On arrival into Edmonton International Airport, collect your bags and transfer independentally to your hotel in downtown. After checking-in you will have some time to stetch your legs and explore the local area before dinner.

Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel, or similar

Edmonton’s downtown is easy to navigate on foot, with the North Saskatchewan River Valley running right through the city, home to one of the largest connected networks of urban parkland in North America. It’s a good spot for a leisurely walk or a bike ride.

The Alberta Legislature Building and its grounds are worth a visit, with fountains and river valley views. For something more contemporary, the Ice District is Edmonton’s downtown entertainment hub, home to Rogers Place, and packed with bars and restaurants for a fun evening.

Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel, or similar

Collect your motorhome this morning from the RV depot, and set off west along the Yellowhead Highway towards Jasper. It’s a fairly straightforward route, giving you a good first taste of driving your motorhome before entering the mountainous National Park.

Edson makes a handy halfway stop, with fuel and food options if you fancy stretching your legs. A little further on, near Hinton, Obed Lake is worth a short detour for a quieter lakeside break away from the highway.

As you approach Jasper National Park, the landscape shifts noticeably, with the Rockies rising up around you and your chances of spotting wildlife increasing considerably. Elk and deer are regularly seen along the roadside through this stretch, so it’s worth keeping your speed down and your eyes open, particularly around dusk.

There are a number of good RV and motorhome sites around Jasper, making it an easy place to settle in for your first few nights in the mountains.

Edmonton > Jasper | 365km

Spend the next two days exploring Jasper National Park, with plenty of options depending on how active you’re feeling.

One day could be spent in the Maligne Valley, one of the most scenic drives in the park. En route, look out for Medicine Lake, known for its unusual disappearing water levels later in the season, caused by an underground drainage system rather than any change in weather.

Maligne Lake itself is the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies, and one of the most photographed. If you’d like to get out onto the water, a guided boat cruise to Spirit Island is the classic way to see it, gliding past mountains that rise almost directly from the shoreline.

For those wanting a bit more adventure, rafting or canoeing on the Athabasca River can also be arranged, a great way to see the park from a different perspective. Evening wildlife tours are another popular option, giving you a good chance of spotting elk, deer, and possibly bear or wolf, with the guidance of a local expert.

On your second day, you may prefer to stay closer to town. The Jasper SkyTram climbs Whistlers Mountain, one of the highest guided cable car rides in Canada, with sweeping views over the Athabasca Valley from the top. Pyramid Lake and Patricia Lake are both a short drive away, quieter than Maligne Lake, and ideal for a gentle walk, some canoeing, or simply taking in the mountain scenery at a slower pace.

Downtown Jasper itself is small and easily walkable, with independent shops, cafes, and outfitters, so it’s worth setting aside some time to explore at leisure.

Today you’ll drive one of the most spectacular routes in the world, the Icefields Parkway, covering around 280 km between Jasper and Banff. Allow a full day for this drive, since there’s plenty worth stopping for along the way.

Not far out of Jasper, Athabasca Falls is an easy first stop, one of the most powerful waterfalls in the Canadian Rockies, and despite a modest drop, the sheer volume of water forcing through the narrow limestone channel makes it well worth the short walk from the car park. A little further south, Sunwapta Falls offers a quieter contrast, where the Sunwapta River drops sharply through a narrow gorge.

The Columbia Icefield Centre and Athabasca Glacier mark roughly the halfway point of the drive, and are worth building in a couple of hours for. From here, you can join a guided Ice Explorer tour, riding in a specially adapted vehicle out onto the glacier itself, one of the few places in the world where this is possible.

Continuing south, Peyto Lake is known for its striking turquoise colour, best appreciated from the viewpoint above the lake, a short walk from the car park. Bow Lake, a little further along, offers a quieter stop, with the Crowfoot Glacier visible across the water and a peaceful spot for a break before completing the drive into Banff.

Jasper > Banff | 280 kms

Spend two full days exploring Banff National Park, with plenty to see both in town and further afield. The Banff Gondola is a good starting point, climbing Sulphur Mountain for panoramic views across six mountain ranges, with a boardwalk and viewing platforms at the summit.

Lake Louise and Moraine Lake are two of the most photographed spots in the Canadian Rockies, both known for their striking turquoise water and mountain backdrops. Given how popular they are, private vehicle access is restricted during peak season, so it’s worth booking a shuttle or a guided tour in advance rather than planning to drive yourselves.

Johnston Canyon is another highlight, with a well-maintained walkway leading past a series of waterfalls, including the Lower and Upper Falls. It’s a popular spot, so an early start is worth considering if you’d rather avoid the busiest part of the day.

Downtown Banff itself is easily explored on foot, with a good range of shops, cafes, and restaurants. Parking in the town centre is limited, so the Roam Transit buses are a reliable alternative, running regularly between the town, the Banff Gondola, Lake Louise, Lake Minnewanka, and the campsites..

Leaving Banff, you’ll briefly head towards Lake Louise before venturing through Kootenay National Park along the Banff-Windermere Parkway, a scenic route that crosses the Continental Divide before dropping down into British Columbia.

Marble Canyon is an early highlight, a narrow limestone gorge with a short walking trail crossing back and forth over the rushing water below, a good stretch-the-legs stop early in the drive. Further along, keep an eye out for the Paint Pots, a series of ochre-coloured mineral springs once used by local First Nations for pigment, another easy stop just off the main road.

Radium Hot Springs marks the southern end of the park, with the option to stop for a soak in the naturally heated pools if time allows, a good midway break before continuing on.

The route continues to follow the Columbia River Valley south, with the river itself accompanying you for much of the drive, flanked by the Purcell Mountains to the west and the Rockies to the east. This stretch of the valley is part of the Columbia Wetlands, one of the largest intact wetland systems in North America, and a good area to watch for birds and other widlife..

Banff > Kimberley | 268 km

Spend a full day exploring Kimberley, a small town in the Purcell Mountains best known for its Bavarian-themed architecture and alpine character, a legacy of its mining history and later reinvention as a mountain destination.

The Platzl, Kimberley’s pedestrianised town centre, is the natural place to start, with its half-timbered buildings, cafes, and shops giving the town a distinctly European feel. It’s an easy area to explore on foot, and a good spot to slow down after a fuller few days on the road.

For those wanting to get outdoors, Kimberley has an extensive network of walking and cycling trails, many of them former rail lines converted for recreational use, offering gentle routes through forest and along the valley with mountain views throughout. Kimberley Alpine Resort, just outside town, is worth a visit too, with a chairlift running through the summer months for those wanting a higher vantage point over the Purcell and Rocky Mountains.

Leaving Kimberley, you’ll head east towards Cranbrook before joining the Crowsnest Highway, a scenic route that follows the Elk Valley through the southern Rockies back into Alberta.

Fernie is an early highlight along the way, a small mountain town surrounded by the dramatic peaks of the Lizard Range, worth a stop for coffee or lunch if time allows.

Continuing east, the road climbs towards Crowsnest Pass, marking the crossing from British Columbia back into Alberta, with the Crowsnest Mountains rising steeply on either side, a dramatic stretch of the drive and a good spot for photographs.

From the pass, the route continues south through rolling foothills and ranchland, a noticeable change in scenery as the mountains give way to open prairie, before arriving at Waterton Lakes National Park, where the Rockies rise abruptly from the plains in one of the most striking landscape transitions in Canada.

Kimberley > Waterton Lakes National Park | 280km

Waterton Lakes National Park is one of the smaller, but most dramatic, parks in the Canadian Rockies, where mountains meet prairie in a landscape quite different from Banff or Jasper.

Start in Waterton townsite itself, a small lakeside village overlooked by the Prince of Wales Hotel, a striking historic building perched on a hill above the water, well worth a photo stop even if you’re not staying there. From the townsite, a boat cruise on Upper Waterton Lake is one of the highlights of the park, crossing into Montana and the northern edge of Glacier National Park, with mountains rising steeply on both sides of the lake.

The Akamina Parkway leads out from town towards Cameron Lake, a quieter, more sheltered spot surrounded by peaks, and a good option for a gentle walk along the shoreline.

Red Rock Canyon, reached via a separate short drive, is another highlight: a  narrow gorge of distinctive red argillite rock, with an easy loop trail running around and across it. For those wanting a bit more of a walk, the Bear’s Hump trail climbs steeply from the townsite to a viewpoint over the lake and village below, a short but demanding hike rewarded with one of the best views in the park.

Leaving Waterton Lakes, you’ll head north, leaving the mountains behind as the landscape opens out into the rolling ranchland of southern Alberta, a noticeably different scene from the past few days in the Rockies.

‘Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump’, near Fort Macleod, is worth considering as a stop along the way, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Plains First Nations hunted bison for thousands of years, with an interpretive centre built into the cliff itself explaining the site’s history and significance.

From here, the route continues north and east, passing to the south of Calgary, before joining the road towards Drumheller. As you approach the town, the scenery changes again, and quite dramatically, as the prairie gives way to the eroded gullies, hoodoos, and layered rock formations of the Alberta Badlands, one of the richest dinosaur fossil beds in the world.

Waterton Lakes > Drumheller | 390km

There is time to spend the morning exploring the Badlands around Drumheller before setting off for Calgary and your evening flight home.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum is the standout highlight here, one of the world’s leading dinosaur museums, with an extensive collection of fossils found in the surrounding Badlands, well worth a couple of hours if you have an interest in palaeontology. For a closer look at the landscape itself, the Hoodoos Trail, just outside town, offers an easy walk among the distinctive mushroom-shaped rock formations the Badlands are known for, while the Horseshoe Canyon viewpoint provides a striking overview of the eroded terrain, and is an easy stop if time is limited.

With the morning’s exploring done, it’s time to begin the drive to Calgary, around 90 minutes from Drumheller, where you’ll return your motorhome and transfer to Calgary International Airport for your evening flight back to the UK, bringing your Alberta motorhome adventure to a close.

Drumheller > Calgary | 125km