I have finally got around to writing up some thoughts about our trip to the Canadian Rockies and Vancouver Island this summer. Before we went, I didn’t manage to find much on this forum about luxury hotel options in either location so thought it might be helpful if I reported back after our trip.

Canadian Rockies (Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper)

There aren’t any truly luxury hotels in this beautiful area but the scenery and hiking definitely make it worth a visit.

Lake Louise - the Post Hotel

In Lake Louise, we opted to stay at the Post Hotel (a Relais & Chateaux property) after much research and some good recommendations. The only real challengers to this at the luxury end of the market are the two Fairmont properties (Fairmont Banff Springs and Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise) and Moraine Lake Lodge which we hadn’t heard great things about.

We really enjoyed our stay here and ultimately were pleased with our choice. The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful at all times, the food good and the room comfortable.

Room: As R&C 5C members, we were upgraded to a Post Lodge Suite with downstairs sitting area and mezannine bedroom. The room (and bed) was really comfortable but the furnishings and bathroom fittings were a little dated and lacked the true “wow” factor that I normally associate with a luxury hotel. The style was very alpine (lots of wood paneling) and felt a little dated but didn’t detract from our holiday. The bathroom had an enormous Jacuzzi bath which was great to relax in after a long day of hiking.

Food: As a R&C property, we went with high expectations of the food. The main restaurant is widely considered to be the best in the area and served us one of the best Lobster soups that we have ever had. The main dishes have a strong Swiss theme (potato rosti, polenta etc) and were delicious but not particularly fancy. Puddings looked great but we were too full on both nights to manage one. In addition to the main restaurant, the hotel also has a dedicated fondue restaurant which we didn’t try as we have had plenty of fondue in the French and Swiss Alps and a more relaxed “pub” where we had a good lunch although the food is much more relaxed and “pub” like. Breakfasts in the main restaurant were excellent with the option of a varied a la carte menu or a buffet.

Location: The Post Hotel is in the “heart” of Lake Louise and you really need a car to make the best of the area as most of the best hikes (such as those at Moraine Lake and Lake Louise) are a short drive away. In peak season, the car parking areas at both these locations fill up fast with day trippers so you need to be parked by 9.30am at the latest to avoid a long extra hike. Staying at the Fairmont Lake Louise would remove this issue for the walks starting at Lake Louise but instead you would have to put up with the hoards of tourists which crowd around the hotel at all times.

Jasper - Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge

In Jasper, the only purported luxury hotel is the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and this really doesn’t live up to its “luxury” billing or price tag. We were really disappointed by our stay – the whole lodge is set up like a dated motel with rude and unhelpful staff. If you are looking for luxury, you may want to think again.

Room: We had booked a standard Fairmont Room – admittedly the most basic room category but given our plan wasn’t to spend much time in our room, this should have suited us perfectly – all we wanted was a comfortable bed and a decent bathroom. While the bed was comfortable, I have never seen such a small bathroom – it was less than 1.5m square so I could touch all 4 walls while standing in the middle and you had to contort yourself to shut the door once inside. The shower area had not been properly cleaned and had pitiful water pressure. My husband had to crouch to get his head under the shower. The rest of the room was fine although fairly beaten up but the walls were paper thin so we were constantly disturbed during the night (we live in London so are used to noise at night but this was a different league).

Food: Based on our room, I had pretty dismal expectations for the onsite restaurants. We ate at the Italian themed restaurant which was ok but pretty expensive for very average Italian food.

Service: What service? There was none – no one to show us to our room, 20 minute waits to check in or out and rude staff shouting at us about where to park our car.

Alternatives: There aren’t really any which is probably why this place remains booked out but I would seriously consider doing simply a day trip along the Icefield Parkway and returning to Lake Louise if we were to do this again.

Vancouver Island

Most of the luxury resorts around Vancouver Island are hidden away in the myriad of little coves and islands that cover the area and they come with their own (very significant) price tag, seaplane transfers and relatively restrictive schedules. The best option looked to be Clayoquot Wilderness Resort which others have raved about on here with Sonora running it a close second but we struggled with the idea of paying $3000 per night for 2 people for a tent without an ensuite bathroom. Instead we decided to put together our own two centre trip on Vancouver Island.

Telegraph Cove – Hidden Cove Lodge

The first stop was Telegraph Cove - a small port on the North East coast of Vancouver Island. Accessible via a short flight from YVR's South Terminal to Port Hardy, the North East coast of Vancouver Island is very undeveloped and not home to any luxury hotels but I couldn't talk about our trip without mentioning our time there.

It is a wildlife mecca with amazing whale viewing opportunities (orca, humpbacks and greys in the summer) and boat trips to see grizzly bears on the remote mainland shores (I can't recommend Tide Rip tours highly enough). We stayed in a simple lodge - Hidden Cove Lodge - by no means a luxury hotel but very adequate- this is such a beautiful spot, you won't want to spend long in your room! Telegraph Cove may lack the luxury hotels, hip cafes and top quality restaurants of Tofino but it also lacks the huge tourist crowds and boasts far more spectacular wildlife than can be seen in Tofino.

Tofino – Wickaninnish Inn

From Telegraph Cove we headed to Tofino on the west coast which could not be more different. Tofino is a hip, trendy beach resort overflowing with trendy cafes and bars, top restaurants, and top hotels and luxury villa rentals. We stayed at the Wickaninnish Inn (a Relais and Chateaux property) right on the beach. There is no doubt this is a luxury hotel but while the hard product is great, the soft product was distinctly lacking something.

Room: our room was fantastic- with a beautiful view across the beach and a bath placed to enjoy it. No complaints here.

Service: The service was generally rather officious but also rather unhelpful.

- We emailed the hotel 3 weeks before our arrival to try to book dinner in the Pointe restaurant – we were told that we could eat at 6pm or 9pm and that there were no other options as they were already booked for the other times. When we turned up to dinner on our first night at 9pm, there were loads of empty tables so it was unclear why they could not have accommodated us a bit earlier.

- In our same restaurant booking email, we made a 7.30pm booking for their outdoor “Crab Cookout” feature dinner. When we arrived, we were told that we had to be at the dinner at 5pm otherwise they would “run out” of crab. Hardly a flexible luxury hotel experience. That didn’t fit with our other plans so we cancelled it and went out for dinner instead.

- Our room was never cleaned properly – for example dirty tea cups remained in the room for 3 nights and the shampoo / conditioner bottles were never replaced.

- The concierge was very unhelpful – we asked for advice about bear tours and kayak tours in the area and the concierge could only direct us to the pile of leaflets available with no view as to better companies and suggested we might like a spa treatment instead!

Each of these are small things but they are just examples of a general feeling of not great service

Food: The Pointe restaurant is much lauded as one of the best in Canada. The food is certainly fussy and expensive but we were not overly impressed by our dinner. We had dinner the following night in town (at Wolf in the Fog) and paid 1/3 of the price for far superior food. Needless to say, we returned to Wolf in the Fog on our second night. Breakfast at the Pointe was slow in the extreme and fairly mediocre.

Weather: Weather isn’t normally a feature of reviews but it is perhaps worth noting for those not familiar with the Vancouver Island climate that Tofino suffers badly with morning fog throughout the summer. On the 3 days we were there, the whole area was fogged in until after lunch substantially limiting the beautiful coastal views for which the area is so famous. Worth bearing in mind if you are planning a trip