strip some lands off when
it's warm for a couple of hours and then be able to pack some more layers on when
it gets cold and if you are camping guys it is going to be very cold at night we
were there in summer and it was really cold for someone like me in the dead of
the night in Banff I would recommend packing some activewear and things like
that those days when you're doing some hiking or canoeing or any of those
amazing outdoor activities and you guys I hate to say it but you're gonna need
some Crocs oh I've come to love Crocs and I'm not even ashamed to say it
they are amazing for camping you can slip them on slip them off they're great
for in the shower they dry easily they're just a great around if the
camping and you might like to bring some earplugs to I really needed those a ton
of mountain camper in advance because they were trained so impossible and my
very last packing essential tip would be and I mask because if you are there in
summer like we way the Sun does not set until very very late there's something
about a road trip that is nostalgic and reminds you of your youth and that is
exactly what it did from that night before we went we both made a couple of
different playlists which we took on USB sticks so we could listen to our music
in the car and we had so much fun windows down mountains outside listening
to the music talking and laughing navigating dig
yeah snacks how the bsp and Bert listen Australian wines for you we just had a
really fun time and it was like this unbound sense of adventure it was
incredible it felt like the world was ours we had total freedom we could go
anywhere we wanted now you guys I just want to let you know we have written out
a lot of this information in detailed guides on the little grey box website so
if I spoken too fast for you or you couldn't take down nerds that's okay
there are links in the description below which will take you to everything you
have just heard thank you so much for watching you guys I hope you enjoyed
this video now if you don't already be sure to subscribe and say hello in the
comments below I hope you have a great weekend and I will see you next week
love you