The Town of
Banff is about 90 minutes from Calgary via the Trans Canada Highway,
and less than two hours from Calgary International Airport.
Banff and the surrounding Banff National Park are among the most
popular summer vacation destinations in North America, with resplendent
mountain vistas under the Alberta blue sky. Banff's peak season is July
and August, when warm temperatures average between 21-22 C (70-72 F).
Banff, along with Jasper, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks and four
adjacent provincial parks, form the UNESCO Canadian Rocky Mountain
Parks World Heritage Site - one of the largest protected areas in the
world.
Activities
in Banff and Lake Louise (an adjacent hamlet) are aplenty
and include taking a casual stroll through wildflowers in an alpine
meadow, teeing-off at a golf course, walking on a glacier, canoeing on
Lake Louise’s turquoise water, relaxing in hot springs,
white-water rafting and taking an aerial view of the pristine sites on
a gondola. Click on the following pictures to learn more about some of the exciting activities in Banff.
Other major attractions near Banff are Columbia Icefield, Icefields
Parkway and Jasper National Park.
Columbia
Icefield
One of the largest accumulations of ice and snow south of the Arctic
Circle, it covers an area of nearly 325 square kilometers. Visitors can
travel in a specially designed Brewster Ice Explorer to the middle of
the glacier, on a 5 kilometre guided round trip journey.
Icefields
Parkway
Considered one of the
most scenic highways in the world, the Icefields
Parkway offers an ever-changing view of waterfalls, emerald lakes,
alpine meadows and snow-capped peaks. There are excellent opportunities
to see grizzly and black bears, moose, caribou and other large
wildlife.
Jasper
National Park
This is the largest of Canada's Rocky Mountain parks and consists of
broad valleys, rugged mountains, glaciers, forests, alpine meadows and
wild rivers along the eastern slopes of the Rockies in western Alberta.
There are more than 1200 kilometres of hiking trails and a number of
spectacular mountain drives.
