Celebrate with your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a hosted farewell dinner at the Fairmont Banff Springs. Enjoy a menu highlighting regional Canadian ingredients in one of Banff National Park’s best-known historic hotels.

The hotel’s Scottish baronial-inspired setting lends a sense of occasion to the gathering. Conversation around the table offers time to share impressions of the Rockies, from glacier ice and mountain lakes to the people who call the region home.

• 7 Breakfast (B)
• 3 Dinner (D)
• 1 Lunch (L)

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

• 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 Expert as you stroll on its icy surface and experience the enormous glaciers up close. 

Insight Vacations

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

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a hosted welcome dinner at Kananaskis Mountain Lodge. Share a meal in a mountain setting on the edge of the Canadian Rockies.

The gathering offers an introduction to the region’s hospitality, with the forested peaks of Kananaskis as its backdrop. It is a chance to get to know your group and hear about the landscapes you will explore.

Travel the Icefields Parkway, a 232-kilometre route through the Canadian Rockies linking the Lake Louise and Jasper areas. Watch for glacier-fed lakes, steep cliffs and layered mountain ridges along one of Canada’s celebrated scenic roads.

The route passes the Columbia Icefield, whose meltwater reaches river systems draining towards the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans. Ancient ice has shaped the valleys and peaks visible from the road.

Cruise across Maligne Lake on a narrated, seasonal boat trip in Jasper National Park. Glide between forested shores and mountain peaks towards Spirit Island, the small, tree-covered landmark reached by boat.

From the water, the scale of this glacier-carved valley comes into focus: pale rock rises above the lake, while changing light shifts its colour. Commentary adds context to a setting long associated with images of the Canadian Rockies.

Visit Athabasca Falls in Jasper National Park, where the Athabasca River surges through a narrow limestone gorge. Take in the force of the water and look for viewpoints that reveal the falls and the rock channels below.

Fed by the mountains of the Columbia Icefield region, the river has carved a striking passage through the landscape. The thunder of the falls makes this a distinctly sensory encounter with the Rockies.

Step onto the glass-floored Glacier Skywalk during an after-hours visit near the Columbia Icefield. The cliff-edge walkway extends above the Sunwapta Valley, opening views of rugged slopes, distant ice and the valley floor far below.

Its transparent surface brings the depth of the landscape into sharp focus. Visiting outside regular hours offers a quieter opportunity to study the ice-carved terrain and take photographs from this striking vantage point.

Gather for a champagne reception at Glacier View Lodge, overlooking the Columbia Icefield. At Altitude Restaurant, enjoy a Canadian-inspired dinner featuring locally sourced ingredients, with mountain and glacier views beyond the windows.

This is dining defined by its setting: the icefield lies amid six mountain ranges, and nearby glaciers continue to shape the terrain. A viewing deck offers another perspective on the high-altitude landscape and evening sky.

Ride a specially designed Ice Explorer onto the Athabasca Glacier before the usual crowds arrive. With a Local Expert, step onto its icy surface and examine the textures and scale of this accessible outlet of the Columbia Icefield.

The experience brings you close to a landscape shaped by accumulated snow, moving ice and meltwater. Early access allows more space to absorb the stillness and the surrounding sweep of Rocky Mountain peaks.

Explore Yoho National Park through two contrasting landmarks. See the Lower Spiral Tunnels, built in the early 20th century to help trains negotiate a steep mountain railway grade, and view Takakkaw Falls when seasonal access permits, typically from June to October.

Takakkaw’s waters descend 373 metres amid glacier-fed peaks. Together, the sites reveal both the engineering challenges posed by the Rockies and the power of the landscape itself.

Pause for photographs at Moraine Lake when seasonal access permits, taking in its turquoise water and the peaks of the Valley of the Ten Peaks. At Lake Louise, admire the lake and the Victoria Glacier above its far shore.

A hosted lunch at the Fairmont Château Lake Louise gives you time to appreciate the setting. Both lakes owe their distinctive colour to fine rock particles carried by glacial meltwater.

Explore Banff National Park on a scenic drive with visits to the Hoodoos and Surprise Corner. See the slender, weather-shaped rock formations of the Bow Valley and take in views towards the Fairmont Banff Springs and the surrounding mountains.

These stops offer two perspectives on Banff: the geological forces that shaped its valleys and the landmark hotel that has welcomed visitors since the late 19th century. Bring a camera for the mountain viewpoints.

Walk through boreal forest with an Indigenous Local Expert in the Banff area. Learn about traditional uses of local plants for food, healing and survival, and hear how animals feature in ecological knowledge and oral storytelling.

The experience also includes a tobacco smudging ceremony, shared as a practice of purification, gratitude and respect. Guided interpretation brings living cultural knowledge to the forest landscape rather than treating it simply as scenery.

Choose a visit to the Whyte Museum in Banff to explore the peoples, art and history of the Canadian Rockies. Its collections bring together thousands of artefacts and artworks that illuminate life and changing ideas in mountain communities.

Founded by artists and philanthropists Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb Whyte, the museum offers a cultural perspective on a region often known chiefly for its scenery. This included Insight Choice is an alternative to the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel tour.

Choose a guided tour of the Fairmont Banff Springs with a hotel ambassador. Hear stories from the landmark hotel’s history and discover details of the Scottish baronial-inspired architecture that gives it a castle-like silhouette.

Opened in 1888, the hotel has played a long-standing role in Banff tourism and hosted guests including King George VI and Marilyn Monroe. This included Insight Choice is an alternative to visiting the Whyte Museum.

Float along the Athabasca River on an optional outing in the Jasper area. From the water, take in a gentler view of the river corridor, with forested banks and Rocky Mountain scenery beyond.

The Athabasca begins at the Columbia Icefield and flows through Jasper National Park, connecting the area’s glaciers, valleys and waterways. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; ask your Travel Director for available details.

Ride the Banff Gondola up Sulphur Mountain for elevated views over Banff and the Bow Valley. At the summit, take in the surrounding peaks from the viewing areas and see how the town sits within the national park.

The ascent offers a broad perspective on the mountain landscape that is different from the valley-floor viewpoints. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, subject to availability and local conditions.