Senior Moderator; Moderator, Eco-Conscious Travel, United and Flyertalk Cares
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Fulltime travel/mostly Europe
Programs: UA 1.7 MM;; Accor & Marriott Pt; Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 17,831
We spent a couple weeks in the Banff area a year or so ago during the summer.
We spent a couple of days in Calgary and found that was enough. We rented a canoe one day in the Dinosaur Valley, which I think was about an hour out of Calgary. That was OK. It's a very dry terrain, but we were the only ones on the river that I saw. There's also the Olympic park area where you can pay to ride a bobsled. If you only have five days though, I'd skip Calgary and head straight for Banff.
We spent sometime at Johnston Canyon, which we really liked. The hike to the ink pots there is nice. We stayed for one week at some cabins at Johnston Canyon Resort. It's right at the head of the ink pot trail. We enjoyed those. They're rustic on the outside, but furnished nicely on the inside - mica lamps, clawfoot tubs, Stickly-type furniture, etc. We had one right on the river and it was secluded from the others. Some of the others were close to the highway or looked into other cabins - I wouldn't have liked those.
There are tons of great hikes. The Bow River Hoodoos was pretty good. It you like vertical hikes, there are lots of those. We rented a canoe out of Banff too and brought a lunch and ate a stone's throw from an eagle who just sat and watched us.
We weren't nearly as impressed with Lake Louise as we were with Moraine Lake. That was beautiful and much less crowded. I wish we could have gotten into the Moraine Lake Lodge. It was booked. It's also one of the pricier lodges. We originally had a reservation at the Post Hotel, which is supposed to be great, but we didn't like the location - it's kind of close to the highway and there are no lake views.
We did have a tough time getting reservations calling even three months out so I'd start calling now.
A drive to the ice fields is pretty interesting too.
Banff also has a nice artists community and we went to see an outdoors production of The Hobbit, which was fun although it rained. Garbage bags make decent rain ponchos. Go prepared for most any weather. Also, be prepared for lots of mosquitos.
Downtown Banff was crowded and some of the popular hikes were also, but it was also easy to get away from people. Prices weren't cheap - more what you'd expect for similar in the US.
Be sure and eat the blueberries. We bought a big carton of them and cooked with them at the cabin. They were yummy and cheap.