Southern BC to the Rockies Circle via Tofino - CanaDream

Fifteen nights and 2,778 kilometres in a loop from Vancouver in a motorhome, out to Vancouver Island and back through the Rockies, with two nights at most stops.

Victoria comes first across the water, then Tofino on the island’s west coast, where Pacific Rim National Park holds Long Beach and the temperate rainforest behind it, the surf is rideable all year in a wetsuit and the winter storms are a recognised reason to visit rather than a reason to stay away.

Whistler follows on the mainland, then Sun Peaks in the dry interior, and Jasper, the largest of the Rocky Mountain parks and the quietest of them. The Icefields Parkway runs south from there to Banff, 230 kilometres past more than a hundred glaciers with the Columbia Icefield at its midpoint. Revelstoke and Peachland come next, the second in the Okanagan, where the orchards and vineyards sit on a lake in the only desert in Canada, then Hope before Vancouver.

The motorhome and the day-by-day plan come from CanaDream, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with insurance options priced at booking. Sixteen days with two nights nearly everywhere is a proper holiday rather than a drive, and the ferry to and from the island is the part to book ahead for a motorhome. The season runs roughly June to September, though the Icefields Parkway is open year round with snow possible on it in any month. Bear rules apply at most campsites on this route. The Tofino leg is what sets this itinerary apart from the other Rockies routes in the range.