Banff National Park - 5 must-visit places for first time travelers + bonus Aurora Lights!!

Come along with us to discover the breath-taking beauty of Banff National Park!
It was a 4-day 3 nights trip in early August 2024. Here you can find more info about the places we had visited in this trip:
📍Place to stay:
We flew to Calgary, Canada and stayed in an airbnb condo in Canmore, which is around the mid-point between Calgary and Banff. maps.app.goo.g...
📍Bow Lake
If you are going to Peyto lake from Canmore, there is an incredibly beautiful lake called Bow Lake right next to the highway! You won't miss it and we highly highly recommend you make a stop there and enjoy it as much as possible! (In our opinion it is more worth going than Peyto lake, which is more famous)
There are bathrooms in Bow Lake parking lot and they are clean!
maps.app.goo.g...
📍Peyto Lake
There is a 10-15 minutes hike from the parking lot up to Peyto lake. The hike was quite steep and because of the elevation, try to walk slowly. There was a less steep but a bit longer route if you make a left turn at the sign. We chose to take the shorter but steeper route.
There were A LOT of people at Peyto Lake and not much you could explore besides taking quick photos amongst the crowds and taking a quick look down at the lake.
📍Town of Banff
maps.app.goo.g...
There are lots of shops, cafes and restaurants in Banff downtown. Most places are pretty expensive and food was just okay.
We would recommend Ramen Arashi if you are up for ramen. It's very authentic but wait could be long.
maps.app.goo.g...
📍Banff Gondola
maps.app.goo.g...
Banff Gondola is about 10 minutes drive from downtown. It's good idea to buy tickets online because the ticket line is long. They only allow you to start lining up at the exact time of your ride. So if you arrive early, you can hang out in the gift shop or grab coffee at the Starbucks and wait until your scheduled time.
Each gondola can fit up to 4 adults.
🧊 Once arrive at the top, there are some viewpoints and a visitor center. There are shops, a small theater, and some interactive activities for the kids inside. If you bring your own water bottle, there is free water fountain/refill station inside and DO FILL YOUR BOTTLE WITH THAT WATER!!! The water was sourced straight from the mountain and it was the best tasting, most refreshing ice water from a water fountain LOL
📍Sanson's peak
maps.app.goo.g...
From the visitor center, you can hike further up to Sanson's peak. The trail is paved as you can see from the video. However, since the elevation is high, do hike at your comfortable pace and bring water!!
It was a fun hike and the view along the trail is amazing!
📍Lake Louise
maps.app.goo.g...
This is THE most iconic spot in Banff!
For Lake Louise, parking lots fill up before sunrise and remain full until sunset.
Moraine Lake Road is closed to personal vehicles year round.
So the best way is to take buses, shuttles, or private tour vehicles to get there.
We took the Park Canadas shuttle to Lake Louise. The reservation process is quite complicated.
parks.canada.c...
- First, you cannot make a reservation more than 2 days ahead AND reservations can be made beginning at 8:00am Mountain Daylight Time. So 2 days before your planned visit before 8am MDT, create an account on parks.canada.ca and then
a. go to the reservation page reservation.pc...
b. select Day Use
c. select "
Shuttle to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake"
d. Follow the rest of the instructions
In our case, we were not able to reserve online due to either people took the spots in split seconds after it opened up or technical issues with the site.
So we ended up pushing our visit by a day later and called Parks Canada DIRECTLY the next morning, about 5 minutes before 8am MDT, and the staff was able to reserve 5 spots for us successfully!
So I'd recommend contacting them directly to make the reservation if you plan on going during peak seasons.
reservation.pc...
📍 Moraine Lake
maps.app.goo.g...
Be sure to hike up to the Rock Pile trail if you can!!! The view from there is absolutely breath-taking and incredible!!
Boat ride is very pricy! $160/hour for one canoe that can fit 3 adults.
But IMO it is worth it for a once-in-a-life kind of experience because you can get real close to the glacier view and the lake is just so calm and beautiful!
It was a wonderful trip, and we would definitely come back again!
Thanks again for watching! If you have questions or more tips to share, please comment down below!

[@m-y-journey]

Be sure to check out the description for more details on the logistics and tips! Feel free to comment if you have further questions or recommendations to share! Thank you for watching!