Dreaming of Ice Skating on the famous Lake Louise? ⛸️ This Winter live the dream!
 
Come with me on a snowy adventure to discover one of the most beautiful Parks of Canada. 🏞️

Ready for your magical escapade in the Rockies?

Banff, AB, Canada

Lake Louise, AB, Canada

Calgary, AB, Canada

Lake Minnewanka, Improvement District No. 9, AB, Canada

Moraine Lake, Improvement District No. 9, AB, Canada

Banff National Park, Improvement District No. 9, AB, Canada

Johnston Canyon, Bow Valley Parkway, Improvement District No. 9, AB, Canada

Alberta, Canada

BANFF 🇨🇦: a full 5 days itinerary

It's departure day! We flew from Montréal directly to Calgary. There are many airlines offering this route at affordable prices! We flew with Flair Airlines as it was the cheapest for our budget.

Once we landed in Calgary, we took a taxi to drop us off in the city centre to pick up our car. 🚙

Off to Banff! It is only 1h30 of driving on the beautiful Trans-Canada Highway. Enjoy the view until you reach Banff. As we arrived late, we directly visited a bar to meet up with friends and have a beer! 🍻 

We were three people travelling and we took just an extra carry-on bag to put our ice skate in it (you are allowed to have them in the cabin with you if you have blade protections). ⛸️

We stayed at Samesun Banff. It was pretty well located and we could park our car in a small underground parking lot which was super convenient for us. 💤

We had breakfast included and we were staying in a room for 6 with our private bathroom for the room to share. The hostel was mostly filled with young people here for the season to work or ride. The atmosphere was pretty chill and friendly! 🧇

First day of adventure: now we are talking! Let's wake up early to head to the famous Lake Louise. 🏞️

We parked at the main parking lot and walked down to the lake. It's absolutely beautiful under the snow! You will get plenty of space to skate! The area is well organised with benches to lace your skates, a clear ice ring, sculpture on ice decorating the area, stands selling hot wine and cider. ☕

We staked for a couple of hours and then for lunch, I would highly recommend you to go to one of the restaurants in the Fairmont. I believe we went to the one on the ground floor. I took a hot cinnamon cider that was absolutely delicious and the Boeuf Bourguignon Poutine that was just incredible! 😋

We spent the rest of the day walking around on the frozen lake. It's a beautiful nature you will find there, especially with its tall snowy trees and frozen waterfall!

After a stop by the hostel to shower and clean up, we went to have dinner at the Park Distillery Restaurant.

Right after dinner, if you are looking for a place with loud music and people to mingle with, you should definitely go to Rose & Crown! The place can be quite crowded during the weekend but the vibe is pretty cool! 💃

For our next adventure, I would recommend you to stop by the shop Ultimate Sports to rent some ice cleats just in case. In Winter, Johnston Canyon can be frozen and slippery at some places. When we visited, it was actually not that frozen but we were happy we had our cleats anyway!

Johston Canyon is a lovely hike/walk to do in Winter even though some parts of the trail are closed. It is not very touristy at this time of the year so you get to enjoy the place almost for yourself! The morning light is incredible with rays of sun passing through the trees in the canyon! 🌞

After that, we got a delicious lunch at Añejo Restaurant, a Mexican restaurant serving tasty food that I can only recommend! 🌮

We then went to Bow Falls for the rest of the afternoon. It was extremely slippery, more than at Johnston Canyon, we saw many tourists fall! So the ice cleats might come handy here! ❄️

Right next to Bow Falls, to finish the afternoon in the best way, we stopped at the Fairmont to have a hot chocolate with an incredible view of the sunset! ☕

Just the time to get back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and well, if there is one restaurant I would recommend you to go to in Banff without any doubt, it will be Saffron, eyes closed! 👀

Well, there are different lakes you get to explore when in Banff. We really wanted to go to a lake where we could see the water and bubbles in transparency. Likely, we heard from locals that the right spot for this was Lake Minnewanka! 💎

We hiked for about 30 min on the frozen lake until we reached the area we wanted: a clear portion of the lake without any snow. This was due to the fact that in that part of the lake, there is a lot of wind and the snow doesn't have the time to stay on the surface. 🌬️

We put on our skates and we enjoyed the area for ourselves! ⛸️

However, I can tell you I was super scared all the way on the hike as you could hear the ice cracking underneath your steps. We were with a Canadian friend, used to that so it was fine but if you go to the area, ask around in advance if it's safe to cross the frozen lake or not. ⚠️

For lunch we drove back to Banff and grab some food at the ground floor of Cascade Shops, where you will find many choices! 🍔

In Winter, you cannot access the lakeshore but you can get close following the cross country skiing track. The trail is about 9 km long one way and it is mostly steep on the way so if you don't have a pretty good physical condition, this might not be for you. I'm pretty much average, doing sport once or twice a week and let me tell you, I struggled! ⛷️

The trail stops just before the avalanche area and it is not recommended to go further as it is dangerous. We could however have a nice view on the chain of mountains in the distance. 🏔️

The way back was extremely fun though. As it was only down hill, it was sooooo cool to go there full speed and that's when we realised it was pretty steep on the way, more than what we thought actually. 🚴

Finally, to complete our adventure, we rented fat bikes to reach Moraine Lake. We had a truck that allowed us to transport the fat bikes with us to the beginning of the trail. 🚙

You can digest it by walking around Banff, there are many Souvenirs shops and you can appreciate the lovely wooden cabin architecture in the city! 

This delicious Indian Restaurant is the best address in my opinion, offering a fair quantity to a fair price. I can only recommend you to order and *share* different dishes! However, be careful if you are taking a lassy, it's quite heavy and filling. My friends couldn't eat their dishes at all after drinking one each!

After a long day like this, we stayed at the hotel and had dinner there!

According to your flight, you can leave Banff early to drop off your car in Calgary and spend some hours in the city before catching your flight. 🛫

And now, off you go! I hope you enjoyed the adventure! 🦦

Looking for another adventure in the incredible West of Canada for this Summer? 🌞

Let me tell you all about the astonishing Yukon! 🐻

🏞️ Do you want to discover an underrated part of North America? 

Well, Yukon is the perfect place to experience the beauty of raw nature. 🐾 With this complete itinerary, you will get all the information needed to fully enjoy your time in this part of Canada, you will even pass by Alaska! Can you imagine? 🤯

Let's start planning your next exploration of the northern territories of America 🛫

BANFF 🇨🇦: a full 5 days itinerary

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