Lake Louise and The Nearby Lakes-Wow is it Beautiful!

The road from Banff to Lake Louise is quite good, very scenic and it's a very fast 45 minute ride. Afterwards we were advised that taking Route 1A instead of Trans Canada Route 1, especially in the morning would be a rewarding drive as you can see long horn sheep, etc.

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is set in what has to be one of the most beautiful settings anywhere. It is situated on Lake Louise—currently covered in snow and ice and magnificent, backed up by glacier coated mountains. The hotel is a smaller, somewhat more modern version of the Banff Springs Fairmont, the room we have is a corner view of the lake and mountains on both sides. The room is well appointed, but smaller, however the view makes up for it.

We had dinner our first night in the Fairview Restaurant in the Hotel. The view is magnificent, the room gorgeous, the service very nice and the food excellent, it was a bit pricey. For breakfast, we ate at their “Poppy's Restaurant” which is basically a scaled down version of the Banff Springs Fairmont with a wide variety of food and attentive service.

We took a car ride from Lake Louise to Emerald Lake (about 45 minutes)--absolutely beautiful, albeit still frozen in mid May. The scenery continued to be stunning. We then drove into Field, BC, basically a railroad town with several hotels, small cafes and an interesting ceramic design studio run by a most talented couple, Katherine and Ryan. We then went west on Highway 1 to Golden, almost a metropolis by the standards of the other towns we visited and enjoyed a covered bridge that was recently erected. We then bee lined back to Lake Louise along the gorgeous highway and soaked in even more of the beautiful views.

We had dinner at the restaurant in the Post Hotel located in Lake Louise Village. We were hesitant about the restaurant as it seemed quite pricey from what we discerned--well it's not cheap, but is a great value for the money. The ambiance reminded us of a beautiful large swiss chalet, the service was top notch and attentive, the sommelier was very accommodating (we even toured his 30,000 bottle cellar) and the food was the best we've had in the Canadian Rockies. Highly recommended!