Morning
Land at YVR
Vancouver International, in Richmond south of the city. The Canada Line runs downtown in about 25 minutes, but you want the car.
Pick up the rental car
Reserve a one-way rental you can drop at Calgary airport, and take the SUV — you will cross four mountain passes and a provincial border.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch at Granville Island Public Market
1669 Johnston St, under the Granville Bridge. Fishmongers, a produce hall and a dozen counters; eat on the dock and watch the little ferries cross False Creek.
Stanley Park Seawall
A 9 km paved loop around a peninsula of second-growth cedar and fir, with the North Shore mountains across the inlet. Rent bikes on Denman Street and ride it counter-clockwise.
Evening
Dinner at Blue Water Cafe
1095 Hamilton St, Yaletown. The city's benchmark seafood room — a raw bar of BC oysters, Dungeness crab and sablefish in a converted warehouse.
Morning
Breakfast at Medina Cafe
780 Richards St. Belgian waffles with lavender milk chocolate and a proper fricassée; the queue is part of the ritual.
Capilano Suspension Bridge Park
3735 Capilano Rd, North Vancouver — 20 minutes over the Lions Gate Bridge. A 137 m footbridge 70 m above the canyon, plus a treetop walk through the rainforest.
Afternoon / Day
Grouse Mountain gondola
6400 Nancy Greene Way, five minutes further up the same road. The Blue Grouse Gondola and the older red Skyride tram both climb to a summit plateau with a grizzly refuge, lumberjack shows and lunch at the top.
Gastown and the steam clock
Back across the bridge to the cobbled original townsite. The clock at Water and Cambie whistles the Westminster chimes on the quarter hour.
Evening
Dinner at Phnom Penh
244 E Georgia St, Chinatown. A family-run Cambodian-Vietnamese room famous for its butter beef and pepper-garlic chicken wings. Reservations are limited, so go early or expect a line.
Morning
Highway 99 north to Britannia Beach
The Sea-to-Sky: roughly 50 km and 45 minutes to an hour from downtown, over the Lions Gate Bridge and up the cliffs of Howe Sound. Pull-offs at Porteau Cove and Furry Creek.
Britannia Mine Museum
150 Copper Dr, Britannia Beach. Once the largest copper mine in the British Empire; the tour rides a rail car into the tunnel and ends in the huge timber mill building. Underground tours sell out — book the date, not the morning of.
Afternoon / Day
Sea to Sky Gondola
36800 Highway 99, Squamish, 10 minutes north. Shannon Falls drops 335 m from the same pull-off; the gondola lifts you to a suspension bridge, viewing platform and a summit lodge that does lunch.
Highway 99 on to Whistler
The last 60 km, an hour or so, climbing away from the sound into the Coast Mountains. Brandywine Falls is a signed stop off the highway, a short walk out to the viewing platform.
Evening
Dinner at Araxi
4222 Village Square. The village anchor for four decades — Pacific oysters, local lamb, and a long BC wine list. Patio tables face the stroll.
Start from this itinerary.
Copy all 9 days into your account, then change whatever you like.
Already have an account?
Morning
Breakfast at Purebread
A Whistler village bakery counter stacked with dense slabs of cake and savoury scones. Take coffee out to the stroll before the gondola queue builds.
Peak 2 Peak Gondola
A 4.4 km crossing between Whistler and Blackcomb, with a 3.02 km unsupported span between towers, 436 m above the valley floor. Ride up the Whistler Village Gondola first and take lunch at the Roundhouse.
Afternoon / Day
Audain Art Museum
4350 Blackcomb Way. A long black building on stilts over a floodplain, holding Emily Carr canvases and one of the best Northwest Coast mask collections anywhere.
Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre
4584 Blackcomb Way, two minutes along the same road. Two nations share one longhouse-and-istken building; the guided introduction is short and genuinely worth it.
Evening
Dinner at Rimrock Cafe
2117 Whistler Rd, in Whistler Creekside. Open since 1986 and still the locals' answer for game and seafood; a low room with a fire going.
Morning
Highway 99 north to Pemberton
32 km, about 30 minutes down into the Pemberton Valley. Fill the tank here — there is no service station between Pemberton and Lillooet.
Joffre Lakes Provincial Park
Three stacked glacier-fed lakes 25 minutes past Pemberton; the lower one is five minutes from the lot, all three are about 10 km return. BC Parks runs a day-use pass in summer and the park closes for stretches each year for Lil'wat and N'Quatqua ceremonies — confirm access before you build the day around it.
Afternoon / Day
Duffey Lake Road to Lillooet
Highway 99 carries on about 70 km east from Joffre, a slow 1 hr 30 to 1 hr 45 of switchbacks, 15% grades and single-lane bridges — Pemberton to Lillooet in full is 99 km and takes 2 to 2.5 hours. Stop at Duffey Lake and the Seton Lake viewpoint above town.
Lunch in Lillooet
Mile 0 of the old Cariboo Wagon Road, in a dry sagebrush canyon that feels nothing like the coast you left this morning. A handful of cafes along Main Street.
Highway 99 to Cache Creek, then Highway 1 to Kamloops
About 2 hrs 15 for the last 170 km. Highway 99 climbs out of the Fraser canyon and runs through Marble Canyon past Pavilion Lake before ending at Highway 97 north of Cache Creek; fuel there, then run the Thompson River east.
Evening
Dinner at The Noble Pig Brewhouse
650 Victoria St, a five-minute walk east along Victoria Street in downtown Kamloops. A brewpub that makes its own beer and does not apologise for the portions — the right end to a long drive.
Morning
Highway 1 east along Shuswap Lake
165 km and about 2 hours to Craigellachie, through Chase, Salmon Arm and Sicamous. Mostly two lanes with four-laned stretches near Monte Creek and Pritchard; the lake appears on your left from Chase onward.
Craigellachie: the Last Spike
A cairn and a length of track beside Highway 1 about 45 km west of Revelstoke, where the Canadian Pacific drove its last spike in November 1885, finishing the railway that held the country together.
Afternoon / Day
Highway 1 into Revelstoke
The final 45 km, about 30 minutes, with the Monashees behind you and the Selkirks rising ahead.
Lunch in downtown Revelstoke
A compact grid of brick storefronts around Grizzly Plaza, still recognisably a railway town. Cafes and a bakery within two blocks of the square.
Revelstoke Railway Museum
719 Track St W, across from the yard. Steam locomotive 5468 and a business car you can walk through, plus the story of how the CPR held this line open through Rogers Pass.
Meadows in the Sky Parkway
Mount Revelstoke National Park, from the edge of town: 26 km of paved switchbacks to subalpine meadows, ending at the Balsam Lake parking area. The summit and Heather Lake are a kilometre further on foot, by trail or paved road. Snow can linger up top well into July.
Evening
No activities planned
Morning
Highway 1 east into Glacier National Park
72 km and about an hour climbing to the summit of Rogers Pass, through concrete snowsheds built to take avalanches over the road rather than onto it.
Rogers Pass and Summit Station
The snowshed-shaped Discovery Centre is closed for structural renovation until 2027, with a temporary Parks Canada facility, Summit Station, standing in at the top of the pass. The story is the same one: why the CPR gave up on this alignment and tunnelled under it instead.
Afternoon / Day
Highway 1 down to Golden, then east to Field
About 1 hr 50 for 130 km. Break in Golden for lunch and a walk over the timber-frame pedestrian bridge across the Kicking Horse, then carry on into Yoho.
Emerald Lake and the Natural Bridge
Yoho National Park, up a 9 km road from Field. The Natural Bridge is a rock arch the Kicking Horse River cut for itself; the lake beyond has a flat 5.2 km shoreline loop.
Evening
Highway 1 over Kicking Horse Pass to Banff
The last 85 km, about an hour, crossing the Continental Divide and into Alberta. The Spiral Tunnels viewpoint is signed on the climb.
Dinner at The Bison
211 Bear St, one street off Banff Avenue. Rocky Mountain cooking done seriously — bison short rib, elk, and a mezzanine that looks over the courtyard.
Morning
Bow Valley Parkway to Lake Louise
Highway 1A instead of the four-lane: 48 km at a posted 60 km/h, so allow an hour. It is an elk and bear corridor and Parks Canada applies seasonal travel restrictions to parts of it, so check the day you drive.
Lake Agnes Tea House hike
The trail leaves the Lake Louise shoreline by the Chateau and climbs 400 m over 3.5 km to a log tea house that has served hikers since 1905. Walk the flat lakeshore path first for the Victoria Glacier view.
Afternoon / Day
Moraine Lake
The Valley of the Ten Peaks, seen from the Rockpile a few minutes above the shore. Private vehicles have not been allowed on Moraine Lake Road since 2023 — access is by Roam public transit or a commercial operator, both of which need booking well ahead, and the arrangements change — confirm before you plan around it.
Evening
Highway 1 back to Banff
60 km and about 45 minutes on the fast road this time, through the wildlife overpasses that arch across the highway.
Dinner at Park Distillery
219 Banff Ave. Campfire-style cooking and spirits distilled on site with glacier meltwater; loud, casual and easy to walk back from.
Sulphur Mountain & Out via Calgary
Morning
Breakfast at Wild Flour Bakery
211 Bear St, the same courtyard as last night's dinner. Sourdough, morning buns and a flat white before the gondola.
Banff Gondola up Sulphur Mountain
100 Mountain Ave. Eight minutes to a ridge above the Bow Valley, then a boardwalk along the crest to Sanson's Peak, where Norman Sanson's meteorological observatory and the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station National Historic Site stand.
Afternoon / Day
Bow Falls and Banff Avenue
The falls are a fifteen-minute walk below the Banff Springs, wide rather than tall. Then the main street, with Cascade Mountain closing the view at the north end.
Highway 1 east to Calgary
About 145 km and 1 hr 45 to the airport, which sits northeast of the city — Banff to Calgary itself is 128 km. With three hours wanted for an international departure, this is an early start. The mountains stop abruptly near Canmore and the prairie begins within twenty minutes.
Evening
Depart from YYC
Calgary International, 2000 Airport Rd NE. Drop the rental in the terminal parkade and allow three hours for an international departure.
Explore other trips
Patagonia on Foot: Fitz Roy and Paine
Solo Adventure·Jan 7 – Jan 17·11 days
Pacific Coast Highway Solo Run
Solo Adventure·Sep 5 – Sep 12·8 days
New York City, Borough by Borough
City Break·Oct 6 – Oct 10·5 days