Winter Wonderland in Lake Louise
A great perk in the consulting world is alt travel. While I was working in the Prairies, I took advantage of this perk by staying the weekend in Lake Louise and Banff. I admit, this is a bit of a weird blog post to write since it was so intrinsically tied with Valentine’s and birthday celebrations for my ex. But we carry on!
The other negative aspect about this trip was we were both totally incompetent with driving, so we took inconvenient public transport from place-to-place. At least it was just a long weekend.
Lake Louise
View from the room.
To start, we took an early morning bus from Calgary and arrived in Lake Louise around 10 am. I took the Friday off. Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is kind of separate from the rest of Banff, so it was a lot more convenient to eat at the hotel (again: no car). If BCG didn’t comp the accommodation, a weekend here would’ve run >$1,000! I also made some lovely arrangements for birthday surprises. They gave us charcuterie and champagne as a welcome gift (+ lake-facing room upgrade).
We got a quick snack at the 24/7 cafe at the Fairmont, then took a shuttle to Lake Louise Ski Resort. The timing was good for a half-day pass. Here, I decided to try snowboarding for the first time! It was SUCH a waste, and I deeply regret not just skiing here instead. It was a mission-and-a-half: my snowboard went rogue zipping down the hill at one point, and my first run took two hours to complete. On the other hand, super long runs like that would’ve been amazing as a skier. In Ontario, we always spend so much time queueing for low-quality outdoor lifts. Here, the gondola was so much nicer. The mountain was also more than 10x higher than Mt. St. Louis Moonstone or Horseshoe. I ended up giving up after the first run to sit and eat some poutine at the chalet. I was coaxed to give it another shot, and the second run was a lot better. I probably should’ve taken a lesson instead of relying on tacit knowledge, but at least Dan was a patient teacher.
After the snowboarding foray, we enjoyed the hotel birthday gifts and watched the sequel to To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. To cap off the evening, I booked a special birthday dinner: we ate at Wallister Stube (the fancy Swiss-themed restaurant at the Fairmont), sharing steak as a main and fondue (both cheese and chocolate)! It was surprisingly a good amount of food.
The next day, we booked a Johnston Canyon ice falls hike through the hotel (which was helpful for the transport and because they provided us with crampons). It was really fun and informative. I’d never seen falls that were half-frozen into icicles and half-flowing before. Check out these ice climbers!
I would definitely recommend going early. As we were departing, the canyon started getting crowded. As the first group in, the whole place was very calming. We also lucked out with the weather. There was beautiful morning sunlight, and the temperature was moderate. We had pleasant conversations with our tour mates, who were couples from Colorado and Iowa.
Afterwards, we ate at the Alpine Social restaurant at the hotel. In my memory, the burger here was pretty good. But when I came back a few years later, I was less of a fan. Have my tastebuds evolved, or has the restaurant regressed? Such a mystery.
Next, we met up with Mikaela and Yohann to visit Abraham Lake for the methane ice bubbles! They were staying in Banff and had a car (again: very helpful!!). It was a fun trip full of Taylor Swift, thoughtful conversations, and an introduction to Arc’teryx. All the online guided tour options were $440 per person, and I definitely would not spend that amount to visit this place. We spent the afternoon sliding down the icy slopes and driving through beautiful nature. At times, the visibility became limited, but thankfully we made it through safely.
For dinner, we went to Lake Louise Station restaurant! Andrew O’Connor recommended it to me because it was a converted train car-turned-restaurant. Tina Chiang worked there at the time, so she was able to arrange a last-minute reservation for us. It was a bit of a wacky experience having her as my server. We got drinks with her afterwards the the Outpost, which is the pub at the Post hotel (where BCG MDPs like to stay in Banff). It kind of felt like Cheers, where everybody knew Tina. She treated us to maple whiskey sours, and it was cool to hear about such a different lifestyle. It’s crazy to realize how far our paths have diverged since middle school.
My favourite dish at the Lake Louise Station restaurant was their French onion soup. I dreamed about it for years after.
To cap off the night, I was really disappointed we didn’t get a chance to see the ice sculptures at the hotel. Lake Louise gets converted into a veritable winter wonderland when the lake is frozen over, so there’s a skating rink and a bunch of cool ice sculptures. Despite tiredness, I rallied the troops to take a look at them.
Banff
The next day, we took a public bus to Banff for only $8! Public transit ROCKS. Banff is a much more touristy town. It felt more walkable with a main street strip. We sat in a café for a bit and decided to book the Banff Gondola. I was originally planning to skip it, but people highly recommended it — and it was the right call! Trust the locals. The gondola booking was for the afternoon, so we started off with a scenic walk to the Cave and Basin (Canada’s first national historic site).
Banff in the winter is totally pleasant for a 40-minute walk, so long as the sun is shining and you’re dressed for the weather. The Cave and Basin wasn’t that cool, but it was very cheap! For a touristy place, that was a surprising theme around Banff.
Meanwhile, the Banff Gondola was STUNNING. We managed to arrive minutes before the Northern Lights buffet closed for lunch. It was a great deal at just $19 per person (AYCE). The viewing deck had a bunch of cute photo spots. It got pretty cold outside (with the elevation and all), but the weather got better as we walked to the astronomy outpost.
That evening, we went to the Banff Upper Hot Springs for a soak. It was super affordable ($5 entry, or included with the Cave and Basin pass!), but it was PACKED. The line to get in was long, and there were so many people in the little hot spring. I question the cleanliness of the place — especially since we felt quite itchy afterwards.
That evening, we tried getting conveyor belt sushi and pan-Asian fusion tapas. Unfortunately, I think Banff in general was full of people for the long weekend. Instead, we went to a pho place for bubble tea. Since it was suspiciously empty, we didn’t eat here. All the ethnic food in Banff seemed to be beside one another — the Chinese Bamboo Kitchen, Vietnamese Pho House, Indian Curry, and a shawarma place were on the same street. Only in Banff can you find Indian food beside elephant pants at a tourist shop. It was giving... Thailand?!
Giving up on the local restaurants, we ordered two appetizers for dinner: tomato soup and grilled calamari as room service. We ate it by the fire at the hotel, which made for a pleasant end to the night.
The next day, we took a bus back to Calgary. Honestly, I was surprised at our ability to mobilize around Banff without a car. We finally found our bullet train sushi, and I shared the magic of Made By Marcus ice cream. By then we felt a little cold (perhaps because of the ice cream? OH WELL, it was worthwhile) and pretty much ended the trip there. Overall, it was a lovely weekend touring the vicinity around my case. I’m glad I made the most of working out in Calgary with a fun alt-travel weekend!
Trip date: Feb 14-17, 2020