Banff / Lake Louise Travel Guide

Hey babes!!! I’ve been working on this post for a little over a week for you and I’m so excited to share our travels from Canada. It’s also a little sad going through everything we did since it’s over and it was one of the best weekends, ever. We are planning a trip back next summer already and I can’t even wait to go back! I wanted to get into the details since I had so many questions from you about this trip so I’m covering all the bases. I’ll start in the beginning with how we got there.

We flew into Calgary Airport on Friday afternoon from Cleveland (stopped in Chicago) and picked up our rental car at the airport. I would highly recommend getting a rental car since Banff is about an hour and a half drive from the airport and Lake Louise is about a two hour drive. We went with an SUV since I knew winter came early there! We personally rented our Jeep through Enterprise but we were honestly just looking for the best deal and they happened to have that + the jeep we were looking for. There are a bunch of options through other rentals, too.

From the airport, we drove the hour and a half to Banff since we had plans downtown for the evening. I changed in the jeep and did my makeup really quickly so I would be ready to go for dinner + the Gondola Ride we had arranged. Since Lake Louise is about 35 minutes further than Banff, we decided to stop in Banff and start the trip off there instead of checking into our hotel and driving back again, it saved us some time to enjoy and adventure around!

We started off the trip perfectly with a ride on Banff Gondola, seriously this is a must if you are visiting Banff! You take the gondola’s up the mountain where this building is completely overlooking all of the mountains (and you are at the top!). There is a gift-shop, a little museum and two restaurants in the building you arrive at. Knowing Alex, he made all of our reservations for dinner before we even booked plane tickets, LOL. He was so exciting to try all of Banff’s fine-dining and I must admit… he did an amazing job at finding the restaurants. We dined at the Sky-Bistro the first night since it was in the building and we knew we were already going to be there.

This photo above was taken off of Banff Gondola’s website but I wanted to share the views from your dinner table – they were breathtaking. Alex and I were completely in awe the entire time while we were eating dinner! It was an amazing experience.

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This is from the “look-out” deck that is on the top floor of the Gondola Building… overlooking all of these amazing mountains. I was in heaven when we arrived up here since it was my first time being in the mountains. It was much colder than we expected so I decided to buy some gloves the day after this! I think it was about 30 degrees with high-winds our first day being there.

After dinner, we drove about 30-40 minutes to Lake Louise where we were staying for the weekend. I did a full blog post on our hotel + everything it has to offer, price point and other details! I would 100% recommend staying there since we had an amazing experience. It’s about 7 minutes from the Lake which was perfect!

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If you follow along on Instagram (@fashionablykay), then you probably saw that Alex proposed on Saturday morning right after having breakfast at the Fairmont Chateau. It was the most romantic thing I could have ever envisioned for our engagement… I still can’t believe that it happened! It makes me happy that we will always call Lake Louise “our spot”, love that it will forever be filled with that memory. I plan on sharing a full engagement post with details on how I’ll be sharing my wedding planning with you guys so stay tuned for that coming up soon! I’m so excited to start planning and to take you guys right after it happened!

When to Travel to Banff:

I got this question a lot after we left since it was snowing and freezing weather. The most popular times to travel to Banff + Lake Louise are in July & August. That is their “peak” season so to speak so it’s flooded with tourists! I have heard to even park at Lake Louise, you have to arrive between 7 and 8am before they start turning cars away from the lots being too full. Luckily, we didn’t have to deal with any of that with it being right after peak season. The snow did come a little early so it was unexpected when I found out the week before we left, but it’s so breahtaking and beautiful neither of us minded. I actually told Alex I couldn’t imagine seeing the mountains any other way!

We do plan on going next summer in August to have the “fall” experience and to be able to hike all of the trails. The one downside of the snow falling early was that Lake Moraine was closed for the season and won’t reopen until summer. I was most excited about this lake since people say it’s the bluest of all but I’m looking forward to seeing it when we visit again!

Another thing that we didn’t get a chance to do was Canoeing at Lake Louise. I was like a little kid waiting to go on one of these but the first day we arrived, the boathouse was shutdown due to weather. We didn’t even realize it had reopened until it was too late and we didn’t have enough time before our dinner reservations! Next time, though.

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What to do:

We decided to take it “day by day” other than our dinner reservations and the Gondola ride with what we planned on doing during the mornings and afternoons. Since it was snowing and cold, we didn’t get to do everything we had hoped for but our weekend was still full! The first morning we spent on the lake we walked around for a bit since it was the first time being at Lake Louise and then we walked to the Fairmont to grab breakfast. They have a bunch of restaurants and little shops inside Fairmont Chateau, which is directly on the lake (soo nice!!). We had breakfast twice at the Poppy Brasserie and went with their buffet breakfast, so delicious.

After breakfast, we started to walk around the lake on the trail but then our engagement happened and I was so excited to tell everyone that we went back to our hotel room for a little bit to utilize the wifi and share the news with our family! It was nice to warm up for a little bit by our fire and we grabbed some hot chocolates to help. After that, we drove back to Lake Louise and hiked around the lake which was absolutely breathtaking. The hike was covered in snow and a teeeeny amount of ice but it was still super easy. There was no incline or trouble and I would say it took us about 45 minutes to walk to the end of the lake and back to the front.

On Sunday morning, we decided to take a 25 minute trip to Yoho National Park and Emerald Lake! It was absolutely beautiful driving into the National Park & being at Emerald Lake for the morning. We decided to hike around Emerald Lake for about an hour and when we got to the end of the lake, we turned around to come back (mostly because I was freezing!). There were a few other trails that you could have taken and Alex wanted to go down them but I was ready to go grab some water and eat a quick bite. I also was antsy so get to Natural Bridge (where the waterfall is located!).

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Natural Bridge is a quick stop and there is a parking lot right in front so all we had to do was stop, get out of the car and walk a few feet to the landmark. The water was crystal clear and beautiful. The mountains in the background, everything looked like it was straight out of a postcard. We passed this as we were driving in to Emerald Lake so I knew I wanted to stop on our way back and I’m so glad we did. It only took us about 30 minutes total with photos and videos to capture and to walk around!

My fiancé let me snap this as he was walking around the waterfalls for photos. He was in heaven being out here!

After being in Yoho National Park for a few hours, we decided to drive back to our hotel and relax in the warmth by our fire! We headed back to Lake Louise for a little bit since the sun was shining and the mountains were so. clear. which was amazing!!

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Where to eat:

Like I mentioned above, Alex was all over finding us restaurants before we even booked our plane tickets. He’s a major foodie so he was so excited to try all of the fine-dining Banff had to offer. We were both amazed at every single place and didn’t have one complaint the entire trip when it came to food! I know I mentioned a few spots above but I wanted to link each restaurant we went to for you and I also took photos our every dinner we had while there!

Breakfast:

Poppy Brasserie: This was right on Lake Louise so it was super easy for us to grab while looking out of the windows at the mountains and lake. I would definitely recommend doing their breakfast buffet since it comes with coffee & drinks (best bang for your buck!).

Legends Restaurant at Lake Louise Inn: We grabbed breakfast here the day we drove into Yoho National Park since it was at the hotel we were staying. We opted in for the full breakfast buffet and it was delicious! Their home fries were my favorite, I love when they are super crispy. Lake Louise Inn has other dining options as well which is super nice if you’re staying at the hotel!

To be honest, we didn’t grab lunch any of the days since we had snacks in our hotel room. Also, we grabbed hot chocolates and coffee pick-me-ups when we came back to rest so I wasn’t starving for lunch which is why we did breakfast buffets the entire time to make sure we were filled up until dinnertime!

Dinner:

Sky Bistro: This was in the Banff Gondola building with the beautiful views I shared above. The food did not disappoint either! We started off with two glasses of wine and some bread, which by the way their butters were so yummy! I decided to go with the Grilled Sun Gold Farms Lamb Rack and Alex went with the Maple Hill Farms Chicken Supreme Ragout. Both are pictured below and were above our expectations! For dessert, we chose the Elevated Trio of Chocolate and it might have been my favorite dessert I’ve ever ordered… to die for!!!

Three Ravens Restaurant & Wine Bar: This was another amazing restaurant with gorgeous mountain views! I was so impressed when we went up here to be seated. We had a window seat overlooking the mountains (you can see on their website the views!) and it was an amazing experience. We started off the celebration (this was the night of our engagement) with a appetizer, Braised Alberta Lamb Shoulder with Local Ricotta Gnocchi. This was full of amazing flavors and neither of us wanted the dish to end!

Alex and I both love red meat so it was no surprise we both wanted to order the Grilled Alberta Angus Reserve Beef Tenderloin. It was nothing short of amazing and I wanted another plate when I finished! We ended the evening with their Three Ravens Trifle which was also delicious! All pictured below.

The Bison: For our last evening, we ate right in downtown Banff overlooking the mountains, yet again! Seriously, major props to Alex for finding the most amazing restaurants. This particular one has won local awards for being one of the best restaurants in Banff. The ambiance was so beautiful, I loved the interior of this one! I’ve shared a photo I took of there below.

We ordered the Peking Duck Wings as our appetizer and they were so delicous. I loved the Asian BBQ sauce that they came in! For my entree, I went with the Sungold Lamb Rack which shouldn’t be a shocker. I can never say no to lamb rack, it’s hands down one of my favorite meats. Alex went with the Benchmark Beef Tenderloin and loved his dish. We ended the night with two espresso’s since we were both stuffed and couldn’t think about any dessert. One of my favorite things is getting espresso after a big meal, it’s not a tradition for Alex and I.

Banff has the cutest little downtown that is filled with shops and restaurants at every corner. There are so many other restaurants that we didn’t get a chance to try while there. Most of them you can walk right into and get seated but for the ones that Alex chose for us, I would recommend booking a table ahead of time as those are the finer dining ones.

We had a good time shopping at all of the cute stores that Banff had in their downtown. Alex even grabbed a Levi’s jacket that he has been wanting in a darker color at one of the shops, it was more like a mini department store that carried Topshop, lol. It was so fun being able to drive to Banff every day that we were there, too! I would definitely recommend doing so even if it’s just for one evening for dinner and getting there a little earlier so you’re able to walk around. The views are absolutely breathtaking! Both of the shots below were taken in Banff.

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All in all, it was one of our favorite vacations and destinations that we’ve ever been to. I couldn’t believe how at home I immediately felt when we arrived. Something about this place allows you to relax and really soak in every moment. I have travel anxiety but I didn’t experience it once when we were in Canada. All of the people we came across were so kind and welcoming to us. We didn’t have one bad encounter!

I hope that covered all of the bases for you guys! If I forgot anything or if you are wondering about anything else regarding our trip, feel free to leave a comment below and I will get back to you along with adding the information to our blog post to help others, too! Thank you for following along on this journey, appreciate every single one of you! xoxo