The Best Laid Plans is an extensive and entertaining account of a self-planned journey around Western Canada. The book begins with background on the planning stage of the holiday, and then follows the month-long journey around British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies. A journey that begins in Vancouver and Victoria and then follows a counter-clockwise route through the Kootenays, up the Canadian Rockies, across from Jasper to Prince Rupert by train, cruising the Inside Passage and then down the length and breadth of Vancouver Island.
The book provides plenty of useful tips for the prospective traveller, especially for those who enjoy self-planned holidays. Much of the travel was done by car, though planes, trains and ships also feature strongly.
Whilst the reader can obtain good travel advice the book contains far more than that. It is built around fascinating, close-up encounters with wildlife, interesting people, strange meals, amazing scenery, unexpected friendships, moments of deep travel despair and the joy of being in a foreign country abounding with generous people. Woven throughout the journey are interesting diversions and little known-facts.
Most of all, the book is an entertaining and humorous account of travelling in this fascinating corner of the earth. Those considering a trip to Western Canada will certainly get plenty out of the Best Laid Plans, but so will the armchair traveller, and anybody who can see the humour in the world around them.
