3, 2, 1… It’s Rocky Mountains time!

I’m sure we’re all counting down the days. Because in only a few days, we are going on one of the best trips of the year: the Rocky Mountains! Four days packed with fun and exciting moments are ahead of us. But what exactly is the plan and what do you all have to bring? I will gladly inform you about this in the following few paragraphs.

We are meeting early in the morning this Friday. At 7am to be exact. The meeting point is at the corner of Seymour and Cordova Street. Be there on time, because the bus won’t be waiting for you! We’ll be having lunch in Kamloops and we will arrive at our hotel around 6pm. This day is used especially for travelling, but you will see lots of beautiful nature anyway.

Saturday starts at 7:45am with the departure from the hotel and the pick-up of our breakfast. We will do lots and lots of sightseeing today. Curious how much sightseeing? Here it goes: First stop: Mount Robson. Second stop: Jasper. Third stop: Athabasca Falls (where we have lunch). Fourth stop: Columbia Icefields Centre. Fifth stop: Peyto Lake. Sixth stop: Bow Lake. Seventh stop: Checking into the hotel and visiting Lake Louise. See? I told you we’ll see a lot.

After a good night’s sleep, it’s Sunday already! We all start the day at 7:30am with breakfast at the hotel. We are leaving the hotel at 8am and are heading to Johnston Canyon. From 11am on, we can enjoy some free time! You have the chance to use the Banff Gondola, soak in hot springs or discover Banff by yourself. Later in the afternoon, we head to Emerald Lake and afterwards, we will check into our accommodation for the night: Mountain cabins. And because being in mountain cabins only isn’t good enough, we’ll have a campfire with s’mores and hot chocolate in the evening. The ultimate Canadian experience.

But, all good things come to an end. It’s Monday already. Our last day is spent with travelling again. We depart from the hotel at 8am and we’ll have lunch in beautiful Kelowna this time. The estimated arrival back in Vancouver is at 6.30pm. Time to say goodbye to everyone and wipe away the tears.

Very important! Do not forget to bring:

• Enough warm clothes
• A pair of gloves
• A warm hat
• Good shoes
• Your bikini/ swim shorts
• A towel
• Sunglasses (in case the sun says hello)
• Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste etc.)
• 2 pieces of ID!
• Your camera!

I am really looking forward to Friday, not only because of the trip, but because many of you will join me and we will have an amazing time.

– Nadine

INTERNeX International Exchange
International Village,
Suite 2077, 2079 – 88 West Pender Street
Vancouver, Canada -V6B 6N9-
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

Rocky Mountains

Although driving more than 2.000 kilometers in four days, without too much sleep, nothing will ever replace Internex’s amazing trip to the Rockies.  Early Friday morning a group of people from all over the world stepped into a bus, left Vancouver and took out on a journey to The Canadian Rocky Mountains.  Our tour guide was Hayley from West Trek Tours, who made this trip as unforgettable as it was, together with our bus driver Handsome Ian. We drove along the highway until we reached the beautiful town Hope where we had some pit stop and we already were surrounded by mountains. Next stop was in Kelowna were we had a picnic on the beach, enjoyed the hot sun and took a swim in the refreshing Kelowna Lake.  Back on the Canadian Okanakan highway we drove along the Okanakan lake until we made another pit stop at a farmers market to pick up some delicious fruits to enjoy on the way.

 

Finally before sunset we made it to the Mountain View Cabins in Golden.  After a long drive we were all hungry so the cabin hosts made us a BBQ dinner and after the dinner we grilled some marshmallows on a bonfire. Can you imagine sitting around a bonfire up in the mountains in middle of nowhere were you can smell the nature all around you?  Surrounded by forests and wild animals and being told stories of people running away from a bears? The night turned into a bonfire party, were our lovely guide Hayley sang country songs and played her ukulele and we all sang along. What a wonderful night!

 

 

 

 

Early Saturday morning we drove back on the highway until we reached Alberta State and guess what?  We drove back in time. We arrived into Banff National Park where I’m pretty sure the most beautiful nature on this earth exists. First we went to see Emerald Lake and Lake Louise, a stunning beautiful lakes, as blue as the sky, with mountains all around them. Almost like standing in front of a picture. Then it was time to see Lake Louise from above. We drove down to the Lake Louise ski resort and had a lunch buffet before we took the gondola up to a mountain were we got the most amazing view ever. On our way up, we searched for some wild animals in the forest, but I guess they were hiding.  However we got lucky on our way back.  We found them.  Yes guys, up in the wild nature on our way back in the bus we finally saw some bears. Not just one or two, no we saw seven bears.  A black bear mother, feeding her two little cubs and the cutest grizzle bears hiding between the trees. I actually didn’t know that on this earth there existed a place where wild bears could just chill along the road, but now I know 🙂

 

Next we drove to the cute little mountain town Banff to check in to our hotel and have some relaxing time before dinner. It was Saturday night, so people were in mood for partying. We went to a pub for a drink or two and then we found a nightclub in town. Have you ever visited a nightclub up in the mountains? If not, there is one in Banff 😉

Sunday morning we woke up early and had our breakfast from Tim Horton. We had a long day ahead, the biggest sightseeing day on the trip.  We went to see Lake Minnewanka / Two Jack Lake, Bow lake and Moraine lake, which was even more stunning than Lake Louise. What a nature and what a place. The last lake we saw was Peyto Lake, were we took a polar bear swim were the water is only  5,5 degrees.  That was pretty awesome.  Then we drove in to the Jasper National park were we had the highlight of the day, The Columbia Ice field. The largest ice field in the Rocky Mountains which is about 325 square kilometres (125 sq mi) in area, 100 metres (330 ft) to 365 metres (1,198 ft) in depth and receives up to 7 metres (280 in) of snowfall per year. Our glacier adventure began with an opportunity to ride on the surface in the all-terrain Ice Explorer – a massive vehicle specially designed for glacier travel, and there are only 23 of them in the whole world. When we came up to the glacier, we walked on the ice and filled our water bottle with fresh glacier water. Defiantly the best water we’d ever taste. It was a perfect time to capture the beauty of the Ice field’s breathtaking mountain setting.

Back on the highway on our way to Mount Robson, we made a stop at the Athabasca Falls, the most powerful waterfall in the Rocky Mountains which was pretty amazing. It was cold so we found a Belgium waffle man and had some hot drinks and waffles there. Then we kept driving and were we almost reached Mount Robson, the highest peak of The Rocky Mountains, we unfortunately drove into a thick black fog where our beautiful sunny weather changed into heavy rain. Too bad for a view on Mount Robson. Before dinnertime, we made it to our country hotel in Mt. Robson, were we checked in and had a nice warm shower. A real country night was about to start, yes ladies and gentleman we were now all ready to see some real cowboys. We were picked up of the cowboys and their cowgirls who drove us to their ranch and served us a dinner and drinks. The dinner party soon changes to a wild cowboy party were we all danced line dance late into the night. Monday morning we drove back to Vancouver.

Thank you all for joining us on this unforgettable Rocky Mountains trip. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as the PR team.

 

AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

PR Team