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EDIT: replied to old thread like a noob! 🙂
Rekindling this thread as we are off to Canada via a weekend in Seattle for 2.5 weeks at the end of June and keen for any tips please, particularly for Vancouver Island and Jasper. We will have 6 nights on VI and are catching the 7am ferry from Seattle to Victoria. We have almost two full days and one night in Victoria – is Butchart Gardens a must? We are hiring a car so that wouldn’t be a problem, but also keen for recommendations in and around Victoria for lunch/drinks/general sightseeing. I think @strickers previously suggested some places but it must have been on a daily chat some time ago as I can’t find them via searching! I’ve provisionally booked Marilena for dinner as it has excellent reviews and is happily on the Amex Plat dining credit!
We then have one night in Cumberland near Mount Washington to go mountain biking and then four nights in Tofino for surfing/whale watching/kayaking etc. I know you can also do whale watching trips from Victoria – is there any place on the island that’s meant to be best for it? Amazingly for how small it is, Tofino also has an Amex Plat Dining restaurant (Wolf in the Fog) where we can use our credit for the second half of the year as our trip spans late June/early July.
We then fly from Victoria to Calgary, pick up a car and head to Jasper for two nights. The current plan is a wild canoe adventure on Lake Pyramid, Jasper Sky Tram and white water rafting at Sunwapta Falls – any additional recommendations please? We are also considering Maligne Canyon and Athabasca Falls if we can fit it in before we head on to Lake Louise/Banff (second time visiting but first time in the summer months). Eating recommendations for Jasper would also be much appreciated! We finish our trip with 4 nights in Calgary staying with friends for the Stampede, which will no doubt be a memorable experience!
As a side note, I have found the free Wanderlog app brilliant for this holiday as I can forward all booking confirmations to a unique email address and it populates my itinerary, as well as also suggesting places and letting me manually add notes etc. A great tool for any multi location trip.
@ExpatInBerlin
Floating fish store on Fishermans wharf, lots of alternatives there too.
https://floatingfishstore.com/?utm_source=google-business-profile&utm_medium=organic
Finns was good too which is downtown, we also took a short drive to Sooke potholes to dust off the cobwebs, was quite a nice walk. I was about 6 months post op from my knee surgery and it was just about right.
Butchart Gardens was great but I wouldn’t have been upset if we had missed it, Mrs S on the other hand as an avid gardener would have been livid.
Thank you @strickers, really appreciate the suggestions, was planning a wander down to the Fisherman’s Wharf area anyway so Floating Fish looks like a great lunch option. I think we’ll keep Butchart Gardens on the list as a fair weather option and play it by ear!
A few years since I was in Victoria, but we enjoyed Butchart Gardens and I’d say it would be high on the list. For more casual dining, Red Fish Blue Fish on Wharf St was good, nice chowder and fish n chips by the waterfront.
Whale watching from Victoria was good but I understand that Tofino is the place, we were hoping to see Orca which didn’t happen but Humpbacks were around and saw a few flukes.
@Hbommie thanks for this, sounds like we could leave the whale watching until we get to Tofino then and enjoy more land-based sightseeing in and around Victoria! Hoping we might also spy some whales on the ferry from Seattle to Victoria, if we get lucky.
Eating recommendations for Jasper would also be much appreciated!
Not sure what exactly you’re looking for, but we had a few evening meals in Jasper:
– Syrahs (amazing)
– Harvest (disappointing)
– LouLous (very casual – the pizza was good though… but I think other food gets mixed reviews – we’d spent a few hours in the Jasper Brewing Company though so anything might’ve been good at that point)Looking at Google maps, the first two appear to be closed (as they would’ve been in the fire damaged area?).
Not sure if / when they will re-open as I’ve not been keeping up to date with it all.
@AndyGWP thank you for these insights, yes unfortunately many businesses in Jasper are still closed following the devastation caused by the wildfires. Hopefully we can at least support the local economy by spending a couple of days based there there even if hospitality options are limited. Re the surrounding area, was there a particular activity/location you visited that you’d consider a must-see during a short visit please?
We really enjoyed the Edith Cavell Meadow Trail walk. Don’t be fooled by the name (I always think a meadow trail sounds flat!) but its very much gradual ascent throughout until you turn around… starting at around 5800ft up to around 7500ft. You can take it at whatever pace you want tho and it was a 6 mile round trip for us taking around 3.5 hours (lots of photos)
Go early to grab a parking space (and a bit of peace and quiet).
Unsure if affected by wildfires so make sure to check.
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