Last week, my husband and I traveled to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada for a kids-free trip to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We stayed at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, which was about a 2-hour drive from Calgary YYC airport. While our stay was not cheap, the hotel was totally worth the price for our special occasion.
Booking and Arrival
I booked Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise last summer after we had to cancel our original anniversary trip to Santa Fe due to various reasons. The cost was $1000 a night for the lowest level room. The hotel is part of ALL Accor Limitless Live program, so it’s also bookable with those points.
Yes, that’s an insane amount of money for a hotel room for one night. But, this is no ordinary hotel. It sits on the side of Lake Louise:

This is a view of the hotel from a hike we took. The scenery around the hotel is spectacular.
Pulling up to the hotel:

These purple flowers around the hotel were so fragrant!
The hotel has a history that began in 1890 and has been reconstructed and updated over the years. The lobby is elegant and reminded us of a historical cruise ship:
Check-in was a breeze, and that’s when we first discovered that the hotel is staffed for the summer by young adults from all around the world. We met many staff members from Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
Our Room
We stayed in room 176 on the first floor (which is really the 2nd floor in US terms).
Our room had a king bed as well as a small sitting area:
The bed was very plush and comfy. We did get turndown service each night with a bookmark on the pillow.
The sitting area included a dresser with a safe, refrigerator and coffee maker.
I mentioned in our reservation that we were celebrating our anniversary, and we found this dessert and champagne in our room upon arrival with a lovely card:
Although our window looked out to the front of the hotel and not the lake, it still wasn’t a bad view:
The bathroom was quite large, but that could be because our room was handicap accessible:
The only complaint we had about our room was the water pressure in the shower wasn’t that strong. But everything else was outstanding.
Dining at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
The hotel has six restaurants plus a few bars, and we tried 3 of them. The Guide’s Pantry is a grab and go coffee counter with sandwiches, salads, pastries and drinks. This was very busy in the morning, but convenient for us.
On our first night at the hotel, we ate dinner at Walliser Stube, which featured Swiss and German food. The restaurant has large windows facing the lake:
We ordered the 3-course meal which included fondue cheese, an entree, and chocolate fondue. It was delicious!
The chocolate fondue featured house-made marshmallows, which were the highlight for me. The restaurant included a special anniversary message with our dessert:
The next day, we ate lunch at Lakeview Lounge. The restaurant reserved us this special table in front of the giant window since they knew we were celebrating our anniversary:
We ordered rotisserie chicken with Caesar salad. The salad was made table side for us, including home made dressing, by a staff member from Australia:
The restaurant treated us to a complimentary dessert. The warm peach strudel with vanilla ice cream was divine!
Hotel Amenities and Activities
While you can’t park your personal car at Lake Louise (unless you’re a hotel guest), the lake and the hotel are accessible through many tour companies and shuttle buses. Lake Louise does get a lot of day trippers. But staying at the hotel gives you access to special areas reserved only for hotel guests, and you can enjoy the lake in the early morning and later afternoon/evening after the crowds of day trippers have left.
Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise has a lovely garden area facing the lake exclusively for hotel guests:
The area has Adirondack chairs, fire pits, and lots of flowers:
Twice a day, hotel staff lit up the fire pits to roast marshmallows. The hotel provided us a list of activities when we checked in, which included daily polar plunges in the lake, history lessons and guided walks. On July 4th, the hotel had a cupcake celebration for U.S. Independence Day. We booked a hotel shuttle to Morraine Lake (which I’ll cover in a different post).
The hotel has a small gym:
And an indoor pool, hot tub and steam room:
In the evenings, from 9:30 – 11;00 p.m., the pool, hot tub and steam room are reserved for adults only, which was nice. I also treated myself to a massage at the spa during our stay.
Service
Every employee we encountered was delightful. The hotel texted me after check-in to make sure our room was satisfactory. We utilized the hotel concierge desk several times for restaurant recommendations and hiking advice. The hotel let us borrow some bear spray for our hikes, and a staff member gave us a tutorial on how to use it effectively if needed. While we did see several bears on this trip, thankfully we did not need to use the bear spray.
Overall Thoughts
Even though we only had a short 3-night stay at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, it was totally worth the travel time and cost. We felt spoiled and pampered for our anniversary. The location of the hotel with the outstanding views and service was perfect for our special occasion.
However, if we had brought our 3 kids, we wouldn’t have stayed here due to the cost of two rooms. We’d like to return to Banff with the family, but we’d likely choose lodging in Banff Village instead.
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Yes, ah, the memories! Used my fairmont nts in Hawaii, but Lake Louise was a close 2nd! I remember IHG pointbreaks and Club Carlson where you’d get the 2nd night free with Radisson. Used many of those. Good times!
You appear to have stayed in a newer room. When we’ve stayed, we’ve been in the original portion of the hotel, and I was never more amazed that you could sit on the toilet to take care of life’s necessities, reach the sink from the toilet to brush your teeth and place your feet in the bathtub to wash them all at the same time. I really enjoyed the hotel, its location and of course, the lake; however, the bathrooms in the original wing were the smallest of any hotel charging those prices that I’ve stayed in. The employees are from all around the world and that does add a certain charm to the stay.
Canmore is another town just down the road from Lake Louise, and it has similar charm to Banff. Realizing that some of the employees who travel to work in Lake Louise also must work near Machu Picchu at other times of the year, I found a wonderful Alpaca wool jacket at a secondhand store in Canmore that looked very similar to one that I had purchased in Cusco. At that same store, my wife found a mink fur hat that matched exactly with her mink coat. It was in perfect shape, and it only cost CAD$20. It was the best deal of the year. That mink hat got us lots of special treatment in Montreal and Ottawa a few months. (That was the only thing different between us and others because the bellmen would bring us to the front of the lines, call us cars quicker, get us better tables, etc.) You never know what you’ll find on a trip.
@ArkansasTraveler Wow, sounds like you found some great deals in Canmore! Our room did seem updated…lots of charging options on both sides of the bed. I know the hotel is going through a renovation on all the rooms and adding a new spa.
My favorite place and one of my top travel hacking legendary accomplishments, not to brag 🙂 Airfare and 11 nights all for free:
https://travelbloggerbuzz.com/travel-reports/canadian-rockies-banff-jasper-national-parks-2013/
@TravelBloggerBuzz I just read through your post, and your trip looks epic. I remember that Chase Fairmont card…wish it was still around!
Very nice trip! I like the remoteness of the surroundings, seems like perfect for hiking and nature scenery. The pool looks good for dipping in afterwards. The area reminds me of Colorado Rockies and Chilean Andes. The resort reminded me The Broadmoor in Colorado, spent a day there once – it also historic, with a Gilded-age feel, and reflecting lake.
Happy Travels!!
@Aleks I’be been to the Broadmoor (but not stayed overnight). Classic hotel for sure!
This looks amazing! I’m so glad you got to enjoy nice weather during your short stay. That’s always a risk, especially when dropping that kind of money.
We got to enjoy lunch at this hotel ten years ago, and my husband still talks about the property and the lake. Everything about it is just perfect. I hope we get to stay here one day.
@Leana We got so lucky with great weather! I’m glad you have fond memories of your time there.