Canadian Rockies & Glacier National Park

Depart the UK on your chosen scheduled flight to Calgary. Upon arrival, transfer to your hotel. This evening, meet your Tauck Tour Director and travelling companions for a Wild West themed welcome reception and dinner.

Today you visit two national parks on the border of Canada and the USA, Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park with 50 glaciers, 200 lakes and 1,000 miles of streams. Although rustic, your accommodation for the next two nights are considered to be the best in the parks. Today you visit two national parks on the border of Canada and the USA, Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park, where the prairie abruptly hits the mountains. En route, visit Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a prehistoric site, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visit its interpretive centre before continue to Waterton Lakes, where you’ll have lunch at the celebrated Prince of Wales Hotel. Then cross the border to Montana’s Glacier National Park, which in 1932 was joined with Waterton Lakes to form the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve, where you might see grizzly or black bears. Your rustic accommodations in a historic lakeside hotel built in 1915 is situated within Glacier National Park.

After a morning cruise on the alpine lakes, you drive the narrow, curving and spectacular ‘Going-to-the-Sun’ road. Crossing the Continental Divide, you enjoy majestic peaks, graceful valleys, blue glaciers and alpine wildflowers. Nestled on the shores of the largest lake inside Glacier National Park, your Swiss chalet-style lodge accommodation offers magnificent views.

Today you’re heading into the heart of western Canada’s great timberlands, then continuing into lovely Kootenay National Park through Sinclair Canyon and Radium Hot Springs. Your final destination is Lake Louise, where Victoria Glacier glistens in the waters of the lake. Your hotel, located directly on the lake, offers a picture-postcard setting.

Join a naturalist guide today for an excursion (weather permitting) to lovely Moraine Lake, one of the most photographed spots in all of Canada, nestled in the Valley of the Ten Peaks. This glacially-fed lake reflects the awe-inspiring beauty that prompted explorer Walter Wilcox, who named it Moraine Lake after the moraine, or rock pile, deposited by the Wenkchemna Glacier, to write “no scene had ever given me an equal impression of inspiring solitude and rugged grandeur.” In fact, Wilcox felt that the time spent contemplating the view was the happiest half-hour of his life! Learn the secrets of great alpine photography during a lesson from a professional photographer, then soak up more of the beauty of the area during an afternoon spent just as you please at Fairmont Château Lake Louise.

Today, drive along the spectacular Icefields Parkway as you make your way to Jasper National Park.Then put what you’ve learned into your pictures as you encounter jaw-dropping views of mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, and snowfields around every turn; watch for bears, elk, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats, especially in the spring and fall. Arrive at your lodge for a two-night stay in the heart of Jasper National Park.

Your tour continues with a full day at leisure in your 900-acre resort within Jasper National Park. Optional activities at your resort (available at additional charge) include horseback riding, whitewater rafting, or fishing; renting a canoe or paddleboat; taking a guided nature walk; or playing a round of golf on a top-rated course. Prior to dinner at your leisure at your choice of the hotel’s restaurants this evening, enjoy a National Parks presentation followed by a wine and cheese reception hosted by a local artist in The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge’s Mountain Galleries, during which you’ll learn about the history of art in the Canadian Rockies.

View Athabasca Glacier on the Columbia Icefield, the largest icecap in the Canadian Rockies, then take a memorable ride across the glacier’s surface on an Ice Explorer, a specially designed vehicle. Wind your way along the Icefields Parkway to Banff National Park, the first national park in Canada; your grand hotel was built more than a century ago by the Canadian Pacific Railway to resemble a Scottish baronial castle.

Today is your day to spend the way you wish in and around Banff. There are many optional activities (available at additional cost) to choose from at your wilderness resort or in the town of Banff itself. You can ride the Banff Gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain, take a guided nature walk, go horseback riding, mountain biking, or canoeing on the Bow River. Play a round of golf, perhaps book an alpine aromatherapy massage at the Willow Stream Spa, ranked among the top spas in Canada, or visit the chic alpine village of Banff on your own. Conclude your Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park tour by joining us for a festive farewell reception and dinner tonight.

After breakfast, your journey takes you from Banff to Calgary, where your tour ends at Calgary Airport in time for your return flight to the UK.