Canadian Rockies & the Calgary Stampede

Day 1

Today we begin our tour by traveling west to Westlake, OH. There will be stops for rest & lunch enroute. Dinner will be on your own this evening.

Day 2

We'll enjoy breakfast at the hotel this morning before boarding the bus to travel west. With stops for rest & lunch, we will arrive in Chicago, IL where we will see breathtaking 360° views from 1000 feet above the Magnificent Mile at the 360 Chicago Observation Deck, located in the former John Hancock Center. Our lodging this evening will be in nearby Alsip, IL. Dinner will be on your own this evening after we check-in to our accommodations.

Day 3

This morning after breakfast, we'll depart for Bloomington, MN, the location of tonight's lodging. Stops will be made for rest & lunch along the way. This evening we will enjoy free time and dinner at your leisure at the Mall of America, a giant 4-level mall with hundreds of stores, plus restaurants, a theme park, cinema & aquarium.

Day 4

After breakfast at the hotel, we will be joined by a local step-on guide for a gangster tour of Saint Paul, MN. The tour reveals why Saint Paul was a center for bootlegging operations and criminal activities during the 1930's prohibition era. The tour covers all the gangster sights in the 5-mile radius of Saint Paul where the gangsters lived it up as they planned and executed some of the most notorious crimes ever perpetrated in the upper Midwest. We'll depart for Grand Forks, ND after the tour. Stops will be made for rest and lunch. Upon arrival we'll check-in to our accommodations and enjoy dinner on our own.

Day 5

After breakfast, we will check-out and depart for Regina, Saskatchewan. En route we will make stops for lunch and a photo opportunity in Rugby, ND at the Geographic Center of North America. We will then cross into Canada and continue to Regina, where we will visit the RCMP Heritage Center before checking-in to our lodging. The center tells the story of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), created by an act of Parliament in 1873 to maintain law and order on the Canadian frontier and pave the way for westward settlement. Dinner will be on our own this evening.

Day 6

After breakfast at the hotel, we will depart for Calgary, Alberta, the location of our lodging for the next two evenings. We'll stop for lunch on our own enroute. Once considered a cow town, Calgary is now one of Canada's fastest-growing cities, with skyscrapers, light-rail transit, shopping complexes, and many fine restaurants. The city's modern skyline, jagged with skyscrapers, makes a dramatic appearance on the vast expanse of Alberta prairie. Calgary's modern sophistication is offset by a romantic perception of the past, a past in which the city was established as a Northwest Mounted Police fort in 1875. Our lodging and dinner will be at the Deerfoot Inn & Casino, one of the premier southern Calgary hotels.

Day 7

Following breakfast, we will be joined by a step-on guide for a driving tour of the highlights of Calgary including public art, Studio Bell, New Central Library, Fort Calgary, Heritage Park, Canada Olympic Park, and Calgary Tower. We'll have lunch on our own. Then put on a pair of cowboy boots and celebrate all things wild and western at the Calgary Stampede. The stampede puts on a tremendous show that not only includes barrel racing, bull riding, and chuck wagon races…but fireworks, parades, a carnival midway, and a huge outdoor festival. We will spend the remainder of the day at the stampede. Dinner will be on your own during the free time at the stampede.

Day 8

After breakfast, we'll travel to Banff National Park. This National Park sprawls across the jagged backs of the Rocky Mountains, offering some of the most beautiful alpine scenery in the world. It is a land of breathtaking vistas no photo can do justice to. Snow-capped peaks encircle forested valleys and glacier-fed lakes. This morning we will stop at Lake Louise to relax and take in the magnificent view. Traveling north on the Icefields Parkway allows breathtaking scenic views of snow-capped mountains, waterfalls, lakes, and rivers. A stop will be made for lunch on our own before we climb aboard an Ice Explorer. This enormous, rugged vehicle is built to handle the glacial terrain as we ride on the Athabasca Glacier, a 10,000-year-old sheet of ice. Here you can walk on, feel, and drink from the glacier! Our next stop is Athabasca Falls, which offers amazing views along the Icefields Parkway. Our lodging for the next two evenings will be located at the Tonquin Inn in Jasper, Alberta. Dinner this evening will be included at the inn.

Day 9

This morning, after breakfast, we will explore Jasper National Park. Our first stop is Whistlers Mountain. We will take a 7.5 minute narrated ride in an enclosed tram car (3,297 feet) up into the alpine zone on Whistlers Mountain, where stunning scenic views await. From the aerial tram's upper station at (7,425 feet) you can see six surrounding mountain ranges, several turquoise lakes, the Athabasca River, and the town of Jasper. On a clear day you may even see Mount Robson in British Columbia, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. Once at the upper station, you can stroll along the wooden boardwalk and read the interpretive panels posted along the way or hike to the summit for a breathtaking 360-degree view. After lunch on your own, we will depart for Maligne Lake, about 30 miles from the Jasper townsite. It is the largest glacially formed and fed lake in the Canadian Rockies. The 90-minute lake cruise, which offers a brief stop at Spirit Island, provides exceptional views of Maligne Narrows as well as insight into area geology and wildlife. The remainder of today will be at your leisure to enjoy the town of Jasper. Dinner will be on our own this evening.

Day 10

Today after breakfast, we must depart the Canadian Rockies and begin our travels toward home. We'll travel to Edmonton, Alberta with stops for rest & lunch. Upon arrival, we will visit the Alberta Aviation Museum. This hangar was part of a training facility for air crews during World War II. The museum displays more than 30 historic aircraft including a carefully restored Fairchild 71, a fighter-bomber, as well as 1920's biplanes and jet fighters from the Cold War era. After checking-in to our Edmonton accommodations, we will enjoy dinner and exploring on our own at West Edmonton Mall.

Day 11

After breakfast, we'll travel to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Enroute there will be stops for rest & lunch before we arrive at the Western Development Museum's Heritage Farm and Village in North Battlefield. This preserved 1920's pioneer village features the exhibit Winning the Prairie Gamble. While here you can also see demonstrations of early agricultural techniques utilizing vintage farming equipment. Upon arrival in Saskatoon, we will stop at the Capitol Building for a photo opportunity. Dinner will be on our own this evening after checking-in to our accommodations.

Day 12

Following breakfast, we're in for a full day of driving from Saskatoon to Winnipeg, Manitoba, with stops for rest & lunch. While approximately half of both provinces are covered in pine, a good portion is blanketed with fields of wheat. Relax and enjoy the colors of the provinces. Dinner is on our own in Winnipeg.

Day 13

After breakfast, we will depart for Duluth, MN, a major inland port and important grain center. Grain elevators, ore docks, and shipyards line the waterfront. There will be stops for rest & lunch enroute. We will enjoy a step-on guided driving tour of the city before checking-in to our hotel. Dinner will be on our own after checking-in.

Day 14

We'll have breakfast before we travel from Duluth to Madison, WI. We will make stops for rest & lunch. One stop will be in New Glarus, also known as "Little Switzerland" where you can shop for some artisan cheeses. Dinner will be on our own in Madison, WI.

Day 15

After a full day of driving, with stops for rest & lunch, we will arrive in Westlake, OH, the location of tonight's lodging. Dinner is at your leisure.

Day 16

After an included breakfast at the hotel, we will continue homeward reminiscing about our fantastic tour of the Canadian Rockies! With stops for rest & lunch, our arrival home is scheduled for early evening.

For Your Information

A current passport that is valid past the return date of the tour is required for ALL travel between the US & Canada.
If you are bringing children on the tour other than your own, customs is requiring that you have a registered letter of approval from their parents.

WiFi on Motorcoach

Please be aware that our on-board WiFi service will only be available during the US portion of the tour, on the way to and from the border. The service is not available in Canada.

Please note

Our intention is to run each tour as originally planned and published. However, if deemed necessary to do so, Perkiomen Tours reserves the right to make changes to tour components, schedules or itineraries without prior notification.

Tips for Perkiomen motorcoach drivers and tour escorts are not included in the price of this tour. We feel that these gratuities should be extended on an individual basis and dictated by the level of service provided.

Motorcoach seating is assigned at the time of reservation but cannot be guaranteed. Although we do our best to keep each traveler in the seat assigned at the time of reservation, there are times that it is necessary to move seat locations. Please be sure to verify your final seat number(s) with your driver at the time of boarding. Historically, daily seat rotation was practiced on most multi-day tours. We have suspended this practice for a period of time. Seat rotation will be explained by your driver or tour escort if reinstated.

Perkiomen Tours recommends that you consider purchasing Travel Insurance for your tour. Travel Insurance is purchased directly by you from a third-party of your choice. One option is Travel Safe Insurance. You can purchase insurance directly from Travel Safe through our website. www.perkiomentours.com.

To fully participate in this tour may require extended amounts of walking. There may be steps, inclines, uneven surfaces or extended periods of standing. Participants with physical limitation should take this into consideration.

CB=Continental Breakfast, B=Full Breakfast, D=Dinner