Lake Louise: Where To Stay, Eat and Play

*Thank you to the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and the Banff and Alberta Tourism Boards for hosting me! I am truly grateful for the experience and as always, all opinions expressed in my posts are my own!

During my girls’ trip last fall to Alberta, Canada, we visited beautiful Lake Louise. If you’ve read my Banff post, you know that this wasn’t my first visit to the area. You also might know that fall is my favorite season to visit and that you don’t have to ski to thoroughly enjoy it there. This is Lake Louise: Where To Stay, Eat and Play!

Where To Stay

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

I couldn’t wait for Amanda and Stephanie to see the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. When exiting off the freeway, one could never imagine that this hidden gem was so close…all nicely tucked away.

The hotel sits right on Lake Lou ise which was originally named Emerald Lake. Later, it was renamed for Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise Caroline Alberta.

Dating back to 1890, the original building was a one-story log cabin. However, after 2 fires, the hotel was reconstructed and today’s building dates back to 1911.

As to be expected with the Fairmont, the rooms were beautiful, spacious and had very high-standard, luxurious beds

The bathroom was very large and gorgeous. Look at that mirror!

They left these cute cookies for us in the room. How adorable…and yummy too!

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is a seriously gorgeous property

that offers kayaking on the lake,

hiking trails around and behind the lake,

and a lifetime of memorable views. So I had to get a photo, right? 😉

Where To Eat

Poppy Brasserie

Poppy Brasserie is a great place for breakfast.

Located in the Chateau, it has a fantastic buffet!

Breakfast was delicious!

Strawberry, Lemon-Mint water? Yes, please! This is most definitely where you want to start your day in Lake Louise!

Walliser Stube

Also located in the Chateau, Walliser Stube offers a good mix of Swiss and German food.

Having just been to Switzerland right before, I can you tell the food was authentic…

and I was most excited about the Toblerone chocolate fondue!

Where To Play

Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake is an absolute MUST. It isn’t very far from Lake Louise at all.

This photo was taken at sunrise. As I explained here, the sunrises are later than what most of us are used to and so it makes this a little easier to do. However, the main reasons I recommend Moraine Lake at sunrise are the calm waters and the lack of CROWDS.

In this sunrise photo, as you can see no one was really on the overlook. There were some people there, but we didn’t have to fight for a spot to take our photos.

We actually tried three more times to go back to Moraine Lake during the day. The first try, it was so full that you had to take a shuttle from an overflow lot! The second try, it was closed. Finally, on the third try, we got up there and found a spot to park, but it was a MADHOUSE and the number of people there was insane! Definitely go for sunrise and a weekday sunrise is a better bet!

Lake Louise Gondola

There is also a Lake Louise Gondola. The center and the grounds are really pretty.

Ride in an open chairlift or a fully enclosed gondola to 6,850 ft (2,088 m). See the Chateau and Lake Louise in the distance?

When I was there in September, there was snow at the top!

You can see the Fairmont on the way down. The Lake Louise Gondola is a great place for beautiful views of not only the lake and the hotel, but Banff National Park too!

Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake definitely lives up to its name. I have had the opportunity to see this lake three times and two of those times, it was that beautiful emerald color!

Though I’ve seen the lake in two other seasons, fall is still probably my favorite. In April, the lake is still iced over and is pretty in its winter state. In August, the lake has the pretty emerald/turquoise color, but the fall takes the cake with the contrasting colors of the leaves changing!