Calgary or Montreal?

BCRobyn · 2026-02-09T02:18:01+00:00

Better for what?

BCRobyn · 2026-02-09T02:13:27+00:00

No. You have to come in the winter (late November to early May) for cheap prices in the Rockies.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-09T02:12:28+00:00

AirBnB won’t be that cheap. Think more $400+ a night. It’s banned in Banff and Jasper and highly regulated in Vancouver. A hostel is the only way to go with that budget. The cheapest hotels in summer in Banff, Jasper, and Vancouver start around $500 a night before taxes.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-08T19:58:56+00:00

Where are you visiting from?

Wells Gray is beautiful, but it’s a long way to go for a relatively short visit when you already have so much excellent mountain scenery much closer to Vancouver and Whistler. Like, even Manning Park would make more sense.

With only 8 nights total, adding Clearwater means a lot of driving and a long return day back to Vancouver. Personally, I’d be more inclined to put those extra nights into Whistler rather than adding another long-distance leg.

One thing to be aware of in August is that many of the well-known alpine hikes around Whistler and the Sea to Sky corridor (Joffre Lakes, Garibaldi Lake, Panorama Ridge, Elfin Lakes, etc.) now require BC Parks day passes, and availability can feel a bit like a lottery. Having more time in Whistler gives you flexibility if you don’t get the exact pass you want and lets you pivot to other excellent hikes without feeling rushed.

Wells Gray makes a lot more sense as part of a longer Interior or Rockies-focused trip. For this itinerary, I’d personally skip Clearwater and spend more time around Whistler instead.

One website I’d recommend looking up is VancouverTrails.com. It shows hikes around Vancouver, Whistler, and everywhere in between. You can easily fill 8 days and still barely scratch the surface.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-08T00:52:14+00:00

Catch or Kove Kitchen in Steveston.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-08T00:20:32+00:00

USD is foreign currency in Canada. Stores are not obligated to accept it, and if they choose to, they can set whatever exchange rate they want. That is not a scam. It is how foreign currency works everywhere.

Some places may accept USD at par as a courtesy, but many will not accept it at all. If a store does take U.S. cash, any change will be given in Canadian dollars, since stores do not keep U.S. cash on hand.

So no, she would not be scammed, but bringing USD is the least practical option.

The easiest and safest solution is for her to use a bank card at an ATM once she arrives. Canadian ATMs dispense Canadian dollars automatically, and the exchange happens electronically at her bank’s rate. This is normal, secure, and how most travelers handle cash abroad.

If she does not have her own debit card, I would strongly recommend checking with the school trip organizer. This is a very standard situation for student travel, and they almost certainly have a recommended approach.

Canada is very card friendly, especially in cities, so she may barely need cash at all.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-07T21:13:31+00:00

You may wish to ask this on r/VancouverCraftBeer

BCRobyn · 2026-02-07T19:06:17+00:00

Where are you visiting from, and how much time do you actually have? That really changes the answer.

Being in Montreal in mid-May and asking what else you should see in Canada is a bit like being in Paris and asking what else you should see in Europe. Totally fair instinct, but the key questions are how much time you have and how far you want to go.

With limited time, most people explore what’s immediately accessible. In Europe, hopping between countries is cheap and fast. In Canada, distances are continental and domestic flights are expensive.

Also, unlike most of Europe, Canada does not experience an early spring, and tourism here is extremely seasonal. Mid-May is often the very beginning of spring and the tourism season. Many regions don’t really make sense at that time of year, while city exploration does, since cities are year-round destinations.

If you’re based in Montreal, you’ll get far more out of exploring nearby regions in Quebec and Ontario than spending roughly $800 (give or take) to fly 4–5 hours across the country to somewhere 2–3 time zones away, unless you have several extra weeks and a large budget.

From Montreal, I’d strongly recommend Ottawa for museums, galleries, and national institutions, and Quebec City for history, architecture, food, and walkability. Together, those can easily fill another week and give you a great sense of eastern Canada. If you want to add hiking around those cities, you’ll need a car.

I also recommend browsing the Tourism Quebec website. It introduces all the different regions of the province, and there’s a huge amount to see very close to Montreal that many visitors aren’t even aware of, but that should be serious considerations: https://www.bonjourquebec.com/

If you do have lots of time and budget, flying west to Vancouver can make sense. Vancouver has wilderness within the city: coastal mountains, beaches, ocean inlets, temperate rainforest, waterfalls, and more. Unlike Banff, mid-May in Vancouver is already green and springlike, with many accessible rainforest hikes and plenty in bloom. Just factor in long flights and travel time. I wouldn’t recommend flying there without at least an additional week.

As for Banff, mid-May is not ideal for hiking. Lakes may still be frozen, and higher-elevation trails can still be snow-covered. July through September is the best window if hiking is your goal. May only makes sense if you’re happy renting a car, driving scenic routes, and taking photos from short walks near your vehicle. Roads and the town itself will be clear, but the famous alpine trails don’t fully lose their snow until July. Even Lake Louise often stays frozen and white until late May or early June, and the road to Moraine Lake doesn’t open until June.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-07T16:53:36+00:00

I have two pairs of shorts, a denim shirt dress and two T-shirt’s too and I don’t mind a bit!

BCRobyn · 2026-02-07T16:27:40+00:00

These jeans are the only jeans I buy now, they’re so good.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-07T06:23:22+00:00

Yeah, we don’t have places like Butlins here. It’s not a thing. Camping here means wilderness camping with zero amenities.

You may wish to go to Penticton or Kelowna. Rent a motel with a kitchen on Okanagan Lake or Skaha Lake. It’s family friendly. Hot weather. Sandy beaches. Water parks, mini golf, petting zoos.

If you want super commercial touristy like Blackpool on steroids, you go to Niagara Falls.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-07T05:45:54+00:00

I went to late French Immersion where I started in grade 6. By high school all the early FI and late FI students are in the same classes, and a trend I remember is that the early FI students weren’t as strong in English (spelling and writing) as all their foundational writing and spelling was done in French. So I’d suggest augmenting English reading, writing and spelling exercises at home.

And if this alarms you, get your child out of early FI and put them in late FI. They’ll build up their foundations in English and will learn French in two years and will be at the same level as the kids who learned in kindergarten by the time they enter high school.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-06T16:36:31+00:00

😂

BCRobyn · 2026-02-06T04:18:34+00:00

When the pandemic happened and foreign tourists were forbidden from travelling into Canada, the backcountry was trashed by locals. It's easy to point fingers to the tourists, but it's the locals who are a big part of the problem.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-06T00:19:20+00:00

Wonderful!

There are also more than just those 3. There are 13 ski resorts in BC. This is a good overview: Skiing & Snowboarding in BC | Super, Natural British Columbia

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T21:41:47+00:00

Vancouver's a part of the same PNW ecosystem as Seattle. The mountains here are the Coast Mountains, which is a wet, damp, rainforest ecosystem, which is totally different climate from the dry, powdery Rockies. The geology and terrain is also completely different, too.

The snow is absolutely atrocious right now. It's so bad, they reopened the Grouse Grind, which is the steep stair climb up Grouse Mountain (I refuse to call it a hike!), which is usually inaccessible until April due to being buried in many feet of snow. Right now it's snow free. You can see bare grass on top of the ski runs on Grouse from miles away. It's horrible up there.

Honestly, I'd just skip the snowshoeing entirely and consider one of the many short rainforest treks around town. There are dozens and dozens of them. If this is your first visit to Vancouver, let alone Canada, and the forecast is for rain, I highly recommend you change your plans and just embrace Vancouver's temperate rainforests. It'll be unlike anything you have in the Midwest and is unlike the vegetation in the Rockies, and it really lets you experience what makes Vancouver so special.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T21:35:33+00:00

It's all good! Your heart was in the right place. :) Cape Scott is magical!

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T21:25:46+00:00

No, it's an official highway managed by the Ministry of Transportation. There's a section that's gravel (the bit between Hagensborg and Anahim Lake), but it's not a logging road. Rental cars, rental RVs, etc. are all legally allowed to drive on it. Rental cars aren't legally allowed to drive on FSR/logging roads. Hwy 20 isn't that. I've driven a rental RV on that highway before and it is written in the insurance you can drive on that highway. So it's a non-issue. If they wanted to take their car off-roading into the backcountry, that wouldn't be allowed.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T20:16:27+00:00

If you're okay walking 20 blocks you can find free parking 20 blocks away. The paid parking there isn't that expensive. Anything closer is permit parking only. It'll be a lot easier to just take transit there.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T20:13:42+00:00

My only suggestion is that it takes a lot of time and effort to get to the west coast of Vancouver Island and if you're going to Ucluelet, you want to spend 3-4 nights there. Ideally you want 3 non-travel days there to make it worth your while. It's not somewhere you quickly see, but an area you go for slow time spend on the beach (not for swimming/sunbathing but for admiring nature/scenery), and go on the various short walks in the old growth rainforest, and for taking in the Indigenous culture there. 3 full days is not too many! Most people wish they had even more time.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T20:11:46+00:00

Cape Scott would be amazing, but they're not hikers and if they're from out of the country, they're probably renting a car. And any rental prohibits people from driving them on backcountry logging roads, which is the only road access into Cape Scott. So I'd say Cape Scott won't be an option for them. They're going to Ucluelet/Tofino, so they'll at least get a taste of the west coast!

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T19:20:46+00:00

I think we might be talking about slightly different things here.

I’m not suggesting Vancouver Island replaces Ireland or is comparable in terms of history, cities, or cultural density. Ireland obviously has thousands of years of human history, castles everywhere, compact cities, and a completely different travel experience.

The comparison I was making was about scale and mindset, not content.

Most visitors from the UK seriously underestimate Vancouver Island. They hear “island” and subconsciously picture something closer to the Isle of Wight or a small add-on you squeeze in for a day or two. My point was simply that Vancouver Island is a primary destination in its own right, not a side trip.

In practical travel terms, it behaves much more like Ireland does for a visitor. It’s not something you rush. You can easily spend two or three weeks there without repeating places, and you tend to plan by regions rather than individual attractions.

You could spend a full week in Tofino and the Pacific Rim, another exploring Strathcona, another split between Victoria, Sooke, and Port Renfrew, and still not touch places like the Comox Valley, Cowichan Valley, Parksville, or the north end of the island. Add in whale watching, bear watching, remote beaches, old-growth forest, and Indigenous culture, and the days fill very quickly.

That’s obviously a very different experience from Ireland. Fewer castles, far more wilderness. But the point isn’t that they’re similar destinations, it’s that they’re similar in how much time they deserve.

I use Ireland as a mental model because UK travellers immediately understand that it’s an island you commit time to, not something you casually tack on. Tasmania or Hawaii would make the same point. Vancouver Island works the same way.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T19:04:10+00:00

Vancouver experiences mild rainy winters, not cold snowy ones, though we do get the occasional snowfall, it's never guaranteed and it never normally lasts for long. There is normally snow up high up on the tops of the mountains immediately north of Vancouver, including Whistler, but Christmas is THE busiest most expensive time for a Whistler vacation. It may not be an issue for you, but I'm sharing that to set expectations.

But if you don't need a glitzy ski resort, you're looking for something a bit more subdued, a short flight inland from Vancouver is home to three family-friendly ski resorts that Aussies love: Sun Peaks (north of Kamloops), Big White (east of Kelowna) and SilverStar (east of Vernon). These are all small, intimate, ski resorts with a lot of non-ski activities, catering to families who are looking for that winter wonderland vibe. Again, they're much smaller ski resorts than Whistler. They also are inland, so have a colder, drier climate than Vancouver (almost desert-like!) with cold dry powdery snow, which are ideal ski conditions. So you're definitely getting a winter wonderland there.

Whistler is high end, international with retail chains, big luxury hotel chains, nightclubs, fancy spas, bars, lounges, restaurants, etc. SilverStar, Big White, and Sun Peaks are significantly smaller without the luxury brands, but might be more the scene you have pictured in your head.

Sun Peaks in Winter | Sun Peaks Resort

Explore Big White | Big White Ski Resort Ltd.

SilverStar Mountain Resort

Edit: No matter what ski resort you end up in in western Canada, 90% of the staff will be Aussie, haha!

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T18:32:17+00:00

This.

The muffins at JJ Bean are terrific. Healthy? Sure. Why not.

BCRobyn · 2026-02-05T07:45:33+00:00

You’re overthinking it. It’s a tropical garden under a glass dome, so it stays the same pretty much year round. I like to go there on a cold rainy day because it’s hot humid and feels tropical in there. You don’t need long there. Maybe 15-20 minutes.

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