RV?ing from Calgary with Young Children

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Castrol75

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Dec 31, 2017
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Hi all,

My wife and I came to Canada 15 years ago and Hired a RV and travelled from Montreal across to Halifax, PEI and back via Quebec.  We loved it!

We always said we wanted to do it again, but this time the West of Canada, taking in the Rockies.  The only difference is now we have three children!

We have booked flights into Calgary for August 18 for three weeks and looking for the most suitable RV to hire.  Our children will be 9, 6 & 6 at the time of travel, weighing 30kg, 22kg and 22kg respectively.  I seen numerous hire companies, but the most established seems to be Fraser RV?s and Canadream.  My main issue with just boooking is that ive heard some campsites don?t take the larger RV?s around Banff and Jasper?  However, having three kids requires a fairly large unit.  I was thinking of the C-XL large from Fraser RV?s?

My next issue is car seats for the children?  Can all these units all take 3 car seats? Or does the elder child not need one?
As we are doing a couple of weeks in Toronto first before coming to Calgary, I was going to buy 3 car seats for the minivan I am hiring.

Don?t want to be ordering the wrong RV or seats and any advice would be appreciated....

Also anyone who has experience of taking 3 young children to these locations, with any preferred campsites and info on manoeuvrability around the towns would be appreciated also.

Thanks
Ryan


 
I moved this to the "Outside the USA" discussion area since it sounds like you are sticking to Canada only.  We have some veteran members who have ventured up around our northern neighbors and may be able to offer some information.

As far as type of RV, with three kids I'd say it depends on how much time you plan on spending in the rig itself.  A Class A motorhome will provide more living space, headroom, and visibility than a Class C.  But a Class C may fit your needs too, and would probably be less expensive to rent.  Those are a couple of the factors to consider.
 
Alot of sites in the Banff Jasper corridor cant take the bigger units - your best off to check the Parkscanada website
Provincial sites are bigger and can take large campers and trailers like my 40ft 5 er and private sites outside the parks are just fine
 
    We took our 34 foot DP from Calgary, through Banff and Jasper, then on to Edmonton and we stayed at National Park campsites, so I would say that you won't have any difficulty with the Fraserway extra large Class C.  As for child seats, each province has its own legislation, as I read it, the 6 year olds will need booster seats in Ontario but not in Alberta, but booster seats are not overly expensive.
    One of the places I would highly recommend, particularly with children are the Badlands and the Royal Tyrrell Museum (dinosaurs) in Drumheller, about an hour from Calgary.  Also, the Ice Fields between Banff and Jasper, is unique and a real hit with kids, as is Lake Louise.

Ed
 
Drumheller would be a great spot for kids mine are 13 and 14 and we still go at least once a year, especially if your kids are into dinosaurs, the whole town has them throughout and the museum is amazing my kids did fossil casting and stuff there, also a lot different terrain there than the mountains you will get to see two different sides of Alberta if you go there then to Banff.  Go west of Banff to Radium hot springs, it a nice place to go and there are a couple camp ground in Radium.  if you decide to go north to Jasper there is lots to do there as well, our family likes to go about a hour west of Jasper To Tete Jaune Cache/Valemount, by Mount Robson the highest mountain in Canada. Lots of hiking and site seeing there we also took a raft down the river. I hope this helps
 
You can easily fit the 3 kids on the overhead bunk of a Class C, which would give you lots of options on a rental unit.
 
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