Author Archives: Dave Hodson

Day 8 – Skiing at Lake Louise

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After an early breakfast in the lounge, we got suited up for a day of skiing.  Our plan for our ski days in the Rockies, was to ski at Lake Louise Ski Resort.  This meant a 45-minute run up the highway from Banff to Lake Louise to start our day.  Next year, it will be my turn to choose where we stay during our ski trip, and we’ll stay the entire time at the Chateau Lake Louise!
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No less than 30 seconds away from our hotel, we were met with a short road block.  A big buck elk was just standing in the middle of the main road.  After a short while, he wandered off through some trees and into a residential area.  We didn’t have our cameras out, but managed to film this short video as he was moving away.

Continuing on our way, we made it to the Lake Louise Ski Area and headed out to the lifts.

It was a mostly overcast day, with light snow, so I don’t have a lot of great pictures to share from the day. However, the ski conditions were excellent!
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When it came to lunch time, we decided to eat at Whitehorn Bistro, a new restaurant which sits mid-mountain on the upper floor of the Whitehorn Lodge. It was nice having a full service dining restaurant, even accepting reservations, on the ski hill. That’s a pleasant change from the hectic cafeterias found at most ski areas.

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After lunch, we continued our day of skiing.

Once finished skiing for the day, we thought we’d take a quick drive over to Lake Louise and see her in winter.

Below is the famous ice castle, which is built on the lake every year. There were also several ice carvings around the shoreline, which were created as part of the ice carving contest held a few weeks earlier.

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They even had an ice bar!

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We took several photos, but due to the heavy cloud cover, they didn’t turn out too great. We’ll come back here later in the week, when we will hopefully have some sun.

Back in Banff, we had reservations at our favourite restaurant in the Rockies, Castello, which is one of the restaurants in the Banff Springs Hotel.  We enjoyed a nice dinner and went to bed after a long and very full day.

Day 7 – Vancouver to Banff

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We had a mid-morning flight from Vancouver to Calgary, and since we stayed in the airport last night, it was a leisurely and stress-free trip checking in for our flight! After checking out of the hotel, we pickup our luggage from the bell desk and walked to the domestic check-in, breezed through the formalities and headed to the Maple Leaf Lounge early to have our breakfast.

Upon arrival in Calgary, we picked up our rental van and headed for the mountains. We’ll be spending the next 5 nights at the Fairmont Banff Springs, which has become our go-to place to stay in Banff. We have a favourite room here, which is a nice one-bedroom suite on the 6th floor with views down the valley, that we have booked many times. For a change, we decided to book a suite on the gold floor. We’ve stayed on Fairmont Gold at many other properties, but never at Banff. To be completely honest, I probably wouldn’t bother with that again at Banff. The suite wasn’t any nicer than our ‘usual’ suite, and while it is great having the lounge as a place to eat and relax, I found it too large and busy

The gold lounge at other Fairmont properties has an elegant and cosy feeling to it. Fairmont Gold at Banff takes up the entire 5th floor and half of the 4th, and they even have a second lounge to accommodate the many rooms with access. The lounge itself was very well designed, the food offerings were excellent and the staff were very helpful. It was just too busy, and because of that, and the fact that our suite wasn’t any better than our usual suite, I don’t believe it was worth the premium over the non-Gold suites in the hotel.

We spent the day enjoying Banff and relaxing at the hotel.

Day 6 – Whistler to Vancouver

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Today is the day we leave Whistler and head for Vancouver for our flight Calgary. As our flight is the following morning, we’re in no particular rush to leave Whistler, however, the weather today is giving us nothing but rain. Therefore, we decided to head out to Vancouver shortly after breakfast. We didn’t stop at the many scenic sites along the highway, as mother nature just isn’t cooperating. If it’s not the rain, it’s the thick fog!

We arrived in Vancouver, and while the rain has mostly stopped, we thought we’d see a bit of Vancouver under its overcast skies, including stopping for lunch at Granville Island.

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After lunch, we continued to browse around the market. Below, Nadine looks for some snacks to take back to the hotel.

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After spending a couple of hours at Granville Island, we drove around Vancouver a bit before heading to our hotel. For convenience of our flight tomorrow, we’re staying at the Fairmont in the Vancouver Airport. This allows us to drop the rental car today, basically at our hotel, and store all of our luggage and ski equipment with the hotel bellman, ready for the flight tomorrow. This certainly beats having an additional move and lugging everything from a downtown hotel.

We got settled in our room, with a nice view across the runways and with the ocean in the distance.

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I was surprised by the hotel facilities, which include an indoor pool, considering that we’re in an airport. After some exploring, we had a late dinner at the airport and relaxed for the evening.