Best Of The Canadian Rockies

Depart the UK on your chosen scheduled flight to Calgary. Upon arrival, transfer to the Fairmont Palliser. Enjoy this evening at your leisure and relax before the start of your Tauck tour.

Your trip begins with a journey from Calgary that takes you across the last few miles of Canadian prairie to Kananaskis country, the foothills of Canada’s Rocky Mountains. Join your tour guide and fellow companions for a Wild West-themed welcome reception and dinner with music at Boundary Ranch.

Start the day with a morning helicopter excursion that showcases the stunning Three Sisters Peaks. Then head high up into the Canadian Rockies and cross the Continental Divide through Kicking Horse Pass on a day of Alberta travel on which you’ll see some of the most beautiful lakes in North America, including Lake Louise, where you’ll have lunch.

Join a naturalist guide for an informative walk around Lake Louise. The rest of the day is free to enjoy the spectacular setting and amenities of your resort hotel.

After breakfast, set off along the Icefields Parkway, an Alberta vacation highlight whose 143-mile length past more than 600 glaciers, six icefields and a cornucopia of mountains features jaw-dropping views of spectacular rocky peaks, waterfalls and snowfields around every turn. Enjoy a barbecue lunch, and watch for bears, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats – especially in the spring and fall – en route to your lodge in the heart of Jasper National Park. During your two-night stay, you’ll have an opportunity to attend a presentation by a Parks Canada official to hear the history, legends and folklore that are the very essence of Canada’s magnificent national parks.

Continue your Alberta vacation with a day spent exploring magnificent Jasper National Park with your choice of an included ‘Jasper Your Way’ discovery tour. You may choose from among an Athabasca River whitewater rafting adventure led by Rocky Mountain River Guides. On a Wildlife Discovery Tour with a wildlife interpreter, you’ll search for bear, elk and more. Alternatively take a trip on the Jasper Tramway through alpine tundra, leading to the interesting alpine town of Jasper. Or you may want to engage in some of the optional activities at your lodge, including horseback riding, biking, tennis, golf, fishing or boating.

Retracing your route along the Icefields Parkway back to Banff National Park today, you’ll appreciate the region’s spectacular scenery from several perspectives. Take a memorable ride across the surface of Athabasca Glacier on an Ice Explorer, a specially designed glacial vehicle, for a close look at the glacier’s geological features. Arrive in Banff National Park, the first national park in Canada. Your grand hotel, one of the Rockies’ finest resorts, was built more than a century ago to resemble a Scottish baronial castle.

Today is yours to explore Banff National Park as you please. You may wish to check out the village of Banff, with its spectacular scenery and trendy shops and boutiques, it has grown over the decades to rival the chic alpine villages of the American Rockies. There are also many optional activities to choose from in Banff National Park itself. Ride the Banff gondola, take a guided nature walk, go horseback riding, mountain biking, or canoeing on the Bow River. Play a round of golf at your world-famous resort, or perhaps book treatment at the Willow Stream Spa. Tonight, enjoy a special farewell reception at The Banff Centre, a world-renowned cultural centre. Your evening includes a special musical performance and dinner overlooking the Bow Valley.

There may be time for some last minute shopping or sightseeing before you transfer back to the airport for your flight home.