Really need help planning 1st trip to Banff!
 

We're flying into Calgary from California and are trying to plan a trip for our 3 sons (ages 6,9,and 11) We've never been to Canada before, and would like to spend about 10 days visiting Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper. Does that seem like the right amount of time? Too much time?? What are your personal recommendations for length of time to spend at each place, hotels, activities, etc. I know it's a tall order to fill, but I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure out an itenerary.I've read hotel reviews that are always mixed, so it's just hard.We're really looking forward to this trip and want it to be memorable. We want to stay at very nice hotels (or resorts), and don't mind picnicking for lunch, but want great restaurants for dinner. I will be soooo grateful for any and all suggestions, as I'm not making progress on my own. Thanks in advance.
We're planning to go June 11-21.

Despite 8 trips to the Rockies I have spent a total of 1 night in Banff and 2 in Lake Louise. I try to avoid both places by staying elsewhere. So I cannot be of much help to you there.

In Jasper, I suggest Paticia Lake or Becker's. My son and his family stayed at Pat Lake and loved it.

You did not mention your plans along the Icefields Parkway. That drive to me is a major, major highlight. If you are not familiar with it, I suggest investigating it very completely.

If you drive it to see as much as you can, a day up and a day back will give you a chance to see the highlights.
Perhaps the most dramatic visit would be to ride the ice buggy onto the glacier. That is a bit expensive for 5, but if you only do it once, I am sure the boys will remember it.

In order to see the best of the Rockies, one must walk some. I am not sure how well your children will do. My grandsons were a little older, 14 and 11, when we met at Twin Falls Chalet.
They did fine with the 14 year old being more athletic and more impressed with the scenery.

I also suggest you add Yoho National Park to your itinerary because it has a lot to offer. I have spent more time there than in Banff and Jasper.

Sorry I cannot help you more with Banff townsite, but it is one place I avoid except for using it for a bank and a grocery store.

Well Bob, I don't have anything carved in stone, so we are flexible with our destinations.But I'm really curious now, why do you avoid Banff??To tell the truth, we originally had planned to take the kids to Yellowstone National park and the grand Tetons national park, but found that flying to Calgary was about $1,000.00 cheaper!!!And we've always thought it would be great to go there, but really, it came down to economics. In changing our destination to Canada, we'll have more to spend on nicer hotel accomodations.I don't mind camping, but we wanted to stay at nice places on this trip.Not the Waldorf, but not Holiday Inn either.
I really appreciate your prompt response, I'll look into the suggestions you made!

Make that Patricia Lake in Jasper.
My son really enjoyed his stay there. It is a few k out of town.

Beckers is on the banks of the river and it is located on the Icefields Parkway south of town.

Why do I avoid Lake Louise? I think the motels are over priced. That is the main reason.

Why do I avoid Banff? If I want a city, I will go to Calgary, or Vancouver, or Seattle. I prefer more solitude than I can get in Banff.

These are purely personal reasons. I said I could not be much help on Banff because I cannot. For some one who has been to the Rockies several times, people think I should know about the place.

We usually find a small apartment in Field. These places are satisfactory for us. Some of the apartments have 2 bedrooms. http://www.field.ca/accommodations/

Field is about 15 miles from Lake Louise via the Trans Canada Highway.

Hi Codi,

My website may be of assistance:

http://groups.msn.com/CalgaryandCana...iesTravelTips/

Here are some accommodation suggestions.

BANFF TOWNSITE

Decent hotels:

Delta Banff Royal Canadian Lodge
Banff Caribou Lodge
Buffalo Mountain Lodge
Banff Ptarmigan Lodge
Banff Park Lodge

Self-catering properties (moderate properties, but very convenient for families, and located on the outskirts of the town, so therefore not as busy as the centre of town):

Tunnel Mountain Resort*
Douglas Fir Resort*
Hidden Ridge Resort*

* Please note that in Canada the use of the word "resort" in a property’s title means nothing. It could be a palatial property, and it also could be a motel.

LAKE LOUISE

Self-catering chalets:

Baker Creek Chalets
Paradise Lodge and Bungalows

JASPER

Self-catering chalets:

Alpine Village
Becker’s Chalets
Jasper House Bungalows
Patricia Lake Bungalows

CALGARY

If arriving at night and wanting to drive to the mountains the next morning, stay at Sheraton Four Points Calgary West.

If departing early in the morning and wanting a place to spend the night before flying out, stay at Greenwood Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Sheraton Cavalier or, right inside the airport complex, at Delta Calgary Airport Hotel.

DINOSAUR MUSEUM

The one place that is an outlier as far as the Rockies are concerned, but that I believe your kids would love, is the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller. Although it is between 1.5 hours’ and 2 hours’ drive in the “wrong” direction from the mountains, it is well worth the detour.

ITINERARIES

My website, to which I provided a link above, has suggested itineraries.

CLOTHING

Mountain weather is extremely quirky. In June the average day time high might be 65-ish Farenheit and the average night time low might be 40-ish F. However, day time highs COULD go up to 90 deg F, and night time lows COULD go down to about freezing. The TIPS section of my website has advice about clothing.

Hope that helps.

Yes, it helps immensely!!! Thank you so much for the recommendations, Judy and Bob.I'm so grateful to you both for taking the time to help a stranger.

God bless,

Codi

Codi - Bob has some very valid points and, as I had hoped, Judy chimed in with her usual thorough and helpful advice.

To give you maybe another perspective, we've stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel in Banff and the Jasper Lake Lodge (both of which are now run by Fairmont). We loved both and are very nice properties, with good restaurants, etc. The last several times we've been in Banff, however, we've rented condos in Canmore (a few miles outside of Banff) and found it very convenient, and a little cheaper than the Banff Springs. Easy to make day trips into Banff as well as day trips to other places such as Lake Louise. Canmore allows us to make these trips without necessarily having to go through Banff itself.

We very much like Banff as a town (great places to eat, shops, stores) and would have to say that since we live in an area of several million people, we've not quite viewed Banff as a city on the level of Vancouver, but it's certainly a matter of perspectives.

I think 10 days will work fine. Definitely agree to include the Icefields Parkway in your plans - stunning scenery and, probably due to luck, we've seen a lot of wildlife along the way. Plan to take your time - it's tempting to stop very often just to enjoy the views.

Also, if you're planning to go in less than two months, I'd certainly try to line up housing quickly - we've always found that things can fill up rather quickly in the summer.

Let me add the name of a place where my wife and I stayed that we enjoyed: Mount Engadine Lodge south of Canmore on the Spray Lakes Road.

Two meals a day are included in the price.

When we were there, an extended family was having a reunion in honor of the senior parents 50+ wedding anniversary.
I never did sort out all of the relationships, but there were great grand children involved.

The lodge had a great hot tub, one of the larger ones I have used.

The food was 1st class.

The dinining room and the sitting rooms were carpeted, so all shoes were left at the door. The youngsters had various board games spread out all over the rugs.

Hiking around there is ok.
Peter Lougheed Park which is south of Banff but features the same mountains is at the south end of the road. Canmore is at the north end.

One drawback to Field is that it is small and has only 1 restaurant: The Truffle Pig. It is a very popular place with a menu I would describe as eclectic. People stand in line to eat there because of scarcity and quality.

Lake Louise Village to my knowledge has no great restaurants, but the Post Hotel is good. I do not know if Chateau Lake Louise allows outsiders to eat there or not. It is out of my price range.

Jasper House Bungalows is a place I know from experience. It offers some units that might sleep 5 in the Suite for 4.
Take a look at the website by putting Jasper House Bungalows into a search engine.

The property is also on the banks of the Athabasca River, which at that point is moving rapidly. We have watched float tours in large rafts go by just drifting with the current. Although there was no white water per se along that stretch, the rafts were moving quickly and were soon out of sight.

One other place that would fit your very nice hotels requirement is Emerald Lake Lodge in Yoho National Park.

I have not stayed there; too rich for my pocketbook, but it looks to me like it would be classed as a luxury accommodation. However, I tried to see what it had to offer, and 3 children and 2 adults in one unit got me a rejection notice.

At some of these places you may need to rent 2 rooms. That is why I suggested Field and one of its small apartments.

Thanks dfr48 and Bob! Yes, I'm working my tail off trying to make sure I can secure room accomodations today, before booking my flight! I've just about got 'em nailed down for each place now! And you're sooo right about getting all my reservation requests kicked out as soon as I enter 3 kids (they'd really be in a tizzy if we were bringing all 6 of our sons!! But our college aged guys will probably be planning parties at our house while we're gone!) so what I've found I need to do, is put in that we're reserving for 2 adults and 2 kids, then when the options pop up, I just call and ask whether it's a problem if there's 3 instead of two. Most places are ok with it, but some balk. But it's ridiculous to book two rooms, we're not having a little kid stay by himself! And in all honesty, most nights they all like to climb into bed with each other so they can stay up late talking anyways! so really, a room with 2 queen beds suits perfectly. I've made pages of notes with all your comments and recommendations, that I'll be taking with us.(because I know I won't remember all of them!) This website has been a godsend for me! I always stress when planning family vacations. My husband works hard, and I sure don't want to spend a lot of $$$ on places that will disappoint. For the five of us, we're looking at around $5,000.00 for the 10 days accomodations, flights, car rental, etc.I know we'll have a great time in Canada, thanks to all the suggestions I've received here.Thanks again, everyone!

Codi

We spent 2 days in Jasper(Becker chalets with gournmet restaurant)great but book in advance-one day driving the icefields to Banff and two days in Banff and we saw the major attractions.PAul

I checked with my son (age 48) who has visited Banff more than I.

He mentioned a place that has rooms that accommodate 5 people, and with 2 bathrooms.

The place is called Banff Rocky Mountain Resort. It is 4k from downtown Banff, which would remove most of my objections entirely.

1.888.676.9977 is the phone number for reservations.

Of the places I have hear of around the area of the Banff townsite, this one sounds good. It has a kitchen which you could use for snacks. My two teen age grandsons eat 5,000 calories a day.

5,000 calories a day Bob?!!! Yeah, I believe it! I've got 6 sons.It IS amazing how much they can pack away, and don't even get me started on the amount of milk we go through!I often think it would be cheaper to buy a cow!
ok, back to our trip: well, I'm delighted to announce that through tremendous amount of info and help I've received here, I now have ALL our reservations made and paid for! YAY!! (doing the happy dance here)

we arrive in Calgary and pick up a rental car at the airport (the only thing I haven't reserved yet) and drive to the town of Banff, where we'll stay at the Rimrock hotel and resort.
-sightsee for the day
-next day more sightseeing, and then a dinner show of "oh, Canada.Eh!" which I'm hoping will be good, and not too cheesy, but I really think the kids will get a kick out of!
-3rd day to explore surrounding aread
-4th day drive to Lake Louise, where we've booked 3nights at Paradise Lodge and Bungalows
-6th day drive to Becker's Chalet in Jasper.stay 3 nights. explore surrounding areas
- 9th day, drive from Jasper to Calgary, taking our time to hit spots missed along the way up.Check in at the Sheraton Cavalier hotel right next to the airport.that's the fanciest place we'll be staying, and will be a surprise and treat for the kids (and us) because the pool there even has waterslides!
fly home the next afternoon.

of course, I'm taking all the notes you've all given me, of the "don't miss places" and drives.
A thousand thank-you's go out to all who took the time to offer help. I'm relieved to have the lodging taken care of, and my list of places to go, as we are inclined, and we're all happily looking forward to our first trip to Canada!

Look at it this way: You cannot go wrong.
I go here and there based on where I haven't been and where I love to go.

(I would hike to Lake MacArthur right now if the snow and ice would permit it.)

I don't know that Zac eats 5,000 calories a day, but he runs on his school track team and plays soccer which makes for a voracious appetite.

I was with him one day recently when we went to Augusta. We ate here at my house before we left. Then we stopped at a Waffle House for him to eat some more.

He had a Belgian waffle with loads of butter, syrup, and whatever else goes into a Belgian waffle.

While at the Masters practice round, he must have had 3 sandwiches and some ice cream. Then about 6 pm we stopped at a restaurant where he had a huge cheeseburger with French fries, a salad and pie.

He most probably ate again when he got home with his Dad.

He is 5 feet 10 and skinny as a fence post.