We arrived on Saturday, July 5 for a 7 night vacation. It was wonderfully planned and I wouldn't change a thing! I'll try to use a few blog posts to talk about parts of the trip. To start, where we stayed.
We did something that I think is not traditional for visiting that area, which is to stay at the Fairmont Lake Louise for the entire duration of our trip. The Fairmont can appear expensive, and as such many people either don't stay there when visiting the Lake or they stay for 1 or two nights and move onto Banff or Jasper. I'd like to make the case for staying at the Fairmont for the duration of the trip:
-- Lake Louise is centrally located in Banff National Park - it is about an hour drive to the town of Banff, a close drive (under an hour) to White Water Rafting and the Athabasca Glacier, and a full day (4 hour) but doable drive to Jasper. By staying in one place, we could access all of the activities we wanted to enjoy without having to constantly be on the road.
-- You can take advantage of some great deals offered by the Fairmont. We got the "Buy 5 nights, get 2 free" + free parking ($30/day) + $350 resort credit (to be used for dining, spa or onsite shopping). This took the average cost per day down substantially (more than 30%!). Do the math for the whole trip before being scared off by the price per night.
-- The comforts of unpacking and staying put. This trip required some extremes in packing - very cold weather gear, nice outfits for dinner, dirty clothes for hiking/rafting etc. It was nice to be able to unpack and have things hung in the closet instead of always living out of a bag.
-- Getting to know the hotel well. The Fairmont had about 7 restaurants on site. It was nice to know which bar had the best evening view, who made the best espresso martini, where to get nachos after a hike, what time to go to the hot tub and which waiter gave the best hiking recommendations! :)
-- Being a guest at the Fairmont Lake Louise gives you the best access to the Lake. Non-guests had a significantly smaller area to enjoy and couldn't dine at the restaurants on site. The views in the restaurants were spectacular and the food was well above typical hotel dining. Our wonderful hikes originated from the Lake so being guests there meant we didn't have to stress about arriving on time to secure parking etc.
-- Banff isn't the most convenient destination (a flight into Calgary and a two hour drive) so it is unlikely it will become a place we visit very often. That said, we took the opportunity to splurge a bit and really soak up the whole experience. If you have the means, stay at the Fairmont. I'd rather cut back on dining or spa or even be more frugal at home for a few months, so that I could travel this way again.
The reason that I said I think it's an untraditional way to explore the area is we didn't see many of the same faces night after night and the servers and people we met at the hotel seemed shocked to hear we were staying so long. This post is my pitch for doing it this way... I wouldn't think twice!
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| View from the room. Every morning the views changed depending on the skies - sunny, overcast etc. We had simple coffee and yogurt from the deli and ate it in our room. This was a magical way to start the day and cost less than $15. Being eye-level with the clouds was unforgettable! |
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| The Fairview Dining Room was a great spot for dinner with the best views. But don't miss their bar area. We almost always had a window seat overlooking the lake and the espresso martini was 5*! |
