Pacific Northwest & Western Canada Road Trip: 11 Days - British Columbia, Washington State, and Alberta

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When I dream of hitting the road for an extended road trip to just go and explore without any time constraints, I mostly picture spots out west. It makes sense. There is ample open space, more solitude, fewer cities. I often picture spots from this particular trip - most particularly Banff, in Canada’s Alberta province, nestled in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

This trip was a bit unusual compared to our normal routes since we built the trip around visiting family on each side of our family tree.

This post is an overview of the trip and following on its heels will be far more detail about what we did on each segment along the way.

Planning our Pacific Northwest and Western Canada Road Trip

HOW WE DETERMINED OUR ROUTE

Sometimes we pick a general destination and build a trip around it. Sometimes a destination picks us. The latter is the case with our 11-day trip to the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. We were invited to my cousin’s June wedding in Seattle, a city we had yet to visit, and we also have some relatives in Spokane, Washington. Given the two cities were only four hours apart, we decided we should create a trip to do both at once, but why stop there? We had always wanted to visit Vancouver, and my grandmother loved Banff - and we didn’t want a trip that required any doubling back.

Having a major airport was important to us for convenience and flight costs, and so after a lot of Google mapping routes, we figured out a 5-stop route in the middle of the summer, when the long summer days would be friendly to cramming a lot of exploration in!

WHAT ROUTE DID WE TAKE?

Our Road Trip Route - an approximately 15 hour trip in total driving and that included two international crossings between Canada and the US.

We flew in to Vancouver, where we spent two nights, before crossing the Canadian-United States border and spending two more nights in Seattle. This leg of the trip required about three hours of driving time, much lengthened by both the border crossing and the Seattle rush hour traffic - yikes! From Seattle, we headed east to Spokane, a four hour drive that took us close to the Idaho border. We stayed there with family for three nights before taking our longest drive to Banff, a six and a half hour drive that took us through the tip of Idaho, across the international border, and up into the beautiful Canadian Rockies. While we only spent two nights in Banff, we did so much during the days that it felt much longer - a feeling aided by the fact that we ate dinner around sunset at 10pm each night. Lastly, we took what can only be described as a depressing hour and a half drive down out of the mountains into the much flatter city of Calgary, where we would stay near the airport for one night for convenience before an early morning flight. Calgary was unexpectedly a western town - dry and brown - an odd experience after the lusciously colored mountains.

the logistics: transportation

We flew in-and-out of two international airports: Vancouver International Airport and Calgary International Airport. We rented a car in Vancouver and returned it in Calgary, and we ensued we got an SUV capable of handling the drive up to Banff.

the logistics: accommodations

Vancouver - West End Guest House - The prior innkeepers sold the property after our stay and bought a new B&B; however, the reviews suggest visitors still have a great experience like ours. The house is centrally located and very walkable.
Seattle - Courtyard Seattle Downtown/Lake Union - While we stayed here for proximity to a wedding, this is a fairly centrally located spot in Seattle, and we had a nice stay.
Spokane - Recommended places to stay - Since we stayed with family, we would recommend checking out other highly rated locations.
Banff - Rimrock Resort Hotel - We loved our stay here. The hotel is up the mountain a bit and has gorgeous views. It was still walkable to downtown Banff. Banff in general is pretty pricy and there are relatively few options for where to stay. Prepare yourself for sticker shock!
Calgary - Residence Inn Calgary Airport - A convenient spot with nearby restaurants, easily accessible to the airport.

Would we return to the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada region?

Yes, we would love to explore the full scope of the Washington and Oregon coast, travel north from Vancouver to Whistler and beyond, and spend more dedicated time hiking in Banff and Jasper. We were both raised on the west coast and feel most at home among the steeper mountains, the pine needle laden forests, the rocky coastline, and the dry, bug-less environment. Unfortunately, living on the east coast makes the west coast harder to visit since it requires close to two full days traveling.

Trip Do-Over: What would we do differently?

Because we visited family in Spokane, which is not a place we would have otherwise visited, we’d recommend that others take the few extra days and allocate then to another day or two in Vancouver to do some additional hiking in the nearby wilderness or even take a day trip to Whistler (2 hours away) and add another day or two to the time in Banff. It deserved so much more time than we gave it!

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