This is the oldest and one of the most famous National Parks. In 1883 railroad workers found hotsprings near Sulphur Mountain. The Canadian Pacific Railway director, mister Van Horne, thought it would trigger tourism and decided to build the remarkable Banff Springs Hotel in 1888. Banff, the town arose from here on and nowadays provides all facilities you need. It features many accomodations, restaurants, souvenirshops, sport- and leisureshops and a foodcourt.

The must-sees in this area

This beautifull tourist hotspot is a good startingpoint to explore the beautifull area. We’ve selected a few must-sees near town and en-route to your next destination. First you’ll get a feel for the area upon Sulphur Mountain by gondola. Have a wonderfull picture perfect picnic and a strawl along the scenic 20 km long Lake Minnewanka, where you also can rent a boat for some aquatic adventure.

After this it’s recommended to take the 55 km scenic drive to Lake Louise via the Bow Valley Parkway, with a short walk up Johnston Canyon to view the waterfalls and rugged cracks in these rockfaces from the inside. Onwards to Lake Louise where a few magical lakes are waiting for you. First a hike along Lake Louise up to Lake Agnes and back down the ridge on the other side into the plain of six glaciers.

Last but not least a trip to the turquois waters of Moraine Lake in the Valley of Ten Peaks, a series of mountainpeaks all above 3 km or 10.000 feet gives stunning views and causes you to have to recharge your cameras afterwards.

On a clear day there is no better place to go than up Sulphur Mountain, either by gondola or the 5 km, 2 hour hiking trail. The gondola takes you up the 2281 meter high slope in just 8 minutes. There will be breathtaking panoramic views across Bow Valley and the surrounding mountainpeaks. At the summit there are 2 restaurants and a giftshop. Walk the various boardwalktrails all giving worldclass vistas. But for the most stunning view of all, you’ll need to follow the Banff Skywalk for about 1 km to the Meteoroligical Observatory.

When you have time to spare, you can take a refreshing dip in the Upper Hotsprings next to the lower terminal parkinglot.

Usefull information
Best time to visit: It can be crowded at the lower terminal due to the carriage size of only 4 people. In high season, try to be there well before 11 a.m. and avoid holidays or (long) weekends.
Rates & opening hours: The gondola isn’t a cheap ride. It’s around 38 dollars for adults or 18 dollars for youngsters. For actual rates and openinghours check out this page.

10 minutes from Banff town, on the other side of highway 1, lies the largest lake of this National Park: Lake Minnewanka. You can follow the 14 km round, scenic dirve along Lake Minnewanka drive wich passes by 3 lakes, several walkingtrails and idyllic picnic places.

At Lake Minnewanka you can enjoy a relaxing strawl along the shore, or book an activity like a 1 hour cruise on one of the Banff Lake Cruises, a fishingtrip with an expert guide or rent your own 16 foot motorboat.

On the return-drive along Lake Minnewanka Drive there’s a nice short walk at Bankhead, a deserted coalmine, with fotosigns along the route to visualize the setting back in the day.

Between Banff and Lake Louise runs the Bow Valley Parkway, a beautiful scenic route for 55 km to substitute taking Highway 1. When you are lucky you can see Bears, Coyoties and Wapiti’s along the roadsides.

Half way is Johnston Canyon, a hour and a half return trip on the boardwalk pas the lower falls (1.1 km) to the upper falls (2.7 km). You’ll get a gorgeous canyon view of rapids and rockfaces combined with the awesome waterfalls. If you want to go the extra mile you can hike an extra 3 km after the upper falls towards the ink pots. A real not-to-miss hike for sure. An hour or 2-3 should be enough to see and take it all in.

One of the most favorite places to visit in the Rocky Mountains is without doubt Lake Louise. The small town is equiped with several comfortable accomodations and a modest shoppingmall. Eyecatcher of course is the beautiful Lake Louise, with at its shore the magisterial Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.

After a 4,5 km drive (or 2.5 km hike) up hill to the Lake, it is a great starting point for an amazing hike along the lake, up to Lake Agnes with it’s historic tea house. After a stop at the Beehive, wich is an awesome viewpoint across the lake and the valley as a whole, descend on the Lake Louise side of the mountain towards one of the Rocky Mountains most scenic trails, the Plain of Six Glaciers. Here you can hike up to another historic tea house after wich it is another 1 km to the high viewpoint of Abbot Pass.

Usefull information
Bring you hiking shoes and bottle of drinking water to the Lake.
The Lake Agnes Teahouse trail takes about 3 hours, the Plain of Six Glaciers is another 3-4 hours. Combining the two takes about 6-7 hours.
When you might have time left here, across highway 1 is the Lake Louise ski resort where you can take the gondola up the mountain and strawl the lush slopes.

After visiting Lake Louise, you can’t move on without going to it’s sister lake, Moraine Lake. As, or maybe even more beautiful, this lake in the Valley of the Ten Peaks is used in many famous background images, like on the back of a twenty dollar bill in the 70s. At 14 km from Lake Louise town, the road towards this gem splits of Lake Louise drive. At the lake there are several trails next to a canoe rental and a lodge where we advise you to take a paddling tour across the lake.

A  nice short warmup is to take the Rock Pile trail along the lakeshore, a mere 300 meters. The view across the lake at the end and top of Rock Pile is one of the most photographed places in Canada, the so called twenty dollar view. If you want to see more after this, the Consolation Lake trail is a good extra with 2.9 km. It gives wonderful views of high alpine meadows and the Quadra Glacier. Another nice option is to rent a canoe and paddle round the lake.

Usefull information
Bring your hikingshoes and a bottle of drinking water.