Myself, my husband, mum and dad stopped off here on our Canadian holiday and i may be biased here but Banff is definitely my favourite town. The town is situated in Banff national park, Alberta. It’s a small town with a few hotels, but these can be pricey. So we stayed at Canmore an easy 20 min drive away. We stayed in a 2 story self contained unit, at Mystic Springs Chalets. With a shared swimming pool and hot tub. Which kept my dad happy as he loves hot tubs!

We had 1 day in the town so we planned it wisely.

An early start and off the highway we stopped off at a walk overlooking the area. This walk leads to the hoodoos, a strange looking rock formation.

The path meandered along the side of the hill and in the distance you can see the magnificent Fairmont Banff Springs hotel. It was lovely and warm, which made a change from the last few days.

Banff Town

We left this view and drove into the town, it’s a small and quaint town, very pretty with loads of shops, restaurants and cafes.

We parked alongside the bow river which runs through the town and walked along its path. It felt like you were miles away. The path runs both sides of the river, if you walk South you can then cross the footbridge to the other side of the river. Halfway across the bridge people were taking photos of what was behind us, so we turned round and the view was incredible. Which reminds me always look behind you, you may be missing something.

Impressive houses lined the river, and we dreamed of which one to live in! The river runs to the Bow falls, which are more like wild water rapids, it’s definitely a sight to see. Overlooking this part of the river is the aforementioned Fairmont hotel, with its imposing castle like façade.

A short walk to the hotels entrance, and you can have a wander around inside. There’s a small cafe where you can buy lunch or just have a coffee, as we did.

After leaving this wonderful hotel we headed back to the town, looking at all the shops. We had lunch at squish sandwich cellar, the name says it all. The sandwiches were lovely and reasonably priced.

We headed back to our accommodation and relaxed in the swimming pool and hot tub and got ready for the evening. We were going back to Banff and up Sulphur Mountain for dinner…

Banff gondola

Next to Banff town is Sulphur mountain, and you can take a gondola to the top. The small 4 seater gondola costs $64, but for $109 you also get a 2 course meal included in the Sky Bistro.

The 5pm “flight” was booked and seating in this gondola it shot out of the base like a rollercoaster! But luckily the rest of the trip was smooth.

At the top there’s an interpretive centre explaining the local area and wildlife, the sky bistro and a cafe. Outside there are 2 km of boardwalks on the top of this mountain climbing up to an old weather station.

When we arrived it was cloudy and snowing but as we had 2 hours until dinner we persisted to climb. The higher we climbed the weather improved and boy I’m glad that we stayed. The clouds broke and the sun shone, the snowy mountains surrounded us. It was incredible, the 360 degree views were amazing. You can see all the way down to the town below. We kept climbing to the old weather station at the top, unbelievably a man used to climb up from the base once a week! (before the boardwalks were constructed)

An eagle soared over our heads with a rainbow in the distance and we thought we were in heaven.

We took ourselves away from these views and walked back down the boardwalks to the restaurant. The Sky Bistro looks out to the mountains with floor to ceiling windows. The package with the gondola ride was an appetizer and main course. I chose cauliflower fritters followed by a Bison steak. The food was just as incredible as the views out of the window.

We took the last gondola back down to the base after dinner.

Johnston Canyon

The next day we visited Johnston Canyon, situated on the beautiful Bow valley parkway. This road travels from Banff all the way to Lake Louise further north. Read about Lake Louise
It runs alongside the Trans Canadian highway 1 but is much more scenic. Trees line the road so wildlife is abundant here, so the speed limit is reduced. There are plenty of stop off points along the road to take photos or just stop for a picnic.

Johnston Canyon is about 10 miles from Banff, this impressive canyon has walks and waterfalls to look at. The walk to the lower falls takes about 30 mins and the trail runs inside the canyon with the walls towering overhead.

The day was very sunny and quite warm so the hike to the upper falls was a bit harder. These falls are about 3 km from the carpark, so it took nearly 3 hours to do the round trip (obviously stopping to take photos).

You can walk another 3 km further to the ink pots, but we ran out of time. So after having a cup of coffee and sitting in the sun, we got back in the car to find a place to have our picnic lunch.

That finished off our time in Banff and the surrounding area and then on to our next destination.