Our weekend trip to Calgary wouldn’t have been complete without a trip to Banff National Park, but we only had one day to explore, read on to see how we made the most of our short time!

Banff national park

HEY STRANGERS!

We spent the last weekend of January in Calgary, Alberta, for Jake’s birthday, you can read all about that here. We had an amazing time exploring the city and it surely beat any and all expectations we had going into the short trip! Of course, a trip to Calgary wouldn’t be complete without a journey into the Canadian Rockies and Banff National Park.

Getting there…

Usually, when someone thinks of Canada, they picture the turquoise blue waters of Lake Louise, the snowy peaks of the Canadian Rockies, “that street with the mountain at the end” as my father so eloquently said once. Essentially, if someone thinks of Canada, they most likely picture Banff, which is exactly why we absolutely had to make the trip when we visited Alberta.

So, in the spirit of adventure, Jake, two of our friends, and I piled into a rental car and started the 90 minute drive from Downtown Calgary to the town of Banff. As mentioned in our previous blog, we hired a 2021 Jeep Compass from Turo to complete the journey which made the whole experience so much more comfortable and easy, even if we did miss our exit to Banff by a couple miles…

The Banff Gondola & Sky Bistro

When we arrived in the town of Banff, due to the little misdirection from our maps, we arrived later than we wanted to. This meant that Jake and I only had around 30 minutes to get from town to the Gondola station. Upon booking the Banff Gondola we were sent an email on how to best plan our day, they suggested to not drive as the parking lot fills up fast so we planned to get the bus, due to our late arrival we didn’t have time so we had to opt for a taxi instead. The taxi ride was pleasant and our driver was super nice, he had lived in Banff pretty much all his life so we got some insider stories from a local which was sweet! Obviously, when we got to the Gondola station the parking lot was almost empty and we could have driven but the risk wasn’t worth it.

We arrived at the station with less than 10 minutes to spare before our time slot to gondle up the mountain. We had a quick look around the gift store and, of course, considered getting a Starbucks from the full-service Starbucks location in the Gondola station but eventually decided against it. We made sure to book our Gondola ride around 30-40 minutes before our dining reservation so that we were able to wander around the viewing deck for a little bit before going to eat.

The ride up the mountain itself was pleasant, we expected it to be much colder, considering the gondolas aren’t heated, but it really wasn’t bad! The gondolas are quite small, I feel like four adults would fit rather snugly so any family or group bigger than four would most likely have to travel up separately. As for the height, its high like really really high, you travel up over 2000ft to the upper terminal which sits 7,486ft above sea level. The ride itself takes around eight minutes to travel the mile long gondola track but the breathtaking views captivate you so much you hardly even notice the soaring heights.

Once you reach the upper terminal the views just keep going for miles and miles. There is a boardwalk, approximately 1km long, that wraps and winds around the top of Sulphur Mountain, offering visitors the best views of the Canadian Rockies! On average it is about 10 degrees colder at the top of the mountain than it is at the base so if you plan to visit Banff Gondola for the walking trails be sure to wrap up super warm!
Top tip: take a portable charger with you, both of our phones got so cold they powered down and when they came back to life they only had 5% battery!

After exploring the boardwalk we headed to the third level of the upper terminal building to the Sky Bistro Restaurant. We had reservations for lunch and as I had booked the Gondola ride and lunch as a package it was a preset, two-course menu to choose from. The package cost $210 for the two of us (with tax) and included the Gondola ride up and down the mountain, a two course meal at the Sky Bistro, as well as soft drinks, tea and coffee. In my opinion, this is a good deal considering the Gondola alone could cost up to $65 each!

When we arrived for our reservation we checked in with the host and asked if a table by the window was available and luckily one was! We felt so lucky to be able to sit by the window and take in the views, it made the whole experience so much more special. Once seated we were greeted by our lovely server, Luke, who was just delightful from the beginning! We chatted about both of our arrivals to Canada, ours from the UK, his from Australia, it’s always interesting hearing about the different paths people take when coming to Canada!

We both ordered the Caesar salad to start, which was delicious and came topped with salty capers which just added something different to a classic Caesar. For mains Jake ordered the poutine (his new favourite dish) with pulled bison on top, I ordered the pulled bison burger which definitely wasn’t the most elegant to eat but it sure was delicious! We both ordered cocktails to go with our meals, we were celebrating after all, I had the Winter Spice Sangria and Jake had a “Sweet Georgia”. We had mentioned in conversation with our server that we were visiting Banff for Jake’s birthday and at the end of the meal he brought out a lovely dessert for him, decorated with a chocolate coin reading “happy birthday”, such a sweet surprise!

After our meal we had another walk around the observation decks and made our way up to the fourth level for the rooftop viewing. Eventually, despite the marvelous mountain views, we got too cold and decided to make our way back down to the lower terminal and onward to the town of Banff.

The town of Banff

Due to the way our trip panned out, we ended up going to Banff on a Sunday, which wasn’t an issue until we realised once we got back from the Gondola experience that everything was starting to close. It seemed like every store we went into flipped their sign from open to closed whilst we were inside browsing. We didn’t really know much about the actual town of Banff itself so we didn’t have any particular game plan for what we wanted to do or see, the only thing we knew for certain about Banff was that it had a Beaver Tails and we wanted one.

We had just had a huge lunch, followed by dessert and a coffee so the two of us were set to burst if we consumed one more bite, but that didn’t stop us. We had heard about Beaver Tails when we first started looking into Canada so we had to get one whilst we had the chance! We ordered the Bananarama Beaver Tail, which seemed like the least sickly on the menu besides the plain option, but we still ended up sharing it between the four of us!

We really didn’t have much opportunity to do much more in Banff due to the time of day and year, so we just got a Starbucks for some energy for the drive back to Calgary and had a quick photoshoot in the middle of the road, like true tourists! As we made our way back to the car we were reminded that our visit fell on the final day of the SnowDays Festival, so we transformed our walk into a scavenger hunt to find the snow sculptures and made sure to walk down Bear Street to hear some live music.

Our Overall Experience

Overall, we had an amazing time in Banff and we can’t wait to go back! We want to experience the whole thing over again in the summer to see the difference in the atmosphere, the views and hopefully get the chance to explore more and spend more time outside. We didn’t get to visit the iconic Lake Louise on this short trip, something that is definitely on my bucket list, so perhaps next time we would spend the night to give us more time to wander!

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