Banff

Here we go again. . . another ski vacation. This time, Banff. I had wanted to go in the summer but we could not swing it with Africa, so I convinced Andy to go in winter and go skiing/snowboarding! I had wanted to stay at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, but besides the price, it did not seem like a good location to get to skiing/snowbarding easily. It also did not have a variety of restaurants close by. We did, however, drive there one day and take a hike around and on the frozen lake. It was beautiful and I definitely want to go back in the summer and hike. We ended up choosing the Banff Ptarmigan Inn. We chose it for price and one bus line to skiing/snowboarding. We were right in town and could walk to restaurants, but they also had an on-site restaurant if we didn’t feeling like walking. They also had underground garages for your car. Important to us as we were not sure what the rental car company would offer. They had hot tubs, so we were in. Tip: Decide what is important to you in a hotel and what is not that important and agree on price. We flew into Calgary and drove out that day to Banff. Make sure you research or know about where you are going. If you are going to the town of Banff you are in within Banff National Park. This means you need a park pass for the time you are there. You just go to Banff National Park and you can purchase your pass there. You will need it printed out to gain access to the park. We had a great pizza at Farm and Fire that we still make at home.

This was a great quick get-away. On the way home we spent the night in Calgary by the airport for convenience. We drove around and had a great late lunch and a couple of great beers at Brewsmith Brewing. The bartender/server was super friendly and offered us suggestions on which beers to try. We then went to get dessert from Eclair de Lune. Let me just say, yum. We went in for one thing to split and came out with 4. They all looked so good! We then decided we should probably walk some of this great food and drink off so we went for a walk along The River Walk. We then headed back to the hotel to rest and get ready for our flight home the next day.

This was a great short trip. It was also our first trip with lounge access, and let me just say I created a monster (Andy loves them!). I will tell you in upcoming posts how to get lounge access. Tip: Find a way to get lounge access if that is something that matters to you. I will admit that they are very nice and it has certainly helped elevate back pain (since the chairs are better than the airport chairs).