4 Days Banff + Jasper Trip Summary Jasper, Summary, Trip, Days, Banff

布小熊

I want to do a quick summary for the trip before I forget. I will do a day to day first.

Day 1
- Took Canada Line from hotel to airport ($2 only!!!) for early flight to Calgary.
- Arrived in YYC and picked up rental car from airport. a bit shock to find Lost and Damage waver insurance cost @ $35/day but we got a good deal on the rental itself and my friend only has an international DL. We got a Toyota Matrix with only 8000km on it!

- Drove to Banff and missed an exit.... @@ drove up and then down the Bow Valley Parkway for an hour. (stupid GPS!)

By the time we arrived at Banff it's late (~1:30pm) and were HUNGARY. We were surprised to find The Eddie Burger and Bar! Really good burgers and great fries. (esp yam fries)



We went to the info centre and got some instructions and maps. Then we headed off to the Surphur Mountain Gondola. We were shock to find the price of the ride $29 (instead of $19 in my guide book). But well we still went up. Spent some time wondering around and taking pictures.


We left for the Banff Spring Hotel and just walked around. I saw a red Ferrari and took a picture of it.


We check into our hotel/lodge. It's a bit older than we thought and there were some very lound young kids around ... I guess cos it's near some ski slopes...Luckily they don't stay near our unit. The wood fireplace in the sitting room was fun and smoky haha. We were too full to have proper dinner so we ate at the food court on our first night.  

Catpiano

Oh ..  few weekend ago .. Exotic club was there .. you could see few Eno, MC12, CCG those super cars...

tofu

Took Canada Line from hotel to airport ($2 only!!!)
should it be either $2.5 or $1.75?

will your damage insurance cost lower if you use your bcdl?

how much do you pay for your hotel ar?

布小熊

Took Canada Line from hotel to airport ($2 only!!!)
should it be either $2.5 or $1.75?

will your da ...
tofu 發表於 2010-5-26 08:27 PM

$2 cos I use my old faresaver tickets ^_^ $1.90 to be exact
BC DL will be the same insurance cost but if I am the only driver, I can use my Visa card's coverage and not buy the extra insurance.
this time both me and my friend drove. (bcdl + international dl)
hotel is about $150 per day.

Catpiano

We were thinking to go Banff or Edmonton during the long weekend .. but since we went Banff 2 weeks ago ... so we did go Edmonton ..

Otherwise, you might see me there ...  lol

hium

Burger and fries looks yummy!!!!

tofu

回復 4# 布小熊

oh ic, but be careful of the visa card insurance, so many restrictions.

布小熊

Day 2

We got up and had breakfast at our room as planned. Haha found out that there was no cooking oil in the kitchen... so we use the non-stick pan and fried the sausages and then did scramble eggs, made toast and coffee.

After breakfast, we drove to Lake Louise. It was pretty early (around 10am) so the parking lot was pretty empty. We walked along the frozen lake (as expected) and took lots of pictures. We chatted and catched up during the walk as well.


After the long stroll, we went to the Chateau Lake Louise and found out that their pretty lunch restaurant was fully booked.

We were hungry by then and decided not to wait and drove down to find something to eat.

Very close to Chateau Lake Louise is the Deer Lodge. The restaurant looked closed and quiet. So I dropped off my friends and they went in and found the place acutally open (and had another table of customers inside). So we had our lunch there and it was surprisingly good!
It's called the Caribou Lounge.





After lunch we drove to Moraine Lake. It's MORE frozen than Lake Louise. But some ppl wore flip flops and shorts there while we were in our thick fleece... @@


We braved ourselves and tried to walk up a snowy trail but... didn't make very far.

We then headed to Johnston Canyon which is on our way back to Banff. It's a very easy and nicely paved path to the waterfall.


We drove back to Banff, got changed and then went to the Upper Hotsprings and soak up! It's a pretty good outdoor pool. Not super hot. (it said 39C but we didn't feel that)

We had dinner at Saltlik... which was expensive and only alright.... I was too hungry to take picture by then... and they were just plain steaks.

Catpiano

Yee .. Deer Lodge, never tried ..   I should try it next time .. ^_^

布小熊

Day 3
Plan for day 3 is simple, planned to pick up sandwiches for lunch before we drive up the Bow Valley Parkway to Jasper.
We drove pass a few more frozen lakes





We got sandwiches from WildFlour bakery. It's pretty good but I wished we had ordered it "not grilled". Sandwiches got chewy after being grilled then cool. We got tickets for the Columbia Icefield Explorer ride and then had lunch at the icefield centre. It was raining when we got off the big wheels explorer... But it turned sunny in a few mins! MukMuk took a picture there!



After the icefield, we continue our drive to Jasper. On the way, we stopped by another set of waterfalls. This is very close to parking and again a nice and short walk to the view points.



We arrived at Patricia Lake Bungalow and were surprised by how nice and new our room is. Unlike most of the older bungalows, our room is in one of the new houses built in 2009! It has fancy shower and gas fireplace. We settled down and then took a short walk to the lake. It was SO quiet and peaceful. I think this lake will be packed with ppl doing watersports in the summer. Patricia Lake is about 10 min drive from Jasper town.
   

As suggested by the hostess, we had dinner at Papa George's Restaurant in Jasper town. Steak dinner was only $15 including a glass of wine. The steak was not bad considering the price (vs what we had at Saltlik the night before)


We also swing by Pyramid Lake just few min from Patricia Lake and saw the prettiest reflection on the calm lake at sunset.