Canada wildlife holiday?

[Elsielouise13]

Anyone been on one?

Trying to decide whether to buy us all a nice holiday/ how nice it could be with a £6k budget for three...

Or if to buy us a new sofa....

Hmmm. That’s not a huge budget. If by wildlife in Canada, you mean bears, it’s not enough in my view. Bears are best watched from dedicated lodges and few are cheap. The easiest to reach are the ones on Vancouver Island. That involves less travel so I would investigate wildlife holidays to VI. Plenty of specialist wildlife travel companies could help. VI also has whale watching.

For the best bear watching you need to go in August onwards. The bears are also fishing for salmon then so you could investigate where you might see that.

We had an amazing wildlife holiday in British Columbia in Sept 19 but it wasn’t done for £2000 each. £6000 is an expensive sofa by the way! Our holiday was utterly memorable. It was amazing. Other posters might have money saving ideas and I guess you could look at RV prices and book into wildlife watching experiences.

We had an awesome holiday in Canada for 4 under £5k two and a half weeks in July. Did Whale watching, saw bears, loads of hiking, white water rafting. We flew to Calgary had a few nights near Banff, then onto north of Jasper, then down to Whistler and finally a few nights in Vancouver.

Loved it booked all ourselves mixture of hotels and self catering had a car one way and flew with Air Canada.

We are planning to do a similar thing, on VI. I'd be very happy if it came to £2K each! But we do like our comforts...

We had a great holiday going into Calgary (visited Olympic Park), stayed in Canmore and did some hiking locally, visited Banff, then drove through Rockies and stayed near Radium Springs/Invermere. We had a hire car so drove to Golden and saw the bear on the mountain, went to a wolf sanctuary, drove buggies up a mountain to a silver mine, and did a lot of swimming and canoeing in the lake at Invermere, and a white water rafting trip also from Golden, and more hiking generally, and the hot springs at Radium.

It is a big country, so be prepared for lots of driving. But we didn't have time to go to Lake Louise and the glacier, Fernie and the trains, loads more hiking and adventures were there to do. The camping is good ok if you're into that, but the national parks are great.

General holidays in Canada are not the same as wildlife holidays. If you go with the main focus on wildlife you need to stay where you will actually see it. There is no such thing as a cheap bear viewing lodge. You won’t see one hiking or driving in a car in most cases.

Whale watching is easy on the West or East coast but bear watching is a different thing and needs organisation. VI is a destination that offers a great wildlife holiday but it’s not cheap if you want a great wildlife holiday with wildlife as it’s main focus in dedicated lodges. So it might be a case of wanting a possible odd encounter with a bear or a proper experience over several days.

We had a fantastic holiday in Canada in 2019.
Flew into Calgary,then Banff for a few nights before going to Jasper with stop offs at Lake Louise and the Columbia ice fields.From Jasper we boarded the Rocky mountaineer train which took us to Vancouver with an overnight stop in Kamloops. After 3 nights in Vancouver we went to Whistler. We were lucky enough to see brown bears,Elk and bald eagles.There was a grizzly bear in the forest when we were in Jasper ,but the park rangers were advising everyone to stay clear.
I would love to go back there. Cost way more than £2000 each but was totally worth it.

You won’t see one hiking or driving in a car in most cases

Not my experience tbh, we've seen bears whilst driving every time I've visited Canada (3 visits in total, bear sightings in double figures) and I'm quite glad I've never seen one whilst hiking :-)

We've also done bear watching tours from a boat on vancouver island which were not expensive so it doesn't have to cost the earth.

I think how much you need mainly comes down to your expectations over lodgings.

I think we take our wildlife watching seriously and don’t want a few random hopeful sightings. We’ve seen bears fishing, bears swimming, the rare Kermode bear and bear cubs up trees and bears in the lodge grounds. Even bears in their nests! Out hiking with a specialist guide. We like wilderness and it’s sublime. However VI is a good bet for a lower budget. We really would like to go having met people who live there.

I also think if you are driving long distances you don’t have time for real wildlife spotting or immersion in an area. Seeing a bear isn’t the same as observing bear behaviour and habitat and it’s not a wildlife holiday offered by a specialist company. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great holiday just not a wildlife of Canada holiday.

I would suggest flying to Vancouver and renting a car, going up into the mountains, then going over to Vancouver island. Alternatively I highly recommend Alaska if you are up for the USA, inside passage ferry is amazing, plenty of guaranteed bear spots. Plus humpback whales, orcas, eagles, sea otters all from our cabin amazingly. (Ferry is not luxurious like a cruise but it's small, full of locals and they have wildlife rangers on board!

@PresentingPercy

Seen many bears driving and twice hiking (scary!) you just need to be in the right area.

Should add, I lived there!

But the average visitor would not see them in a meaningful way. Having said that there are RV sites near prime bear watching rivers in BC so this might be an option. Not sure of prices though. Most people seemed to be there for days in their own RVs at the places we saw. I have no doubt the op could find the wildlife watching locations and stay cheaply (eg in fishing lodges) but driving would take some time. Depends how dedicated you are I think.

Alaska is a good shout too. You cannot fly direct from the uk though I think so you need to slow for that.

slow!!! Allow....

I think you’ll struggle with that budget as the flights alone will be expensive.

Depends how immersive you want your bear experiences to be. A 3-day bear lodge stay could easily cost you £2000 each...