Ride an Ice Explorer onto Athabasca Glacier on a special before-hours visit with a Local Expert. Step out for a guided walk on the ice and see its surface, texture and immense scale at close range.

Part of the Columbia Icefield, the glacier offers a tangible introduction to the forces that have shaped the Canadian Rockies. Your guide explains the area’s geology and history while early access allows time to appreciate the setting before other visitors arrive.

Ride the Banff Gondola toward the summit of Sulphur Mountain for an elevated view of Banff National Park. Watch the town and Bow Valley recede below as the cableway climbs above the forest.

The summit setting brings the surrounding ranges into a broad mountain panorama, offering a scenic alternative to exploring Banff at ground level. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Get acquainted with Jasper on a brief orientation tour through this mountain town in Jasper National Park. See how its streets sit beneath the rugged peaks of the Canadian Rockies and become familiar with the setting for your stay.

Jasper lies within the UNESCO-listed Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, a protected landscape of glaciers, forests and alpine meadows. The orientation provides a useful sense of place in a town closely connected to its surrounding wilderness.

Take a whale-watching cruise into the coastal waters around Victoria for a guided look at the region’s marine wildlife. Watch the water and shoreline as the vessel searches for whales and other animals in their natural habitat.

The waterways around Vancouver Island are an important marine environment, though wildlife sightings cannot be guaranteed. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour for travellers who want more time on the water.

• 6 Dinner (D)
• 13 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Lunch (L)

• Experience enhanced hygiene protocols to align with the latest guidance following COVID-19. All Travel Directors and Drivers have completed training in enhanced well-being and hygiene protocols.
• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.
• We only work with establishments we are confident will consistently adhere to our high well-being standards, which include hotels, restaurants and sight-seeing venues.

• Icefields Parkway: Venture out onto the amazing Glacier Skywalk where you will be treated to an after-hours visit onto the cliff-edged glass-floored walkway.
• Icefields Parkway: Enjoy an evening reception at the Glacier View Lodge. After dinner, step out onto the viewing deck and marvel at the evening sky, relax with a drink in the library or hang out inside the Moraine Lounge.
• Icefields Parkway: Take a seat in a specially designed Ice Explorer for a visit onto the Athabasca Glacier before other travellers arrive. Follow your Local Expert as you stroll on its icy surface and experience the enormous glaciers up close. 

Insight Vacations

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• Premium regional accommodation

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a welcome dinner and wine in Vancouver. It is a hosted introduction to the group and the journey through the Canadian Rockies and Pacific Northwest.

Conversation over dinner offers a chance to share travel interests and get to know the people accompanying you across two countries. Vancouver’s coastal setting provides the backdrop for the start of your travels.

Cross the Capilano Suspension Bridge high above its forested river canyon in North Vancouver. Explore a park that also features the cliff-hugging Cliffwalk and the elevated bridges of Treetops Adventure.

The original bridge dates to 1889, making this one of Vancouver’s earliest visitor attractions. Walkways among the evergreens reveal the scale of the coastal forest, while the bridge offers an unusually direct view down into Capilano Canyon.

Explore Vancouver on an orientation tour taking in historic Gastown, the distinctive waterfront profile of Canada Place and the greenery of Stanley Park. Stop to view the park’s collection of First Nations totem poles.

These varied neighbourhoods show how the city meets the Pacific: an older commercial district, a working harbour and a large urban park edged by water. The totem poles invite a closer look at Indigenous art and the cultures represented in this region.

Sail through the Gulf Islands on a ferry crossing between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Watch for wooded shorelines, sheltered channels and island communities from the deck as the route opens onto the coastal landscape.

Set in the waters between the mainland and Vancouver Island, the archipelago is known for its fishing and arts communities. The crossing is more than a transfer: it offers an open-water perspective on the geography that shapes life along this coast.

Explore Butchart Gardens near Victoria, following paths through carefully composed floral displays that change with the seasons. Take time to notice the contrast between formal planting, mature trees and the garden’s sheltered spaces.

A National Historic Site of Canada, the gardens began more than a century ago and remain family-owned. Their transformation of a former limestone quarry into a cultivated landscape makes this visit as much a story of renewal as a celebration of horticulture.

Explore Victoria with your Travel Director, taking in panoramic views from Mount Tolmie and sights around the Inner Harbour. See the Parliament Buildings, traces of Fort Victoria, the city’s Chinatown and examples of Victorian-era architecture.

The route brings British Columbia’s colonial history into view alongside Chinatown, established during the Fraser Gold Rush of 1858. Look out for Craigdarroch Castle’s striking silhouette as the tour connects the city’s harbour setting with its layered past.

Pause at the Mount Robson Visitor Centre in Mount Robson Provincial Park for views of the Canadian Rockies’ highest peak. At 3,954 metres, Mount Robson rises dramatically above the surrounding landscape when conditions are clear.

The provincial park forms part of the UNESCO-listed Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks. This dedicated viewpoint gives you time to appreciate the mountain’s immense relief and the protected wilderness around it, rather than seeing the peak only in passing.

Cruise the waters of Maligne Lake on a narrated, seasonal boat trip beneath steep Rocky Mountain peaks. Travel toward Spirit Island, the small, much-photographed landmark reached by boat, and take in the shifting reflections along the shore.

Within Jasper National Park, the lake’s long mountain corridor creates a striking sense of remoteness. Commentary adds context to the scenery while the cruise offers a quiet vantage point on one of the Canadian Rockies’ best-known landscapes.

Travel the Icefields Parkway through a succession of glacier-carved valleys, mountain peaks and ice-fed waters. Take in views of the Columbia Icefield, the vast accumulation of ice at the heart of this Rocky Mountain landscape.

The icefield occupies a remarkable watershed whose meltwater reaches three oceans. This scenic journey makes the region’s geological scale visible: ancient ice and moving glaciers have shaped the valleys, lakes and steep mountain faces seen along the route.

Step onto the Glacier Skywalk during an after-hours visit above the Sunwapta Valley. The glass-floored walkway projects from the cliff edge, giving you a clear view down into the valley and outward toward the surrounding mountain terrain.

This elevated perspective brings the depth of the canyon and the scale of the Icefields Parkway landscape into focus. The quieter after-hours access is a distinctive way to experience the walkway’s exposed setting and linger over the views.

Dine overlooking the Columbia Icefield at Altitude Restaurant, where a locally sourced dinner with wine is framed by mountain and glacier views. The high-altitude setting makes the landscape an integral part of the meal.

Enjoy an evening reception at Glacier View Lodge, with the option to take in the view from its deck or settle into the library or Moraine Lounge. It is an opportunity to experience the icefield’s atmosphere beyond a daytime sightseeing stop.

Spend time beside Lake Louise, taking in its blue water and the view toward Victoria Glacier at the far end of the valley. Walk along the lakeshore or pause to absorb the mountain setting at your own pace.

Within Banff National Park, the lake’s colour and glacier-backed outlook make it one of the Canadian Rockies’ defining scenes. Time on shore lets you notice the changing light and the scale of the peaks surrounding the water.

Join your Travel Director for a Banff orientation tour featuring Bow Falls, Surprise Corner and other local sights. Discover viewpoints that reveal the relationship between the mountain town, the Bow River and its surrounding peaks.

Bow Falls brings the river’s force into close view, while Surprise Corner offers a classic outlook across the valley. Together, the stops provide a grounded introduction to Banff National Park’s scenery and the town at its centre.

Explore Blackfeet heritage with Mariah Gladstone in Glacier National Park. Raised on the Blackfeet Reservation, she shares insights into Piikuni traditions, ancestral foodways, cultural resilience and contemporary advocacy, including at the Blackfeet Indian Memorial.

Her perspective places the park within an enduring Indigenous homeland, adding human history to its mountain scenery. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience supports a visit focused on listening, learning and understanding Blackfeet life past and present.

Ride a privately chartered historic Red Jammer through Glacier National Park on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Its roll-back roof opens panoramic views of glacially carved valleys and high peaks, with commentary from a guide familiar with the park.

The road climbs to Logan Pass at 6,646 feet, crossing the Continental Divide. Travelling in a 1930s-style park bus connects the engineering achievement of the mountain road with a longstanding tradition of sightseeing in Glacier.

Spend time at Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park’s largest lake, and see the Swiss-style Lake McDonald Lodge on its shore. Take in the broad water and mountain backdrop at a pace that allows for a closer look.

Built in 1913, the lodge reflects the early era of tourism in the park. Its lakeside setting makes this a rewarding place to experience Glacier beyond the views from Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Taste a locally focused harvest lunch at Friends Riviera Catering and Events in Washington State. Enjoy dishes such as harvest salads and artisanal flatbreads made with regional ingredients, paired with wine.

The meal offers a taste of the state’s agricultural and wine-producing landscape rather than a routine lunch stop. Fresh produce, handcrafted food and a local pairing bring the flavours of the region to the table.

Discover Seattle with your Travel Director, taking in views of Puget Sound, historic Pioneer Square and the bustle of Pike Place Market. Keep an eye on the market’s fish stalls, where fishmongers are known for tossing their catch.

The tour connects Seattle’s waterfront identity with one of its oldest neighbourhoods and its best-known public market. It offers a lively introduction to the city’s maritime setting, street life and food culture.

Choose a visit to Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle for a close look at works by glass artist Dale Chihuly. Explore the exhibition’s vivid forms, intricate surfaces and large-scale installations.

Chihuly’s work is closely associated with the Pacific Northwest’s studio-glass tradition. This included choice puts artistic craft at the centre of your Seattle experience; it is offered as an alternative to visiting the Space Needle.

Choose to ascend the Space Needle for panoramic views across Seattle’s skyline and surrounding landscape. From its observation areas, look toward the city, Puget Sound and the mountains visible when conditions are clear.

Built for the 1962 World’s Fair, the tower remains a defining feature of Seattle’s profile. This included choice offers a city-wide perspective and is available as an alternative to Chihuly Garden and Glass.

Share dinner and wine at Ivar’s Salmon House with your Travel Director and fellow travellers. Enjoy an evening by Seattle’s waterfront, with views that reflect the city’s close connection to Puget Sound.

The hosted meal is a chance to gather over Pacific Northwest dining and reflect on the landscapes and places explored together. Its waterside setting gives the dinner a distinct sense of place.

Choose a float trip in the Jasper area for a water-level perspective on the national park’s mountain scenery. The excursion offers a different way to take in the surrounding landscape from the town orientation and road-based sightseeing.

Jasper’s rivers form part of a protected Rocky Mountain environment shaped by glaciers and seasonal meltwater. Specific route and conditions may vary; this optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Fly above the Canadian Rockies on an optional helicopter excursion from the Banff area. See mountain ridges and valleys from the air, gaining a perspective that ground-level viewpoints cannot provide.

An aerial view reveals the scale of the Rocky Mountain landscape and the patterns formed by its peaks and waterways. Flight routes and views depend on operating and weather conditions. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.