What to do with your Reading Break? (Video of Jasper & Banff)

January is half over, the new semester has truly arrived and everything starts to get stressful again – that means it’s Reading Break soon! All classes are cancelled from the 8th to the 12th of February to give you time for, well… reading.

But who says you have to do this reading here in Victoria? If you are looking for a getaway, I can recommend you visit Jasper and Banff in Alberta. I’ve been there during the reading break last November and it was absolutely stunning! Early February is a perfect time to go because it is not “Aaah, my eyeball is icing up!” cold any more but still winter.

I know that you probably don’t have the means to fly there as a student, but you don’t need to. There are other options: We took the Greyhound Bus from Vancouver to Banff. It’s a quite long drive of approximately 13 hours but you can easily take the night line. It’s less boring and also saves the cost for one night of accommodation!

Concerning the latter, look for a hotel/hostel that offers you access to a kitchen or at least a fridge and microwave – this way you can prepare meals for yourself and don’t have to dine out every night.

The biggest problem might be how to get around in the mountains. Well, I unfortunately don’t have a perfect solution for that. The comfortable one is to rent a car which can, on the other hand, get quite expensive. The cheap one is to use public transport to get to the biggest tourist attractions and the Greyhound between Jasper and Banff again.

However, I can tell you that the beautiful landscape you will encounter there, and the snow to play in, is worth every cent and hour on the bus. Let this video about our trip inspire you!