British Columbia | Canada
A 7 Day Itinerary
I recently returned from a wonderful trip visiting my good friend in British Columbia. It’s hard to pick a time of year to go; all seasons have something different to offer. I went during late spring, so you have to be careful with bears and cubs in the area. There is amazing hiking during this time (spring), due to the melting snow and glaciers (lots of cascading waterfalls).
British Colombia is just huge and there are just so many ways to adventure through this beautiful changing landscape. This is my identical itinerary from this trip. I have a little bit of everything from hikes to good eats. Please use it if you like, even just if just as a guideline to plan your own amazing trip through British Columbia.
Want More Details?
British Columbia PDF travel Itinerary
[icon name=ion-arrow-up]
A 7 Day Itinerary for
British Columbia
canada
First Half Of The Loop From Kamloops – Squamish
Second Half Of the Loop from Squamish – Kamloops
Day 1 – Kamloops & Surroundings
Margaret Falls | Schuswap
About an 1.5 hour drive east from Kamloops. It’s a very quick walk just off of the road taking you to some beautiful waterfall sightseeing. Scenic huge pines tower crookedly over the stream. During a high rain season the path can become flooded, making this short scenic hike inaccessible. (Please check online reviews before going, the trail was recently washed out and destroyed due to heavy rains.)
Upper Flume Trail | Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park
On your way returning from Margaret Falls, off of the Trans Canada Highway turn into salmon arm, and a short drive will take you to Roderick-Haig Provincial Park. There are multiple trails and multiple parking spots. Doing all the trails in the park could take all day. If you are short on time i recommend ‘trail 6’, otherwise known as the Upper Flume Trail and ‘trail 5’ if you have a little extra time. Doing the entire double loop of ONLY the Upper Flume Trail will take you about 2 hours. It is an absolutely epic walk, with crazy raging white waters that will make your feet tremble [I HIGHLY recommended this one, it was hands down my favorite trails on this trip].
More on Flume Trail HERE.
Erin Valley Riding Stables | Kamloops:
Step into Erin Valley Riding Stables for a late afternoon lazy guided ride through the rolling mountains of Kamloops. It is an amazing and beautiful contrast in landscape, bushy and dry desert like conditions compared to our early morning pines. There are multi-hour tours and as short as 1-hour tours available. Just give them a call in advance to book a time. We were pretty lucky and called last minute on the same day and still managed to get in on a ride. I decided on the 2 hour trek which I thought was a great choice, since they take you through a few different areas as oppose to the classic 1 hour loop.
Erin Valley Image Gallery HERE.
Day 2- Highway 5 Stopovers & Vancouver Night Out
Abbotsford Tulip Festival (seasonal) | Abbotsford
A delightful semi-unplanned surprise for us along our drive from Kamloops. It was originally on my list to visit, but I had been told it would have been too late in the season and all the blooms would have been spent. I love flowers, so I just got giddy when I saw all the colours from the highway and the sign say ‘open’. Tons and tons of beautiful blooms everywhere, but make sure to bring your wellies as it could get pretty muddy.
More on Abbotsford Tulip Festival HERE.
Bridal Veil Falls | Chilliwack
A Short 10-minute walk from the parking lot will take you to the base of the beautiful falls. Their are lots of pretty mossy trees on the walk up towards the falls and a few viewing areas beside the walking path. Careful on the climb up to the base, it can be a little slippery and very misty.
Improv Centre
On Granville Island
We entered Vancouver early in the evening and after a quick pizza, we headed out to enjoy a nice night out in the city. We started at the Improv Centre. The Improv Centre is just as the title describes, an improvising comedy club. We had booked this show ahead of time on recommendation of a friend and it was super neat, and really hilarious. It was my first time at such an event and it was amazing; drinks and lots of laughs included.
Bridal Veil Falls Image Gallery HERE.
Bridges Restaurant | Granville Island
Just a short walk from the comedy club, and after a thrilling moment on a tire swing (yes, we found a tire swing on the way towards the marina) was the Bridges Pub. You enter the pub through a massive door, into a really relaxed atmosphere onlooking the marina and the bridge. We topped of our night with some more drinks and delicious pub munchies.
Day 3 – Vancouver- Granville Island & Squamish Trails
Granville Island Market | Vancouver
After a quick breakfast at a local restaurant, we walked our way down to the amazing Granville Island Market. It is an indoor market full of anything from fresh fruits/veggies, pastries, flowers, local crafts, porcelain and more. This market has so much to offer, you can snag some amazing fresh eats and many local made items. After purchasing some yummy snacks, we headed onto the sea-to-sky highway into Squamish to do a bit of hiking.
Brohm Lake Interpretive Trail | Squamish
The Brohm Trail was a recommendation from a friend of a friend (word of mouth recommendations have always been a winner in my books). We originally wanted to do the classic peak-to-peak Squamish Gondola but there were super low lying clouds all around the mountains, which made for poor viewing (if travel has taught me anything, it’s to be flexible). It was a great alternate and definitely gave us a great workout. The trail takes a few hours depending on which loop you take. It’s a bit of a steep hike up the hill, but there are some absolutely beautiful lookouts; highly recommend.
More on Brohm Trail HERE.
Howe Sound Brewery | Squamish
After some good hiking it was time for a great meal and an even greater beer. This micro brewery has a large selection of take away 2 L beer jugs. Our group enjoyed an assortment of fish & chips and some ribs. I tried the local blueberry beer (which was delicious) and we got ready to enjoy a bit of live music. I also snagged a take away jug of blueberry beer to take home.
Sandman Hotel Squamish | Squamish
Very nice, new clean hotel. Why’d this make it on the list you ask? One Answer: Water Slide. Yes its has an indoor pool/hot-tub, with a two story swirled water slide. And just like adult children, after a sweaty day of good hiking, we went to have some fun on this water-slide (the pool didn’t close till 11 pm). We were the only ones there taking turns (this may not be too surprising for everyone, but I usually don’t pick hotels for extra features, so we had a
blast before turning in for the night).
Day 4 – Keyhole Hot Springs & Pemberton
Keyhole Hot Springs (Currently CLOSED PERMANENTLY – As of May 15- 2017)
This was a long day full of adventure. It was about 2.5-hour drive from Squamish, on mixed roads (the last hour of driving is a gravel logging road). The scenery was beautiful, but there were tons of aggressive bears in the area. We got stalked by a grizzly bear in a place that has no cell reception (scary as heck). Poor judgement on our ends as we had tons of warnings of the dangers that were ahead.
More On Keyhole Hot Springs HERE.
The Pony Restaurant | Pemberton
This was a spur of the moment drop in as we returned from Keyhole Hot Springs and it ended up being a really awesome meal. We reminisced about almost dying, as we sipped on a crisp cold beer in relief (I don’t think I ever appreciated food so much until this incident). Try the amazing beef and back pork stacked fully loaded burger with this pretty little Caesar salad with a twist of prosciutto to top, Yum!
Day 5 – Whistler Village & Shannon Waterfall
Shannon Falls | Squamish
The First stop for the day was Shannon Falls (just off of the Sea-to-Sky Highway and a short drive from Whistler). From the parking lot, its a quick 15-minute walk to the waterfall. There’s a nice platform close to the base where you can take some pictures. If you want a little more adventure, longer hikes are available in the area.
Shannon Falls Image Gallery HERE.
Elements Urban Tapas | Whistler
In the heart of Whistler Village, Elements is a cute little corner restaurant with AMAZING breakfast food. It was a recommendation from a local friend that I will 100% stand behind. You have to try the frittatas, it comes with a shot of guava juice, and a smashed potato bake. My mouth was in blissful breakfast heaven; go early for a peaceful morning before the crowds, you won’t regret it!
Whistler Village Shopping
We spent some time shopping around and eating ice cream at the village. We purchased some specialty chocolates along with some funny souvenirs (I have to add to my magnet collection at home). It was mid/late may during our trip and you could still do some skiing or snowboarding at Whistler Mountain during this time (the upper half of the mountain was still open).
Day 6 – Sea to Sky Highway Stops & Return to Kamloops.
Nairn Falls Provincial Park | Whistler
A beautiful hike along with a camping park. Nairn Falls is an interesting and unique set of waterfalls, part of the first falls flows through an underground cavern before it resurfaces. Plenty of natural fauna and flora, specifically the home of the western pacific dogwood (BC’s provincial flower).
Nair Falls Image Gallery HERE.
Sea to Sky Highway | Vancouver to Whistler
It starts in Vancouver and goes on for many kilometers. (It technically should fall earlier in this list but it stretches all the way through half of this trip till the end, so I thought it seemed dandy as a finally). Most of the stops we made along the route were random and I really have no idea where most of these lookouts are. It’s such a beautiful drive that you can stop anywhere and snap an awesome picture.
Joffre Lake
It’s crazy that in late spring you could still see such an icy lake, and snowey walk. It’s has an increased elevation in the mountains making the air much colder. With 2 feet of snow that has yet to melt, we had a fun time falling and navigating over this packed snow. In the summer time Joffre Lakes has a beautiful aqua colour to the water.
The Noble Pig Restaurant | Kamloops
After a long scenic drive, we had finally made it to Kamloops. We dropped of our things and immediately went out for some food. I enjoyed a pulled pork poutine mountain of glory. Portions were too huge to handle, and I could not finish my meal. The pulled pork mac and cheese also tasted phenomenal (I tried a bite from my husbands dish).
Day 7- Relaxing in Kamloops
Kenna Cartwright Park | Kamloops
This was our wind down day before our flight in the evening. We took a easy stroll through a local park( a quite large park for that), relaxed with friends, enjoyed some local brews and had a great day of relaxing and reminiscing.
Goodbye BC! Till next time.