Visit the powerful Athabasca Falls, where the Athabasca River funnels through a quartzite gorge in a spectacle of spray and sound. Boardwalks and viewpoints bring you close to the thundering waters as they surge through the narrow gorge.

Learn how persistent flow, not height, makes these falls so forceful, carving potholes and polished rock over thousands of years. Well-placed lookouts let you pause for photos and reflection while keeping a safe distance from the churning torrent.

Experience rare quiet on an exclusive after-hours access visit to the dramatic Glacier Skywalk. Step onto the glass-floored walkway suspended high above the Sunwapta Valley, absorbing cliffside views with fewer people and softer evening light.

Interpretive displays trace the story of ice, rock and wildlife migration across this cliff-edge environment. Look for mountain goats on the shale slopes and scan the horizon where ancient glaciers pour from the Columbia Icefield into U-shaped valleys below.

Beat the crowds as you board an Ice Explorer designed for icy terrain, rolling onto the frozen expanse to step onto the Athabasca Glacier. Guides share the science of this living river of ice and the significance of visiting before the crowds.

Feel the crunch of ancient ice underfoot, peer into blue-hued crevasses, and learn how the Columbia Icefield’s meltwaters feed three ocean basins. This close-up encounter reveals climate, geology and scale in a setting few ever touch.

Explore Yoho National Park, where railway ingenuity meets raw alpine beauty. View the Lower Spiral Tunnels, an engineering triumph carved through cathedral-like mountains to tame a perilous grade on the Canadian Pacific line.

Continue to Takakkaw Falls (seasonal), plunging 373 m in a silver ribbon fed by the Daly Glacier. Learn how “Takakkaw,” from Cree, means “it is magnificent,” a fitting tribute to the roar, spray and rainbows gilding this dramatic amphitheatre of rock.

Admire the surreal turquoise of Moraine Lake and the mirror-smooth surface of Lake Louise, framed by the seracs and cornices of the Victoria Glacier. Seasonal road access to Moraine Lake preserves its quiet, storybook setting for unhurried photography.

Savor lunch at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, a grand lakeside setting that has welcomed mountaineers and poets for over a century. Learn how glacial silt creates these vivid hues while peaks and larches stitch a perfect alpine skyline.

Survey the sculpted Banff hoodoos, slender pillars of hardened sediment shaped by frost and wind above the meandering Bow River valley. Trails and viewpoints showcase the Rockies’ layered geology and fragrant pine forest.

Continue to Surprise Corner for a postcard vantage of the Fairmont Banff Springs and Spray River confluence. Interpretive panels illuminate glaciation and erosion while well-placed overlooks invite you to pause for photos and reflection.

Connect to place on a guided walk with an Indigenous Local Specialist, learning to identify medicinal and food plants used for millennia. Hear teachings that link wildlife and landscape through traditional ecological knowledge.

Participate in a tobacco smudging ceremony, offering gratitude to the land and ancestors. This experience fosters respect for the land and advances responsible tourism goals while deepening understanding of First Nations stories and stewardship.

Discover the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, a cultural hub preserving art, artifacts and archival photographs that chart mountain life. Exhibits illuminate exploration, ecology and the evolving identity of Banff and the Bow Valley.

Learn about founders and artists Peter and Catharine Whyte, whose vision created a gathering place for creativity and mountain culture. Galleries and heritage homes reveal how art, community and landscape intertwine in Canada’s first national park.

Join a hotel ambassador at the Fairmont Banff Springs for an insider look at this castle-like icon of the 1888 railway era. Stroll grand halls and terraces to admire turrets, stonework and Scottish baronial architecture.

Hear stories of notable guests and park pioneers while learning how rail travel, tourism and conservation shaped Banff. Historic photographs and vantage points frame the hotel’s dramatic perch above the Bow and Spray rivers.

Board the Rocky Mountaineer for a daylight crossing of the Continental Divide with panoramic windows and storytelling service. Trace canyon walls and avalanche sheds through Kicking Horse Canyon, the historic Spiral Tunnels and Rogers Pass.

Roll past Craigellachie, site of the Craigellachie ‘last spike’ that united Canada by rail, as ranchlands give way to semi-arid valleys. Chef-prepared meals highlight regional flavors while rivers, peaks and tunnels unfold right beside your seat.

Continue aboard Rocky Mountaineer along the Thompson and Fraser rivers, where desert plateaus transform into temperate rainforest. Marvel at the roaring narrows of Hell’s Gate and the sheer walls of the Fraser Canyon.

Watch steel-blue rivers thread beneath the Coast Mountains before the line fans into the green fields of the Fraser Valley. Commentary brings gold rush lore, salmon runs and rail heritage to life as you approach the Pacific coast.

Float a gentle stretch of the Athabasca on an optional Athabasca River float led by a certified guide. Settle into a stable raft and glide past spruce and aspen, scanning gravel bars and cutbanks shaped by seasonal meltwater.

Hear river ecology and fur trade stories while you look for elk and eagles along the shore. This relaxed, dry float is at additional cost and bookable on tour, subject to weather and water levels.

Ascend above the Bow Valley as you ride the Banff Gondola to the Sulphur Mountain summit. At the top, a multi-level complex opens to sweeping decks and a ridge-top boardwalk to Sanson’s Peak.

Absorb panoramic views of Mount Rundle, Tunnel Mountain and the confluence of the Bow and Spray rivers while interpretive exhibits reveal Banff’s alpine ecosystems. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Discover Canada’s great mountain corridor as you Journey the Icefields Parkway, tracing emerald valleys, waterfalls and glacier-fed lakes toward the mighty Columbia Icefield. Watch for bighorn sheep and peaks serrated by ancient ice while your driver-guide reveals the geology behind these misty mountain passes.

Learn how the Columbia Icefield forms a rare hydrological apex feeding three oceans and shaped the Rockies’ dramatic skyline. Scenic pullouts invite photography and quiet contemplation of landscapes carved over millennia by rock, snow and time.

Cruise the jade waters on a narrated cruise across Maligne Lake, gliding beneath towering limestone walls and hanging glaciers. Cameras come out as the boat threads between islets and alpine forest toward the photogenic Spirit Island.

Hear stories of glaciation and wildlife in Jasper National Park while the captain points out peaks mirrored in the calm, glacially carved basin. Spirit Island’s sheltered cove, accessible only by boat, offers time to savor the stillness and classic mountain panoramas.

Insight Vacations

• 8 Breakfast (B)
• 3 Dinner (D)
• 3 Lunch (L)

• Banff: Discover the history and culture of the Rocky Mountains of Canada at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. Venture out on to the amazing Glacier Skywalk where you will be treated to an after-hours visit onto the cliff-edged glass floored walkway or learn about the history of the Fairmont Banff Springs, highlights and stories that took place around and at the hotel.

• Visit Banff National Park • Lake Louise • Jasper National Park • Moraine Lake • Icefields Parkway scenic drive • Maligne Lake • Sunwapta Falls • Athabasca Falls

• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• Premium regional accommodation and overnight train
• Business class coach with extended leg room, and train travel

• Kananaskis: Enjoy a flavorful dinner at the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge.
• Icefields Parkway: At Altitude Restaurant, dine on locally sourced, fresh ingredients while overlooking the Columbia Icefield, one of the world’s largest accumulations of ice south of the Arctic. As you sip on your drink, enjoy one of the most spectacular dinner views you’ll ever see. Framed by six mountain ranges, this high-altitude setting offers a rare view of ancient glaciers, where ice up to 365 m (1,197 ft) thick continues to shape the dramatic Rocky Mountain landscape.
• Banff: Celebrate your journey with dinner at the Fairmont Banff Springs, a landmark hotel in the heart of the national park. Dine in a setting inspired by Scottish baronial architecture and enjoy a menu that highlights regional Canadian ingredients.

• Icefields Parkway: Enjoy an after-hours visit to the amazing Glacier Skywalk. Step onto the cliff-edged, glass-floored walkway rising 918 ft (280 meters) above the Sunwapta Valley offering sweeping views of the valley and Columbia Icefield.
• Icefields Parkway: Enjoy an evening reception at the Glacier View Lodge. After dinner, step out onto the viewing deck and marvel at the evening sky, relax with a drink in the library or hang out inside the Moraine Lounge.
• Icefields Parkway: Take a seat in a specially designed Ice Explorer for a visit onto the Athabasca Glacier before other travellers arrive. Follow your Local Specialist as you stroll on its icy surface and experience the enormous glaciers up close. 

• Banff: Learn about the history, highlights and stories that took place around the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel.
• Banff: Discover the history and culture of the Rocky Mountains of Canada at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. With the mission of cultivating the exchange of knowledge, the museum engages you with the evolving history, peoples, cultures, environment and ideas of mountain cultures. Museum founders Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb Whyte were local artists and philanthropists who wanted to create a place where people could gather and appreciate the culture and beauty of the area.