Guangxun Jin | 金光勋 | 김광훈

Since I’ve already decided to go on a road trip and picked the destination, and because I’ve been working for over a month straight, I automatically earned a 10-day block of time off. Next comes the planning phase. I have to plan this out in detail because it’s my very first road trip.

Where should I start planning first? Let’s start with the big picture, which is the overall round-trip route.

Looking at the map, the closest major city to Banff is Calgary. Driving from Winnipeg to Calgary takes about 13 hours. I’ve never driven long distances before, so I feel like I might not be able to finish those 13 hours in a single day. Plus, according to my research, driving 6 to 8 hours a day and spending the rest of the time resting is a relatively more reasonable way to allocate time. So, I’ll split those 13 hours into two days. Then, when it’s time to head back after exploring Banff, taking the exact same route back feels like a wasted opportunity. I see that there is a route to the north through Edmonton that also goes back to Winnipeg. The distance is roughly the same—around 13 hours—so I’ll split that into two days of driving as well.

I think I should take a good rest on the first day of these 10 days, check that everything needed for the trip is packed, and get a solid night’s sleep before tackling the long drive the next day. So, subtracting this day from the 10 days leaves 9 days for the actual trip. Since I’ll be passing through Calgary and Edmonton, I might as well spend one day in each of these two cities to see what they are like. 10 days minus 1 day, minus 4 days for the round-trip drive, and minus 1 day each for the two cities leaves 3 days. So, those three days will be spent in Banff. But is three days in Banff enough? I did some rough research, and 3 days seems completely doable.

Next is making a relatively more specific route plan. First is the road to Calgary. Let’s split it into two segments. Right in the middle is Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan. I’ll make this city the final stop for the first day. Hmm… I wonder if pushing a bit further ahead would make the second day relatively easier? Let me check if there are any small towns not too far past Regina where I can spend the night. There actually is a town called Moose Jaw, which is less than an hour’s drive from Regina. So, on the first day, I’ll drive to Regina, walk around a bit to see what the city is like, and then spend the night in Moose Jaw. While looking up places to visit in Regina, I found out the city has the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, which houses the skeleton of the largest T-Rex in history. This looks very interesting and worth a visit. I also found out that Moose Jaw has a Western Development Museum, which seems to have a lot of vintage cars and airplanes; I can check that out too. Driving from Winnipeg to Regina takes about 6 hours, so I’ll take a break every two hours. That means picking a gas station in a city or town about 2 hours away on the map, driving there, and using the opportunity to refuel and use the washroom each time.

Then comes the second half of the drive to Calgary. I’ll also take a break roughly every two hours. But while looking for interesting things along the way, I discovered a museum in a small town called Eastend that also claims to have the skeleton of the largest T-Rex in history. This one seems to be just a display copy, but it should be fine to stop by and take a look since it’s on the way.

I did some estimates and realized that if I do this, I should arrive in Calgary in the afternoon. This means I’ll have half a day plus one full day to spend in Calgary. I looked up what places there are to visit in Calgary. First are the Calgary Tower and the Calgary Zoo, both of which seem highly recommended. There are also some museums to visit. In downtown, there’s Prince’s Island Park, which tourists seem to visit quite often. Plus, Calgary has some huge shopping malls. These are all worth considering. After spending two nights in Calgary, I’ll head straight to Banff.

Banff National Park doesn’t seem to be just a single fixed spot, but rather a cluster of parks with quite a few places to visit. I need to arrange where to go for these three days. After doing some research, I decided to spend the first day exploring the town of Banff and its surrounding areas, such as the Bow River and the Banff Gondola. On the second day, I’ll visit the famous Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. On the third day, I’ll go to Takakkaw Falls and Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park. Finally, I’ll drive straight from Emerald Lake to Edmonton.

However, driving straight from Emerald Lake to Edmonton takes about 5 hours. That might be a bit too much, especially after a whole day of sightseeing. I need to split it into two segments. I’ll drive half of it that evening, and the remaining half the next morning. I noticed there’s a town called Red Deer right in the middle of the route from Yoho National Park to Edmonton, which is the perfect distance. I can stay overnight there. The next morning, after driving from Red Deer to Edmonton, I can spend most of the day in Edmonton. I’ve always heard that Edmonton has the largest mall in North America, the West Edmonton Mall. I can go check that out.

After that is the return route from Edmonton to Winnipeg. This is also split into two segments, with the first leg going all the way to Saskatoon. Along the way, there’s Elk Island National Park, where it seems you can see wild bison up close, which sounds pretty cool. I’ll still take a break every two hours. Once I get to Saskatoon, they seem to have a zoo there that I could check out, since I’ll happen to have half a day. Finally, on the last day, I’ll drive straight back to Winnipeg, still taking a break every two hours.

It feels like I’ve written this out in a very tedious way, but the general route plan is now complete. The finer details of the route can be decided on the go while I’m on the road.

Now I have to decide where to stay, or more accurately, which hotels to book. For the first night, I can just find a hotel in the town of Moose Jaw. I checked the prices and they aren’t expensive and easy to book. The second night is in Calgary. I noticed that a lot of things are in downtown Calgary. I’ll probably have to park downtown. But generally speaking, parking in a big city downtown is very difficult, and driving there is a hassle. At first, I was thinking about taking public transit in Calgary, and I was even studying how to ride the bus there. But then I changed my approach—why don’t I just find a hotel right in the downtown that comes with parking? That way, I wouldn’t have to worry about driving. Once the car is parked at the hotel, I can just walk around the downtown area myself. After looking around for a bit, I found a downtown hotel that looks quite nice and has a fairly reasonable price.

Then comes the most important part of this trip: what to do about those three days in Banff. I checked the hotel prices in the town of Banff. One look and I found that the prices were sky high expensive. The only reasonably priced accommodations were youth hostels that are like dorms, where many people sleep in one room and you’re just renting a bed. I can’t accept that. When strangers sleep in the same room, chances are nobody sleeps well—at least, that’s how it is for me. Some people might sleep late, some want to sleep early, and some might be looking at their phones or laptops. People without manners might even play videos out loud while others are sleeping. So even though these types of hostels are cheap, I won’t even consider them. At the time, my boss also suggested that I could camp at a Banff campground—just buy some basic camping gear and a tent, and then book a spot. If my primary goal were camping, that would be a great idea. But after researching, I found out that the internet connection there isn’t good, or there might not even be any internet. Plus, sleeping in a tent out in the wild doesn’t guarantee a good night’s sleep, and it feels like using the washroom and washing up wouldn’t be convenient. While saving money is great, there’s no need to take it to that extreme.

I wondered if there was any other way. Then I saw people online saying to stay in the nearby town of Canmore. It’s very close to Banff, but the hotels are much cheaper. At the time, I felt like this was a great idea. I even found out that you can bike from Canmore to Banff, and there’s even a dedicated bike path. I was even thinking about packing my folding bike into the trunk. But after looking around for hotels in Canmore, I found that the prices were still ridiculously expensive. However, I learned from this approach, which is to look for accommodations in nearby towns. So, starting from Banff, I looked for hotels in the towns all along the road toward Calgary. As it turned out, only the town of Cochrane, which is near Calgary, had reasonably priced hotels. Doesn’t this mean I barely even left Calgary? 😂 I checked the drive from Cochrane to Banff on the map. It’s about an hour. Hmm… Although it’s a bit more than half an hour, I feel like it should be acceptable. But since it’s quite close to Calgary, I decided to change my original plan of staying two nights in Calgary to staying one night in Calgary, and the second night in Cochrane. This way, it amounts to staying three nights in Cochrane. Because these three nights are for the more important hotels, and I also found a very reasonably priced place, I went ahead and booked it directly.

The rest is one night in Red Deer, one night in Edmonton, and one night in Saskatoon. But I discovered that booking hotels earlier doesn’t always mean getting a better price. On the contrary, booking later might actually be cheaper, especially for these last three cities. So, I decided to book the hotels for these three cities while on my way back. Besides, according to my research, hotels in these three cities are very easy to book. It won’t be as much of a hassle as the hotels in Banff. Anyway, the hotels for the three days in Banff are already booked, which means the most major part of booking accommodations is complete. In reality, the lodging plan is pretty much done at this point.

Here is the translation of the final part of your article. I’ve kept the exact paragraph structure, the natural tone, and made sure to use “washroom” and “big city downtowns” to align with the Canadian context we established.

Next is deciding what to bring.

As I mentioned before, I initially wanted to bring my folding bike. Once folded, this bike can fit into my car’s trunk. However, partly because there were no hotels available in Canmore, making the bike unnecessary, and partly because if I put the bike in, my suitcase would have to go in the back seat. But I don’t want my suitcase to be visible from outside the car. So, I won’t be bringing the bike.

Since this is a road trip, I can bring anything. There are absolutely no restrictions on suitcase size either. The trunk can fully accommodate it. I just chose my largest suitcase. I also have a backpack that I can actually carry around during the trip.

What I’m bringing is nothing more than various clothes. Since it’s basically already summer, I’ll mainly bring short-sleeved shirts and shorts. But it might still be a bit chilly in the mornings, so I’m bringing a jacket. I’ll also bring a couple of extra pairs of shoes. One of the main purposes of this trip is to take photos, so I’ll bring a selfie stick. I think I’ll also bring my own toiletries. Although the hotels will most likely have them, I still want to use the toiletries I normally use, like the body wash, shampoo, and conditioner I always use. I also want to bring my PS5 so I can play it at night when I have nothing else to do. My laptop and things like that are definitely coming along too. Anyway, it’s not like I’m boarding a plane—there are no restrictions at all, so I can bring all of these things. Oh right, I also need to bring some food. When I take a break after driving for 2 hours, I can have a little snack if I’m hungry. I’ll mainly focus on energy bars. Although I could probably buy them at gas stations, I think bringing my own is a safer bet. Plus, energy bars don’t take up space and don’t have any storage issues. Another thing is, my current phone plan doesn’t support a large data allowance, but I’ll definitely need data for navigation and looking up information. So, I also bought a high-data phone plan in advance. Also, things like the National Park Pass need to be bought and printed out ahead of time. It seems that going to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake requires booking two days in advance, and at the earliest, exactly two days prior. But I already know this now, so I’ll just wake up early to book it when the time comes. I also watched video tutorials and learned quite a few filming and photography techniques.

There is also one specific item worth mentioning. While looking up things to watch out for when traveling to Banff, I saw that there might be bears there. It’s recommended to bring bear spray. I think that makes a lot of sense, and since this is a matter of life and safety, it must be taken seriously. So I went to various places to see if they had bear spray. At first, I looked in various supermarkets because they sell things like mosquito spray there (which I also bought), so they should have bear spray too, right? But I didn’t see any. Then I heard that an outdoor sports equipment store had it, so I went to check. As it turned out, the clerk said they were in the process of applying to sell bear spray, but they couldn’t sell it yet. I had no choice but to search again for where it was sold, and finally, I found another large retailer that specializes in outdoor gear. They actually had bear spray here, but they needed me to go and ask at the customer service area. After some conversation there, I found out that in Canada, bear spray is a restricted item just like firearms. Not just any store can sell it, and when you buy it, they also log the buyer’s information. If someone is found using this bear spray (each canister has a serial number) to attack others, the police will track down the buyer based on the serial number and hold them responsible. Even if someone else used the spray to attack people, the buyer is still held accountable. And if the bear spray is used up or past its expiration date, it needs to be returned to the police station.

That’s roughly the plan for luggage. In reality, the things I’m bringing include other items besides what’s mentioned above, but I don’t think it’s necessary to write them down in further detail. I think I’m actually pretty clever, bringing a PS5 on a road trip 😂

Basically, this completes the plan for this trip. I can just head out when the time comes! The plan I made back then might actually have been more detailed, but just writing it out like this already feels a bit tedious to me. So I don’t want to dwell on it anymore to see what other details there are.