Thought on this Canada itinerary

[CarolVessey]

Can anyone in the know give me their thoughts on this itinerary for a trip to Canada in next year's summer holidays (me, DH, and 2 DC 10 and 7)? We wanted to visit a few different places but limit the amount of driving in-between.

4 nights Vancouver (staying near Stanley Park)
6 nights Whistler
4 nights on Sunshine Coast (Gibsons or Sechelt)
1 night back in Vancouver before flying home

Does this sound OK? Is it about the right amount of time in each place? We were planning on picking up the hire car on the day we drive to Whistler - is it easy enough to get round Vancouver without one?

Any thoughts/recommendations welcome!

Definitely easy to get around Vancouver without a hire car... in fact I doubt you'd want one, parking is limited as in all big cities! It has good public transport and if you're near Stanley Park then you're walking distance to all the best bits.

What sort of things do you like doing on holiday? / What are you looking to get out of the trip? Personally 4 nights in Vancouver would be far too much for me. Didn't really feel like there was much to do beyond the park (which we really enjoyed but was only 1 day).

We went over to Vancouver Island rather than out to Whistler (which was superb for wildlife and hiking) so can't really comment on that bit.

Have a great trip!

I am also wondering what it is you want to do in Vancouver to spend so much of the trip there? Vancouver Island is wonderful.

What are you planning on doing up in Whistler? We've been a couple of times and I'm of the view that there's enough there for a couple of nights but that's about it (it's great btw, just not particularly big)

Vancouver Island is amazing - if you can redirect 3/4 nights to spend some time over there it's well worth it.

Vancouver is amazing and most of it is walkable for sure. Depends on whether you want to do anything like Grouse Mountain or Calipano suspension bridge which you might need a car for.

I loved Vancouver and spent a week there exploring Stanley Park,Kitsilano, Grouse Mountain ,Whale watching , Lynn Canyon ,could easily have spent longer there.
A few nights over on Vancouver Island,then island hopping to smaller islands ,so much to explore and a couple of nights over at Whistler. BC is absolutely stunning .

Agree with @ThatGentleTiger s comments .

I’d do 2/ 3 nights in Vancouver, 4/5 in Vancouver Island and the remainder of your 10 days in Whistler. Don’t know anything about the ‘sunshine coast’. We went over to Jasper etc instead- you could fly out of. Calgary rather than looping back to Vancouver.

Agree - cut your days in Vancouver. What are you planning in Whistler? We just had one day there and did the zipwires (our DC were 8 and loved it) and then a walk around the town. Squamish is cheaper to stay in than Whistler and about an hours drive away. Squamish has the Sea to Sky gondola. Ferry across to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island was easy and scenic.