This is an attractive upscale hotel for travellers who want quiet, comfort and fine dining. A shuttle runs directly to town, so driving is not necessary. If you're ready to hike, there is a beautiful mountain trail across the road. Head the other direction to the river. If you are not a hiker, I guess you go into town and ride one of the many tour buses with the old folks. If you feel lazy and just want to sit in a comfortable lobby area and sip your drink, the waiters will bring it to you, and the surroundings are quite plesant. When you are finally stirred to move, ask the concierge for suggestions. This is a full service hotel!

My husband and I stayed here in late September. The staff was wonderful, there are many young Australians and various other nationalitites working at the hotel, they were great. The location couldn't be better. It's a bit above the town, but it's one of the best pieces of real estate in Banff. If you need to walk to town, though it'd be a bit of a walk. There's a hotel shuttle that leaves every 30 minutes. I'll take the view and the staff here, over the Banff Springs Hotel any day. Definitely visit Banff Springs Hotel, but stay here.

Arrival at 3am was excellent. Room was a "superior room" which is there lowest class. It was small but excellently appointed. It had a wonderful view of the mountains and the valley. It is in walking distance of the hot springs and the gondola which are two of the better activities in Banff. Food was above average but not gormet though I thought it was priced higher than it shoud have been. The only real draw back was the parking which is located next to the hotel in a "parcade" that is too small and the space to drive is too tight. This appears to be the second best hotel in Banff and in spite of my nit picking is the best value for price in the entire area.

This is a beautiful hotel out of the city in the trees. It's quiet and beautiful and close to the scenic spots of Banff. The hotel is of high caliber. Wonderful beds and great views.

Canada is expensive right now, so yes, this hotel is expensive. But as long as you're aware that this is due to the exchange rate, and not the hoteliers trying to rip you off, I think this hotel is worth the price. The beds are wonderful, the view from my room was spectacular, they clean your room twice a day, the food on the premises was great (but again, expensive) and the pool/giant hot tub downstairs is wonderful and clean. I found it to be very quiet and peaceful which was nice, and when we had a hail storm with snow in August, they lit a wonderful fire in the downstairs fireplace which we could smell in our room. They do a "turn-down service" in the evenings which we began to deride by the end of our weeklong stay because they basically come in, pull your duvet down, and leave some chocolates on your pillow. Every day. That gets sort of ridiculous but I began to really look forward to it every day so we could leave the room, wait for them to leave us chocolates, and then come back, make fun of the whole thing and laugh while we drank scotch and ate our chocolates. The bathrooms/plumbing/tvs are old and weird, I mean, the bathrooms at the Holiday Inn Portland Airport were better than these bathrooms. But they leave you copious Aveda bath soaps to make up for it. I actually preferred going down to the pool and taking a shower down there. They really did a nice job with the pool/hot tub/sauna/steam room thing downstairs. We would go down there and laugh and look out the window while it hailed. In the end, it didn't matter that the tv was 3 inches by 3 inches.