8 Insider Tips to an Unforgettable Vacation in the Canadian Rockies

Hi everyone, and happy October! I am so excited to share this next post with you - it's all about our recent trip to the Canadian Rockies.

To celebrate my daughter's college graduation and spend time together before she moved across the country, my husband and I planned a family road trip across the border to the great nation of Canada. What a getaway, eh? 😉🇨🇦

Over the course of 11 days and 3,657 miles, we explored the Canadian Rockies with stops along the way including Wyoming and Montana. We are so fortunate to be able to travel with our fifth-wheel camper which provides us much more flexibility (and allows us to take the pups along!). Some of our favorite highlights from our trip were relaxing in our hammocks on the shore of Two Jack Lake in Banff National Park, walking on the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park, and horseback riding along the Bow River. While we had a fantastic trip, we also learned a lot that I want to share with you. When I was planning our trip, I could never really find a post that had helpful advice about traveling in the Canadian Rockies. Many blog posts talked about Banff or Jasper National Park, but they never mentioned the other parks that make this area a World Heritage Site, like the hidden gems of Yoho National Park or Kootenay National Park! I hope that this post can fill the gap and provide a more comprehensive view to our experience throughout the entire national park area. So, without further ado, here are my top eight tips to an unforgettable vacation in the Canadian Rockies.

1. Rise and shine! Wake up early each morning to soak up the scenery before the crowds arrive.

Over four million people visit Banff each year, and we certainly experienced that first-hand. The crowds are unbearable if you go exploring in late-morning and early-afternoon. If, on the other hand, you're willing to set an early alarm and get up with the sunrise, you will be rewarded with quiet hiking trails, open parking lots, and picture-perfect views that don't include you and your 5,000 closest friends. We woke up early almost every day and left shortly after sunrise. We would spend the morning sightseeing or hiking before enjoying a picnic and heading back to the campground for an afternoon nap. This was the perfect schedule because just as we started to finish lunch, the crowds would peak and we would be swarmed at the picnic table. The pictures below are of us at Two Jack Lake in Banff National Park one morning. Instead of doing a lunch picnic, we got up early and ate breakfast by the lake. If we would have waited one more hour, we wouldn't have been able to get a picnic table. It was one of the highlights of our entire trip, and we enjoyed it with very few other people!

2. Just be. Don't schedule every minute of your trip running from sight to sight. Take time to enjoy your surroundings!

This tip also reminds me of our peaceful morning at Two Jack Lake. I was really proud of all of us this trip, because instead of running through our "must-see" list and becoming exhausted in the process, we all worked hard to pick one or two things to do each day and truly be present in the activities we chose. Whether it was a lunchtime picnic at Emerald Lake, or swinging in our hammocks at Two Jack Lake, we really tried to "just be." And, all of us agreed that these were our favorite times of the trip! We have learned the hard way from previous trips that detailed itineraries and over-scheduled days are the perfect recipe for crabby travel companions and stressed out parents. This time, we slowed down and enjoyed our surroundings by listening to the birds, watching for wildlife, and lounging in our hammocks. Trust me, you will enjoy your vacation more if you adopt this pace of travel!

3. Consider Canmore. It is just a short drive away from all of the top sights in the Canadian Rockies!

Canmore, Alberta is a small mountain town fifteen miles away from the tourist town of Banff. We stumbled upon Canmore when we were meeting our photographer for a family photo shoot, and we quickly fell in love! Most importantly, Canmore has significantly fewer tourists and less crowds than the neighboring town of Banff. I don't understand why, considering the downtown of Canmore is so cute and there is an abundance of hiking and biking trails throughout the city. We had coffee one morning at Communitea Cafe in Canmore and loved the quieter atmosphere and cheaper prices compared to Banff. Canmore is also connected to Banff via the Banff Legacy biking trail. We decided to save that trail for the next time we visit, but it looked like a beautiful ride!

And, as a family we always judge a town based on its ice cream availability (clearly the most important thing on a vacation! 🤩). I'm happy to report that Old School Bus Ice Cream in Canmore is a can't-miss spot!

In addition to the ice cream that Canmore offers, there is a much bigger and more accessible grocery store than the one in Banff. Since we were camping, this was very nice because we cooked most of our meals. The Banff grocery store was cramped, crowded, expensive, and hard to navigate, but the Safeway in Canmore had great selection, reasonable prices, and fewer people. Even if you make Banff your home base, the grocery store in Canmore is well worth the 15-minute drive for groceries.

4. Spend supper time sightseeing. Visit the most popular sights at the end of the day, when the crowds have dispersed and the tour buses have left.

As I previously suggested, beating the crowds requires lots of flexibility and creativity. Most often, we woke up early and were back to the campground by 1:00pm, just as the crowds were hitting their peak. After a mid-afternoon nap or some family games, we would venture back out around supper time and discovered that this was also a great time of day to explore Banff's most popular sights! Lake Louise typically attracts 15,000 people a day, and we heard horror stories of people who got up early, only to wait in line for hours to ride the shuttle to the lake. With that in mind, we knew that we had to be strategic about when we were going to visit the lake... we even considered skipping it since we wanted to avoid the massive crowds! My youngest daughter really wanted to go though, so one evening we decided to drive up to Lake Louise during the dinner hour (~5:00pm). Even though it was still very busy, we were able to snag a parking spot and go visit the lake without all 15,000 people photo-bombing our pictures and crowding out the view.

Here's another tip: feel free to wander through the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, even if you are not a hotel guest (there are guest only signs...🤷🏼‍♀️). I probably shouldn't be advertising this, but my daughters really wanted ice cream from the hotel. So, we just marched in with the confidence of a hotel guest and no one even took a second glance. I'm not sure you could bring an entire tour group in without looking suspicious, but if you'd like an ice cream cone or a souvenir shirt, I'd highly recommend it!

5. Download the GyPSy apps. Affectionately named "George" by my daughters, GyPSy driving tours on their audio guide apps are well worth the money!

While I was planning our trip, I stumbled upon a blog that recommended the GyPSy audio guide apps as a cheap alternative to taking a guided tour in the national parks. Although I didn't want to miss out on the information that a tour provides, I was also attracted to the cost savings and convenience that an app offered. We listened to several driving tours from GyPSy as we drove around the various national parks and enjoyed each one! The ones we listened to were the "Calgary to Banff GyPSy Guide", "Icefields Parkway GyPSy Guide", and "Banff - Lake Louise - Yoho GyPSy Guide". There are multiple other tours for the area, so I encourage you to check out everything that GyPSy offers. If you listen to them, let me know what one was your favorite!

Even though my daughters complained sometimes because "George" would never stop sharing information and they just wanted to nap, we all thought he was entertaining and informative! Without "George", we wouldn't have known what we were driving past. He even told us which roadside stops were worthwhile exploring and which stops we could keep driving by.

6. Channel your inner grizzly bear. You will exponentially increase your odds of seeing wildlife if you follow their sleep schedule!

I know I have recommended getting up early multiple times, but I really cannot emphasize it enough! Not only are the crowds quieter in the early morning/late evening, but this is also prime wildlife viewing hours. I strongly encourage you to search for wildlife at dusk or dawn since that is their main feeding hours and when they will be in the meadows along the roads or trails. We were fortunate enough to see multiple herds of elk when we were on the road early in the mornings, and we saw a few black bears one evening when we drove the Lake Minnewaska Loop, a popular wildlife drive. I can't promise that you will see any wildlife, but I am speaking from experience when I suggest that you seek out wildlife at dusk or dawn. While we were in the Canadian Rockies, we saw elk, black bears and grizzly bears, mountain goats, and many friendly pika, marmots and chipmunks. The area is home to an incredible variety of wildlife, so I hope you take advantage of the biodiversity.

7. Plan ahead if you're visiting the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Centre. Make a reservation in advance and aim for one of the early-morning Ice Explorer tours.

One of our favorite experiences of the trip was visiting the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Centre and walking on the Athabasca Glacier. How often can you say that you walked on a glacier... AND, that you rode a massive all terrain bus (the "Ice Explorer") to get there?! To be honest, the glacier wasn't as much fun as the bus ride. It was certainly an experience to walking on the glacier and seeing the ice crevasses and glacial water up close, yet it also reminded us of Minnesota in the winter - lots of firmly packed snow and ice! But, the bus ride was thrilling. We climbed up and down steep gravel hills to get to the glacier, and the guide does a great job of entertaining and educating us along the route. Here's a fun fact for your next trivia night: the incline of the hill to get to the glacier is the second steepest gravel hill in all of North America. It is almost 30% grade!

Following our tour of the glacier, my daughters and husband opted for the Skywalk experience overlooking Sunwapta Valley at the Columbia Icefield. My fear of heights meant that I preferred to go back to the Glacier Discovery Centre, while they walked on a glass platform extended over a 918-foot drop into the valley below. Yikes!

Once I returned to the Discovery Centre though, I'm not sure which was worse: the skywalk or the crowds of people that greeted me when I walked back in.

This made me very grateful that we had a reservation for the Ice Explorer Tour and Skywalk experience, and that we decided to wake up and get to the Discovery Centre early. Not only did we have a beautiful drive along the Icefields Parkway, with unlimited parking and empty overlooks whenever we stopped to take pictures, but we also were able to explore the Glacier Discovery Centre at the Columbia Icefield before it was overflowing with visitors from tour buses and school field trips.

8. Explore "off the beaten path" sites. Ditch the "Top 10" list and instead be willing to venture beyond the most popular attractions.

Banff is certainly known for a few major tourist attractions. Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, the Banff Upper Hot Springs, and Johnston Canyon are some of the most popular and well-known attractions in the Canadian Rockies. Due to this, they also attract the biggest crowds and longest wait-lines (which in my opinion, is often accompanied by headaches and frustration!). This is why I strongly recommend that you venture off the beaten path and explore some of the Canadian Rockies' "lesser-known" attractions. There are so many just as beautiful, if not more beautiful, places to visit that have little to no crowds. Some of our favorites were Emerald Lake and Takakkaw Falls at Yoho National Park. We thought that these places were far prettier and significantly less crowded than Lake Louise or Johnston Canyon. Not only did that mean we enjoyed it more, but we also saved ourselves some frustration in the process! You don't realize how much you appreciate open parking spots, available picnic tables, and unobstructed views until you visit one of the more famous sites and have to compete with 5,000 other people for 10 parking spots and one viewpoint.

I genuinely hope that these tips bring you and your family or friends more peace and joy in your next visit to the Canadian Rockies. I cannot speak highly enough of the people we met, places we visited, and adventures we experienced while we were in Canada. It was one of our favorite family vacations! Leave a comment below if you have ever been to Banff, or if you are currently planning a trip. I'd love to swap stories or help you with your research!