Calgary to Vancouver road trip
≈ 1050 km · ~12 h driving · ideal in 9 days · 6 stops
The Canadian Rockies stacked end to end: Banff's turquoise lakes, the Icefields Parkway's glaciers close enough to touch, and a long descent through the Interior to the Pacific.
Photo: Unsplash
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The route at a glance
- Calgary — 1 night
- Banff — 2 nights
- Lake Louise — 1 night
- Revelstoke — 1 night
- Kamloops — 1 night
- Vancouver — 2 nights
The stops
- 1
Calgary
Land, grab bear spray and groceries, and drive an hour into the wall of the Rockies.
- 2
Banff
Gondola up Sulphur Mountain, soak at the Upper Hot Springs, canoe the Bow — the townsite earns its fame.
- 3
Lake Louise
The lake at sunrise before the crowds, tea-house hikes above it, and the Moraine Lake shuttle for the Valley of the Ten Peaks.
- 4
Revelstoke
Through Yoho and Rogers Pass to a genuine mountain town — the Meadows in the Sky parkway spirals to an alpine summit.
- 5
Kamloops
Desert-dry hills and sagebrush — a one-night breather that makes the coast's rainforest arrival land harder.
- 6
Vancouver
Stanley Park's seawall, Granville Island market, and mountains still filling the windshield — city as trip finale.
Good to know
Parks Canada passes are per-day per-vehicle; the annual Discovery Pass pays off past a week. Moraine Lake is shuttle/bus-only now — book Parks Canada shuttles well ahead; Lake Louise parking fills before dawn in summer. The Icefields Parkway detour north (Peyto Lake, Athabasca Glacier) is the best road in Canada — add a night in Jasper if you can. Watch for wildlife at dawn and dusk; those bear-jam traffic stops are real.
More road trips
Or start from a blank map and build your own — Stopful shows drive times between stops, splits long days, finds hotels and EV chargers along the route, and tracks the budget as you plan.