Planning Stages

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So, here we go again the next adventure awaits. Its been a while since I last blogged on our Route 66 trip. I've been to New Zealand and Australia since in January 2015 with Steph visiting her family. I meant to do a blog but I'd just come out of a very business Christmas period (I own my own business creating and making personalised gifts) so the 3.5 weeks travelling to NZ and AUS was spent relaxing and once I'd forgotten to start the blog it felt weird if I had started in the middle. However this next trip which is planned will give me more time hopefully to blog and detail the adventures we get up to and more importantly the scenery we are hopefully going to see.



This time its just Steph and myself travelling again as Kerry is getting married on 6th May and will be on her honeymoon from 13th May ironically doing a road trip down the east coast of the US while we are roadtripping in Canada. The original plan had been to hire a motorhome and road trip across as much of Canada as possible as this seemed the most economical way of doing it. The one way fee alone for car rental was going to be ridiculous! However after more research we decided that it would be trying to fit in too much in too little time (we've got 17 days). We learned from our Route 66 trip that if you drive huge distances each day you can miss out on seeing the things you want to and sometimes whilst its about "the journey not the destination" you lose the journey because you need to get to the destination to check into a hotel on time etc.



So the flights are booked and we've booked a couple of hotels already. The route is pretty much planned in terms of driving and is follows:



May 11th - London Gatwick To Vancouver, we land in the afternoon so will pick up the car and drive approx 1 hr north to Horseshoe Bay where we will stay at the Horseshoe Bay Motel for the night.

May 12th - The plan is to get the ferry across to Bowen Island with the car in the morning at some point and stay on Bowen Island for two nights. We haven't booked accommodation yet so unsure whether to stay near the ferry point at Snug Cove or further in the "wilderness".

May 13 - Bowen Island

May 14th - Ferry back to the mainland and then travel to Whistler. Its about 90mins drive but there's quite a bit in between to stop off at and visit.

May 14th-May 17th - 3 nights in Whistler at Summit Lodge. Hopefully there will be a bit of snow about still. It's difficult to tell as its typical the week we are visiting the Rockies is the week between Winter and Spring. We'd love to go Hiking in Snow Shoes but depending on the winter there might be quite a bit of snow still or hardly any. We shall see. If not theres plenty of nice spa places there and shops! We check out on May 17th and drive up to Clinton.

May 17th - Stay the night in Clinton, the hotel isn't booked yet but there are a few options. Then the morning of 18th to Blue River.

May 18th - Stay the night in Blue River at the Glacier Mountain Lodge and then travel to Jasper on the morning of the 19th.

May 19th-20th - Stay two nights in Jasper or around that area. Morning of 21st travel down to the glacier.

May 21st - Stay at Glacier View Inn. This is booked as its the only hotel in the area. From here we are going to take a trip to the glacier. Morning of 22nd travel to Emerald Lake Lodge.

May 22nd - Looking to stay at Emerald Lake Lodge, this isn't booked yet but is probable. Morning of 23rd travel to Banff.

May 23rd - Stay in Banff for a night and hopefully visit the hot springs.

Then on the morning of the 24th drive to Calgary Airport to drop the car off and catch our flight to Toronto.

May 24th - Land in Toronto late afternoon and hopefully pick up a rental car and stay on the outskirts of Toronto.

May 24th - May 28th - The plans for this time are a bit sketchy at the moment but basically will involve driving to Niagara Falls and staying in and around that area before heading back to Toronto to fly back to London Gatwick on 28th, landing in the early hours of 29th.



So still lots to do and book, car rental is booked for Vancouver to Calgary and hotels for 5 nights, 12 more nights to book and another car rental for Toronto. The countdown is on - less than 4 months to go!

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