Rockies By Helicopter with Alaskan Cruise

Day 1 - Banff

A scenic transfer leaves Calgary behind for the peaks of Banff National Park, arriving at a hotel in the heart of town with three nights ahead.

Day 2 - Sunrise at Moraine Lake

Before dawn, a small group tour heads out to catch first light on Moraine Lake and Lake Louise, their waters an impossible turquoise beneath the jagged Valley of the Ten Peaks. A hot breakfast follows the sunrise. The tour returns to Banff before noon, leaving the afternoon the enjoy the Banff townsite.

Day 3 - Banff tour with Gondola

A ride up Sulphur Mountain aboard the Banff Gondola opens out to panoramic views of the Bow Valley, Lake Minnewanka and the Hoodoos beyond. Trails at the summit lead past interpretive lookouts, with the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel visible far below, tucked majestically into the valley.

Highlights: Banff Gondola Ride, Lake Minnewanka, Hoodoos Lookout, Bow Valley Viewpoint, Bow Falls, Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Tour Includes: Water or hot chocolate, maple cookie snack, professional certified guide, Banff Gondola ticket, hotel pick-up and drop-off, hands-on interpretive tools

Day 4 - Into the Rockies by Helicopter

The road climbs through Yoho National Park to a private helipad, where a short flight lifts the journey into the Purcell Mountains and CMH Bobbie Burns Lodge, a retreat reachable no other way. After a safety briefing, the first walk sets off into the surrounding peaks, followed by aprés adventure refreshments, a soak in the hot tub, and a first gourmet dinner beneath old growth timber.

Day 5 - Heli-Hiking Among the Glaciers

A full day in high alpine terrain, choosing between guided hiking and via ferrata across granite faces and moraines carved by centuries of ice. Lunch is taken in the field, wherever the route leads, before the flight home to the lodge and an evening of hot tub, massage and a family style dinner.

Day 6 - Further Into the Mountains

A second day of exploration uncovers fresh terrain: hanging valleys, ridgelines and sun-warmed meadows that shift with the light, the mountains still visible from the hot tub as the sky turns colour that evening.

Day 7 - Onwards to Vancouver

A final lodge breakfast precedes the last heli-transfer out of the Mountains, back to Calgary and connecting onward to the Pacific coast. Vancouver's harbourfront skyline arrives by evening, with two nights at a hotel on Canada Place looking out over the water and the Coastal Mountains beyond.

Day 8 - Vancouver

A tour through downtown Vancouver takes in the skyline from a mountaintop lookout before crossing to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, swaying high above a forest canyon on the North Shore, a fitting last taste of solid ground before the sea takes over.

Day 9 - Setting Sail

A transfer to the cruise terminal leads aboard Holland America's Koningsdam, a balcony cabin waiting with views of the harbour. As the ship pulls away from Vancouver, the Inside Passage opens out ahead: forested islands, quiet channels, and the first hint of Alaska's scale.

Day 10 - Inside Passage

A day at sea spent watching the coastline slide past, its waters sheltered and glassy, mountains rising directly from the shoreline in every direction.

Day 11 - Ketchikan

Alaska's "First City" sits on stilts above Tongass Narrows, its waterfront lined with totem poles and the weathered boardwalks of Creek Street, once the town's red light district and now a walk through frontier history.

Day 12 - Juneau

The state capital is reachable only by sea or air, hemmed in by the Tongass National Forest and the Mendenhall Glacier, whose blue ice face is close enough to reach on a short excursion from the port.

Day 13 - Skagway

A gold rush town frozen in its 1898 heyday, Skagway's wooden storefronts and boardwalks sit at the head of a fjord once thick with prospectors bound for the Klondike.

Day 14 - Glacier Bay National Park

A day of scenic cruising through a UNESCO World Heritage site, tidewater glaciers calving into the bay with a crack and a roar, ice that has carved this landscape for thousands of years.

Day 15 - Inside Passage

A final day at sea retraces the route south through the Inside Passage, whales and porpoises sometimes surfacing alongside as the ship makes for home waters.

Day 16 - Homeward bound

The Koningsdam docks back in Vancouver, and a private transfer carries the journey on to the airport, closing a trip that ran from alpine peaks to tidewater glaciers.