To the top of Alaska (with a few other places along the way)

[Atleastonce]

Whistler is an amazing town. The village walks are great and for those who have not been to Whistler there are a number of walks through the town, and a walk on the other side of Blackcomb Drive. Some great scenery that would not be visible during winter. I originally wanted to do this trip in winter but am so glad I was talked out of that. I would like to return in winter just to see the the winter wonderland and different scenery. We saw the Olympic Rings which I was dissapointed with. They were just there, no fanfare and not many people interested in taking photos of them. We went on line late, about 9:30pm and booked the Whistler Discovery Tour, sunrise with the bears. I was not confident they would turn up for the 6am start but they did,a nd we were the only 2 on the tour. Within 25 minutes we were spotting bears on the side of the road and along trails. I can recommend this tour it was scheduled for 2 to 2.5 hours and we went for over 3 hours and the guide was so good. Information overload about Whistler and so good at locating the bears. We saw bear cubs as well.

 

[Atleastonce]

After our bear tour, another quick walk around Whistler village and then our drive to Vancouver. We returned our car to Avis at 1:58pm, 2 minutes before the scheduled return time. We were given a tip by a local at one of our stops between Whistler and Vancouver to fill up with fuel out of Vancouver and just top up before returning the vehicle as there is an additional al fuel tax applied in Vancouver.

 

[Atleastonce]

Here are my trip advisor entries for the hotel stays in Canada.

Calgary Marriott downtown review

When:
June 2018

Why:
Needed a Calgary hotel for an overnight stay before starting our road trip across to Vancouver

Pros:
The hotel is located in an amazing location right across the road from the Calgary tower and in the center of town. The rooms are large and the bathroom is spacious. The beds are comfortable. The staff are friendly and professional.

Cons:
I could not fault this hotel.

Tip/Comment:
We had a room on a higher floor and facing south. At check in we were upgraded to a south facing room and could see the Calgary tower. Ask for a south facing room, it is well worth it.

 

[Atleastonce]

Bow River Lodge

When:
June 2018

Why:
Driving from Calgary to Vancouver

Pros:
The hotel is on the Bow River and the walk along the river is amazing. It is only a short walk into Banff main town area. The hotel was clean. And the front desk staff were friendly and accommodating.

Cons:
The rooms are small and cramped, even the wheel chair accessible room. There are no accessible power point outlets in the room, and we needed the charge our iPad and phones in the bathroom, which in not optimal considering water around the electronic devices. WiFi was $5 per day, and was very slow.

Tip/Comment:
Set your expectations for the 2 star hotel this is rated at. Go for a walk along the river and enjoy the location.

 

[Atleastonce]

Deer lodge hotel

When:
June 2018

Driving from Calgary to Vancouver
Pros:

Location is fantastic, and staff are friendly and helpful. We ate at the hotel and the food prices were reasonable. Food was tasty. Great location to walk to lake Louise and a short drive to lake Moraine. The benefit of staying here is the early morning or late night access to both those local lakes in the summer. The hotel staff will take your bags to your room if requested.

Cons:
The hotel is old and the rooms are reflective of the age of the hotel. Small rooms, really small rooms, and no power outlets other than behind the bed or in the bathroom. I do not like trying to charge electronic devices in the bathroom because of the water. In this case the power outlet was right next to the sink. The outlet behind the bed required the top ensemble to be moved out and I did not feel comfortable having everything plugged in right behind my head. There is no elevator in the building, so be prepared to walk with bags up and down stairs if you elect to not utilize the staff to assist with your bags.

Tip/Comment:
Ask for a room on the bottom floor (which is floor 1) because of no elevator. If you get a front room close to the road and it is in summer you will get a loud noise of running water from the melting ice. This is very loud but relaxing. SPECIAL TIP: the hotel restaurant has a number of menus for different restaurants. If you sit outside at the front of the hotel they will serve you from any menu, and you can take in the local atmosphere from outside instead of in a lowly lit restaurant.

 

[Atleastonce]

Crimson hotel Jasper


When:
June 2018

Why:
Driving from Calgary to Vancouver

Pros:
Hotel is at one end of town, but still within walking distance to shops and restaurants. We were located on the ground floor (rooms starting with a 1). The beds were 2 doubles and not really big enough for a couple so we took 1 each. The beds were very comfortable. The room had great WiFi and a big desk that was suitable for working.

Cons:
We would have liked a king bed.

Tip/Comment:
Check where the exits are. You may not need to go all the way to the foyer to get to an exit. There are exits along the halls straight to the car park. This hotel is pretty big. Even though the rail station is right across the road we never heard any trains.

 

[Atleastonce]

We are now in Anchorage Alaska and are flying to Barrow today. I am a little behind in the report, there is just soooo much to see and do. I will try and catch up with a few more hotel reviews from Kamloops and Vancouver over the next few days.

 

[mmchow]

A little too late but joining in for the ride. The pictures, especially the lakes were amazing. I will hunt that view down in September.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

Thanks for the report - loving these photos, you've got me excited again for my trip to Banff later in the year! I'd love to see some bears (at a distance), but I'm a bit scared of encountering one when I'm out on a hike!

 

[Atleastonce]

Let’s go back a few days to our stop in Kamloops. Thank you to VA platinum and Hilton Diamond status we scored an amazing room at the Hilton Hampton Inn. Check in was a breeze and as a diamond status I was treated like royalty. Reserved car parking close to reception, goodies bag at check in with choice of water or soda, chocolate bars and a 10% discount at Romeo’s Kitchen and Spirits, which is located across the road inside the Coast Kamloops Hotel Convention Centre. The meal was amazing, and as with all North American meals they were huge. TIP: try the beer tasting special, but beware the cider is a draft so deemed to be a beer and you need to specify you don’t want cider.....if in fact you don’t the Hilton room was huge and very comfortable. Breakfast was included and was a standard buffet. The breakfast room was small, and there was a bus tour staying at the hotel which made it cramped and busy. No service/check in arrangement, but there was an older lady working at cleaning the tables and spending way too much time trying to translate the waffle making instructions to an Asian couple. It really was hilarious to watch. Not muchto do in Kamloops so we made a stop at Walmart to stock up on snacks for the car for our quick trip to Whistler. Whistler has been commented on, so straight to Vancouver for this report.

 

[Atleastonce]

Our hotel in Vancouver was The Blue Horizon on Robson Street. We have stayed here before and returned because of the location and the fact the beds are one of the best hotel beds I have slept in. All rooms in this hotel are corner rooms so are large rooms, and very comfortable. We only had 1 night before flying to Anchorage on an afternoon flight the next day. A quick walk around Gas Town and the jazz festival we headed back to the hotel and a meal from the noodle bar across the road from the hotel. I have never ordered a Kam Pao Chicken before when I had to specify the protein otherwise it would not be served with chicken. You would think if it was in the name it was going to be in the order but apparently not. The next morning we skipped breakfast and had a sleep in. It really was a full on trip to Vancouver and we need a bit of a rest. We checked out, stored our luggage and walked to Granville Island Markets. We caught the bus back and if you take one thing away from this trip report, don’t walk Granville Street from Vancouver to the markets. Not only is it a long walk, it does transit through a very undesirable part of town. Granville markets are large and have many different types of good, divided into different buildings. The food hall was huge and very busy. There is even a kids market. Outside there was an amazing lake area where we spotted a turtle. For $2:85 per person we caught the number 50 bus back to Robson St. You need the exact change and as is with Vancouver buses you can’t use notes, only coins or tap on with your credit card. A quick cab ride to the airport for the shortest international flight I have ever taken.

 

[Atleastonce]

We checked in for our Delta flight to Anchorage via Seattle. There were 4 of us travelling and my VA WP status did not get all of us into the Delta Sky Lounge. One of the people we are travelling with is gluten intolerant and could not locate any GF food in the terminal, so I did the right thing and we went into the Delta lounge (with her as my 1 allowable guest) so she was able to have a meal. Karma is a beautiful thing, we returned to the gate and my wife and myself were upgraded. Sweet! Now the quickest international flight I have taken, a quick 25 minute hop from Vancouver to Seattle. We arrived about 11:30pm and A quick drive to the Best Western Golden Lion to settle in for the night. The best western hotels are middle of the road and certainly no Hilton but these are the choice of hotel for my employer. TIP if you have Hilton diamond status through VA WP status the best western will status match to their top tier, no questions asked. This proved to be a real benefit because of the room upgrade and $15 dollar breakfast voucher for each of us. Breakfast early the next morning and then for some exploring around Anchorage. We did some souvenir shopping and visited some shops we don’t get in Australia. Bass Pro, Walmart, and Carbelas. We then drove to table top mountain. I was dissapointed, the view was OK but nothing special. I haven’t got a photo from here, because it was nothing much. We returned to our hotel late in the afternoon and our room was not mad enough up and there were no fresh towels. A trip to reception and they assured me this was an oversight and it would be done straight away. It wasn’t! To dinner at the in house restaurant, which was OK and reasonably priced. The restaurant would not allow us to charge the meal to our room because it is independently run. I do t k ow why this could not happen because it did for breakfast. A quick trip back to the room before heading to the in house bar. Guess what, no towels and room not made up, so back to reception. This will be done now sir! To the bar and had a few drinks with a couple of locals who did not grasp why we were going to Barrow the next day. Back to the room and still no towels. To reception again, and this time towels arrived.

 

[Atleastonce]

A good nights sleep and amid morning checkout for the flight to Barrow. When checking out I expressed my disappointment with the towel situation with the manager. We were booke to return to this hotel twice more on our trip and wanted to make sure this didn’t happen again. She apologized for the room not being made up and towels not being delivered and comped us the 2 nights, a saving of $485. We were able to leave our bags here and travel to Barrow with just 1 checked in bag. Our flight to Barrow was with Alaska Air, and for a remote northern town, it was a 737, and a full flight. We flew from Anchorage to Prudoe Bay then a 35 minute hop into Barrow.

 

[Atleastonce]

Barrow Alaska, about 500 km north of the Arctic Cicprcle and even in summer it was bitterly cold. We arrived to 3 degrees Celsius and a wind chill do -2 degrees. We were here for 24 hours. The airport at Barrow (BRW) is small. The locals fly to Anchorageto stock up on supplies because of the cost of groceries in Barrow. Locals are allowed extra check d in luggage and mostly consisted of large tubs full of food and other supplies. They can check in additional luggage for $10 per item to be transported as cargo. There are no luggage tugs, there is a specially converted container, kind of like a skip bin with forklift lifts on the bottom that is loaded and transported by a heavy front end loaded between the aircraft and the terminal. Terminal I hear you say, well a shed is talking it up a bit. The bags are delivered to a shute and thrown into the terminal and the locals assist each other (they all know each other there are only 4000 of them) the attached photo shows the bagge collecti9n area. You know you are in a small place when someone yells out “where’s my tyre has anyone seen my tyre” and then in through the luggage hole in the wall comes a tyre for a vehicle and it gets passed back over everyone’s heads and the lady yelling out for the type hoists it onto her shoulder walks out to the front of the shed and throws it (effortlessly) into a huge F350 and drives off. Barrow is as expected a small town. We are here is summer and the ocean is mostly still frozen and most of the lakes are solid ice. There are only dirt roads and some street lighting. We stayed at the Top of the World Hotel, and it was better than I expected. He rooms were large and comfortable. The heating was so good we even opened the window to cool the room down. We had a deluxe room which overlooked the ocean.

 

[Atleastonce]

The land of the midnight sun. The sun is shining 24 hours a day at the moment and we took the opportunity to see midnight in daylight.

 

[Atleastonce]

Some more photos of Barrow.

 

[Atleastonce]

Photos on approach to Barrow

 

[Atleastonce]

Fuel gets delivered once a year by ship as there’s are no roads in or out of Barrow. There is a large indigenous community because of previous alcohol fueled violence particularly during the 3 month of darkness period the town is a “damp” town with rationed amount to of alcohol allowed. As mentioned, groceries are expensive, but the hotel restaurant food prices were on par with the rest of Alaska. Yes, I did eat reindeer sausage for breakfast.

 

[Atleastonce]

We did a Top of the World Tundra tour which is run by the hotel where we stayed. The 5 hour tour started at midday and even though the town is not large we managed to get a complete history lesson including a museum visit and cultural performance. The locals are allowed to harvest whales, seals and walrus. The town has some amazingly history including an area that were sod homes in the field near the ocean,a nd as the story goes, a family sort safety in the lowest part of the home aover 200 years ago, and because of the particularly bad winter storms froze to death. Only in the last 20 years when bad erosion occurred their bodies were identified and they were frozen in situ in the permafrost area.

 

[Atleastonce]

After the tour we were transferred back to the terminal shed for our full flight direct from Barrow to Anchorage. The TSA process was interesting with every single checked in bag opened, searched and drug swapped. We went through security and then corralled into an area about 8m x4m before were were boarded. We were shoulder to shoulder in that pre boarding area and it was.......cozy. Back to the Best Western in Anchorage and to the Alaska Wildlife centre en route to Whistler.