How many days do you need in Canada?
Six days. That is the length of the itinerary we built for Canada, across Vancouver and Banff & Lake Louise.
Here is what each day holds. Every stop below carries its time, and every gap says how to get to the next stop, with the walk or drive time wherever both stops are mapped.
Canada · 6 days Vancouver → Banff & Lake Louise
Best time: June to September for hiking season and liquid-turquoise lakes (the color peaks once the glacier melt runs, from mid-June).
Vancouver: Canada PlaceDay 1
🏛️9:00 AMCanada Place
The sail-roofed pier where cruise ships dock, start of the Coal Harbour waterfront walk, with floatplanes landing against the North Shore mountains all day.
🚗 ~24 min · 6.8 mi
🖼️1:30 PMMuseum of Anthropology at UBC
One of the world’s great First Nations collections, monumental totem poles and Bill Reid’s The Raven and the First Men in a glass hall facing mountains and sea. Reopened in 2024 after a full seismic rebuild of its Great Hall.
🚗 ~24 min · 6.9 mi
🌆6:00 PMGastown
The cobbled Victorian birthplace of the city, from the steam clock’s corner to Blood Alley: cafés and galleries in warehouses by day, the city’s densest eating streets at night.
Vancouver: Capilano Suspension Bridge ParkDay 2
🏛️9:00 AMCapilano Suspension Bridge Park
A 137-meter bridge swaying 70 meters above a rainforest canyon, plus treetop and cliff walks. Crowded by 10 AM; the free Lynn Canyon bridge nearby is the local alternative.
🚗 ~11 min · 3.1 mi
🥾1:30 PMStanley Park seawall
A 9-kilometer paved loop around a 400-hectare rainforest peninsula, totem poles at Brockton Point, Siwash Rock, and beaches, best done by bike in a slow two hours.
🚶 ~30 min · 🚗 ~4 min · 1.1 mi
🎟️6:00 PMWhale-watching trip
Boats head into the Salish Sea for orcas, humpbacks, and sea lions from spring through fall: morning, afternoon, and summer sunset sailings, and this is one of the few big cities where they leave from downtown.
Vancouver: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese GardenDay 3
🏛️9:00 AMDr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
The first full Ming-style scholar’s garden built outside China, assembled by Suzhou craftsmen in historic Chinatown, a pocket of engineered calm.
🚶 ~21 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 0.8 mi
🖼️1:30 PMVancouver Art Gallery
The downtown gallery in the old neoclassical courthouse, anchored by the swirling forest canvases of British Columbia’s own Emily Carr.
🚶 ~27 min · 🚗 ~3 min · 1.0 mi
🌆6:00 PMGranville Island
A former industrial sandbar turned public market and artisan quarter under the bridge, the food hall alone justifies the tiny rainbow-colored ferry ride across False Creek.
Arrive in Banff & Lake LouiseDay 4
✈️8:30 AMFlight and drive to Banff & Lake Louise
Fly Vancouver to Calgary in about 1h25, then it is roughly 90 minutes to Banff by frequent airport shuttle or rental car on the Trans-Canada, with the Rockies rising the whole way. Driving the entire way from Vancouver is a spectacular but full ~9-hour day.
✈️ ~1h25 · 363 mi
🏛️2:00 PMLake Louise
The turquoise lake below Victoria Glacier that made the Rockies famous. Arrive before 8 AM or ride the shuttle; then walk the flat lakeshore trail or climb to the Lake Agnes teahouse.
🚗 day trip · 32 mi
🌆6:00 PMBanff townsite
A walkable park town under Cascade Mountain: outfitters and museums along Banff Avenue, hot springs on the hill, and the Bow River path minutes from every door.
Banff & Lake Louise: Moraine LakeDay 5
🏛️9:00 AMMoraine Lake
Ten glacier-crowned peaks over impossibly blue water, the former $20-bill view. Private cars have been banned since 2023: reserve the Parks Canada shuttle (2026 season 1 June–12 Oct, with 4 and 5 AM Alpine Start runs for sunrise).
🚗 day trip · 29 mi
🖼️1:30 PMWhyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Art, archives, and mountaineering history of the range, the guides, First Nations, and painters who made these valleys legend, told in the town they worked from.
🚶 ~2 min · 🚗 ~1 min · 440 ft
🎟️6:00 PMEvening wildlife safari
A guided drive at dusk, when elk, bighorn sheep, and, with luck, bears move; guides know the meadows and keep viewing at legal, respectful distances.
Banff & Lake Louise: Banff Gondola and Sulphur MountainDay 6
🏛️9:00 AMBanff Gondola and Sulphur Mountain
Eight minutes up to a summit boardwalk with a 360-degree sweep of six mountain ranges, or hike the switchbacks up and ride down.
🚗 ~48 min · 14 mi
🥾1:30 PMJohnston Canyon
Catwalks bolted into a limestone gorge lead past waterfalls to the blue-green Ink Pots springs in a hanging valley, the park’s most popular walk, so expect company at midday and near-solitude early and late.
🚗 ~67 min · 19 mi
🌆6:00 PMLake Louise village
The small basecamp hamlet in the upper valley, quieter nights, first crack at the lakes at dawn, and the trailheads on your doorstep.
This is how Petrel lays out a trip. Upload your own confirmations and it builds this for your dates: flights and hotels included, with live flight status and the travel time between stops.
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