Six Day Trip for under $800

While our original travel plans were impacted by COVID-19, it didn’t stop us from going on an adventure. Canada has much to offer when it comes to breathtaking views and there is no better time to explore it than today. We did a comfortable 6 day trip for under $800 per person, and it could be done for less.

Our goal with this trip was to get the best bang for our buck and I hope this blog inspires you to plan your next domestic adventure.

THE TRIP

Mileage: 2900km round trip from Winnipeg to Canmore

DAY 1: TRAVEL DAY
Final Destination: Drumheller
Accommodation: Airbnb suite ‘Hideaway in the Hills’ ($114/night)

We left Winnipeg around 7:30am CST after picking up and packing the rental, and arrived in Drumheller around 9:30pm MST. The drive out west was smooth, and it helped to gain an extra hour of sunlight. The airbnb we rented was perfect as we were able to let ourselves in with a code and settle in for the night. It helped that we made and packed food in advance as it limited our stops to only fuel up a couple of times with the odd stop for bathroom breaks.

DAY 2: TYRELL MUSEUM | HOODOS | CANMORE ARRIVAL
Final Destination: Canmore
Accommodation: Mountain View Inn ($175/night)

We were grateful for our airbnb host who recommended to book tickets in advance, because admission to the Royal Tyrell Museum was sold out for the day. The museum was an amazing experience with a great mix of original fossils and casts and a definite highlight of the trip.

After wrapping up our visit, we explored the local hoodoos. There was a small $2 parking admission fee, and the area was widely open for exploration. We ended up climbing around and exploring the land-before-time-looking landscape for about two hours. I wouldn’t drive out to Drumheller again just for the hoodoos, but it was a nice stop as a complement to the museum.

Our final destination for the day was Canmore, where we settled into what would be our home base for the next few days. In most cases we prefer to use airbnb, but due to uncertainties with COVID-19 we held off from booking anything until we were closer to our travel date. Unfortunately, by the time we looked at the few places we had in mind about a week out, they were all booked up. The Mountain View Inn was a decent alternative, all things considered. After getting settled, we went for a walk through town on the way to the Canmore Engine Bridge. The area around the bridge offers a pleasant walking trail with scenery of the local mountains and Bow River.

DAY 3: LAKE LOUISE | LAKE AGNES TRAIL | POLICEMAN CREEK TRAIL & CANMORE
Location: Canmore
Accommodation: Mountain View Inn ($175/night)

Every trail guide I read expressed how busy parking gets, and we got to experience it for ourselves after getting a later start to our day. We arrived at a big line up that began just past Lake Louise Village, which turned into a slow crawl for close to an hour. Luckily, as we got close to the end where they began turning people around, we were directed to a lot that had a spot. There are several excellent hikes that begin around this area, and I would definitely plan to arrive early in the future.

Lake Louise itself is beautiful with unreal colours, but that’s really all there is to it. There is a spot where you can rent canoes and kayaks, but the line is typically quite long and I can’t speak to the price. I don’t like high traffic, so I was excited to set off on the true reason behind our visit – the trail to Lake Agnes. When you reach Lake Agnes, there is a nice rest area with a tea house and various other trails that you can branch off to. As prairie folks, this was definitely a good warm up to get the body in gear as the closest thing we have to an incline are the stairs to our apartment. In the future, I would definitely plan to get here earlier and allow enough time to explore the Sentinel Pass trail or the Plain of the Six Glaciers trail.

Getting back to Canmore, we took a break and then followed the nice and short Policeman Creek trail into town to get ice cream at the Scoopin’ Moose.

DAY 4: TUNNEL MOUNTAIN TRAIL | JOHNSTON CANYON & INKPOTS
Location: Canmore
Accommodation: Mountain View Inn ($175/night)

Several reviews pointed out that the road to the The Johnston Canyon trail was closed, but there was a loophole: visitors that had a reservation at Blackswift Bistro (a restaurant at the foot of the trail) were allowed to drive up and save a 6km trek in each direction. We did just that and booked a reservation for lunch, which left our morning open for other exploration.

We decided to visit the Tunnel Mountain trail near Banff on the way to Johnston Canyon as our first activity. This turned out to be the best value-for-effort trek we’ve done as it offered phenomenal views for a relatively low-effort path. Since we had some more time to spare before going to our lunch reservation, we stopped at Good Earth Coffee in Banff and enjoyed a hot drink near a fire.

After a bit of a drive, we arrived at the barricade that blocked the road to Johnston Canyon. The individuals managing the barricade checked our online reservation, let us through, and we made our way to Blackswift Bistro. The restaurant itself was cozy with a very basic menu – we got bison burgers that turned out decent. Bellies full, we were ready to begin our longest and favourite hike this trip – the path through Johnston Canyon to the Upper Falls, and then to the Inkpots. The path allowed us to walk along the edge of the canyon seeing rushing water and its scenic surroundings. Once we made it past the Upper Falls, the landscape changed to a beautiful forest which we enjoyed for 3km towards the Inkpots.

The Inkpots themselves were neat – they are pools of water that have mud and sand at the bottom that mix in a way that makes it look like there is a big circular drop that is a different colour than the surrounding water. The area around the Inkpots was a vast clearing surrounded by mountains and open sky that was worth the trek seeing. As this was an out-and-back trek we had to follow the same path on the way back that brought us there which offered new views, making it interesting nonetheless. We were very happy with our decision to make the reservation at the Blackswift Bistro to have our car at the end of the trek, as it saved us having to range on with 6km of boring road ahead of us (by that point our legs felt pretty tired).

We made our way back to Canmore, did some mild packing to prepare for checkout, and called it a night.

DAY 5 & 6: SPRAY LAKES RESERVOIR | TRAVEL TO REGINA | TRAVEL TO WINNIPEG
Final Destinations: Regina (Day 5) | Winnipeg (Day 6)
Accommodation: Airbnb suite ‘Calm & Peaceful Room in Cathedral Village’ ($53)

Instead of spending another full day in Canmore we decided to lighten the drive back by charting our course to Regina. We started our day by driving out the the Spray Lakes Reservoir by Canmore with the hopes of spotting wildlife. Given that sightings are more common at dawn or dusk we were a bit late to the party, but enjoyed the scenic drive nonetheless.

We had an easy drive to Regina, other than needing to do about an hour of it in the dark as we lost an hour due to the time zone change. The airbnb had two other rooms that were occupied by other visitors, and there was a shared bathroom, living room, and kitchen. This was a really cheap option that worked well for us given we just needed a place to freshen up and stay the night before continuing our trip back home.

Cramming the return trip to Winnipeg in one day sucks, so I was happy with the decision to break it down and stay in Regina. Not only did we get back home at a reasonable time to get ready for the week, but we avoided having to drive an extended amount of time in the dark which is better for safety. We dropped off the rental vehicle’s keys in a drop-box at Enterprise and the trip was officially completed.

SIX DAY TRIP FOR UNDER $800 (Per Person)

Cost of Travel: $445
Car rental: $195
Vehicle: 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander
Gas: $250 (Avg cost $1.05/Litre)
Distance: 3000+ km

Why Rent?:

Avoid wear and tear. A 3000km+ road trip is going to put extra strain and milage on your vehicle that you completely avoid by renting.
Don’t worry about oil change/other maintenance costs.
0 headache. If something happens to the car, the rental company will deal with the problem while you are covered by insurance. Even if you need to pay the deductible, your car is sitting safely back home and you don’t need to deal with the logistics.
Try something new! Road trips are a great opportunity to experience a new car that you’ve always wanted to try, or never tested before.

Considering we had the car for 6 days, renting cost us about $33/day with Enterprise.

Cost of Accommodations: $692
Drumheller airbnb: $114
Canmore hotel: $525 ($175 x 3 nights)
Regina airbnb: $53

We achieved the lower-end of the spectrum for the potential cost for this category. While staying in Regina and Drumheller is inexpensive, Canmore/Banff area can get pricey with costs easily ranging from $300-$700/night. There were several appealing airbnb options that we were hoping to book in Canmore, but we held off from making any reservations until about a week out due to uncertainties with COVID-19. Everything got booked by the time we were ready to commit to a reservation and we were lucky to find vacancy at the Mountain View Inn.

A few ideas to reduce this cost for the budget-conscious traveller is camping, sleeping in your car, or staying on the outskirts of Calgary if you are willing to spend more time on the road getting out to the mountains each day.

Food: $377
Groceries: $200
Eating out: $177

We were able to save quite a bit of money thanks to Shelby’s awesome meal-prep that covered most of our breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks. The $177 we spent on ‘eating out’ could have been easily avoided and replaced with an added $30-40 to the grocery bill, but we planned to treat ourselves a little.

Something that worked really well for us was preparing food that holds up well in advance and transporting it in a cooler until we could use the airbnb’s/hotel’s fridge. We packed our own tea kettle to make coffee, tea, and oatmeal.

Misc: $42
Royal Tyrell Museum: $42 ($21/person)

This expense is quite self-explanatory. We paid the latter cost for admission to enter the museum which was totally worth it.

The only other thing to consider is admission to Banff National Park, for which there are several options. If you do not own a Discovery Pass ($143 for the whole year allowing for up to 7 people in the vehicle), you can pay a daily fee for your stay. There are several destinations you can explore without entering the park, but you’d be missing out if you didn’t.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If this blog gives you new inspiration or excites your travel bug, then my job here is done. The way we did our trip was perfect for us, but there are many ways to make adjustments to make it your own. If you can’t handle the long drive, consider flying. If you prefer to camp in the summer, bring a tent and save some money. If you want to pack more hiking into your agenda, get up earlier and make it happen!