OldandBold

Hi all,

Looking for suggestions of a 2nd stage (possible 3) stage holiday to Canada over a 2-3 week period.

One element is vital and that's to

• take in the Calgary Stampede in July 2022. So thinking of flying into Calgary then min of 2 days at Calgary
• build in 2/3 days of a ranch trip (I'm currently looking for one near to where they do Heartland)... daughter is a mad equestrian.
• To do Banff and area, but that's possibly only 1 or 2 days.

Suggestions where to next? east to Prince Edward and surrounding areas (flights) or west to Vancouver and possibly Seattle (road trip)? Possibly both, doable?

The international leg of my flights (from Scotland) will probably be arrival/depart from Toronto.

Many thanks in advance

NorthwestMale

Hi,

At least I will hope to inspire others to chime-in on your thread.

I'm glad that you have a centerpiece in terms of your desires, because people here are much better when some parameters are established from the start.

Of course I had to look up "Heartland".


So lets see... begin and end in Toronto (for our purposes, I mean)... 14 to 21 days... willing to do 2 or 3 'stages' of your trip.


Stampede is July 8-17, 2022


MY VIBE... from so far away... is to afford yourself a thorough tour of the Canadian Rockies just beFORE you want to be at the Stampede. (perhaps land in Calgary and then spend a couple nights in Banff/Lake Louise, and then drive up the Icefields Parkway for a night in Jasper... then west, and have a look at Edmonton, and approach Calgary from the north)

The reason being to place yourself IN the area in the event that something goes amiss, then you're not too far away and can more easily improvise.


After your time at the Stampede... indeed Vancouver and surrounds are very alluring, and it is POSSIBLE that you could finesse the earliest leg of your trip to take you from Toronto to Vancouver by plane and then rent a car there for the Alberta part of your journey, and drive BACK to Vancouver to then fly across Canada, perhaps to PEI/Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.

It is most likely that since your cross-Canada flight path will mandate a stop and transfer in Toronto anyway, you can pick a very convenient, smaller destination to the east, where you would land and rent a car.

It is POSSIBLE that the small airport at Moncton, New Brunswick could be suitable for your needs. It is a long bridge away from PEI, and is a short distance from Nova Scotia too. To rent a vehicle there would afford opportunity to touch all of the bases before returning there to fly back to Toronto and then perhaps toward home. (or, maybe you spend a few days in the Toronto area and possibly drive to Montreal. Although I'm guessing that when you want French culture, you can just go to France, so perhaps Montreal wouldn't seem the novelty to you that it is for North Americans)

Of course you want to limit the flights, and car changes, and expenses.

Ultimately this may go better with getting advice if YOU select something more definite with regard to how you want to work your different 'stages' of your Canada trip.

(the more I write, the less sense it makes to try to work "Vancouver" into your targeted plans, for either it adds another full "stage" to your trip, OR it requires significant time to drive from Vancouver to Calgary, see the Stampede, and then see various sights before going back)


I wonder if a ONE-way car rental and (open jaws) flight would work??

Arrive Toronto.... spend a day or two... fly to Vancouver... rent a car... take... 3 or 4 days to drive to Calgary via Jasper, Lake Louise, Banff, etc.... attend the Stampede and see Calgary for 3 or 4 days.

Fly from Calgary to... (I'm saying Moncton, New Brunswick, for precise convenience)... drive to PEI... spend a couple of nights... then (ferry?) to Nova Scotia and envision 3 or 4 nights there... drive back to Moncton... fly to Toronto... maybe spend a night, and catch an early flight toward home.


(I might be at about 18 days there, giving you tiny "wiggle room" if you indeed have 3 possible weeks to utilize for such a trip)


LOL - at least others here now have something to disagree with, so they'll be inspired to leap onto your thread and eventually help you once they get done disagreeing with my random interpretation of what you seek.

Ugh, wait, I didn't give you time to spend IN Vancouver and surrounds... so add 2 nights for that, and I'm pushing the edge of your allotment.

BC_Robyn

I think you're thinking of exploring Canada like how one thinks of exploring a small compact country like the UK. Whereas, I encourage you to think of travelling around Canada like you'd travel around all of Europe, including the entirety of Russia, including Russia's Pacific coastline. It really is at a continental scale. So my advice is to not spread yourself too thin, similar to how a first-time visitor to Europe shouldn't try to see it all in one trip. Focus on one area this time and feel confident that you can easily fill it in 2-3 weeks without having to zigzag across the continent. Come back to see other parts of the country another time.

If possible, fly directly from the UK to Calgary - there are direct flights. Those flights don't cross the width of the Atlantic ocean or across the width of Canada - they fly in an arc from the UK northwest over Ireland to Iceland, over Greenland, and then over arctic Canada's territories then arc south to arrive in Calgary. This is the shortest route. It's not to persuade you from visiting Toronto at all, it's just that unless you plan to spend time in Toronto, when you choose to fly from the UK to Toronto to Calgary, you're making an already long flight (9 hours direct) unnecessarily longer (12 hours via Toronto). It's a common misconception that Toronto is the logical place to fly into, and it is for exploring the eastern half of the country, (i.e. Toronto, Niagara Falls, Montreal Quebec City, etc.), but doesn't make sense for exploring Canada's western-most provinces (Alberta, BC, the two provinces home to Vancouver, the Rockies, Vancouver Island, Whistler, etc.). Otherwise, it's like choosing to fly into Moscow or Istanbul or Cairo when you're spending all your time in the UK and France.

You can easily spend 2-3 weeks exploring Alberta and BC and include the Heartland film locations, the Rockies (Banff and Jasper), Vancouver, and dip down into Seattle, over the course of 2-3 weeks easily. This area is vast. Vancouver Island (the mountainous island off the coast of Vancouver) is almost the same size as England for example and is a 2-week destination of its own. The Rockies can easily be explored over the span of a week. And you could spend a week just exploring all the mountainous wilderness between the Rockies and Vancouver if you wished. There are all sorts of towns, cities, and different ecosystems in between, including areas known for horse ranch getaways like the Cariboo or the Chilcotin, and areas known for family lakeside holiday resorts, warm arid landscapes and hot sunny temperatures like the Okanagan Valley. So there are a lot of options too that you may not have considered.

So based on that, PEI doesn't really make sense here unless you're content on a lot of long flights. It's not that PEI isn't a worthy destination - it is. But it doesn't make sense in your bigger picture. It's a 4.5 hour flight east of Calgary and a long way to go considering there is still so much to explore that you're missing out on. It is actually closer to Scotland (4,400 km away) than to Calgary (4,700 km away!). It would just consider Atlantic Canada to be an entirely different trip and save it for another time when you can do that area justice.

NorthwestMale

BC_Robyn certainly isn't wrong in her assessment.

AND given that your main focus in this case is the Stampede, that gives you every reason to explore (what will amount to) some relatively small part of western Canada on this trip, leaving the seemingly nearer eastern areas of Canada for the chance you may get back one day not far off.

British Columbia alone is 1.3333 times the size of Texas, so it isn't a bad thought at all to chip-away at "Canada" one step at a time.

(and IF you could take interest in just a BC/AB trip this time, you could easily fill-up 2 or 3 weeks with plenty of variety and with less of a break-neck pace along the way)

At the end of it all, it's your call... so once again (the OP) needs to determine parameters and then most of the responses will respect those parameters.

SirhanTheStrong

Okay, Calgarian of 20+ years here:

-With 2-3 weeks I would second the recommendation to just focus on one region. Calgary->Vancouver->Seattle is already a great 2-3 week trip.

-If your daughter is very into equestrian stuff another possibility for timing your trip is to go in September during the Spruce Meadows Masters. It's one of the 4 biggest show jumping events in the world and the largest (by prize pool) in North America. The Spruce Meadows grounds are just outside the Calgary city limits, and they run free shuttle busses to and from the LRT station on event days. Spruce Meadows runs smaller tournaments throughout the Summer, but September is the big month for them, hosting the Nationals, North Americans and Masters events back-to-back-to-back.

-Heartland was filmed in & around Millarville and High River. I believe the exact ranch used is privately owned and not open to visitors. Although if you want similar scenery to show, the Bragg Creek & Cochrane areas look very similar as well. (Make sure you stay somewhere West of Calgary to get the beautiful foothills scenery, East of Calgary is flat prairie)

-I think you're selling yourself short on the Rockies. My recommendation is atleast 2 days in Banff/Canmore, 1 day driving the Icefields Parkway, and 1 day in Jasper. The are plenty of horseback tours that go up into the mountains in the Provincial Parks around Canmore. (As well as ones inside the National Parks, but they tend to be pricier.)

Other Equestrian stuff in Southern Alberta:
- The NWMP Museum in Fort Macleod. Before they were called the RCMP, the Canadian Mounties were called the NWMP (Northwest Mounted Police). The Old NWMP fort has been turned into a museum, and during the Summer months the Mounties do the Musical Ride, a choreographed routine on horseback. It's the only place in Canada you can still really see Mounties on horseback.

- Bar U Ranch. An historic ranch with a colourful history (The Sundance Kid worked there for a while) that has been turned into a National Historic Site. An open-air museum that tries to show how ranching worked at the turn of the 20th century.

OldandBold

Thank you all for your replies, they really are much appreciated and makes me realise that I need to focus on the west for this adventure, and plan the east for another trip another year.

@ Sirhan, thank you for the detail on the equestrian elements - this is the element that will make it a journey to remember for my daughter, so these wee details you provide are excellent.
@ BC_Robyn, thank you for the scale, something I really need to get my head round. (I'll relook at flights, It may just mean my first leg is Edinburgh>London rather than Edinburgh>Toronto). You lakeside resort has me doing a little bit searching at the moment, I think even if we do stretch to 3 weeks, at least a few days of just kicking back and breathing will be needed rather than tearing around hairy-arsed (Scottish term ) for weeks non-stop.
@ Northwest, thank you for kickstarting this and for the focus on making this a west only trip. Also given me some ideas for a later East adventure.

I'll do some more digging on flights options into the west come back with a bit more detail.

Slainte'

OldandBold