Weekend Getaway: the Banff Edition

For Winter Fun, Summer Hikes, and Mountain Vistas

I am currently travelling from Toronto to Calgary for work four days a week, which provided the perfect opportunity for a Banff getaway. I usually fly out Thursday evening, so instead of flying back to Toronto, my partner flew in to Calgary and we drove up to Banff the Thursday night. The drive is an easy hour and a half with lots of gas stations along the way (though not much else). The only thing to be cognizant of is that in order to park in the Banff National Park of Canada you need to purchase a pass at the gate on the way in to the park, which means you need to arrive while the gates are still manned (which they were when we arrived at approximately 8:30pm).

Day 1

Our first day in Banff was a Friday, so I needed to work for the better part of the day. We got up and took our first calls at the hotel we were staying at - the Mount Royal hotel, which was decent and very central. After that we headed to the Good Earth Coffee House for coffee, food, and a change of scenery. I had a breakfast bowl, which I would not recommend as they are pre-made and the eggs were rather dry. I then had a coffee and a ginger bread, which were both excellent and would definitely get again. We then continued to work from the coffee shop until we were in need of a break.

Once our brains had tired, we decided to head out on a walk to the Banff Christmas Market, which was taking place at Warner Stables. I was thoroughly impressed with the market and bought many locally crafted goods for Christmas gifts. We also had lunch there - local vegan perogies with sour kraut, which were very interesting.

We then went back to the hotel and worked until we were ready for dinner - for which we went to the Park Distillery. I cannot reccomend this enough as both the drinks and food were excellent. I had two different cocktails: a Sawback pre-dinner and an Observation Peak for dessert. The Sawback was made with Park Chili Vodka, Triple Sec, Pineapple, Lime and Agave Nectar. We then had dinner, for which I had the tomato soup and vegan stuffed mushrooms. The soup was deliciously spicy and the mushrooms were made with vegan cheese and beyond meat. These were both delicious and my only caveat to order either would be to get the mushrooms without the deep fried bits on top, as I didn't think they added any flavour and were just in the way of the mwal. I then had the Observation Peak for desert which was amazing. It consisted of Park Glacier Rye, Flor de Caña 7 yr, Amare Montenegro, Cherry Liqueur, Park Orange Bitters, and a cedar square which they lit on fire and placed the smoking side down into the drink to give it a smoky flavour. I seriously cannot decide what my favourite part of this dinner was as it was all so delicious.

Day 2

Day two in Banff we woke up and headed straight for brunch. We went to Coyote, which was very busy because, as we found out, the beer festival was on and everyone was in town for it. The food was fairly good, but unfortunately ours got forgotten about under the heat lamps and was rather lukewarm upon arrival (I know because they have and open kitchen behind the bar and I watched them make the food and then leave it there). Overall I think I would go back when it wasn’t so busy and give them a second chance.

We then headed out to wander the main drag and check out the local shops. If you are into ski, snowboard or other outdoor gear, this is the place for you. We hit up Patagonia, a general outdoor store that carried Arc’teryx and many more. All the shopping tired us out, so we then headed back to the hotel for a little nap.

Post nap we decided to go up the gondola. We stopped at Little Wild to caffeinate first, which turned out to be quite good. We then headed for the mountain. Our original plan was to hike up and take the gondola down, but a combination of being tired, the trail being snowy and my hiking boots giving me blisters lead to the decision to take the gondola both ways. It is quite pricey, but very beautiful and you only pay on the way up, so if you’re thinking about doing this I would walk up and ride down (we’re planning to go back when the weather is nice and do it). The top is beautiful and has a great boardwalk to another peak that has breathtaking views. Overall, despite the price, I definitely think it was worth the trip and will definitely go back to do again.

After our little adventure we decided we had had enough for the day and turned in early for a movie and takeout. We ordered pizza from Ardvark, which is an awesome little hole in the wall that had lots of options for the editorial restricted (aka me and dairy). They also make their own homemade dips - I tried the chipotle mayo, which wasn’t amazing, but if you aren’t dairy restricted then my sources say that the other dips were great.

Day 3

Having enjoyed Little Wild, we decided to head to her (big) sister store Wild Flower for a small breakfast to. We grabbed lattes and some baked goods - a stickey bun and a a vegan muffin - and hopped into the car on our next adventure. The vegan muffin was so so, but the stickey bun was very good and the lattes were quite decent.

Out next adventure was Lake Louise. We arrived and wandered around a bit before heading into the Fairmont for high tea. We sat down to tea at the Fairview and started off with a tiny bowl of fruit (usually served with with creme fraiche) and pots of tea. Champagne and sparkling wines are also available, but cost extra. We waited for a while and eventually the waiter came over and brought us a second serving of fruit because the food was taking so long to prepare. We had made the reservation before and had specified that my portion could not have dairy or meat, but the kitchen seemed to struggle with this anyways. This ended up turning out lovely for us as we were in no rush and the restaurant ended up comping us the tea and giving us free classes of Prosecco. To top it off, the food they served was superb - tastefully roasted vegetable sandwiches with delicious hummus, a carrot cake with icing that I could have sworn was cream cheese and an espresso “cheese” cake with a cookie crumble bottom all served with an amazing view of the sparkling lake. Overall I would highly recommend, just be prepared to wait if you have any dietary restrictions since the tea is a supposedly a set menu.

Now stuffed to the brim, we decided a walk was in order to help digest before sitting in the car some more. We walked about halfway around Lake Louise (you can’t walk all the way as the one side has avalanche warnings currently) until the wind picked up and then turned around and headed back to the car. I cannot reccomend this walk enough, especially in the winter. On a sunny day with snow on the ground, Lake Louise feels like something out of a fairy tale.

Once done with our walk, we hopped back into the car for our final adventure of the weekend: Johnston Canyon. I had never even heard of this before but my boyfriend, having lived in Calgary during high school, said it was a must so off we went. This turned out to be my favourite thing on the trip. We hiked only to the lower falls as we didn’t have a enough time before sunset to make it to the upper falls, but even this was amazing. This hike is through a canyon that has had boardwalks built onto the side of it, so you’re actually walking through the gorge. There are falls that freeze in the winter and when it gets colder you can see people ice climbing on them. It’s hard to put into words how magical this place is, but to sum it up I started singing Walking in a Winter Wonderland on the way back to the car. Were you to do anything on our itinerary from this weekend, this would be my number one recommendation by a mile.

After this amazing hike, he got back in the car to head back to Calgary for the work week ahead. We will definitely be making this trip again both to ski and in the summer to hike, so I will make sure to keep you posted on any new finds in the area.