Accommodation: Fairmont Banff Springs

Dining:

Vermillion: for Breakfast and Brunch, with a view!
Waldhaus: for Swiss fondue, pretzel, schnitzel, and other mountain style food. Fantastic for sharing! And with a view.

Activities:

Visit Banff Downtown
Banff Gondola
Johnston Canyon Hike
Banff Gondola

If Canada is on your bucket list, then you should definitely visit Alberta. Words are not enough to describe the beauty of this place, it must be experienced first hand.

Our first “wow” moment was on our flight from Vancouver to Calgary, when we saw the vast Canadian Rockies Mountain Range with hundreds of jagged, ice-capped peaks. We knew by then already that we had made the right choice of visiting Alberta .

After we landed in Calgary, we took a rental car from the airport ( but we will return the car at Edmonton airport) and drove directly towards Banff National Park. It was about 1.5 hours scenic drive before we reached our first stay Fairmont Banff Springs. We shall never forget that moment when our car pulled slowly into the hotel’s front entrance, our eyes were just wide open. What in front of us was not a hotel, as we have normally seen, but a enormous castle-like building. Afterwards, we learned that Fairmont Banff Springs is referred as Canada's "Castle in the Rockies", which has been hosting guests for more than 130 years.

When we stepped into the lobby, the interiors are even more impressive. Honestly, we felt like we just walked into an old movie. From the chandelier to the wall, everything is so charming and full of character. The hotel has more than 600 guest rooms and many halls. If you are not careful, you could easily get lost inside, which we did, many times!!!

There are two amazing restaurants in the hotel that we absolutely loved. Vermillion, the newly renovated restaurant, serves food from sunrise to sunset. We loved the breakfast buffet and the table with a stunning view to the mountains. One thing we want to highlight here is the commitment of Fairmont Banff Springs has for running the hotel in a sustainable way. Being in a national park, they are very aware their impact to those around them. They try very hard to reduce food waste, source locally and offer organic produce. for our breakfast buffet, they offer what are important to the guests and only refill dishes when they are finished. This might be unnoticeable to some, but we know what a big difference it would make over the years. Waldhaus Restaurant in mountain chalet style is another favorite of us during our stay. It offers Swiss fondue, schnitzel, pretzel, many other delicious mountain style comfort food. We went there with some friends and shared most of the dishes together. It brought us so many fond food memories in Switzerland and Germany.

The hotel has also two beautiful pools, indoor and outdoor (which again has an amazing view to the Rockies).

In terms of the things to do around Banff… First, I would highly recommend you to walk around in Fairmont Banff Springs. It is such a historical and stunning property that one should not missed when visiting Banff. Secondly, visiting Banff town center. I love how the the streets lead to mountains on both side of the town. It is absolutely breathtaking. Then, a hike to Johnson Canyon is another must-do. The hike is fairly easy, but it can be challenging in winter without proper gears. If there is a lot of snow on the ground, cleats and hiking sticks would make your walk a lot safer and enjoyable.

Due to a last-minute closure of highway, we had to cut our stay in Fairmont Banff Springs by a day, which limited the amount of time we could spend in Banff to explore. We know for certain that there is so much more Banff can offer and can’t wait to go back and check them out next time around.