Lonely Planet British Columbia & the Canadian Rockies , livre ebook

British Columbia & the Canadian Rockies

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to BC & the Canadian Rockies
BC & the Canadian Rockies’ Top 17
Need to Know
If You Like…
Month by Month
Itineraries
National & Regional Parks
Outdoor Activities
Regions at a Glance

On The Road

ALBERTA
Edmonton
Calgary
Banff & Jasper National Parks
Kananaskis Country
Canmore
Icefields Parkway
Banff Town
Lake Louise
Jasper Town & Around
Drumheller
Dinosaur Provincial Park
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Lethbridge
Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park
Waterton Lakes National Park
Crowsnest Pass
Northern Alberta
Peace River & Around
Mackenzie Highway
Lake District
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Vancouver
Lower Mainland
Richmond & Steveston
New Westminster
Bowen Island
Sea To Sky Highway
Squamish & Around
Whistler
Sunshine Coast
Gibsons
Roberts Creek
Sechelt
Powell River
Vancouver Island
Victoria
Southern Vancouver Island
Cowichan Valley
Nanaimo
Parksville & Qualicum
Port Alberni
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve
Tofino
Ucluelet
Denman & Hornby Islands
Comox Valley
Campbell River
Strathcona Provincial Park
North Vancouver Island
Southern Gulf Islands
Salt Spring Island
North & South Pender Islands
Galiano Island
Saturna Island
Mayne Island
Fraser & Thompson Valleys
EC Manning Provincial Park
Fraser River Canyon
Lytton
Kamloops
Sun Peaks
Okanagan Valley
Osoyoos
Oliver
Vaseux Lake
Penticton
Penticton to Kelowna
Kelowna
Vernon
North of Vernon
The Kootenays & The Rockies
Revelstoke
Revelstoke to Golden
Golden
Yoho National Park
Kootenay National Park
Radium Hot Springs
Radium Hot Springs to Fernie
Fernie
Kimberley
Cranbrook
Cranbrook to Rossland
Rossland
Nelson
Nelson to Revelstoke
Cariboo Chilcotin Coast
Williams Lake to Prince George
Barkerville & Around
Bowron Lake
Wells Gray Provincial Park
Chilcotin & Highway 20
Bella Coola Valley
Northern British Columbia
Prince Rupert
Haida Gwaii
Prince Rupert to Prince George
Prince George
Prince George to Alberta
Stewart-Cassiar Highway
Alaska Highway
YUKON TERRITORY
Whitehorse
Alaska Highway
British Columbia to Whitehorse
Whitehorse to Alaska
Haines Highway
Klondike Highway
Carcross
Carmacks
Stewart Crossing
Dawson City
Dempster Highway
Arctic Parks

Understand

BC & the Canadian Rockies Today
History
Wildlife
The Arts
Indigenous BC & Beyond
West Coast Cuisine
Drinking BC & Beyond

Survive

Directory A–Z
Accessible Travel
Accommodations
Children
Customs Regulations
Discount Cards
Electricity
Food
Health
Insurance
Internet Access
Legal Matters
LGBT+ Travelers
Maps
Money
Opening Hours
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Visas
Women Travelers
Work
Transportation
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Entering the Region
Air
Land
Sea
GETTING AROUND
Air
Bicycle
Boat
Bus
Car & Motorcycle
Local Transportation
Train
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to BC & the Canadian Rockies

If you’re searching for the promised land, there’s a good chance you’ll find it somewhere in the endless forests, inlet-punctuated coastline and meat-cleaver mountain ranges of Western Canada.

A Natural Show
Western Canada has historic sites, music venues and wonderful restaurants, but the real ‘show’ here isn’t hidden away in a dark, dusty museum; it’s paraded outside in a dramatically expansive landscape of mountains, lakes, plains, forests, rocky bluffs and storm-lashed beaches. You haven’t fully experienced this spectacular corner of the planet until you’ve swum in a glacier-fed lake, run across an alpine meadow, followed in Indigenous footsteps across a remote mountain pass or watched a bear foraging for wild berries. Get in training!

Epic Adrenaline Rushes
West Coasters have been discovering ways to interact with the outdoors for decades, and there are countless operators that can help you do the same. Whistler morphs from skiing capital to mountain-biking bonanza. Banff and nearby national parks contain breathtaking trails. And Tofino is Canada’s original ‘surf city’. Recent years have added spine-tingling zip lines and via ferrate (fixed-protection climbing routes). Or you can do what the First Nations have been doing for thousands of years and hit the water in a canoe or kayak.

Urban Adventures
The wilderness is seductive but this region also offers sparkling city action. Alberta puts on a show with Edmonton’s arts scene and Calgary’s contemporary cowboy vibe, while British Columbia offers the best city-based shenanigans with two very different approaches. Provincial capital Victoria frames its increasingly cool scene with historic buildings, while Vancouver serves a full menu of ethnically diverse neighborhoods ripe for exploration. From slick Yaletown to cool Gastown to the West End’s vibrant ‘gayborhood’, the ‘City of Glass’ is a place with many personalities.

First People
Responsible for more than 10,000 years of regional history, Western Canada’s Indigenous culture is a complex story of creation beliefs, survival and diverse First Nations traditions. Piecing it together will take you from Haida Gwaii’s towering totems to the chronicles of Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology. BC has 198 First Nations groups, nearly one-quarter of the Yukon’s population claims Indigenous heritage, and Alberta is the heartland of the Blackfoot and Cree. Uncover their legends in galleries and cultural centers or listen to their stories in more than 30 languages.

FENG WEI PHOTOGRAPHY / GETTY IMAGES © | Yoho National Park

Why I Love BC & the Canadian Rockies
By Brendan Sainsbury, Writer
I get my museum fixes in London and my musical pleasures in Cuba, but whenever I want an undiluted dose of the forest-covered, mountain-packed, wave-lashed ‘natural world’ in all its untainted glory, I don’t have to stray too far from my front door in British Columbia. Four times the size of my native UK, BC (and the Rockies) is a place I love for its tolerance, diversity, optimism and big bold landscapes that fill me with a mixture of awe and exhilaration.
For more see, Our Writers
British Columbia & the Canadian Rockies’ Top 17

Tofino
Even people with no eye for a picture can make photo art in Tofino . The spectacular amalgamation of tempestuous ocean, brawny sea stacks, weather-gnarled rainforest and velvety mountains is a sight to behold, especially when seen through the prism of one of those slow-burning West Coast sunsets. Add in a diminutive surf town that melds remarkably gently with its natural surroundings and you’ve got the makings of something very, very special. Wander deserted beaches, rent a longboard and go looking for whales or storms in the not-so-passive Pacific. Wonderful adventures await.

MANUEL SULZER / GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Lake Louise
No one should leave this mortal coil without first setting eyes on the robin-egg-blue waters of Lake Louise nestled bellow the icy hue of the Victoria Glacier and ringed by an impressive amphitheater of mountains. True, selfie sticks can often outnumber walking poles on the crowded lakeside promenade, but take a less obvious path to an alpine teahouse or through a valley of larch trees and you’ll find that Homo sapiens soon get replaced by wilder company (bears if you’re lucky). Welcome to Banff National Park’s undisputed highlight.

LISSANDRA MELO / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Skiing the Slopes at Whistler
Combining two mountains with a purpose-built but strikingly attractive alpine village that hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler is the blueprint for all ski resorts. Want action? Snowboard over car-sized bumps on Whistler Bowl before hitting a boisterous pub at the gondola base. Want quiet? Go cross-country skiing in Callaghan Country and then sink into a giant Jacuzzi in a deluxe Creekside resort. Want cheap? Strap on snowshoes, fill up on cakes from Canada’s best bakery and crash out in the nation’s first capsule hotel. It’s all here!

STOCKSTUDIOX / GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Stanley Park’s Seawall Promenade
It sometimes takes awestruck visitors to remind Vancouverites they have Canada’s finest urban park on their doorstep. But when you grow up alongside a 404-hectare temperate rainforest that’s lined with multitudinous hiking and cycling trails, it’s easy to think everyone is just as lucky. Stroll the park’s 8.8km wave-licked, forest-backed seawall and you’ll soon deplete your camera battery. But save some juice for the beady-eyed birdlife (especially the blue herons) around Lost Lagoon and a panoramic pyrotechnic sunset at Third Beach.

MYSTICENERGY / GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Wildlife Spotting in Jasper
Elk nose their way around the town’s edge, nervous deer dart between the trees and seemingly giant bald eagles swoop high overhead. The dramatic mountain setting of Jasper National Park is enough to keep most camera-wielding visitors content, but the surfeit of wandering wildlife makes you feel like you’re part of a 3D nature documentary. If you’re lucky you might even spot the show’s stars: grizzly bears snuffling for berries alongside the highway or, across the other side of a river, wolves silently tracking their next fresh-catch ungulate.

Bull elk | FENG WEI / GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Dawson City
You’re bouncing around for hours on some rickety old bus on the Klondike Hwy in the height of summer, not knowing whether it’s three o’clock in the morning or afternoon, and suddenly you arrive in Dawson City . Women in frilled skirts, straight out of a gambling hall, chat on wooden sidewalks, and a buzz of stories about gold can be heard everywhere. It’s like stumbling into another world. Dawson City is small and remote, but also gloriously authent