Canada With Kids. Why I Send Families to the Rockies Before Toronto

Most families planning a first Canada trip start with Toronto or Vancouver because that is where the flights land. I send almost all of them to the Rockies instead.

Fly into Calgary. Banff is 90 minutes west on a highway that turns into mountains halfway there.

Base in Banff or Canmore for four nights. Lake Louise and Moraine Lake are the photos everyone has seen and they are exactly that color in real life, which does not happen often. Get to Moraine Lake by the park shuttle because private cars have not been allowed up that road for a couple of years now, and book the shuttle the day it opens.

Then drive the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. It is 140 miles and it took us six hours because we stopped every twenty minutes. Peyto Lake, the Columbia Icefield where you can walk on a glacier, and a bear on the shoulder near Saskatchewan Crossing that Jake still talks about.

Jasper for three nights. Quieter than Banff, darker skies, Maligne Lake and the boat to Spirit Island. The town had a very hard fire in 2024 and it is open and rebuilding, and going is a good thing to do.

Back to Calgary and home. Ten days.

July and August are the season and they are busy. Late June and early September are the windows I book when school allows it. Snow on the high trails lasts into June, so do not plan the big hikes for the first week.

Wildlife is the thing to talk to kids about before you go. Bears are real and the rules are simple. Make noise on the trail, carry the spray the outfitter rents you, and never walk toward an elk in town because they are the ones that hurt people.

Poutine after a cold day. Butter tarts in the car. Both are on the Canada guide, and the North America family travel guide has how Canada fits with the rest.