Glacier National Park & Banff

Day 1:  Friday, July 7
Join us in Calgary, for your first leg of the tour. Upon arrival, transfer via shuttle to your hotel, where you’ll meet your tour manager and fellow travelers.    The festivities in Calgary will be plentiful since its Stampede week in Calgary. 

Day 2:  Saturday, July 8
We’ll begin with the Stampede parade, a two-hour presentation that includes celebrities, horses, marching bands, horse-drawn wagons, and multi-cultural floats featuring First Nations (Aboriginal) people wearing splendid regalia.  Even the most inhibited visitors soon find themselves caught up by the wide-open western friendliness. With over 400,000 participants expected, our prearranged seating will be much appreciated. In the afternoon enjoy the world’s largest outdoor rodeo with some of the toughest competitors as well as the world-famous chuck wagon races.  Great bands will be playing throughout, in bars and beer gardens.  When the gun sounds, the chuckwagons make a figure eight before racing down the track. The sound of thundering hooves with the fury of Ben Hur struggle to reach the finish line in less than two minutes amidst screams of excitement.  The prize money for these chuckwagon races total more than $1 million! Enjoy dinner and overnight at the same hotel in Calgary tonight.  B, D 

Day 3:  Sunday, July 9
After your included breakfast, travel northwest to the beautiful resort town of Banff, with a backdrop of mountains located immediately adjacent to the town, featuring Cascade Mountain at 9836 ft, Mt. Rundle at 9675 ft, and Mt. Norquay at 7001 ft. Banff is a highly sought-after town, so you are sure to enjoy your time here meandering Banff Avenue, the main street offering a mix of boutiques, restaurants, souvenir shops, and château-style hotels.  From Banff we’ll travel to the Columbia Icefields, one of the largest non-polar ice fields in the world. Here you can step foot on an actual glacier and imagine the history behind these slow-moving frozen rivers of water that originated on the crown of the mountains. You won’t look at them from a distance, you’ll ride a giant ice buggy across the glaciers with the opportunity to climb off and walk on the glacier and view Athabasca Falls.  The Icefields Parkway has been recognized as one of the most scenic drives in the world, so you are sure to enjoy today’s journey! Top it off with a unique perspective, as you walk across the Columbia Icefield Skywalk –the glass-floor observation platform overlooking a 900 ft drop. This gives you a perspective of the overall grandeur of the icefields.  Travel to Rocky Mountain House, a small Canadian town of 6,600 people, where we enjoy dinner and overnight. Rocky Mountain House is known as the place “Where Adventure Begins!”  B, L, D

Day 4:  Monday, July 10
Meet the owner of a company that builds oil and gas pipelines.  This interesting gentleman started with one small backhoe and grew into a giant company. Visit a farm to understand agricultural in west central Canada. See their crops, learn about their yields, and discuss the overall economy of Canadian Agriculture.  We’ll travel back to Calgary for your overnight stay.   B, L, D 

Day 5:  Tuesday, July 11
Travel across the border into the USA on our longest and most scenic journey of the tour as we make our way over mountain tops, through valleys and crossing the majestic Rockies enroute to Glacier National Park. Glacier is at an apex of the continent and one of the few places in the world that has a triple divide. Water flows to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Hudson Bay. You’ll love driving along the Going-to-the-Sun Road, one of the most scenic roads in North America, and a National Historic Landmark.  We overnight in Kalispell, Montana. B, L, D

Day 6:  Wednesday, July 12
This morning we enter the Crown of the Continent, Glacier National Park. You’ll spend the entire day via special buses that can traverse this unbelievable terrain to give you the absolute best views.  Enjoy local commentary while seeing the landscape of mountain ranges carved by prehistoric ice rivers, alpine meadows, magnificent forests, waterfalls, and nearly twenty-five glistening glaciers absorbing the sun’s rays and feeding 200 sparkling lakes.  We’ll stay the night near the Glacier National airport in Kalispell, Montana.  B, D   

Day 7:  Thursday, July 13
Transfer to the airport for your return flight home.