Banff and Jasper road trip

One of the most beautiful drives in the world is through the Canadian Rockies. Especially the onward journey from Banff to Jasper. It was absolutely mesmerizing, with roads that are surrounded by rugged and snow-capped mountains, cloud sprinkled blue skies and oh so lovely turquoise lakes.

The best time to visit Banff is from June to August. We chose to travel in the 3rd week of June, which is said to be the first weekend of the summer and it was not very crowded. It made a huge difference as you will see later in this post. The city roads were newly reconstructed for summer tourists and felt very welcoming and fresh.

In this post, I document our itinerary, factors which went into deciding where to go, what to do and a breakdown of our expenses for our 5-day trip. I traveled with my husband so all expenses are for the two of us and in CAD. I hope this post helps you plan your trip to Banff and Jasper. Let’s get started.

Seattle to Calgary

Seattle to Calgary flight: $391 

Airbnb stay: $61 

Rental Car: $336 

We started our trip on Wednesday evening, June 20th. We reached Calgary by flight and stayed overnight at an Airbnb for $61 a night.  We had our dinner at a Punjabi restaurant just below our apartment.

Day 1 | Calgary – Jasper

Budget-Day 1

Banff National Park entry: $19.60

We covered Bow Lake, Saskatchewan River, Athabaska Falls on our way to Jasper.

Breakfast |9:00 am at Diner Delux | We could not have asked for a better start to our trip. We were served huge pancakes and garden omelet.

Bow lake|12:35 -1:52 pm|This beautiful curved lake lies next to the Ice-fields Parkway between Lake Louise and Peyto Lake. There’s a reasonably prominent place to park with several bathrooms and a resort with a gift shop and deli.

Tips: You might find people stopping on the left side on the road before the lodge. Keep driving and park at the lodge instead. Wear summer clothes, keep a handy jacket in case it gets cold. It was sunny when we started our trip at 78° F.

Saskatchewan River | 2:10 – 3:10 pm | Fantastic spot for photography, it offers an expansive view of the valley and river in it. It was not crowded and was a very peaceful place to take a break from the drive. We took some beautiful picture and had some good time enjoying the view.

Beautiful stop #1| 4:20 – 4:50 pm |This was one of the most beautiful locations where we stopped on the way. It offered an amazing view of the zig-zag roads that we had left behind. It was pouring so we parked our car and took shelter under our boot door which was facing the view of the valley.

Athabasca Falls | 5:35 – 6:20 pm | The falls were raging and it wasn’t even at its peak according to the locals. Take your time to walk around and see the fall from every angle. It is simply amazing what nature has done here and the photo below does not do justice to its magnificence. 

Jasper | 7:00 pm | We reached Jasper at 7:00 pm, left our luggage at Airbnb and rushed out to have dinner since we didn’t have lunch during the day. We had to wait in a queue for about an hour, but the food was worth the wait. We had fantastic food at Evil’s Dave Restaurant. Make sure you have a good cellular network. At&t was working and T-mobile was not working in Jasper.

Day 2 | Jasper – Budget- Day 2

Tram & Breakfast: $94

Maligne Lake Cruise :  $155

Sky-tram to Whistler Mountain| 9:40, 20 mins drive from Jasper | Riding the Sky tram to the top is a must do. Once you reach the top, you will experience a breathtaking panoramic view. Book your tickets in advance to get free breakfast. Go for a hike and sit at the red mountain chair. We spent 3 hours in total and were back by noon. It was not very cold as it gets hot once you start hiking, carry a jacket that you can wrap around your waist.

Drive to Maligne lake  | We started at 12:15 pm and saw many bear and deer on the way. It was a great experience to see a bear walking just beside your car. The route was very scenic with lakes and mountain.

Maligne lake cruise to Spirit Island | 2:20  – 5:15 pm | (Book your tickets in advance)  Before our cruise started, we had lunch in the restaurant located at the cruise port.

The fact that Spirit Island is surrounded on three sides by the same mountain range is very rare and makes it particularly significant. The view is serene and majestic at Spirit Island. Tour takes about 35 min to get to spirit island; we spend 15 min there, then 35 min back. You can stand outside on the back of the boat for most of the trip. Our guides provided just the right amount of history and added some fun stories. Views are unique from what you can see from the shoreline.

We came back and had hot coffee with a beautiful view of the lake.

Maligne Canyon | 6:20 – 8:40 | Just amazing to see what nature has achieved over millions of years, beautifully carved rock scooped out and millions of gallons of water rushing through.

Maligne Canyon has 6 bridges, You can do 1,2 & 3 together and visit 5th and 6th by car.

Depending on how far you are willing to “hike.” Trails are easy enough for most people to navigate but not adequate for those with motor limitations.
We walked to 1,2,3,4 & 5th bridge— some slight elevations on the path.
We chose to drive to see bridge 6. You could also drive to bridge 5 if you are short on time.
Worth the stop and a beautiful way to spend a couple of hours!

Lake Edith and Lake Annette| 9:00 – 9:30 pm | We reached both the lakes by the end of the day before heading back to Jasper for dinner. Lake Edith is a lovely and serene place to visit. We reached there when it was getting dark. It was so quiet and beautiful, set against the mountains. We fell in love with the location and decided to come back in the morning again.

Dinner: Cassiano Italian Restaurant: The ambiance was nice and relaxing. The food was great too.

Day 3 | Jasper to Banff 

Columbia Icefield Tour including the Glacier Skywalk: $188

We started our day by shopping for souvenirs in Jasper and had breakfast at a bakery. We reached Lake Edith again as planned on the previous day. We took some fantastic pictures at the lake and headed to…

Sunwapta Falls and Canyon | 12:45 – 2:00 pm | Take exit 93 to reach the fall. All nature in the Rockies is impressive and breathtaking. So are the Sunwapta falls. The upper falls are practically next to the parking lot, and hardly any walking is needed to enjoy them. The lower falls require about 20 minutes of easy trail walking down a minor decline (which you will have to go up to get back to the car). A nice and easy path to an enjoyable set of waterfalls. The trail is well marked.

Columbia Icefield Tour including the Glacier Skywalk | 2:40 — 7:00 pm |Book online and be on time, we missed our tour by 5 mins, which was at 2:45 pm, so we had to wait for the next ride. We had lunch while waiting for the bus till 4:30 pm.

It was freezing on the Glacier, so keep your jacket. Also, keep a clean empty bottle to fill glacier water in it. The water is very clean and safe to drink so, don’t forget to experience it. The ride was very informative and enjoyable. The bus would take you through a mud hill.

The skywalk was amazing with mountain sheep climbing below the skywalk.

Peyto Lake (follow signs to bow summit) | 8:00–8:25 pm| The view from the top is just majestic; you could see the reflection of the mountains in blue water. Just make sure to apply mosquito repellent as there were many mosquitos in the evening. The Peyto lake location is not very clear on the map, Follow signs to bow summit and park in bow summit parking and hike for 7 minutes to arrive at Peyto Lake.

Drive to Banff: |8:25- 9:35 |Dinner at Masala Authentic Indian Cuisine: The food was excellent, we enjoyed our yummy dinner after a long hectic day.

We headed to our beautiful stay at Canmore Airbnb 20 min drive from Banff and reached at 11:30 at night. Even though our stay was beautiful, it would have been better to stay in Banff city to avoid 40 mins to and fro drive.

Day 4- Banff

Ticket to Cave and Basin, National historic site: $50

We had breakfast at home provided at our Airbnb. As we were exhausted from the last day, we overslept and left home at 12:00

Cave and Basin, National historic site|1:00 |We enjoyed our little walkthrough here. It was more of a smelly (sulfur) museum with crystal clear water. Great displays and continuous movie displays. Ponds and boardwalks are great with information boards placed everywhere.

Bow falls |2:20 -3:15|Despite the fact that Bow Falls drops just 30-feet. It was very spectacular to feel little water droplets spray on your face.

Early Dinner at Indian curry restaurant |4:00 –5:00 pm| The food was delicious. We spent some time walking and exploring the street shops.

Lake Louise | 6:30 pm |The canoe ride closes by 8 pm. If you want to enjoy the ride in the lake make sure you are in the line by 6:30 pm. It is so beautiful; I think it’s the most stunning lake I have ever seen. Make sure you go on a canoe ride – it’s magical being out there on the lake. The landscape and colors are incredible.

Moraine Lake(Sunset Point) | 8:30 -10:30pm | A beautiful lake, stunning reflections and framed by 10 mountain peaks. This was one of our favorite things we did on our trip to Canada. When you get there, be sure to take the boulder trail to get a more expansive view of the lake and the mountain peaks. The 400m trail is relatively steep, but well maintained with clear paths and stairs.

We reached moraine lake for capturing sunset view. You need to get there early (around 8 pm) to have a chance of parking. You can choose if you want to visit during the sunset or sunrise. I have heard that sunrise is more beautiful than sunset as the sun rays fall directly on the mountain peak in the morning.

We reached back home at 11:30.

Day 5| Canmore to Calgary airport

Massage: $190

Flight: $397.35

We had a great massage at Relaxus massage in Banff. There is no better way to end a trip.

Lunch at the Italian restaurant – The Old Spaghetti Factory (Banff)!

Started for the airport at 2:00 pm.

Calgary  to  Seattle by flight.

Total expenses for the trip —  Excluding food($400 USD)

$1831 in $CAD

$1360 in $USD