The Canadian Rockies: Before you go - Life of a Passion

Before exploring the Canadian Rockies, you should know a few things! The best time to travel, transportation, etc. I’ve listed them all down for you!

When to go?

There are 3 seasons in Canada, the high season (July & August), the low season (November-March) and the one in between (April & May, September & October).

We are visiting Canada in the high season which means we would normally have sun and a warm climate. But when we arrived, the June monsoon expanded to July. So our first 2 weeks were a bit rainy, while the 3rd week was sunny and warm.

The low season has snow and cold temperatures (freezing). Everyone who is visiting Canada in the winter will go skiing. The other season is when temperatures are cool but acceptable.

How long?

It depends on how many Canadian highlights you want to see. We are doing a 3-week trip to see the highlights in British Columbia and Alberta. This route is very common among travelers. We’ll do this route counter-clockwise, while others will do this route clockwise.

Time

So there is a time difference in Western Canada. British Columbia is GMT/UTC -8hrs, the mountains in Alberta are GMT/UTC -7hrs. The time difference is alerted to the side of the road.

Visa

Citizens of the US, Commonwealth, and most of Western Europe don’t need a visa. If you do need one like us, you can get one by clicking on the following website. The visa will cost you 7$.

Important: Passport must be valid for another 6 months.

Sad Fact: You won’t get a stamp in your passport when arriving in Canada.

Food

Food will not be a problem in Canada. For vegetarians, it will be a slight problem. The small towns mostly have sandwiches or salads available but that’s it. One restaurant offered us a bacon salad where we could just pick the bacon off it. Oh and the McDonalds doesn’t have a veggie burger.

We asked locals what a typical Canadian dish is and they told us to eat poutine, oysters, salmon, and burgers.