So about three years ago, I took my first trip to Canada in the Ontario region. I felt like it was a little too similar to the US so I did a little research and realized the place to go in Canada is Alberta and the Canadian Rockies. Fast-forward three years later (and a trip to Montreal for a Bachelorette party), I finally had time in my travel schedule to make it over there.
In those three years, the Banff area has really blown up as a tourist destination. You see it all over Instagram and it was even featured on “The Bachelor” not too long ago. I talked to a shuttle driver while I was there and he said about three years ago, they predicted about 50,000 people coming to visit during the tourist season (June- August). But in fact, 250,000 people came that year and it seems to be growing.
I did my initial research all the way back in October, nearly a year out, and found that many hotels were already booked for the first week the following September. So I booked my hotels then, settling on Canmore, which is half the price of staying in Banff and only 20 minutes away. I also kept hearing about how amazing Jasper is, so I decided I had to visit Jasper during this trip as well.
As I mentioned, tourist season is June-August. The thing is, it can snow all the way from September until late May, even June. And the reason most people come to Banff and the Canadian Rockies is to see the blue lakes. Obviously if you are coming when its cold, the lakes are frozen. So you really can’t avoid the crowds and come during a “shoulder season” or off-season if you want to see the lakes. I thought booking the first week of September might give me a little less people since kids would start to be back in school but I was wrong. It was Labor Day weekend and people were out in full force.
Another thing to keep in mind is that it has been common over the years to have smoke in the air from forest fires in both the US and Canada, which effects the National Parks visibility greatly. I even heard that the week before we came, smoke was drifting in all the way from Russia. So my point is basically there isn’t really a “best” time to come. You are either going to be there in the freezing cold with frozen lakes and less people or you’re just going to be around lots of people and possibly have smoke obstructing your views. Actually, the week after we left, it started snowing, so we just made it on being in the Canadian Rockies when the weather was still great and beautiful, even though at the beginning of the week there was a lot of smoke. So you just have to embrace the possible smoke and hordes of people. There is really no point on visiting when its snowing since there are so many other places to go for snow and that’s just not why you go to the Canadian Rockies.
BANFF
To get into Banff National Park, you have to pay about $19 per car load per day or you can buy a week pass. Our flight got in pretty early on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend so we still had most of the day to do stuff.
Fairmont Banff Springs
So the Fairmont Banff Springs is the most popular hotel to stay in Banff. It’s nicknamed “the castle in the Rockies” and is very pretty. There are several restaurants at the hotel, which are open to the public so it doesn’t really make sense to me to stay at an expensive hotel when other people are welcome to use it. The hotel has a patio with the most gorgeous views and a restaurant called, “The Look Out.” They serve a limited menu including tacos and I actually thought the tacos were one of the best meals we had in Canada. In fact, three out of four of our best meals were at Fairmont properties.
There is a spot on the other side of the river called “Surprise Corner” that has a really great view of the Fairmont so we went there after eating.
Banff Gondola
So the Banff Gondola is actually pretty expensive ($64) so make sure it’s a clear day if you choose to go up. They have a restaurant up there as well. We happened to be there during the Sunset Festival, which includes an area with a bar and snacks, live music, blankets, and fire pits. It was pretty smoky when we went up, but we still had fun sitting up at the top listening to music by the fire pit. They have a Starbucks at the bottom of the gondola which is nice when its cold. This area also has the Upper Banff Hot Springs. We ended up not doing the hot springs because we were tired from waking up so early to catch our flight, but it would have been fun.
Johnston Canyon
Johnston Canyon is the most popular hike in the Banff area. The Bow River flows through a large canyon formed by erosion over thousands of years. The creek has cut through the limestone rock to form sheer canyon walls, as well as waterfalls, tunnels, and pools. It was originally going to be our activity the first day, but I switched things around due to weather. As we were driving to the canyon it was pouring rain, but we were still determined to do the hike. Luckily, it stopped raining about 20 minutes into the hike! We probably lucked out with the rain in the beginning because it seemed to keep away a lot of people. At the end of the hike as we were coming back we passed by hundreds of people.
The reason this hike attracts so many people is of course because of how pretty it is but also its not a very long hike. It takes 30 minutes (1.1 km) to reach the lower falls, one hour (2.6km) to reach the upper falls and then an additional hour to reach the Ink Pots, which are six pools filled with water. We didn’t hike to the Ink Pots but we did the upper and lower falls.
Vermilion Lakes
After the hike, we grabbed lunch at Juniper Bistro and got some poutine. This place had gorgeous views of Vermilion Lakes and Mount Rundle.
Lake Minnewanka
This was another beautiful lake. I would have liked to spend more time here, walking around and have a picnic. For more than 100 centuries, people have camped and hunted along the original shores of Lake Minnewanka. The indigenous Stoney Nakoda First Nations people called it Minn-waki (Lake of the Spirits) because they respected and feared the lake for its resident spirits. It has definitely more laid-back than the lakes in Lake Louise.
Town of Banff
So Banff has a little town surrounded by mountains. It was restaurants and some souvenir and candy shops. I didn’t spend too much time in the town since there was so much more to do, but we did have dinner at one of the most recommended places called the Grizzly House. It is a fondue based restaurant and honestly felt like a low-grade version of the Melting Pot. It was more expensive than the Melting Pot and gave you less dippers for the cheese and chocolate course and then didn’t let you choose from a list of salads. I would say if you’ve been to the Melting Pot, skip this. If you haven’t, you might find it to be a unique experience. But everyone always recommends going to this place.
LAKE LOUISE
The lakes in the Canadian Rockies are so blue because of a silt-like flour that us continuously being carried into the lakes by melt-water from the surrounding glaciers. The tiny and uniform particles become suspended in the water, refracting blue and green wavelengths of light. The color you see often depends on how sunny it is—the more sun, the more blue. Also what’s interesting is the further away you are, the more blue the water looks as well.
Moraine Lake
I had switched around my itinerary a bit based on rain forecasted, so my first full day in Banff started with a visit to Lake Moraine. Many people say Lake Moraine is their favorite lake because of its color. Not going to lie, I wasn’t prepared by the influx of people trying to go to the same lake as us. The parking lot for the lake apparently filled up at 6AM! We got there at 8AM and had to turn around and drive about 15 minutes away to pick up a shuttle. They charge $15 to use the shuttle and there was soooo many people waiting. I’ll admit, since it was my first full day, I started to feel like coming on this trip was a mistake and maybe I should have picked somewhere else. I’m just not a fan of being around so many people and try to go to more popular destinations during shoulder season.
After a long wait for the shuttle and about a 30 minute ride to the lake, we finally got to Moraine Lake and it was crowded, but not as bad as I expected so I felt better. And it was definitely gorgeous! There was a short hike up on top the rock piles where the lake looked so blue! We stayed up there for awhile and then walked around the base a bit. We were originally going to canoe, but decided it was a bit too cold and had lunch at the small café. Luckily when we went to the café, there wasn’t a line, but when we were finished eating, the line was out the door. I really enjoyed this lake but didn’t get the serenity I was expecting because of the large crowds. We were supposed to visit Lake Louise after that, but decided to go on a different day since this was Labor Day Weekend.
Lake Agnes Tea House
So the most popular hike in Lake Louise is a hike to the Lake Agnes tea house. There is another tea house called the Plain of Six Glaciers tea house, but it’s a little more difficult, so most people just go with the Lake Agnes Tea House. Both hikes are quite strenuous since you are going completely uphill the whole time. Doing research, I found that there are a couple of horseback riding tours that go up there and thought that would be fun to try. I ended up going with Timberline Tours since they were the smaller of the two companies and actually less expensive. It actually turned out we were the only two people on that tour along with our guide. As we were going up, we passed by the other tour company and there were about a dozen people in that group so I was really glad we went with Timberline Tours.
The ride felt really peaceful. For the first half of it, you are going up in an area only horses are allowed to go. My horse, Tag, tried to turn around a couple of times, but other than that, it was very enjoyable. When we finally got up to the part of the trail where the hikers were, most of the hikers kept saying they wish they would have taken a horse up instead, especially when we got all the way up to the top of this viewpoint called Little Beehive that most hikers don’t go to. Lake Louise looked so blue from up there! We were able to explore the area for about 20 minutes before having to come back to meet our guide.
Then we rode the horses to the tea house. The workers actually hike up all the ingredients to make the food at the tea house. Since we only had 45 minutes at the tea house, we ordered from the to-go menu and got biscuits with jam and soup and ate it by Lake Agnes. It would have been nice to stay longer, but we had to get back to our guide.
Then we rode back to the stable. Overall, it was probably about 3 and a half hours with the ride and stops. Definitely riding a horse is the way to go for this! There are plenty of other hikes in the area, but none that offer horses. This was actually probably my favorite excursion of the trip.
Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Luckily, the horseback riding company was literally right next to Lake Louise so we already had a parking spot at Lake Louise! Otherwise we would have had to shuttle in because the parking lot was full once we finished our ride. Another good thing about the company, though, is they would let you keep your car in their lot for the day if you didn’t get a spot at the Lake Louise parking lot.
So the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is a super expensive hotel that costs $600- $2000 a night, as it is right in front of Lake Louise. However, tourists are permitted to eat at the restaurants and visit shops in the hotel so again, I don’t really see the point in spending that money when I can already use the hotel? We ended up having lunch on the back patio with a gorgeous view of the lake and my sandwich was pretty amazing, one of the best meals of the trip. There are about 1500 employees who work at the hotel and they all have a dorm-style building that they live in for the season. Many of the employees are college-age so its probably a lot of fun to work there!
Lake Louise
Okay so we are finally at the lake itself, the lake that pretty much put Banff at the top of all travel “bucket lists.” And it is every bit as blue and beautiful and impressive as you see, even with all of the people. Sometimes its hard to know for sure if places look as good in real life because of all the editing and photoshopping. But all of the lakes in the Canadian Rockies are as pretty and blue as you see (color varies depending on the sun though).
We went on a canoe ride at Lake Louise and it was so fun! You can rent canoes at all of the lakes I’ve mentioned, but the ones here are most expensive since they’re most popular.
CANMORE
As I mentioned, we stayed 20 minutes from Banff in Canmore. I actually liked staying in that area away from the crowds and saving about $200 a night, all while being surrounded by mountains. The hotel we stayed in, Sunset Inn, had a breakfast table, fridge, and microwave, so we had all of our breakfasts in the hotel to save money, time, and calories. It didn’t seem to be the norm to get breakfast included in your room rates in Canada. The drive to Canmore from the Calgary airport is about an hour and 10 minutes.
Canmore has a very small main street area with some shops and restaurants. Grizzly Paw Brewing Company is the most popular place to eat, but I really liked Rocky Mountain Flatbread and of course Beaver Tails. Beaver Tails are a chain in Canada that provides delicious fried dough with various toppings. I had one with traditional cinnamon and sugar and another with chocolate, peanut butter and Reese’s Pieces, both equally good.
Canmore does have some hikes and other activities, which I included in my itinerary, but we mainly just slept in Canmore and ate a couple of times.
So that’s Banff! For more recommendations on food and hikes, you can see my itinerary. Although I have to admit, most meals I’ve had in Canada aren’t that impressive. I guess you don’t visit Canada for my food. My next post will be about two more serene places to visit if you go to the Canadian Rockies, Jasper and Yoho National Parks!
