Canada Trip – Banff

Our next destination after Vancouver was Banff and this was probably my favourite place we went to during our trip. We had an amazing time there.

From Vancouver, we had to fly to Calgary before heading to Banff. We had an early flight so it was quite a tiring start to the day waking up at 4am to get to the airport but it was the best way to maximise our trip.

It was my parents, Max and I during this part of the trip and it felt like the proper start of our holiday since the first few days in Vancouver was exploring, catching up with family and my cousin’s wedding. It was just us and none of us have been to Banff before. My parents have been to Vancouver a few years ago for my other cousin’s wedding and visiting my uncle’s family. Meanwhile it was Max and I’s first time ever in Canada.

From Calgary, Banff is about 1hr and 30min drive. I booked us a shuttle from the airport to our hotel since I didn’t want Max to drive while we were here, we would only need a car to visit the lakes and otherwise we’ll just be in town. I think it was a good call as we had less pressure to explore further afield. The shuttle to Banff offered amazing views and we got to nap on the way.

The weather in Vancouver was rainy but not that cold. It was similar to NZ weather when we left. In Banff, it started to snow and they had a deluge of heavy snow the weekend before we arrived. It was winter wonderland when we got there back in October.

We arrived in Banff around midday and our rooms weren’t ready yet so we dropped our bags off and sought lunch. We ended up at The Balkan Mediterranean Restaurant close by and it was also a place recommended by someone from Max’s work. We were pretty hungry and we had a lovely lunch there. The service and food were great.

We then walked around town and was in awe of how beautiful Banff was already. The town itself is pretty small but the views were incredible. We walked towards Bow River Bridge and admired the view.

We walked towards Central Park. The weather was stunning but it was pretty cold. There was snow on the mountains and on the ground too. The ground was a bit slippery.

We were cold so we walked back to the shops and got hot chocolate. After our walk around town, we went back to our hotel and settled into our rooms.

We stayed at Mount Royal Hotel in Banff which was great. The location is superb being right on the main street and right in town so it’s easy to get anywhere and the amenities were pretty good. They had lounge areas and two spa pools on the rooftop.

After checking in, Max had a call about a job back in NZ. He had his second interview the day after we landed in Vancouver and this call was to let him know if he got it or not. He didn’t want me to leave the room so I was quietly waiting in the room during this call and I will never forget our reaction when he got it. He finished the call and we were basically jumping up and down in excitement in our hotel room. That was pretty special and I’m glad I got to hear it and be there when he found out.

That night, we went to a nearby Japanese restaurant, Sushi Bistro for dinner with my parents and celebrated Max getting good news. It was a pretty great start to our Banff trip.

The next day was one of the most exciting days we had during this trip.

It was -10°C that morning which was crisp. I went out to find coffee and treats as we had a full day ahead.

I didn’t venture too far due to the cold so I ended up at Mountain Folk Coffee Co. The coffee was another average one but caffeine was needed for this day.

Banff reminded me of Queenstown here in NZ. Everywhere you look, the views are stunning. The mountain views were amazing and it’s such picturesque town.

We had a lakes and canyon day tour booked on this day and I’ve decided that will be a separate post because I have so much photos from this tour and I want to remember this tour in its entirety. So our Banff lakes tour will be the next one and it will be a goodie. Lake Louise was unreal and I can’t wait to go through the photos from this day tour.

We were exhausted coming back from our tour, I think we hit the spa in our hotel and that night my parents had dinner at the hotel restaurant and Max and I had Vietnamese. Pho was a great idea in the cold weather. We also stopped by Chocolate Board of Canada which was across from our hotel and had their treats with tea back in our room.

The next morning, I woke up and went for a little wander around town in search for a different coffee place.

It was still early so the town was so quiet. I can’t usually sleep in so once I’m up, I get up for a walk to get coffee and Max stays in bed until I come back with a coffee for him then we start our day.

I ended up at Little Wild cafe which was across from our hotel too. It’s the little sister cafe of Wild Flour. I did try to go there but it was so busy. Little Wild was nice and quiet. The barista they had that morning was not from Canada and she was good! My coffee was the best coffee I’ve had in Canada so far in our trip. I was impressed. My dad is the same that he also wakes up early and can’t sleep in so he met me at the cafe and we had coffee and pastry together. We brought back coffees and pastries to Max and mum afterwards.

We didn’t have specific plans on this day and we really only had our lakes and canyon tour booked that week in Banff so we had time to explore and relax by ourselves. We ended up checking out the shops in the morning. My parents loved The Spirit of Christmas shop. It was massive and had every Christmas decor you could think of. It was amazing. My parents ended up buying a nativity set there to bring back home to NZ. I only got a little Canada/Banff decor as souvenir.

For lunch we ended up at Three Bears Brewery and Restaurant.

After lunch, we headed back to our hotel. Our room was being cleaned so Max and I headed up to the lounge to chill and the views up there were amazing.

I was pretty chuffed with this hotel choice. The location, the amenities and views from this place were great. It had two spa pools and we went in it every single day we were there. Even my parents enjoyed the spa pool.

In the afternoon, I had an idea of checking out the Cave and Basin National Historic Site. It was a 30min walk from our hotel or a 6min drive but since we didn’t have a car and it was a beautiful day anyway, we walked there.

The walk there was pretty flat and it was more wintery than the main town. The snow on the ground was thicker. There was a proper walkway and we saw squirrels and also threw some snow balls at each other.

The Cave and Basin National Historic Site is a pretty cool place. Banff National Park is Canada’s first national park and this site had hot mineral springs in a cave & an outdoor, emerald-colored pool. If you’ve been to Rotorua here in NZ, this place smells like that with its sulphuric activity.

This place is important to Indigenous Peoples and we learned a bit of the history of the place and the national park. They also had screening of short films by Indigenous People. We stayed and watched a few and learned about the reintroduction of bison back to the national park. It hit home for me as what indigenous people want is pretty similar across the world. Their approach to nature and the environment is also similar. I saw parallels from the Māori world view and it was cool to learn more about Canada’s indigenous people.

We also had fun just playing in the snow afterwards. The snow was quite thick out there. Max built a little snowman and we ran up and down the snowy hill. It was pure free fun with my family.

On our walk back to town we saw elk from a distance. There were a few of them running around and chilling near properties.

We also got Beavertails for an afternoon snack. While in Canada, we had give it a try. I chose pistachio and it was delicious. The hot chocolate from there was also good, better than the other hot chocolate we got from the other place on our first day.

For dinner this night, we wanted to go to this trendy Italian place called LUPO as I saw it on social media. However, it was fully booked and I was getting hangry and couldn’t wait an hour for a table so we ended up at this fancy Japanese place downstairs instead called Hello Sunshine. Big mistake as this place was expensive for Japanese food. We love Japanese food so we found this place overpriced for what it is. This was probably the ‘worst’ part of our Banff trip and it wasn’t even that bad at all. We should’ve planned our dinner better so we didn’t end up in an overpriced restaurant instead. Oh well.

The next day was our last full day in Banff. We started with having breakfast back at Little Wild although the barista was different so our coffees were not as good. Then Max and I waited for the bus. My dad was out for a walk too and ‘papped us at the bus stop. Lol. My parents decided to opt out of the gondola and they had a day of shopping in town and relaxing back at the hotel.

Max booked us to go up the Banff Gondola and to have lunch up there. The weather was stunning. We got so lucky with the weather.

The Banff Gondola was an easy bus trip from town. The bus fare was free with our gondola ticket too so that was good. The gondola is to get up Sulphur Mountain and has amazing views of Bow Valley and the national park.

The views from the top were incredible.

There were snow-capped mountain views for days.

The scale of Banff National Park is incredible and especially coming from NZ. NZ is also stunning but it is a much smaller country compared to elsewhere in the world. This part of Canada was huge and we only saw a small portion of it. All we could see were mountains and trees. The highways/road were pretty well hidden and they blend through the landscape which was fascinating. From up here, Banff town did look so small too, in comparison to how huge the untouched Banff National Park is.

For lunch, Max booked the Sky Bistro which is one of the two restaurants up there. One was a buffet restaurant which he wasn’t too keen on and he made a good choice. Sky Bistro was great. The service was top notch. We got complimentary bubbles too when our server asked where we were from and we recently got engaged. The food was also pretty good and not incredibly expensive considering the location and quality.

After lunch, we walked off our meals by doing the boardwalk and going up to Sanson’s Peak, the highest part you can walk up to.

I remember us taking breaks for a few reasons: we were so full from lunch, it was getting hard to breathe and walk uphill due to the altitude, the snowy boardwalk was slippery and Max had to accept the job offer up in Sulphur Mountain as he was getting chased. I can’t remember what time it was back in NZ but they wanted him to confirm so he did it up there.

I was unsure whether to go up the gondola here so I’m grateful Max really wanted to go because in the end, the viewpoint from up Sulphur Mountain here were unmatched. We were about 8000 feet above ground and I felt so tiny. I can’t explain it very well but seeing those views made me feel like a tiny ant in this big world. I felt small and insignificant but not in a bad way. I was in awe of nature and how beautiful it is.

After getting up to Sanson’s Peak, we rode the Gondola back down and bussed back to town. I think we had a little rest back in our hotel before heading out for our last exploration.

We walked to Bow Falls which was a 20min walk from town.

There was a lot of stairs to get Bow Falls so it was a decent walk in the end.

We also saw the famous Fairmont Banff Springs hotel on the way. It looked quite gothic and mysterious through the trees.

One of my favourite photos of Banff especially around Banff town was this:

This is the Banff Pedestrian Bridge and the autumn colours of Banff with the mountain at the back was so beautiful. I truly loved our time there.

For our last night in Banff, I wanted to have a family dinner but my parents wanted to eat elsewhere (they opted for the foodcourt) after a day of walking and shopping so Max and I had dinner at Anejo Restaurant.

We had margaritas and a selection of tacos. The food came super fast and were delicious. It was a nice way to end our few days in Banff.

The next morning, we had to check out and take the shuttle back to Calgary. We woke up with snow falling outside our window. It looked magical but it was quite slippery outside.

It was gloomy on our last morning in Banff so it wasn’t too bad that we were leaving that day. We had incredible sunny clear skies weather while we were there so we got pretty lucky. The sunny blue skies made visibility of the scenery pretty clear and amazing. Although it was cold, we had the perfect conditions to explore the area. I’m so grateful we had an amazing time in Banff.

Once we got back to Calgary, we were off to our next adventure which was completely different to the views and scenery to Banff. I’ll get to this in another post.

I’ll end this post by some photos from my Kodak Pixpro digicam:

I think Banff will always be a special place for me when I think about our Canada trip. It was a highlight of our trip for me and I initially didn’t think we would go here because it was another flight from Vancouver and I thought we were just going to stay in BC. Vancouver is in British Columbia and Banff is in Alberta. When I showed Max what Banff looks like, he was immediately keen and I’m so glad we went. My parents loved it there too and I remember them saying in the spa pool of our hotel that they really felt like they were on holiday. That’s a win and our Banff trip was a success.

I’m so excited to draft my next Banff post of our lakes and canyon tour. Going through my photos and memories from this trip has made me happy and I’m glad I have this space to document it. I can look back on these travel posts one day and hopefully be reminded of the amazing adventures I’ve had.

That’s all for now and until the next one! 🙂

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