Created by April
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Into the Natural Wonders of British Columbia

A trip from August 27, 2010 to September 10, 2010, travelling to Seattle, Surrey, Vancouver, Banff, Field …
We travelled through the nonstop beautiful views nature … More  
We travelled through the nonstop beautiful views nature offers to people.
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Travel

It was an exhausting trip because we would like to go as many places as we could when we were in British Columbia. It took us a lot of time to refine our trip plan over and over again to make the best use of our time.  We traveled more than 3000 miles.

I decided to fly to Seattle (instead of Vancouver or Victoria) and rent a car that day. By doing this, we can save some money on airplane tickets, car rental (booked a full size car from Hertz on Hotwire.com; I believe we got a great deal) and a possible tourist tax.

This is it, the following is our touring itineraries: Day 1 - Travel: from Virginia/Seattle, Washington/Vanvouve (stay in Vancouver); Day 2 - Vancouver (stay in Vancouver); Day 3 - Travel to Banff National Park (stay in Banff townsite); Day 4 - Yoho National Park (Banff townsite); Day 5 - Lake day (Banff townsite); Day 6 - Icefield Parkwy/Jasper National park (stay in Colombia icefield); Day 7- Jasper National Park, travel to Golden (stay in Golden); Day 8- Kooteney National Park, travel to Kelowna (stay in Kelowna) ; Day 9 - Okanagan Valley, Travel to Kamloop (stay in Kamloop); Day 10 - Hope/Fraser Canyon, travel to Whistler (stay in Whistler); Day 11 - Whistler, travel to Nanaimo (Stay in Parkfield); Day 12 - Nanaimo/Cheminius (stay in Parkfield; I wanted to stay in a nice hostel Whalers on the point guesthouse but It was not available on the day I visited); Day 13 - Tofino, travel to Victorial (Victoria); Day 14 - Victoria - travel back to Seattle; Day 15 - Flight Home.

Our original plan was to take the Black Ball Ferry to Victoria from Seattle.   It costs $157 for our rental car and the two of us for round trip; another $150 from Victoria to Vancouver, back and forth on B.C ferry. Later, I found out we can drive to Vancouver from Seattle without taking the ferry. So, I had to change the whole plan in order to save one ferry trip. 

Early Fri (our original flight was 7am central time), we realized that we forget to bring our paper tickets with us (we booked our flights from Expedia). We did not worry too much, because we thought we could self check-in despite that.  AirTran's system didn't allow us to check-in without the tickets, and we found out from their receptionist that we would have to pay 50 dollars for the lost tickets and 199 dollars more for the air fare (each).  It was unacceptable, and we decided to switch to a very late flight and paid 75 dollars per each.  It total changed our plans.  We were originally going to be in Seattle at 10:22 am (Pacific time), and now we would be there at 8:45 pm (pacific time) instead.  I was so happy when Hertz told me I would have Nissan, Altima, V6. (I am a big fImagean of Nisan Altima.  Love the car.  I considered it was not a bad day at all.  Furthermore, I got very good deal from hotwire.com, paid 400 hundreds dollars and something with unlimited mileages.) 

After having a late dinner with my cousin in Seattle, we managed to make it to our hotel in Vancouver by 4am Saturday morning. Thankfully, the hotel (Ramada Inn and Suites - Surrey/Guilford) only charged us for one night's stay, since we'd gotten in so late.


 
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Talk about this trip (10)
This looked like an awesome trip.
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It's realy good trip, I really wanna experience this one.
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I lived in Vancouver for 1 yr. Did alot of sightseeing on the weekends. Such a beautiful area. Took a long drive back to states thru the Canadian Rockies-incredible!
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I'm ending my Alaska cruise in Vancouver and would like to sightsee there and in Victoria before flying back to Portland but not sure how to get to Victoria from Vancouver. I wonder if I should rent a car in Vancouver and drive it to Victoria and return it to Vancouver and then fly home from there. Not sure how far it is from Vancouver to Victoria
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Hi Cheri; You have to take a ferry to Victoria from Vancouver (unfortunately) It costs you 75 dollars including your car and passengers. There are two ferry terminals from Vancouver to Victoria. One will leave you at Nanaimo and another one is to Victoria center. I don't know where you will end up in Vancouver. You can take ferry from Vancouver to Victoria and there are couple hotels which are not too far from the ferry terminals (based on my last research for my trip) Victoria is not big city so you can do sightseeeing on foot if you like to walk. For me, it will take a day to walk around. You can take a tour bus to the famous Butchart Gardens, and the hotel will have a shuttle to give you a ride to airport. That is my opinion if you want to save your money.
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wonderful trip and i was always so curious about the nature in British Columbia that your review and that gorgeous images delighted me. i hope i will go there some time.
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great views!!!
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Hi Michael; you will love it when you are there.
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Michael; BTW, I think the best time to travel there after summer.
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bjr
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Planned Activities
Fri 08/27/10 (day 1) - Seattle, Surrey
Sat 08/28/10 (day 2) - Vancouver
Thing to Do
Thing to Do
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Sun 08/29/10 (day 3) - Banff
Mon 08/30/10 (day 4) - Field
Thing to Do
City
Tue 08/31/10 (day 5) - Lake Louise, Alberta
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Wed 09/01/10 (day 6) - Banff
 
 
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