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 guide writing 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 often. 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 guides 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.

If you are only visiting Banff and/or Jasper, these are the only guides you need. If you are also interested in visiting Glacier & Waterton National Parks, we recommend the Canadian Rockies Bundle. It will give you full itineraries for all the parks plus an audio guide for Glacier and Waterton and also includes an Overview that shows you the most efficient way to see them together and the best routes depending on which airport or direction you are coming from. Plus, it’s cheaper than if you were to buy each of the guides individually. If you are doing an even bigger trip, just email us at mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com and tell us where you want to go. A real human will email you back within one business day. 

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 these 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. 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). 

National parks constantly change, including timed-entry requirements, construction, fires, and closures. To keep you updated on the most current things going on, we have a Parks Updates page that we update every week with important information. We recommend you look at this as soon as you begin planning your trip, as well as a few days before you leave.

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.

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 to 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 believe that once you buy a guide from us, you should be able to use it to visit a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time. 

If you created an account, just log in and download your guide again.

If you didn’t create an account, just email mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com and let us know you want us to resend your guide links.

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.