Canadian Rockies: Guide to Banff National Park

A trip to the Canadian Rockies in Alberta had been on my bucket list for many years. It just so happened that over this particular summer, my Instagram started blowing up with everyone’s travel grams to Banff and Jasper which prompted the question, if we can’t travel outside of Canada, wouldn’t this be the absolute perfect time to head to the Rockies? Without further ado, here is a mini guide to Banff (Part 1 of 2) of the Canadian Rockies!

couple at the sulphur mountain boardwalk — Sulphur Mountain Boardwalk

The 30 Second Guide to Banff

Currency

The Canadian Dollar

Best Time to Visit

June – September is the absolute best time to visit if you are an avid hiker and want to experience the blue and green in it’s truest form. I personally loved September because we also managed to capture the changing fall colors. Winter is supposed to be an excellent time for those who love to ski and of course, the famous Canadian snow!

Best Way to Explore

Hands down by Car! The ability to be able to stop at any point and the flexibility is unbeatable. Rentals are available right at the airport.

Weather

I can speak to the perfection of September weather. I do think we got very lucky because with the exception of a few days, we got lots of sunny days even in the colder temperatures.

How to Get to Banff and Lake Louise

There are two ways we considered getting to Alberta itself. The first consideration was of course, to try and avoid air travel and simply drive to Calgary from Toronto, however it just did not seem feasible to spend almost three full days just putting in the drive so we opted for a direct flight to Calgary instead.

The flight itself takes about 4 hours each way, we chose to fly via WestJet. You can choose to fly into Calgary after which point we had rented a car right at the airport so we didn’t have to venture into the city first. This option is slightly more expensive because if you happen to book a car for rent in the city, its a few $$$ cheaper than if you were book it directly for pick up at the airport.

Mini Rant Alert: Now before you go off to book the flight for domestic travel in Canada (for as long as this Pandemic lasts at least), you should take note that there was absolutely zero social distancing in the flight itself. Being the crazy over preparing psycho that I am, I was double masked and fully decked out with alcohol wipes and face shields. It was disappointing to see that the airline seemed to have made absolutely zero effort in the face of this pandemic in terms of leaving middle seats empty, or even cleaned up the seats and belts. Considering how risky travel is, they only said to be conducting ‘in depth cleaning every night, not after each flight. I was further shocked to check their site and see that they have over a list of 200 flights, that are labelled as ‘Impacted by Coronavirus’. So while the trip itself was a lot of fun, the travel part was absolutely terrible as was the view of most passengers on board many of whom were not even aware that the social distancing policies on board had been revoked.

Where to Stay in Banff and Lake Louise

Our first night was spent in Canmore, which is about an hour’s drive from Calgary Airport (YYC). Since we were arriving a little later in the evening, Canmore was the perfect pit stop for the night.

green lake at canmore — Grassi Lake Greens

couple at canmore grassi lake — Post Hike High

The next day, after our first hike to Grassi Lakes Trail, we drove to Lake Louise where we stayed for four nights at the iconic Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. This is absolutely the perfect place to stay as many of the hikes start close to the area including heading over to Moraine Lake for the sunrise watch. On our way back from Jasper, we booked to stay at the Elk + Avenue hotel which was decent but nothing too crazy. It was good in terms of being within walking distance to the main downtown sites of Banff and very easy to get food and snacks till later in the night.