Canadian Rockies Adventure

Fifteen nights in a loop from Vancouver, self-guided, through Whistler, Wells Gray, Jasper, Banff and the Okanagan, with the price quoted on application.

The Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Banff is the headline and deservedly so: a hundred and fifty miles of road between two walls of mountain, past glaciers and lakes, with no towns on it at all.

Vancouver opens it for three nights, with Stanley Park, Granville Island and the Capilano Suspension Bridge or Butchart Gardens available. Whistler follows for two up the Sea to Sky Highway past Shannon Falls, then Clearwater by Lillooet and Marble Canyon, with a day in Wells Gray Provincial Park and Helmcken Falls, which drops over a hundred and forty metres into a bowl of its own making. Jasper comes next for two by Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Rockies, with Maligne Lake and Spirit Island, then Banff for two along the Parkway, with Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Revelstoke follows through Kootenay and Radium Hot Springs, then Penticton in the Okanagan wine country and the return by Kelowna.

The return direct flights, the car hire with GPS and fourteen nights’ accommodation plus one on the flight are included, with meals depending on the plan booked and the optional excursions priced separately. The price is given on application. June to September is the window, since the mountain parks are snowbound either side of it and the Parkway is no place for a hire car in winter. Sixteen days with three nights in Vancouver and two at most of the mountain stops is a comfortable pace for the distances involved.