The Mount Royal Hotel in Banff is a charming choice of accommodation, perfectly located in the pedestrian zone on Banff Avenue. It’s Alpine lodge, chalet style exterior fits perfectly in this ski resort town, where you could be forgiven for thinking you are in the Alps at times. But no, this is the Rocky Mountains and as you step outside the hotel and look in either direction you can’t miss the mountains framing the landscape all around.
The lobby area of the hotel is very welcoming with a warm fire (still needed even in May), comfortable seating and a very friendly and helpful team of staff to assist. Depending on where your room is located it could be a little maze to find, but easily remembered after a day or so. The rooms themselves aren’t huge but this is boutique accommodation and so to be expected, but they are certainly not small either and there’s plenty of storage. I have to say the beds were incredibly comfy, even if jet lag meant I was only getting a few hours a night!!
One highlight of this hotel is the rooftop lounge and hot tub. A lovely area to relax and soak up the mountain views.
The hotel in perfectly situated to enjoy all that Banff has to offer. It’s a short walk (3 mins or so) to Bow River where you can walk along the trial path one way to Bow Falls, or the other way to Vermillion Lakes. Banff has a handful of interesting museums too if you want to learn more while you are here, and there are bus stops all along Banff Avenue to take you to all major highlights such as the Gondola, Hot Springs and nearly lakes and lookout points.
There are bars and restaurants lining Banff Avenue, so you’ll never struggle to find anything to eat while staying here. A recommendation of mine would be to try Shoku Izakaya – a Japanese restaurant just adjacent to the hotel – absolutely amazing fusion food and so much choice! In town there’s also an array of shopping to collect clothes, jewellery, souvenirs and so on. Banff is a charming town and this hotel is the perfect place to stay!
