We provide a detailed itinerary based on our knowledge of the parks, but the itinerary is easily adjustable if you are visiting for fewer days, or need to rearrange days.
You can’t fail with our easy-to-follow instructions. We include destinations, arrival times, and many maps and images to keep you on course. We’ll help you with parking and the best ways to get around these stunning parks!
We’ll get you to the best views - the most popular and some hidden gems - to enjoy the towering Canadian Rockies
Drive the Icefields Parkway with confidence, knowing you’ll see the best of this glacier-filled valley, one of the most scenic drives in the world!
Dine at the BEST places with our restaurant recommendations. We tell you when to eat out and when to pack a picnic for those times when you’re venturing away from civilization.
Getting to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake can be COMPLICATED. Make your shuttle or bus reservations with ease with our easy-to-follow plan.
If you travel using our guides and don’t love them so much that you would tell your best friend about us, we’ll give you your money back. Read more.
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Hey, We’re Matt and Cheryl and we are on a mission to help people have amazing vacations. Not only do we write easy-to-follow itineraries, but we love to share interesting stories in our audio guides about all of our favorite places!
We live in Utah, just four hours away from awesome national parks like Zion and Yellowstone, and have spent our lives exploring the West and the Rocky Mountains. We often travel with both sets of our retired parents (they like each other!) and our four teenagers (who like to travel…sometimes).
We met in a history of Utah class at Weber State University and tied the knot 22 years ago. Matt worked for Social Security and taught adjunct history classes at our alma mater. Cheryl taught special education for 28 years and continues to volunteer by teaching a weekly dance fitness class.
We took a shot at our dream in 2020 and started making YouTube videos about the national parks we know so well. We now have over 10,000,000 views and have sold over 12,000 guides. We are delighted to help travelers fulfill dreams of their own!
We love trying out all the activities and working with local experts to give the best, most up-to-date travel advice out there.
At We’re in the Rockies, we believe in preservation and donate 5% of the proceeds of your purchase to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society to ensure access and enjoyment for future generations.
We believe you need at least three days to see Banff.
You can see a good portion of Jasper in one day.
If you are connecting the 2 parks, you will want to alot a full day to do the Icefield Parkway.
If you have extra time, explore Calgary, Kootenay, Yoho, and even Edmonton.
We recommend you stay within Banff or Canmore to visit Banff National Park. You can rearrange the days in any order you wish but one day is for the Icefield Parkway and works well as a transition to Jasper.
If visiting Jasper, we recommend you switch locations and stay in Jasper.
Locals agree September is the magical month to visit!
Keep in mind that Banff will be crowded throughout the summer months. This is an international destination and you’ll share the popular sites with thousands.
Try to think of it as a movie premier and feel the energy in the air.
Jasper, on the other hand, is remote and a welcome relief from the crowds.
We are Americans and most of our guidewriting experience is from writing about the national parks in the West.
To create this guide, we worked with Mountain Town Ramblers, Kyle Harvey and Theresa Hurst. They live in Canada and visit the mountain towns and national parks every month. We used their expertise on Banff and Jasper and our guide-writing skills to bring you this guide.
We recommend what we believe are the absolute best spots in the parks and give back up options for longer hikes or things that cost.
We give star ratings and approximate prices to help you decide which activities are the best value for you!
We are of the mindset that you have a plan so you can be flexible.
We lay out what we believe are the best activities for your time and money but we all have different preferences.
Because each activity listed has a star rating, approximate time frame, and cost, you’ll easily be able to adjust to best suit your group’s interests.
We surveyed our customers and they reported that our guides saved them 10-20 hours of trip planning research, on average.
Although much of the information included in these guides can be found with significant research, these guide combine what you need to know into one place and they are from a source committed to giving you the best information.
These guides cost us over $18,884 to create when you combine travel expenses, consulting, map creation, and formatting. In addition, we have spent hundreds of hours visiting these parks and doing additional research.
Many of our travelers enjoy the confirmation that they have already created a good plan and may even find a thing or two to add to it.
Other travelers may find that our plan is similar to what they had already pieced together on their own.
If you’ve already spent hours planning, you may not find maximum value in thess guides.
Yes! We travel with our 4 children and both sets of our parents. Although not every activity is for everyone, there are always backup suggestions.
We write these guides so all the work you should need to do is obtain your lodging and reservations. We include maps, the time needed to complete drives and activities, and lodging recommendations (areas to stay-not actual hotels). We put boxes throughout the guides indicating it’s an item that you will need to take care of before you leave. We also give links to websites we think you should check before your leave.
Banff has a very robust mass transit system. The ROAM buses can get you pretty much everywhere you wish to go. In addition, Parks Canada offers a Park and Ride Shuttle to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake.
You will need a car to visit Jasper.
The roads are paved in both parks.
Yes. We give approximate time frames that are needed to complete an activity. The schedule is generally not so packed that you have to be a quick traveler. But, if you know you generally need more time, you can make adjustments. If you are quick, there are suggestions for additional activities
These are digital downloads that will be EMAILED to you. That way you can have access immediately and have the option to download it to any device you want.
Many travelers, including us, prefer to print the itinerary and take it with us as we travel.
The itinerary are available immediately upon purchase, right on this webpage. You will also receive an email within 30 minutes with download links in case you need to revisit the links and download the items later. If you don’t receive your email, check your junk mail folder. If it’s not there, contact mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com and we’ll be in touch with you within 1 business day. Also, the guides will be available in your account, if you choose to establish one (we highly encourage it).
Guides are automatically updated to the latest version when you create an account.
In addition to that, we also send an email notification out when a guide is updated. Just make sure to stay subscribed to our email list so we can reach you.
Because the download is a PDF file, you can do it on any device: computer, iPhone, Android, tablet, etc.
Stuff like this happens. We get it. When you purchase a guide, you have access to 18 months of free updates.
If you created an account, just log in again and download your guides.
If you didn’t create an account or forgot your password, just email us and we can resend your links.
For step-by-step instructions (including pictures) check out our Help With Downloads page.
If you still need help, reach out to us at mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com We’ll get back to you as soon as possible to help. We’re even happy to jump on a phone call with you if needed.
This guide is meant be used June through October (September for Jasper).
Visiting in the winter is a completely different experience and is not covered in these guides.
Yes!! We update our guides as needed, but write the concepts to intentionally be as timeless as possible. We encourage you to purchase the guide as soon as you know you will be traveling. It will help you determine which areas to stay and how many days to obtain lodging. Upon purchase, you’ll be guided to create an account on our website. If we update the guide, it will automatically show in your account and you have free updates for life.
It is not required but is HIGHLY recommended. We encourage you to create an account when purchasing the guides because you’ll have access to the links at any time.
You will have access to the updated guide through your account (another reason to create an account) for life. We generally send an email announcement when we do an update as well.
We put approximate price ranges on all our activities so you know what to expect. Although we believe that the lodging in Banff and Jasper is expensive, there are plenty of free or inexpensive things to do within the parks.
Although we do suggest some hikes, we offer plenty of alternatives if hiking is not desirable including viewpoints and drives.
| 5 star | 92% | |
| 4 star | 8% | |
| 3 star | 0% | |
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$70.00
I am 64 years old, traveling with my wife and will be in the Alberta region for 13 full days. I would like an organized itinerary for the Alberta region: Banff, emerald lake, Jasper, Edmonton and ending in Calgary. One note: I don’t practice hicking. Would it be possible to prepare an itinerary for us??.
Our travel will be in September
Thanks for reaching out. At this time, we don’t do personal itineraries but our Banff and Jasper guides offer some great things to do in those parks. Our Banff guide also offers some suggestions on things to do in Kananaskis, Kootenay, Yoho, Canmore, and Calgary as well.
We love watching “We’re in the Rockies ” on YouTube. They give good advice and are practical. We went to Banff and Jasper in September. We ordered the guides from them and they were so helpful. They had information on booking tours, what was best for money and time, and when to visit different areas. Getting around in a new place and figuring out what and when to do things can be overwhelming, so they were a great help. Lots of good information.
I’ve bought these guides before and this is the second one I bought. I went to Banff in June 2023 and this was a great and up to date guide. Every single thing that is important to see is listed. And then if you’re on a time crunch, there’s alternatives offered as well! Wherever my next national park trip is, I will for sure be using a We’re in The Rockies guide!
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This guide is indispensable! My wife and I are planning our trip to Banff this summer and we’ve been directed to this page after watching Matt and Cheryl’s YouTube videos. The Banff and Jasper guide is saving us so much time and hassle. How a person could even begin to research all the details for a trip like this is unfathomable! They’ve done all the work for you! We love it.
We have not taken the trip yet as we will this summer but the guide has given us lots of information for planning and excited for our trip.
Dear Matt and Cheryl, We just finished our first trip with your itinerary to Banff National Park, and Jasper National Park. It was so very beautiful in Banff and your itinerary was Perfect!!!! It was flexible and we took advantage of all your tips and we had the best time. It was our very first park to visit. I have bought many of your travel guides and are planning on two parks a year. Unfortunately Jasper was just devastated and it was so sad to see the millions of acres just charred and burnt. But there was a beautiful new growth of grass coming up through all that soot. I am so thankful for the work that you are putting into these guides and will continue to take part in your zoom sessions. Thankyou for an awesome vacation planned without the “What are we going to do today” discussion that we often contend with. Looking forward to hitting the Grand Canyon in April!! Gratefully, Debbie Wood
My husband & I just returned from a six day vacation in Banff. We bought the Banff & Jasper guides which made it that much easier to plan our days. We saved money on parking & markets to go to from Matt & Cheryl’s helpful tips. We were able to visit & experience all the beautiful places they mentioned. We were able to go as far as the Icefield Glaciers in Jasper. We are ready to go back already! Can’t say enough about the amazing views, the lakes, & mountains. Our photos are seriously spectacular! Thanks for making our vacation come together easily.
The Banff and Jasper guides were extremely helpful in planning and modifying our trip (due to the wildfires that closed Jasper). The extras included in the Banff guide helped us replace the Jasper activities that we couldn’t do. The daily itineraries were extremely helpful because of grouping activities together based on location. Very well organized, easy to follow and well thought out! Definitely recommend!