BEAUTIFUL BANFF AND LAKE LOUISE
We hopped on an Air Canada flight from London’s Heathrow to Calgary (approx. 8 hours) and had just over a one hour transfer to the beautiful town of Banff. Our lodging for the week was the 5 star Moose Hotel & Suites. Renovated within the last 5 years it’s a very modern hotel but with traditional features. We had a one bedroom suite (ideal for 3 of us) as the sofa in the lounge converts to a bed. Lovely fire in the lounge so a real cosy feel, small compact kitchen and nice balcony. I did get a chance to see the 2-bedroom suites too and these were lovely – ideal if we went again with our family of 5. But the icing on the cake and the reason I settled on the Moose Hotel is the rooftop hot tubs with panoramic views. Just what you need to ease sore muscles at the end of a day’s skiing.
As you would expect, it was incredibly cold in the Rockies in February - a lot colder than skiing in Europe. We were lucky the week we were there as I don’t think it went below -20 and many of the days had sunny blue skies. The previous week had seen -30 degrees. So this is a consideration if you are choosing to travel at this time of year. I don’t think we could have done it without having heated socks and heated gloves which we all got from Santa for Xmas. So, I’d recommend taking these if you do decide to take a trip here at this time of year.
Banff itself is a wonderful town. Fabulous in the winter but I’d also love to visit in the summer. Great shops and loads of restaurants and plenty of sights including taking the cable car up Sulphur Mountain to watch sunset which is a must do.
First day skiing was Mount Norquay, the nearest ski resort to Banff and only a 15 minute bus ride away. Buses are free to the ski resorts and they stop regularly outside each of the main hotels. Early on in our trip we decided to hire a car as we knew there were other sights we wanted to see such as the Chateau Lake Louise. Norquay is very compact and it was enough to only ski it once here just to get your ski legs back if, like us, you’d not skied in a year.
Next up was Banff Sunshine Village. A much more extensive ski resort than Norquay and I think we did a total of 2 days here over the 6 days skiing. Some great intermediate runs and great restaurants at the base village.
But we saved the best until last. Day 3 we took the 45 minute drive from Banff to Lake Louise. The drive itself through the Rockies along the glacier highway is simply stunning. The highway is regularly punctuated by bridges across the road….not for cars……but for the grizzlies! Lake Louise has plenty of skiing to keep you occupied for around 3 days as you have the back bowls as well as. One of the days we gave snowboarding a try which was fun for a change, although I won't be changing from skis anytime soon! Another great feature of Lake Louise which you don’t have at Norquay or Sunshine is slope side eateries. And some excellent ones at that. Our favourite was Whitehorn Bistro on the front bowls – stunning views over to Lake Louise and also fabulous food and hot chocolate (with a wee tipple in it obviously).
Ice skating on Lake Louise amongst the incredible ice sculptures and exquisite scenery was a pretty cool experience. Picture perfect with stunning blue skies and so quiet at this time of year. A visit to Lake Louise is a must do whilst skiing the Big 3.
As it was February we knew the chances of seeing the Northern Lights were high. I’d never seen the Northern Lights and suddenly I was eagerly watching all the Facebook updates. Everything was pointing to an event which would be visible from Lake Minnewanka. We set our alarms for 1am, put on plenty of cosy layers and excitedly set off in search of Miss Aurora. It was pitch black and so icy cold and we nervously waited outside whilst keeping car doors open in case we had to make a hasty escape from grizzlies. We did find Miss Aurora that night and she was absolutely spectacular. Thankfully no grizzlies!
Skiing the Big 3 is truly unique and very different to your usual European ski trip. For us it was a very special trip as it had so much more than just skiing. And it has truly whetted our appetite for more Canadian adventures including ones that do feature grizzlies…….from a safe distance of course. Fancy something a little different for your next ski adventures?
