Fairmont Banff Springs – 2

In the morning of our 2nd day at the Fairmont Banff Springs, we had a wonderful breakfast at Sock Food & Drink which is located just off of the lobby of the hotel. You know it is good when you run into locals grabbing their breakfast there too!

Everything on the menu looked amazing and having the breakfasts display did not make choosing any easier. I decided to go with the Corned Beef Sandwich.

It was so good that I also got it again in the morning of our last day (the third morning) before heading to Kelowna for the night before returning to Vancouver.

After breakfast, we headed to Banff Gondola to do a little hiking and take in the views from atop Sulphur Mountain. Don’t worry, it did not smell like sulfur (it is also spelled differently) and I am not quite sure why it is called this, so if this is a concern, don’t worry.

We drove from the hotel to the base of the gondola and it took about 10 minutes. Parking was free.

We had purchased our tickets online the night before and it also allows you to reserve the time for which you would like to get on the gondola. As it was not busy this day, reserving the time didn’t really matter,

View on the way up the mountain. There were also hiking and biking trails that we could see below the gondola as we went up.

As we reached the peak, the views became more and more spectacular. The river below is the Bow River.

The gift shop.

The main observation deck has many places to sit back and enjoy the view, including a view gas fire pits as the temperature at this altitude was a little cooler.

Here is an aerial shot of the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel with the Bow River running behind it.

There were wooden walkways from summit to summit allowing for easy access for people of all capabilities.

Here is a view of the Gondola Station at the top of Sulphur Mountain.

We saw many chipmunks.

We spent a lot of time enjoying the views before making our way back to the gondola.

We returned to the hotel and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool.

There is an outdoor pool at the back of the hotel that provides some great views. There is also an indoor pool located just inside (under the solarium you see in the photo below.

On our second morning, we had breakfast in the main restaurant of the hotel.

As this was during Covid-19 in the summer of 2020, they had placed mannequins at the tables they were using as buffer zones between guests. An interesting idea, but a little creepy without the heads…

After breakfast, we explored the area around the hotel as we had no specific plans.

The hotel offers horseback riding on trails around the area of the hotel.

The hotel also has a private indoor pool and outdoor jacuzzi.

After staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs, we headed back West towards Vancouver. To break up the drive, we decided to stay in a hotel on Lake Okanagan in Kelowna, BC. It was a hotel that we had researched and reserved online a few months before our trip. We had not heard of it before, but the reviews were good and the photos on their site looked wonderful.

The reason we needed to research a hotel we had not heard of previously is that, with Covid-19, hotels were operating with a reduced occupancy rate and the hotels we were interested in were already full. However, we were very happy with our selection of the Manteo at Eldorado Resort.

After a week of being surrounded by trees and mountains, it was refreshing to be right next to the lake. The view from our room was gorgeous.

As you walk along the boardwalk, you move from the Manteo to the Eldorado Resort which are in the same property group.

We had dinner at the Eldorado and were lucky enough to get a table right next to the water.

We had breakfast the next day at the Kelowna Yacht Club. You need a membership, or a be a member of an affiliated club in a global network to gain access.

After breakfast, we headed back to Vancouver.

In total, we spent 9 days and 8 nights on our Western Canada trip in August of 2020. It was a spectacular trip and we likely would not have taken it if it weren’t for the Coronavirus. We definitely won’t be holding back in exploring Canada more often after learning what is here in our own country to enjoy.

Perhaps Jasper next time… The only real disappointment on this trip was that we did not really see any large wild animals, like bears, moose, etc. We heard that Jasper is is really the place to go for this.

By booking the Fairmont Banff Springs through me, my clients can receive the following amenities in 2021:

• • Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
  • Daily Full breakfast for two guests per bedroom, served in Restaurant
  • $100 USD equivalent Food & Beverage credit to be utilized during stay (not combinable, no cash value if not redeemed in full)
  • Authentically local welcome gift
  • Early check-in/late check-out subject to availability
  • Complimentary Wi-Fi

To book the Fairmont Lake Louise, please contact me through my website here.