I’ve seen several good travel recommendations here recently so I thought I’d ask for advice about Banff. We’ve been invited to our nephew’s wedding in Banff in July 2023. Our two adult children will be there including DD’s fiance, so our family group will be at least 5 and maybe 6 of us. There’s a block of rooms reserved for the weekend at the hotel where the wedding will happen and I plan to reserve 3 rooms. But I’m wondering about turning this into a weeklong trip for our family and looking for a VRBO type rental where we can all stay with 3 bedrooms.
Any tips on where to stay, where not to stay, what to do on a first time visit, etc?
I assume you will have a car? Might want to spend some time at Lake Louise too. Jasper is also cool and you can go up the Icefields Parkway and see the glacier on the way. No phone reception most of the way if you have kids.
I don’t believe you’ll be able to find a VRBO in the town of Banff itself. Due to its location in the middle of a national park, there are legal restrictions on private ownership of houses and rentals, and you’re basically limited to the hotel offerings there. If you’ll have a car, you could probably find a VRBO in Canmore which is about a 15-20 minute drive. Canmore is a nice town too, but if you don’t want to be driving back and forth for the wedding festivities, then staying in a hotel in Banff might be a better option. There are some hotels there where you can get small suites - maybe not three-bedroom, but two-bedroom suites are a possibility.
Moraine Lake Lodge and Emerald Lake Lodge were both nice places to stay, but we just had regular rooms - I don’t know if they have accommodations with multiple bedrooms.
We lucked in to getting a room with an AMAZING view at the Rimrock resort.
Canmore, fairly close to Banff, has some timeshare places that have multiple bedrooms. I haven’t stayed there, but would be happy to.
Parking was a problem because we didn’t stay at the Fairmont at Lake Louise, but we had lunch there and was able to park there for a few hours. Moraine Lake was the hardest lake to find a parking space, we went there in the afternoon, I think after some people already left. So if you want to hike, maybe it’s best to stay at the lodges.
Sure. We’ve decided we need to stay at the hotel where the wedding is being held during the actual wedding weekend (Friday night-Monday morning) but we’re also considering extending our stay and seeing if we can move to someplace a little less expensive.
So there’s two possible scenarios. The first is that most or all of us have to fly home on Monday, so Sunday is our one day to sightsee. If that’s the case, what should we do?
The second scenario is that some or all of us can extend our stay, in which case it would be nice to consider other lodging options than the wedding hotel.
There are tons of hikes. A very good hike right in the town is Sulphur Mountain. You can hike to the top. There is a restaurant with stunning views at the top – go to the bistro and not the all-you-can-eat buffet and make reservations for a window seat in advance. You can hike back down or take the gondola. I have not done this in years, but you can go to the hot springs afterwards. Sunday is usually a crowded day there.
People often go to Lake Louise, but it is incredibly crowded. There is a hike to the Plain of the Six Glaciers from the Tea House above Lake Louise, but getting to the Tea House means hiking on a very crowded trail. (Plain of Six Glaciers Hike in Banff National Park - Travel Banff Canada)
. Lake Louise is so popular that you need to park in auxiliary lots and take a bus to the lake. The hotel there is great for drinks or a casual meal outside on the lake, but that may require reservations seriously in advance.
We recently had two great hikes that require a car: a hike to the Bow Glacier and a hike to the Stanley Glacier. The last wasn’t that hard and was really beautiful. If you go to the latter, eat at the Stone Mountain Lodge.
