Mistakes to Avoid When Visiting BANFF National Park

we're going to cover some of the mistakes of visiting B National Park so that you can avoid them and the first one is riding the B gondola on a cloudy day like today Cheryl and I just did this with our family we took the bamp gondola to the top of the mountain and it was so cloudy we could not see the beautiful views in the valley below that we were hoping to see that was really quite a huge bummer because you know what happens with that Gondola ticket is you book that online well in advance and so when you get there to go up we thought we assumed we were going to have to go up to the top at the last moment they told us you can reschedule on a cloudy day and we talked about with our group it was a little hard to kind of change plans with a group of 10 of us right then and we have kind of a full schedule so we just decided to go up to the top and we got up there and it really was so cloudy we couldn't see anything major mistake is just not understanding that we could reschedule that if it was a cloudy day and we really should have done that and rearranged our plans so that is the first mistake along the same lines by the way is understanding that the bamp gondola ticket also serves as a shuttle ticket a free shuttle ticket to get you from the town of bamp up to the gondolas so we will talk about the shuttles here in a minute next up is don't wait to get your bamp park pass until you get here you can order that online it'll just come in the mail and you are good to go it's so nice to have that detail taken care of before you come plus there is a really special added bonus is that as you go to the gates of Vamp you'll see cars all lined up waiting to get in the park but that's not going to be you because if you already have your pass it's like you're on the freeway you just zip right on by going I mean you're going like 60 km per hour just zooming by no entrance needed so it really can save you a lot of time and a lot of stress and the other nice thing is that if you know you're going to be visiting several Parks like in our case we're visiting bamp and Jasper and we wanted to hit some other historic sites you you can get the Discovery Pass which covers all of those things for a year and it's already paid for itself so just think your trip through a little bit ahead of time and think about what you really need and just then just order the pass you want in the mail so you can skip all those lines when you get here and what was the mistake I almost made oh my gosh I'm a little embarrassed we had a USA license plate Matt got initially got in the line to go through the entrance and we're like wait we don't need to do this and so he turned like across five Lanes of traffic going the wrong way and then got on the right road but it was a little intense for just a minute okay the next mistake is not understanding the shuttle system here at bamp the shuttle system is actually incredible here at this park we are located out on this scenic drive right now the lake minaka Scenic Drive we're at two Jack Lake which is named after Two Jacks two guys named Jack and you would think that the shuttles don't service this because it's kind of out in the countryside but they do the shuttle service almost every major well every major site in B they really get you out to places far away from the town site so if you look at this chart here you can see that this is the town of bamp and then we're located way out here on Lake minow Wonka which the shuttles are servicing now most people that visit B are going to arrive in their car and they're going to drive around you see plenty of cars driving on this road and park at each parking lot just be aware the parking lots do fill up quite often throughout the day so the shut can be a really good option now I say the mistake is actually just not understanding the shuttles because the shuttles may or may not be right for you for us we have a family of six so every time you hop on the shuttle and ride to another spot it costs $2 per person so for us that's a $12 ride for our family so that's $12 out and then $12 back so it kind of adds up when we use the shuttles so we have tried to strategically park at the right times throughout the day instead of of using the shuttles but for a lot of people the shuttles are going to be a really nice experience to just hop on and get out to another spot without having to drive and worry about parking so just do some research so that you understand the shuttle system and you can decide whether it's good for you the next up is not dressing for the weather when we left our home in Utah it was 100° we were sweltering at home but this morning in bamp it was 40° it is pretty chilly here and just like any other mountain range Mountain storms can come and go throughout the afternoon and so it's really important that you are prepared for the weather because there's really no such thing as bad weather just bad clothes right and so we were on our boat ride last night on the ra we were rafting down the B River and it was so beautiful and I really wish I had put on an extra layer of clothes because I was a little chilly the dressing and layers I know it's pretty common advice but really take this advice for what it's worth have a cardigan have a jacket have a rain jacket and have your sunscreen and maybe have a t-shirt on because you don't know what weather you're going to encounter throughout the day but if you have the right clothes with you you'll be comfortable and happy our next mistake is worrying too much about crowds about the overcrowding situation in national parks that you always read about and hear about and I have just a short story for you about that we do trip consultations for people who visit the west and we met with a gentleman who is from out of the country and he was coming to the west and he was driving through Wyoming and Montana and he was so terrified of being around crowds that his trip was just driving through emptiness he wasn't going to any of the great sites that the West is known for and we H kind of had to tell him hey you're you're really missing these sites and your fears are really unwarranted now we all have our tolerance with crowds so you know you have to kind of evaluate that for yourself but in my experience the whole fear about overcrowding has been way overblown in fact people 100 years ago thought the national parks were too crowded so it's always kind of this feeling that there's just not enough room for all these people but we've had incredible trips to the national parks in spite of them being very crowded the main thing is if you're going to visit during the main visitation season you really do need to do a lot of research to try to figure out better times to visit places to avoid some of the overcrowding situations that you're going to run into also pack your patience just be aware of course that other people want to enjoy this just like you do if you really don't want to deal with crowds all you have to do is get off the main path about 30 yards and you'll be fine if you just go for a hike you're going to miss a lot of the crowds another tip is not to overpack your day just plan that when you go to like the bamp gondola you're going to need to wait in line if that's one of the things you really want to do you're going to need to wait in line and my final tip is don't let your fear of crowds keep you from doing what you want to do go and enjoy it if you want to just put that research in you do your homework and you'll have a good trip when you are cruising around bamp and you see some red chairs don't miss the opportunity to sit and enjoy an amazing view these are all strategically placed and you are guaranteed to see something awesome when you sit in one of these chairs okay the next mistake is buying individual attractions so in bamp there are a ton of things that you can spend your money on a bunch of activities that you can do most of these have actually been put in packages together by the main company that handles this which is Pursuit so there's activities like the B Gondola that we mentioned earlier right now we are at lake minow Wonka you can see behind me this little boat here they offer Scenic cruises on Lake minow wanka there is the Columbia ice field Adventure where they'll take you up on the glacier in a big bus you can walk out on this Sky Bridge it's like the Grand Canyon has that Skywalk there's one here on the icefields parkway where you can walk out on this glass bridge and a number of other activities like golden the city of golden has like a suspension bridge that you can walk out on that goes over a canyon really a number of things to choose from and they have put them together in these packages that if you buy them as a bundle it'll save you some money so Cheryl and I did that with our family we bought them as a bundle now I would kind of say the other mistake is feeling like you have to do all these things like you have to spend a ton of money on these things you can come to B and have a wonderful trip without spending a ton of money on attractions again there's just a ton of hikes that you can do enjoy the downtown area a lot of museums that are included with your Discovery Pass I mean you can do a lot of things without spending a ton of money but you know we like having some variety on our Vacations so we believe that that's an important way to to do it as well and so if you're going to do that in B look at at some of those bundles online the other thing we found out there is they they seem to change the bundles around like we we thought we had some bundles early on in the season and then they ended up changing them when we got to Springtime the next mistake is missing the City of Calgary almost all of us have to travel through that City to get to bamp and Calgary is a beautiful city and in my humble opinion I believe that the secret sauce to an amazing vacation is variety when we visit a national park we try to see the best sites we try to do a little bit of recreation and adding a city onto your trip will make it so memorable and big cities don't have to be expensive they can be and when we visited Calgary we did the tower and we paid money to do a few things but our very favorite thing was going on that friendship bridge and walking along the river and that was absolutely free our family loved our time in Calgary and I bet you you will too next is visiting B without a game plan this is a big park with so much to do and it's a little complicated in fact I'd say the trickiest vacation we've ever planned but you're in Lu because we have a game plan for you if you visit we're in the rockies.com we have a vamp itinerary already done to get you to the best sites at the best times walking distances travel times how long it takes to get places all the things you need to know to have an amazing trip to bamp National Park we co-wrote this guide with the mountain town Ramblers a Canadian couple that visits this park every month it has all the tips and tricks you need to have a successful trip thank you for watching and until next time Go West Young Traveler

Channel: We're in the Rockies

Views: 15,073

Keywords: Banff National Park, Tips for Visiting Banff

Id: r1i_MFRGKPo

Length: 10min 36sec (636 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 24 2023