Is there anything more amazing than Banff National Park or Glacier National Park? How about Banff AND Glacier? That’s right, in this guide, we cover an itinerary for one of Canada’s top parks and one of the USA’s best parks. In this epic Banff and Glacier itinerary we provide an overview and help you prioritize your time.
With the relative proximity of these parks to one another, and their remoteness otherwise, it makes sense to combine both parks into one trip. You actually squeeze in 4 national parks with this itinerary.
Yes, we visited Banff, the Icefields Parkway / Jasper National Park, and Kootenay National Park in Canada, and Glacier National Park (link to overview guide) in the US in one trip. Check out our separate guides that include destinations in this epic Banff and Glacier National Parks Itinerary.
Within Glacier, we have separate guides for the Going to the Sun Road/West Glacier Area, Two Medicine Area, and Many Glacier Area.
For hikers we’ve created a separate guide for our recommended Two Teahouse Hike in Banff, and for two amazing Glacier hikes: The Highline Trail and Grinnell Glacier Trail. Information on shorter hikes is included in the park / section guides.
Note: Our detailed guides have lots of pictures. This post gets into the nitty-gritty of planning your trip, so we’ve left distracting pictures out.
Prioritizing your time
To help prioritize where you spend your time, we have the following Panoramic Pathways’ star system ranking of major areas and activities in the Banff and Glacier regions.
Banff/Jasper
- ★★★ Lake Louise
- ★★★ Moraine Lake
- ★★★ Icefields Pkwy Scenic Drive
- ★★ Hike to Tea Houses (★★★ for hikers with more time)
- ★★ Maligne Canyon (Jasper National Park)
- ★★ Ice Walk (Icefields Parkway, Jasper NP)
- ★ Hike to Consolation Lakes
- ★ Bow Hwy Scenic Drive
- ★ Banff Town
- ★ Marble Canyon (Kootenay National Park)
Glacier
- ★★★ Going-to-the-Sun Road Scenic Drive
- ★★★ Many Glacier Area
- ★★ Two Medicine Area
- ★★ Highline Trail (★★★ for hikers with more time)
- ★★ Grinnell Glacier Hike (★★★ for hikers with more time)
- ★★ At least one historic lodge
- ★ Hike to Upper Two Medicine Lake/Twin Falls
- ★ Boat ride on Lake
- ★ Red Bus Tour
Getting There
Getting to Banff
Banff National Park lies about 1.5 hours west and slightly north of the city of Calgary in Alberta province, Canada. As such, many travelers to Banff fly in to Calgary. The next nearest major city is Spokane, Washington in the US, which is about 6.5 hours’ drive from Banff. It is possible to fly into Calgary from most major US and Canadian cities. We flew direct from Atlanta.
Proximity of Banff to Glacier
Banff National Park Alberta is about 240 miles (400 km), or 4 hours’ drive, from Glacier National Park in Montana, USA. Since these national parks are both a bit difficult to access for many, consider our itinerary for visiting both on the same trip.
When To Visit Banff and Glacier National Parks
Summer is the obvious choice for visiting Banff and Glacier. Temperatures are warm and wildflowers at their peak. But that brings crowds. In July and August, Banff has a bit of an “amusement park” feel to it with people being shuttled around in buses, social influencer wannabes getting their selfies, and huge crowds everywhere. Glacier can also be crowded, with the red iconic tour buses are passing to and fro on the Going to the Sun Road.
If traveling in summer, it’s best to get up early in the morning to enjoy the park before the crowds catch you. Early evening also provides a respite, and hiking just a little way off the main tourist areas will gain you some peace.
To avoid summer crowds, visit Banff and Glacier National Park during the shoulder seasons of spring and fall. We chose early September for our trip. There were still some wildflowers, and the trees were not yet changing color for fall. Overall, this is a fantastic time to travel. The late spring into early June would be good as well. If you choose September, remember that the first weekend, in both Canada and the US, is a three-day holiday weekend and the parks will be more crowded.
Check the Parks Canada Seasonal Closures and Restrictions page by clicking here.
Making Reservations for Banff, Jasper, and Glacier
A note on making reservations for these National Park: Even though we traveled in a shoulder season, we needed to book campgrounds and shuttles in the park well in advance. Visit the Parks Canada Reservations website by clicking here. Campsites and shuttle reservations fill up quickly once the reservation window opens in late January.
Glacier National Park now requires vehicle reservations for most of the roads in the park for most portions of the tourist season. Please study the information at vehicle reservations – Glacier National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov) carefully for dates and reservation requirements.
However, according to the National Park Service website (see link above):
“Visitors with lodging, camping, or commercial activity reservations (e.g., boat tours and horseback rides) within the specified reservation areas can use proof of their reservation for entry instead of a vehicle reservation to gain access to the vehicle reservation area for which they have a service reservation.”
More details in the Banff and Glacier posts.
Note: It is now mandatory to reserve a shuttle to Moraine Lake in Banff. The park does not allow any personal vehicles at Moraine Lake.
Check the Parks Canada Seasonal Closures and Restrictions page by clicking here.
Staying in the Parks
For both Banff and Glacier, camping in the parks or staying in a lodge is a real advantage. Waking up in the parks is a fantastic start to your day, and avoiding the commute to get into the parks is an advantage in avoiding crowds. Renting a recreational vehicle (RV) was a good option for us.
We cover some accommodation options in our separate guides, especially for the campgrounds where we stayed.
Check out our thorough Guide for Renting an RV, including the pros and cons of renting one for your trip.
Planning This Utlimate Banff-Glacier Itinerary
Planning Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet is downloadable as Open Document Sheets and can be used in Excel or a cloud spreadsheet tool (e.g., Google Drive or Office 365). Update your arrival date into cell A2 and get started on your itinerary (automations/equations are embedded for convenience). This file can serve as a template for other trips as well.
Map and Route
The map below shows the overall route for the full trip starting and ending in Calgary. Note that the route generated by Google will not show using Going-to-the-Sun Road in the winter months since it is closed.
Download as a KML file and use in Google Maps, Google My Maps, OpenMaps, or other mobile apps. Start from the full screen view of the map.
We hope you’ve found this Epic Banff and Glacier National Parks Itinerary helpful.
Other Related Guides
Destination Guides
Banff National Park (Canada)
Icefields Parkway / Jasper National Park (Canada)
Kootenay National Park (Canada)
Glacier National Park Overview (USA)
Going to the Sun Road/West Glacier (Glacier NP, USA)
Two Medicine Area (Glacier NP, USA)
Many Glacier Area (Glacier NP, USA)
Longer, Recommended Hikes:
Two Teahouse Hike (Banff)
The Highline Trail (Glacier NP)
Grinnell Glacier Trail (Glacier NP)