The Perfect Five Day Banff Winter Itinerary

Banff National Park is one of the most amazing places to visit in all of North America. How can you beat turquoise lakes, lush, coniferous forests, and snow capped mountains in the distance? The simple answer is, you can’t.

Our road trip through the Canadian Rockies in 2016 still stands as one of my favorite trips of all time. Since then, I’ve been dying to go back to Banff. My return never really felt like an “if”, but a “when” and that question answered itself this winter!

A Winter Adventure in Banff National Park

In February, a small group of my friends and I planned and booked a last minute trip to Banff on a whim. We only had to wait three weeks from the day we purchased our flights until we landed in Calgary. We all took three days off of work and paired it with a weekend to have a five day vacation in one of Canada’s most pristine national parks – the perfect amount of time to experience Banff while not feeling too rushed or too bored.

I have to say that experiencing the Rocky Mountains in the winter felt like a completely different experience from the summer. Our jaws dropped in awe everywhere we looked and we couldn’t stop smiling at the beauty surrounding us. With white, fluffy snow covering the mountains, trees, and houses, everything looked absolutely magical.

Even after five days, we were starstruck by the pristine winter beauty surrounding us. I didn’t think I could possibly enjoy Banff more than I did in the summer – but visiting it in the winter totally changed my mind!

Our Five Day Banff Winter Itinerary:

Our trip to Banff was absolutely perfect and I loved every minute of our time there. We loosely scheduled each day to incorporate one or two major activities and left the rest up to determine in the moment. It felt like the perfect balance of adventure and relaxation.

Overall, our goal was to have fun, make memories, and experience Banff in its winter grandeur – and we did just that! I’m super excited to share our five day itinerary for the perfect winter trip to Banff.

Day 1: Arrive and Explore Banff

February 6

Travel Day / Arrival in Banff
- - Milwaukee – Chicago – Calgary – Banff
Early evening hike on the Tunnel Mountain Trail
- - 3 miles, 1 hour
  - Out & back ridgeline hike
Grocery shop & cook dinner
Hang out at our resort’s outdoor hot tub
Overnight: Hidden Ridge Resort

Day 2: Hiking Johnston Canyon and Ice Skating on Lake Louise

February 7

Morning hike through Johnston Canyon to Upper Falls
- 3 miles, 2 hours
- Out & back forest trail
Lunch & drinks at Park Distillery
- Enjoyed the BEST gin & tonic I’ve ever had!
Twilight ice skating on Lake Louise
Post-skating drinks at the Alpine Social bar
End of the day soak in the hot tub
Overnight: Hidden Ridge Resort

Day 3: Snowshoeing and Scenic Drives Around Banff

February 8

Sunrise hot tub session
Snowshoeing up & picnicing on Sulphur Mountain
- 6 miles, 1,200 ft elevation gain, 4 hours
- Out and back mountain climb
Wander around and explore Banff town
Driving & sightseeing along the Bow Valley Parkway
- Stop along the way at the Baker Creek Bistro to enjoy drinks & apps
Dinner at Magpie & Stump
Overnight: Banff Park Lodge

Day 4: Skiing at Banff Sunshine Village

February 9

Full day of skiing at Banff Sunshine
Evening trip to the Banff Upper Hot Springs
Dinner at Ticino
Overnight: Banff Park Lodge

Day 5: Hiking at Lake Louise and Depart

February 10

Picnic breakfast from Good Earth Coffee House
Morning hike along Lake Louise
- 4 miles, 1.5 hours
- Out and back lakeside hike
Travel Day / Departure from Banff
- Banff – Calgary – Chicago – Milwaukee

All in all – five days felt like the perfect amount of time to explore Banff in the winter. If you’re making a long weekend trip out of this you can definitely squeeze a couple more things into each day and be more selective about your activities. If you have more time, you’ll easily be able to find more things to see and explore in the Banff area or even outside of it in areas such as the Icefields Parkway or Jasper National Park!

Planning a Winter Trip to Banff

Planning a winter trip to Banff is actually pretty painless and the lower tourist numbers make it even easier to coordinate a last minute trip like we did! Here’s some of the basics to consider:

Accommodation in Banff

You’ll easily find a variety of different winter accommodation types in Banff including traditional hotels, resorts, Airbnb properties, and even hostels!

We stayed at the Hidden Ridge Resort in the mountains just a few miles from Banff town for our first two nights and then at Banff Park Lodge in Banff proper for the second two nights.

We loved staying at Hidden Ridge Resort for the perks of having amazing views, a balcony and full kitchen in our suite, and the hot tub and sauna to relax in each night after the long days of adventuring in the cold. However, Banff Park Lodge downtown provided a ton of convenience in terms of exploring town during the day and experiencing different restaurants and nightlife in the evenings.

If it’s too hard or expensive to secure accommodation in Banff, you can also look into staying in Canmore a few miles away where you’ll still find the same variety of options.

Transportation for Visiting Banff

Logistically speaking, this trip is pretty easy to plan! From most destinations, it makes the most sense to fly into Calgary (YYC) and then rent a car to drive to and explore Banff National Park.

Although it is possible to get a shuttle from the airport to Banff and use local bus transportation around town, getting out and exploring is much harder without a vehicle. Unless you plan on staying at one resort for the duration of your stay, you’ll want your own set of wheels.

We rented from Hertz directly at the Calgary airport. It was the easiest and most simple option we could find and it got us on the road and on our way to Banff very quickly after arrival. Since we had four people splitting the cost of a car – we opted for the convenient, albeit, more expensive option in order to make the most of our time.

Another – much more budget friendly – option to consider for renting a car is Turo. Turo is a crowd-sourced car rental option, very similar to Airbnb, when you rent a car from another person instead of a rental company. We’ve used Turo on other trips and have absolutely loved it! For $25 off your first rental – use our referral link!

Banff on a Budget

In general, Banff is a very expensive place to visit. I usually keep a really tight tab on my expenses when I travel but after this trip I honestly didn’t even want to know! From $225 for a day of ski rentals and a lift ticket to $30 meals, and $14 mixed drinks – I know this trip really added up!

Although we didn’t really hold back on our spending, we did do a pretty good job of cutting costs where we could. Most days we were doing free or very cheap activities (such as hiking, snowshoeing, or sightseeing) and we tried to make our own meals twice a day to reach our goal of only eating one meal out per day. However, at our one meal out we didn’t really hold back in terms of treating ourselves to a nice cocktail or two!

If you’re trying to make this a budget trip, the easiest way would be to stock up on groceries at the Banff IGA Grocery Store to make some of your own meals and limit the amount of restaurants and bars you go to!

Gear Rentals in Banff

If you plan on doing any sort of outdoor activities like snowshoeing, skiing, or skating, you’ll likely need to rent some equipment (unless you’re able to drive and bring your own!)

For rentals, you’ll usually have the option of either renting equipment on location or from a third party rental shop and bringing it with you. We did a mix of both options and discovered that it’s definitely cheaper to rent from a third party – however, it’s much more convenient to rent on site.

For example, we paid $22 CAD to rent skates for two hours at Lake Louise from their rental chalet. If we would have rented them from Backtrax, a rental shop in Banff, the rental cost would have been $15 CAD for the full day. In hindsight – we should have rented from Backtrax but we had made a last minute decision to go to Lake Louise and didn’t consider all our options. Thankfully the price difference wasn’t too crazy!

On a different day, we rented our snowshoes from Backtrax and had a great experience with them. There are a few other rental options in town, but everyone we talked to recommended Backtrax for their cheap prices and great service.

Additional Banff Travel Resources:

Here are some of my favorite resources that we used to plan our winter trip to Banff (and many others!)

Banff Visitors Center

A great resource for any and all Banff related information. Although you can find almost all the information you need online, we stopped at one of the visitors centers to ask a few questions about trail conditions and general hike recommendations. The staff were insanely helpful and gave us great maps, resources, and local recommendations.

Winter Layering Guide

I’ve put together a guide for cold-weather clothing options and layering strategies from all of our other winter camping trips. Following my usual layering process I didn’t feel cold once during the entire trip and even managed to fit everything in a carry on!

Google MyMaps

MyMaps is a great tool for plotting out various interests/attractions and planning your next moves on the go. I always create a MyMap for each trip we go on to help organize everything I’m interested in or want to do. While out and about for the day, we’re able to look at the map and determine the best and most efficient way to see everything or add something new to our list if we get a local’s recommendation.

Momondo

Momondo is one of my favorite websites for finding cheap and efficient flights. We found an amazing flight deal on Momondo & snagged round trip tickets for under $400! The same flights we purchased were advertised on a different website for $100 more!

Turo

For simplicity and efficiency, on this trip we rented a car from a traditional rental company at the airport. However, if you want to save a significant amount of money on your rental car, we highly recommend renting from Turo – simply put, it’s a crowdsourced rental option for cars where you rent a personal car from a human instead of a large company.

A Winter Trip to Banff: The Perfect Five Day Itinerary