Pavel Travel

Lake Louise Inn The Weather network was trying to scare us all week long, but the 1st and only bad day in fact was our day at Lake Louise. We woke up with the news that it's gonna be 30 cm of snow today, and it seemed to be true once we looked through the window. Svetlana did not feel very well, and we decided to take advantage of the nice hotel room and wait it out. As a matter of fact, we actually consider ourselves lucky with the weather during this trip, because apparently heavy snow storms and road closures are very usual thing for Banff and Lake Louise in the beginning of June. This time it was only this one questionable day, but even this day wasn't actually that bad because after 3PM the snow finally stopped, and we decided to try to complete our Lake Louise program at least to as much as possible extent.  Morain Lake It was already deep afternoon, and as we kind of already took a brief look at the Lake Louise yesterday,  we decided to re-prioritize an...

Day 4 - Banff to Lake Louise This was a day when we planned to move from Banff to Lake Louise and try to visit whatever makes sense on the way. And the way we wanted to be to be not the Trans-Canada Highway but the parallel scenic Bow Valley Parkway 1A where we found several places we would take a look at. This map built with Mr. Garmin GPS track. What is not here is our morning trip to Johnston Canyon, which is actually on the way from Banff to Lake Louise, but highway 1A was closed by some weird pandemic reason, and we had to find a no-car way to get or to hell with it there. Johnston Canyon We did some online research and immediately figured out a few things: Johnston Canyon is a must, so hell with it isn't working. There is ridiculously overpriced e-bike tour to reach it, like $400 per person or so, and this is probably a real reason behind 1A closure, so no one can go by car and will purchase the tour. You can drive to Castle Mountain and then walk o...

Day 3 - Banff  The plan for the next full day in Banff was to take Minnewanka Lake Cruise, which was the second adventure we purchased from Pursuit. As early birds, we again had some spare time before 10AM, when the first cruise board departs, and decided to make a few stops on the scenic route on our way to the marina. The first one, with a little bit of detour, was Johnson Lake. Johnson Lake Early in the morning, when there are no crowds yet, Johnson Lake is very secluded. There is a hiking trail going around the lake with plenty of nice views and some very busy wild life but we thought that we didn't have much time and had only a brief walk not very far from the parking lot because expected to see more on the next couple of stops before the departure. Two Jacks Lake Next stop was Two Jacks Lake and we were surprised that even early in the morning it was already rather crowded. At 8:30AM people were unloading kayaks, bags and boxes with food, coolers wit...

Day 2 - Banff With all coronavirus restrictions popping up here and there, to be on a safe side, we decided to book at least some activities in advance this time and purchased online a Banff Ultimate Explorer Combo which includes Banff Gondola, Columbia Icefield and Minnewanka Lake Cruise. We are early birds, plus 2 hours time zone difference, so we woke up early and had some time before the 1st adventure. Surprise Corner Yesterday, when we were at the Bow Falls Viewpoint we figured that there must be something interesting across the river, and it turned out to be completely fair assumption. Right after breakfast we drove to the Surprise Corner and found there a nice tiny parking lot, trail head and the iconic view of the Fairmont hotel: After taking a couple of selfies for the report to our daughter we still had about an hour to spare before Gondola upload time, and we took the trail, where we enjoyed the morning Bow River from a different perspective Banff Gondo...

Day 1: Calgary to Banff Flair Airlines Waterloo airport is almost around the corner from our place, so we decided to take advantage and found a direct flight from Waterloo to Calgary with Flair Airlines. The picture is taken about 45 minutes from destination (Calgary), - you can see the Canadian Rockies chain at the horizon. Rent a car in Calgary airport and drive to Banff   A few scenic lookouts on the way. About half hour before Banff there is a toll booth on the highway at the National Park entrance, where we simply showed our Discovery pass, and after 2 hours drive from Calgary International Airport we were finally in Banff. We bought Discovery pass online a few days before the trip, and the price was exactly as if we would overall pay daily, but the pass is valid for the entire year and for all Canadian National parks, so it makes sense to get it if you plan to visit more than one. Do it way in advance because it comes in mail, and I am not sure that Canada Post wo...