TRAVEL PLANNING INFO
Traveled to in July 2023
BANFF
This site is helpful for general info on Banff area: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/visit
What is helpful to book early/reserve:
Lodging, shuttle reservations to see lake Moraine and/or Lake Louise, Banff Gondola (the area is very busy June-Aug, do things early for less crowds 🙂
Transportation to and in the Area:
We drove (you can see our stops on our itinerary below), but most will fly into Calgary and rent a car
They do have public transit in Banff called Roam and they might have shuttles that also run from Canmore.
Transportation to the Lakes: You are unable to drive a private vehicle to Moraine Lake, but you can to Lake Louise (parking is very limited). You can book through several companies and some hotels offer shuttles as well (usually for a cost and reservations needed). Otherwise the least expensive option is through Parks Canada shuttle that runs from Lake Louise Ski Hill:
-In 2023 they opened reservations through the parks Canada site a few months in advance and again a few days before the date. – check website for current info on release dates.
-The shuttle left from the Lake Louise ski hill and went to both lakes, and there was a connector shuttle that ran 8am -? Between the lakes.
-If you stay at one of the lodges on either lake its much easier to get to either lake -Fairmont, maybe Deer Lodge, or lake Moraine lodge (I would call to make sure this info is still currentJ) If staying at these options you can take the connector shuttle anytime while its running (no matter what time you booked on the Canada shuttle website) you just have to show proof of lodging reservation and parks Canada shuttle reservation.
Lodging:
If you want one home base people seem to stay in Canmore, Banff or Town of Lake Louise. Town of Lake Louise is the closest to the Major Lakes unless you stay right on one of the lakes.
You can find reasonable lodge/hotel/VRBO options in all areas, I saw some great VRBO’s in Canmore but we didn’t end up staying there. I did see some say to try not to stay near the highway for VRBO’s in Canmore. I did find one we thought we would stay at closer to the main street away from the Highway at Rundle Cliffs Lodge (we ended up changing plans but would have stayed there a night if we stayed any nights in Canmore)
Lodging at the Lakes: very expensive but a very cool experience and convenient if you can break the bank for 1-2 nights.
We stayed at Fairmont Chateau LL, booking option on trip.com  it is beautiful! You can’t beat the location for exploring Lake Louise at times when there are fewer visitors around! It is pricy, but you are paying for convenience and the experience. It feels like you are staying at a Castle on the lake in a magical place. So easy to get that sunrise photo when you can see the lake out your window!
Deer Lodge is just behind the Chateau at LL https://crmr.com/resorts/deer-lodge/ it is much more reasonable in price and still a great location and convenient for parking/visiting the lakes and hiking. We didn’t stay there so I can’t say if it was nice, looked ok from the outside- but location would be ideal for less money!
Lake Moraine lodge https://morainelake.com/ is more quiet and chill and I would try to stay there if we had the chance to go back. My favorite lake was Moraine so I would love to stay there.
Emerald lake lodge https://crmr.com/resorts/emerald-lake/ would also be a more remote and a quite experience, it is just further away from LL or ML.
Other lodging areas: If you want to be close to the Icefields which is about an hour north of the lakes there is a cute lodge at the Discovery center at the glacier – Glacier View lodge https://www.banffjaspercollection.com/hotels/glacier-view-lodge/ – one night here is enough in my opinion but was great for waking up and being able to explore the toe of the glacier early morning, then do the early 9am tour on the glacier.
Banff: we stayed at Banff Park Lodge, https://www.banffparklodge.com/ it was a good location, nothing fancy but had a big family room and indoor pool which is always a win for us! There are so many places to stay in Banff and if you want to go fancy the Fairmont Banff springs looked pretty cool https://www.fairmont.com/banff-springs/
Many people also spend some time a bit north or Banff in Jasper, but we did not since we were also headed to Glacier NP later in the week so I have no tips on that area.
We split our time so we could see different areas and stayed one night at Glacier View lodge for the icefield experience, a few nights at Chateau for the hikes and lakes, and one night in down town Banff to easily explore Banff (driving and parking in Banff is crazy, best to shuttle in or stay at a hotel you can park at).
Activities/Hikes/views worth seeing:
Moraine Lake was my favorite and the sunrise there was beautiful-there are several companies that will do a sunrise shuttle to moraine lake and some hotels also provide a shuttle early morning- again most all cost $ and require a reservation booked in advanced as it fills up!
Lake Louise was also beautiful and a must see –crazy busy with people starting late morning till evening.
Payto Lake– amazing views of a massive turquoise lake, easy walk to the lookout, on the way from Ice fields to LL/Banff area.
Takakkaw Falls- massive, beautiful, easy to get to and an easy hike
Hike to the Tea House/lake Agnes from LL/Chateau– this was up hill the whole way but beautiful views and fun for the kids to have a “tea house” to hike to. There are other hikes beyond the tea house you can also continue on to. We stopped at the tea house/Lake Agnes. They do take credit card at the Tea house, it closes at 5pm, we made it there at 4:55 🙂
Fairview lookout hike from LL/Chateau– fairly short and easy hike with a great view of LL and Chateau
Emerald Lake– we didn’t get there but was on our list and is close to Takakka Falls
Johnston Canyon– was on our list but we didn’t get to it, but looked really pretty.
Banff Gondola– There are several gondola options there, this one is great for kids, lots of places to walk, great views, a learning center/area, and restaurants. The food was good and reasonable at Sky Bistro. Northern lights looked great too, less kid friendly. There is also simple bar style eating at the very top of the gondola outside. I would recommend making reservations for the gondola and restaurant- we saw several people turned away from entering the parking lot because they didn’t have a reservation. We spent about 2-3 hours there from loading time, lunch, exploring up top to leaving.
Bus tour on the Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia Icefield– if you want to do the simple tour everyone does you can take the bus https://www.banffjaspercollection.com/attractions/columbia-icefield/
If you want a more in depth tour where you can go in/around the crevasse on the glacier book a tour with Ice walks https://www.icewalks.com/. The bus tour is great for families or people who don’t want to walk/explore a lot on ice. You still get to get off the bus and walk in a small area and fill a water bottle with glacier water J. If you want more time and to see more of the glacier, then do the walking tour. We did the bus tour and it was perfect with kids.
There is a map of all the spots to stop on the way from Jasper/Icefields down to Banff area. We saw just a few but you can check that out for more ideas!
https://www.authentikcanada.com/gb-en/blog/icefields-parkway-between-banff-and-jasper
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK
Helpful website: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/vehicle-reservations.htm
What is helpful to book early/reserve:
Lodging- especially if trying to stay at any of the in park lodges (if you can’t find something right away keep looking as rooms do open from cancellations eventually but you need to check several times a day) https://secure.glaciernationalparklodges.com/booking/lodging
Reservations to drive onto the Going to the sun road https://www.recreation.gov/timed-entry/10087086/ticket/10087087
Reservations if you want to enter Many Glacier area, Two Medicine or North Fork
Currently you don’t need a reservation if you arrive before 6am or after 3pm- the line to get in at 5:30 am looked crazy!
These can be very frustrating to get! Check website for when the dates open! They typically fill in 5 min and the site often crashes. If you know your dates and try right away you might get lucky.
We tried several times for the road and never got a pass- I worked around it by buying a random boat tour reservation ticket for one adult on Lake McDonald which allowed us to drive on the road the days we had one booked. I do believe per the internet that “Visitors can catch the free two-way shuttle service to Logan Pass from Apgar Visitor Center on the West Side or from St. Mary Visitor Center on the East Side.” We wanted to drive through so we just bought the boat tickets. They check your pass before you arrive at entrance. The website above shows what reservations also allow you to what areas/roads.
We stayed at the Many Glacier hotel which allowed us into that area as well without having the reservation.
Hopefully they get this figured out better for years to come. Even with the reservations needed there was still millions of people there!
Transportation to and in the Area:
We drove down from Banff- took 4-5 hours to get to the Many Glacier area
If you fly – many fly in Kalispell Airport or Great Falls.
There is a shuttle on the Going to the Sun road you can utilize- you will most likely need to use this if you ever want to do anything at Logan’s pass. There is limited parking there that fills before 6am – you are better off parking anywhere else along the Going to the sun road and then taking the shuttle to Logan’s pass. https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/shuttles.htm
Lodging:
For the North/West area outside the park I would recommend:
St. Mary/East Glacier KOA https://koa.com/campgrounds/st-mary/ (it comes highly recommended by a friend, we ended up staying at Many Glacier hotel for this area)
St. Mary’s Village https://www.glacierparkcollection.com/lodging/st-mary-village/
There are other simple in the park lodges in this area- all fill up fast!
Many Glacier Hotel was a great location in the park for several hikes
Swift Current Motor very close to Many Glacier Hotel
For the South/East area:
West Glacier KOA (we stayed here, cute little cabins and a pool option for kids, easy access to the south/east park area)https://koa.com/campgrounds/west-glacier/
Lake McDonald Lodge (north side of Lake McDonald) or Apgar village lodge and cabins (south side of the lake)- they are in the park right on lake McDonald, I would stay there in the future, but the KOA’s are definitely more kid friendly!
There many more options especially if you want to stay out of the park in the South/West area towns
Activities/Hikes/views worth seeing:
Many Glacier area is beautiful and several hike options
We loved the Grinnell Glacier hike– There is an option to take off 4 miles of the hike with Many glacier Boat reservations https://reserve.glacierparkboats.com/index.php
You can take the boat across the two lakes, hike up and then on the way back take the boats back across the lake (its an out and back hike (the boat rides will takes out 2 miles there and 2 miles back of hiking) We couldn’t get reservations for an early ride there, but managed late day tickets so we just walked the whole way there but they gave us the return boat tickets that we could use any time of day so that saved us 2 miles on the way back. With the boat back it was 10.5 miles total of hiking. You can also just hike to the lake which is much shorter if you want a shorter easier hike that is still beautiful!
Hiking around the lakes in Many Glacier is also beautiful
Hiking to the Hidden lake Overlook from Logan Pass
Hiking any part of the Highline from Logans Pass- we only did the first mile but most will hike one way from Logan’s pass and then take the going to the sun road shuttle back to Logan’s pass.
Sacred Dancing Cascade- on the river at the north end of Lake McDonald, beautiful river and falls area to play in
Lake McDonald is beautiful- we visited it at the Apgar area, but I am sure its great at the north end at Lake McDonald lodge as well.
And that is just a short list of options- there are so many more but that filled out days there! Be patient, the park was very busy all times of the day but seemed crazy from 8am-6pm.
ITINERARY
| Day # | Activities/Schedule |
| Day 1 | Drive Day |
| Day 2 | Drive to Icefields Parkway, Alberta Canada (15 hours) –gain one hour with time change, leave by 5/6am Stay at Glacier View Lodge- reservation made |
| Day 3 | 9am-Family experience on Icefields and skywalk Drive to Lake Louise and stop at Payto Lake, Emerald lake and Takakkaw Falls (not enough time for Emerald lake) We have shuttle tickets for Lake Louise and Moraine 2pm (should be able to take connector shuttle to Moraine lake any time from LL)- Possibly go to Moraine Lake PM –didn’t do Moraine Staying at Chateau Lake Louise |
| Day 4 | Hike to Tea house, possibly little beehive(just went to Tea house), and/or any hikes from lake louise for view from across hotel We have shuttle tickets to LL/Moraine lake 5pm -can use connector shuttle from LL to Moraine anytime –possibly go to Moraine lake PM Eat at Chateau at some point-did just grab and go (all restaurants are crazy expensive) Staying at Chateau Lake Louise |
| Day 5 | Sunrise at Moraine Lake- need to book-booked through Chateau Head to Banff Gondola by 11:50 (1 hour drive) Banff gondola – reservations made for up at 11:50am, down at 2:50pm- Eat at sky bistro at 1:30pm Explore town of Banff and visitor center/garden area (or run to it in the morning) Staying at Banff Park Lodge |
| Day 6 | AM more time in Banff , After lunch head to Many Glacier – 4-5 hour drive |
| Day 7 | Boat Tour reservation at 4:30pm- try to get tickets earlier by going to boat launch early morning so we don’t have to hike as far to Grinnell Glacier- otherwise hoping can take boat shuttle back, maybe hike the whole way there, use boats on the way back Stay at Many Glacier |
| Day 8 | Drive to West Glacier KOA along road to the Sun (we have lake McDonald reservation for boat tour for 1 to get on the road) –will try for road pass and cancel this if able –had to use boat tour to get on road-getting pass was impossible Stop at Logan Pass and red rock trail (maybe Virginia/hidden falls)-did hidden lake overlook-had to park at a different parking area on the road and use the shuttle-impossible to park at Logan pass any time of day. Eat at Swift Current –Nells Staying at West Glacier KOA- pool time (no pool, just dinner and bed) |
| Day 9 | Activities??-try to get reservations for going to sun road-had to use boat tour pass again-did Lake McDonald in AM and 1 mile into the Highline trail Pool time, and packed Car ready for early AM depart Friday Staying at West Glacier KOA |
| Day 10 | Start Driving home- no reservations made for lodging this night, think about where to stay and make reservations |
| Day 11 | Arrive home at 11am |