4 Days in Banff, Alberta, Canada

As I have been getting back into blogging, I was making a list of posts that I wanted to share and it suddenly hit me… I never shared any of the details about our trip to Banff last year! We went at the beginning of October 2021, and I think because I ended up getting pregnant about a month later, I never wrote a post about the trip and then just ended up totally forgetting.

We originally had this trip planned in Fall of 2020– but I bet you can guess why our trip got cancelled then! 🙁 We had flight credits and the moment we heard that Canada was going to open back up for tourism, we booked our flights. Because there were still strict COVID precautions in place in Canada, I do feel like things were a little different in general, but luckily I think this was a perfect trip to take in the COVID era because we were outside so much and didn’t need to be in crowded indoor places.

I honestly think I added Banff to my travel bucket list when watching The Bachelor years ago lol! Years ago, I recall the show taking the contestants to Lake Louise and them staying at the Fairmont Château Lake Louise and I decided that I NEEDED to go there one day!

We loved the time of year that we went, we ended up going the first week of October, so it was chilly fall weather and near the end of the tourism season. I probably wouldn’t plan on traveling to Banff beyond early October because a lot of places seemed to close for the season beyond that. But since it was the end of the season, I think that it maybe helped it to not be as crowded (but COVID could have helped that too).

This was an incredible trip and we crammed as much as we felt like we could into 4 full days! I wanted to lay out exactly what we did in case you are planning your own trip and want some ideas on what to do 🙂

Day 1

We flew in the night before into Calgary and didn’t get to our hotel until very late. While this did make us a bit tired, it ended up working out because we could hit the ground running with a full day the next day!

And when you’re tired, what better way to kick it off with coffee? 🙂 I spent a bit of my childhood in Detroit, Michigan, so I was familiar with Tim Horton’s– a northern donuts and coffee staple– but Garrett had never been! So we got our coffee, donuts, and food, picked up our rental car as soon as they opened. Then we got on the road to head to Banff since it is about a 1.5 to 2 hour drive.

Once we got to Banff, we went to the hot springs! They have lockers there so we were able to just pull our bathing suits out of our suitcases and get changed there. After a long day of travel the day before, the hot springs was a relaxing way to kick off our time in Banff!

We didn’t spend too long there before we decided to go check into our hotel, which was located in downtown Banff and then walk around downtown to find some lunch. We landed at the Bear Street Tavern which had some delicious pizza where we were able to sit outside and try to figure out our game-plan for the rest of the day!

We ended up deciding to do an easy hike in Banff called the Tunnel Mountain Trail. Apparently you can start the trail in downtown Banff or you can drive out of the downtown area a bit to begin a bit past Surprise Corner where there are stairs to begin the Tunnel Mountain trailhead.

It is not a long hike and not particularly difficult but offers some really gorgeous views of downtown Banff and the surrounding mountains!

Tip

We had stopped at a store in downtown Banff before we went so we could pick up some bear spray before we hiked. I recommend you pack some bear spray with you before you travel, or get some in Banff before you go on any hikes. Better safe than sorry!!

Once we got back from our hike, we got back to our hotel to get cleaned up. We walked around downtown for a while as they have lots of cute little shops. We had dinner reservations at a restaurant called Saltlik. After traveling and hiking, a steakhouse really hit the spot 🙂

Day 2

This was one of the days that we were most excited for because initially seeing pictures of Lake Louise was what brought us to Banff in the first place!

Lake Louise is about a 1 hour drive from downtown Banff and we had heard that parking lots often filled up before sunrise, so in order to avoid having issues, we booked a shuttle. The shuttle also takes you to lake Moraine, which we weren’t originally planning on visiting but since the shuttle took us there, we ended up saying “why not”!

You do have the book the shuttle in advance, so plan ahead with that! Here’s some more information on the shuttle if you are planning your own trip to Lake Louise. The shuttle is only like $8 per person, and it will save you the headache of having to find parking or scrambling when the parking lot.

The number one thing at the top of my list at Lake Louise was to canoe on it! You can’t make reservations for the canoeing, so we decided to get there basically as soon as they opened so we could ensure that we got the opportunity to canoe. The canoe rentals are through the Fairmont Château Lake Louise (aka the gorgeous hotel on the lake) and are a little bit pricey for a 1 hour rental from what I remember, but were well worth the experience.

It actually ended up snowing while we were out on the lake, so if you are going in October like we did, make sure you dress warm!

The color of the lake is so unreal, I thought for sure it wouldn’t be as vibrant blue in person as it was in all of the pictures I had seen, but I was wrong!

Once we were done canoeing, we decided to hike to the Lake Agnes Tea House. One guide online told us to expect about a 3-4 hour round-trip hike, but I do think it was less than that for us.

To get to the trailhead, you just walk along the sidewalk alongside of lake Louise so that the lake is on your left and the chateau is on your right. You’ll eventually see a sign for the Lake Agnes and take that trail.

It’s not a very hard hike, and the end result is amazing views– plus a tea house to buy warm beverages and snacks! I recommend bringing cash (you can stop in the hotel by the lake before you hike as they have an ATM if need be) because they sometimes can have trouble using credit card. Beyond the tea house, you can actually keep going to the top of the mountain on a trail called the beehive, but we opted to go back down after we enjoyed the views and our drinks.

Once we got back down, we walked through the Fairmont Chateau hotel because it is SO beautiful! They have some little shops inside and also a couple of restaurants to grab some food after your hike.

We then took the lake connector shuttle to Lake Moraine. I had no idea what to expect with Lake Moraine since we had no originally planned to visit, but it was also really beautiful! We hiked around it before jumping back on the shuttle to get to our car and head back to downtown Banff.

Once back in Banff, we stopped into a restaurant called Elk & Oarsman to watch some football and order some dinner. I got the elk poutine (you ALWAYS have to try poutine while in Canada!) and it was pretty good. But I’ll never not enjoy fries with cheese and gravy 😉

Day 3

This was one of our biggest days because we had booked a glacier tour. The Athabasca Glacier is a couple hours from Banff, in Jasper National Park, so we knew it was going to entail quite a bit of driving and travel. But the opportunity to walk on a glacier is pretty rare, so we were willing to do the extra travel. Plus the drive there is BEAUTIFUL! At every turn in the road, we were just in awe of the scenery.

Tip

Make sure you have directions saved to your phone because once you enter Jasper, you are likely not going to have cell service for the majority of your drive! It is a straight shot there, but just be aware that you likely won’t have any service for most of your drive!

Make sure you get to the glacier discovery center early because the tours book up and if you are late, you may not be able to re-book that day. We checked in and then they loaded us up onto a bus to take us to the glacier across the street and then loaded us onto an ice explorer to ride ON THE GLACIER!

It is such a cool experience. We learned a lot about glaciers and how this one supplies so much fresh water to Canada and the United States!

You can alternatively book a glacier hike through other companies where you hike up the glacier, but honestly I am glad we did it the way we did! Hiking up the glacier can be incredibly dangerous and you definitely want to do it with a company that knows what they are doing!

After the glacier, the bus will take you to the Glacier Skywalk, which is a glass bridge built over a canyon that used to have a huge glacier. There is an audio tour where we also learned a lot about the landscape.

I’m not a huge fan of heights so Garrett was a lot braver than me when taking this photo lol

On our drive back to Banff we stopped at a few of the lakes and areas to pull our car to the side in Jasper, because the scenery is just too beautiful not to take a few pictures and take it all in.

Day 4

This was our last day in Banff! We hung out in the downtown area for a bit, getting some random souvenirs, checking out of hotel, and then headed to Sulfur mountain.

There are two ways to the top of Sulfur Mountain: hiking or a gondola! We went with the latter to really be able to take in some extra gorgeous views of Banff.

Once up there, there is a center to walk around and some shops and restaurants. We just waked around the peak of the mountain to see a full 360 view of Banff.

We then decided to head back towards Calgary but stopped at the Fenland Trail on our way out. It’s more of leisurely walk than a hike, but had some gorgeous lake views and forests.

Once we made it back to Calgary, we decided to walk around downtown Calgary just to see what it was like. We got some dinner at a Mediterranean place and also stopped at a local bakery and got a couple of Nanaimo bars.

Y’all these bars were so good. We had never heard of Nanaimo bars before, but they caught our eye in the bakery and decided to try them, not really knowing they were such a popular local treat in Canada. If you know of a good recipe for them, please send it my way! I’ve tried one recipe to recreate these and they were not NEARLY as good!

Day 5

Then it was time to head home!

Thankfully there is no longer a required COVID test when flying internationally to get back into the US; however, if that requirement were to go back into effect (or if you are flying back to a country that does require a test), we booked a rapid COVID test through Numi Health and they were wonderful! They are located in the airport and you just have to have your test reserved through them ahead of time!

This was truly one of our favorite trips that we have had the opportunity to go on. If you are looking for a trip destination with adventure, nature, and lots of gorgeous scenery, you have to add Banff to your list!!