If you're looking to explore just about all of Banff's greatest sights in one day...then this is…read morethe PERFECT tour for you. Not to mention you get to do it all without having to worry about driving or parking! If you're not already sold, which you should be, then keep reading along for all the tour highlights. Our two tour guides were Dominique and James and our bus drivers were Bobbie and Jeff. All of them were absolutely delightful. Dominique and James were extremely knowledgeable about Banff, it's history, it's wildlife, and the surrounding areas. They kept the bus rides entertaining and lively. Jeff and Bobbie were great animal spotters and helped us to see a fox on the morning drive and two elk on our return trip. I also spotted a black bear on the morning drive. We opted to do the full day excursion, leaving on the first bus and returning on the last. This was perfect for us to get able to see everything we wanted to. Started the day at Johnston canyon where we hiked to the top of the falls. This was a quick turnaround time so not everyone was able to make it to the top, but still a beautiful spot even if you don't go all the way up. Once done here we continued on the Bow Valley Parkway and took a stop to take in the views of Castle Mountain...an absolutely majestic sight! Next we were onto the Lake Louise ski gondola, where we rode the gondola to the top and had lunch. There was probably enough time to hike, but not enough time to have a leisurely lunch and hike. We opted for the leisurely lunch as we didn't want to have any bear encounters. Here we did see a black bear as we rode the gondola back down. Next up was Moraine Lake, due to one of the buses getting stuck behind a train we stopped in Lake Louise to pick up some others that we're heading to Moraine Lake, but it was a quick trip. At Moraine Lake we had about an hour, enough time to walk up the rock pile, enjoy the view for some time, and walk the shoreline a little bit. Next stop was Lake Louise, we were here for just under an hour. We walked around the shoreline and enjoyed some time in the fairmont hotel. This route didn't give us enough time to hike here, but they did have another schedule you could follow if you wanted to spend more time doing the hikes here or possibly even canoe. After a stop back at the Lake Louise ski gondola to pick up the last of the group, we headed back to town. It was truly an amazing experience and I'm so happy we booked it. We visited Banff without a car and there's no way we would've been able to see some of these places had we not done this tour. So happy this exists and would definitely book it again if I ever visit Banff again.

We chose Hop On Banff for our day tour after researching other options, including the Parks Canada…read moreshuttles. They offered the best value and most flexibility in our schedule and gave us ample time at Johnston Canyon to reach the upper falls, at Lake Louise to make it to the Lake Agnes Tea House (a bit hectic but doable) and to marvel at Moraine Lake atop the Rockpile. There was an additional stop available to take the Lake Louise Gondola, but we opted for an earlier return in order to explore downtown Banff and get dinner. Free parking at the Banff train station was easy and convenient. Our drivers and guides were all first class and the retro feel of the school bus was fine (tip - avoid sitting over the rear wheels in back, as it gets quite bumpy).

Snowy Owl Sled Dog Tours exceeded my expectations and provided me with a bucket-list experience…read morethat will be a lasting memory. Upon arrival, we were greeted by Motorhead (retired sled dog). He was so friendly, sweet, and engaging. The shop space is open and offers a slue of gift shop items and rentable gear (snow boots and snow pants are a must!). Clean bathrooms are available because once you get to the top of the mountain, there are only porta-potties. I loved my dog team (Ghost, Poblano, Ivar, Mayday, Gomez, and Kannicky). They are definitely professionals and they commit to running. However, when we had some breaks, they were very sweet and enjoyed positive affirmation and pets. Driving the sled is more physically intense than I expected. You will need to do some running up the hill with the dogs. However, the thrill of the experience, wind in your hair, and breathtaking views is beyond words. In my experience, Snowy Owl treats their dogs well. I appreciate their use of colored collars to signal whether the dogs are shy or overly friendly. One of my tour guides for another excursion affirmed this sentiment as well and spoke of them in high regards. This is a must-do experience (expensive, but well worth it). Also, 2 printed photos available at the end for $50 canadian dollars. They will also transfer a digital file and I found this to be well worth it.

This was SO MUCH fun. Unbelievable scenery. The guides were totally fantastic. The dogs are super…read morecute and loveable.

The guides welcomed everyone as if they were family. Tour…read moredetails regarding geologic, native wildlife and human history was great; informative but not overwhelming. Personal family stories bought the area to life. We did the glacier ice field tour package and it was well worth the time. Recommend tour

Randomly found Robbie online Great tour to lake Louise,…read moremorraine lake, bow lake , Peyto lake and the athabasca glacier Highly recommend this tour if you want to pack everything into one day - didn't feel too rushed , probably took hundreds of pictures that day Robbie is honest, accommodating, professional!

I was told by the owner Dave it wasn't unprofessional for the dispatch to ignore calls. Apparently…read moreI was just one of 21 missed calls, I understand being busy but the professional thing to do is answer the phone and let your customers know the wait times are extremely long instead of ignoring them or more specifically sending them to voice-mail.

CHRIS!!! CHRIS!! What a great driver. Super nice and so friendly…read more He was my taxi driver and he was so nice. He also had the cleanest van I've ever seen. So glad how fast he was to come get us. I never have a bad experience with three sisters taxi! It's always great!

We booked a tour with Columbia Icefield Adventures online. The process was smooth…read more On the day of our tour, we drove from Banff up to the icefield area near Jasper. The drive was a trip highlight. We did many stops along the way to enjoy the mountain views. The tour was awesome. You get on a bus which takes you to the glacier mobile and up to the glacier you go. What a unique experience. Our driver was knowledgeable and answered many questions. After you return to the bus, you are taken to the skywalk which is a glass bottom walkway over a gorge. So cool. I had almost as much fun watching people who were nervous about stepping on the platform as I did looking into the gorge. Parking at the icefield was a nightmare. We ended up parking in the RV lot or we would have missed our timeslot. It was also unfortunate that the digital tickets did not have your timestamp on them as we held up the line looking for confirmation of our timeslot.

It's once in a life time experience to walk on the Gracier. It was amazing…read more This Gracier is located in Jasper which is about a couple of hours away from Banff. The reason that I can't quite give five stars because the Columbia icefield truck was hot on the inside. They can make it a little more comfortable in summer for customers. The parking, the transfer bus, washroom, cafeteria are all great. Staff are friendly and helpful. Recommended.

This tour is wonderful! We saw elk, big horn sheep, coyotes, and deer. It was a light snow day…read morefor our tour so views were limited, but the driver/tour guide made the entire trip very enjoyable. Chloe was knowledgeable and friendly, she helped make the tour very fun and memorable!

We had a terrible experience with Discover Banff Tours and would never book through them again…read more We booked a dog sledding excursion for 6 people, including our family and our friends visiting from San Diego. We paid nearly $1,400 in full for 2 sleds, submitted all required guest information right away (weights, ages, etc.), and even received an email confirming that everything had been received and that we were fully confirmed for Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. Then on Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the excursion, they called asking for the same information all over again. We told them we had already submitted it and had the confirmation email to prove it. After putting us on hold, they came back and admitted there had been a miscommunication on their end and that the person who handled our booking failed to enter our information properly. Because of their mistake, our reservation was given away to someone else. So after taking our money, confirming our booking, and making us think everything was locked in, they left us with no dog sledding tour and no real solution on the only day that worked for our group. They did offer us Friday, but that did absolutely nothing for us because we leave Thursday and our friends fly home Wednesday. That is exactly why we booked this in advance the previous Friday. The kids were already excited for this experience, and we were left scrambling at the last minute trying to find another company because of their mistake. The only thing they could really offer was a refund or to push other excursions we had no interest in. That's not customer service -- that's damage control after they failed to do their job correctly. This was extremely unprofessional, careless, and a huge inconvenience during a family trip. Avoid the middleman and book directly with the actual dog sledding companies.

I searched around to find the best price on ski and snowboard rentals for our week in Banff and…read morethis was the best price. The quality did not disappoint either as they used a third party to fulfill our rental. We were unaware of this so went to the Banff Adventures office at first, and then was directed to the shop just down the street. I was happy that we were allowed to get fitted the day before our rental started and that they delivered the gear to our hotel free of charge. They also picked it up from our hotel when we were done. The third party was very reputable and I wrote a separate review for them. I would use Banff Adventures again for my rentals!

My friend and I bought the "Best of Banff" adventure package well in advance of our trip. The price…read morewas so reasonable for all that we were able to do. We were so excited to ride the Banff Gondola, Horseback ride along the Bow River and Kayak on the Bow river as well. The first issue we encountered was when my friend's flight was delayed on her way to Canada and we had to push all of our scheduled activities back a day. The service at Banff adventures was excellent- we had to call a few different times to move things around but each time the attendant was patient and super helpful in helping us to reschedule our experiences. The day of our experiences, we were able to pick the times of our Gondola ride and the kayak but the Horseback riding was the only activity with a hard time. We chose to ride the Gondola first and it was so easy to check-in and ride up the Gondola. The view was spectacular and so peaceful. At the top there was a super cute cafe, which was a nice touch. We didn't eat there but it was nice to know it was there. Next we headed to our Horseback riding appointment. We arrived early so we had time to sign our waivers, get weighed and fitted for our helmets before the safety speech was given. We were each assigned a horse and given a few minutes to get acquainted with our steed. This wasn't my first rodeo, so I was ready to get on the trail right away. Once we were on the trail, it was smooth riding. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous and we were given opportunities for photos with our horses at the end of the ride. Finally, we went over to the Canoe place for our kayaks. It was easy to sign in and get our kayaks. We were given our life jackets and a quick lesson in kayaking. The weather was sunny and warm which made for a perfect day out on the water. The Bow river was especially calm on this day so we really enjoyed our float up river. Overall, each activity was the perfect little adventure. Everything was within a 10-20 minute car ride of each point so it was easy to navigate. We had an amazing day. We would absolutely buy this tour again.

Amazing bus and drivers. I've never been on such a comfy bus that was roomy, spacious and clean…read more Hands down the best tour bus experience. The drivers went out of their way to accommodate everyone and make the experience unforgettable. They have outlets for your phone or in my case I brought my heating pad and the plug proved so helpful. The drivers were excellent drivers especially with snow etc. The bathroom on the bus was clean too. I sat back and relaxed with this tour and loved all the detailed stories. One of the pictures of a bear they have on some of their buses is famous is those parts and I loved how they honored her story.

On Friday, 12/13/2019, I went on a tour called the Banff Winter Sightseeing Tour. The website I…read morevisited to make arrangements for this tour used several names. One of the names they used was "Pursuit", another name was "Banff Jasper Collection", and another was "Brewster Sightseeing." Since the buses they used for the tour are Brewster's buses, I decided to write my review here. The Banff Winter Sightseeing Tour cost a total of $135.45 Canadian dollars (about $102.31 US dollars). The tour began at 12:30 pm and lasted until approximately 6 pm. Every customer was picked up at their hotel in a blue bus that had the word Brewster's written on the side. Even though there may have only been about 20 customers on our tour, I preferred riding that bus over the small shuttle vans I'd ridden on with another Banff tour company. We had more room to stretch out and breathe. We had a bus driver and a tour guide. The tour guide was a short blonde who was originally from New Zealand. She got us all to introduce ourselves. We had tourists from the USA, Canada, Australia, and Asia. Our first stop was at Lake Minnewanka. I had already been there two days earlier with another tour but it's so nice that I didn't mind seeing it twice. The edges of it were frozen and most of the land around it was thick with snow. It was here that this native Georgian got to wear snowshoes for the first time in my life. I thought they'd be awkward but walking in them felt natural to me. The tour guide was gracious enough to take pictures of us with our cameras whenever we asked. Our next stop was the Cave & Basin National Historic Site. Some people tend to overlook this place when visiting Banff, but because of the sulphurous hot springs here the idea of establishing Banff National Park first began. While we were there we saw two of the hot springs: one outside the cave and another inside. There was a very strong rotten egg odor as we first approached them. While we were viewing the one outside the cave, a Native American woman told us about the history of the hot springs and what they mean to her people. A long time ago people bathed in the hot springs because they thought it would cure various ailments, but that practice has stopped at this location. There's a tiny endangered snail called the Banff Springs snail that needs the hot springs in order to survive. We weren't allowed to put our hands in the springs but a small pail of the water was passed around and we could touch that if we wanted to. Then we entered a small building that was attached to the tunnel entrance of the cave. Inside the cave, we saw the second hot spring. A streak of light shone in from an opening in the cave's ceiling. There was a small platform built around the hot spring so you could safely get a closer view. After leaving the Cave & Basin, we were driven to our next stop and the the grand finale: the gondola ride up to the top of Sulphur Mountain. Each gondola seats four passengers and takes several minutes to reach the top. At the ride's highest point, you'll be about 7,486 feet above the bottom of the mountain. There are large windows for your viewing pleasure. At the top of the mountain is a small indoor restaurant and a kind of family recreational center that features a live Santa Claus for much of the Christmas season, but he wasn't up there during my visit that afternoon. My favorite part of the whole tour though was the outdoor observation deck on the mountaintop. It was like standing on top of the world itself. You could see the town of Banff in the distance and all of the other surrounding mountains. There were tables with small fires in the center of them so you could either warm your hands or roast bannock bread (a treat popular with local indigenous people that you roast like marshmallows on a stick). We were also given warm, delicious apple cider to drink. There were round, see-thru, heated, tent-like things you could sit in if you got tired of the cold air. As the sun went down, it got very cold up there but the view made it more than worthwhile. I looked down and saw the town of Banff all lit up as it got dark. It was a photographer's dream. When I rode the gondola back down, night had fallen and I couldn't see much of anything but darkness when I looked out the window. Once I exited the gondola, I stopped for a minute in the gift shop, then boarded the bus so they could take us back to our hotels. This tour was beyond 5 stars to me. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Banff. Here is the link to the website I used to book my tour: https://www.banffjaspercollection.com/brewster-sightseeing/winter-wonder-tour/

Our family had a lovely horse drawn sleigh ride experience in Alberta here near Kananaskis outside…read morethe Banff area. The ride is about 30 minutes but went by quickly - we were given two blankets each one to sit on to stay warm and a second to cover us up. You can for easily 4 adults across in a row (maybe 6 rows?) - very charming and peaceful ride into the snowy woods! When we returned we had hot coffee and hot chocolates waiting for us! Definitely a must for any families or couples!

Came here for a 2 hour trail ride with my family. It was one of my favorite activities while…read morevisiting Canada for the holiday. We were a party of 4 and went with another group of two. They assigned us to our horses and gave us instructions on how to direct our horses and hold the reigns. I'm a first time horse rider and was nervous, but once we started I got more comfortable and enjoyed it! The trail was a little muddy and goes up and down hills but it's amazing to see what these horses can do. The views were breathtaking and the weather was perfect. Chloe, our leader on the ride, was great. I appreciated that she made sure to have us stop for photos. I would definitely come back. Your butt might be sore afterwards :)

What can I say other than "WOW!"? Reflecting back on our experience with friends, we realized just…read morehow unique and incredible this adventure truly was. We enjoyed every single moment. Huge shout-out to Brent: thank you for treating us like adults who can make our own choices, without trying to instill fear or hesitation. In many tours, choices are often "suggested" based on perceived ability, but you allowed us to embrace each challenge as it came. The whole experience was educational, fun, and lighthearted--truly unforgettable. I can't recommend this experience enough. I discovered so much about my own limits, all thanks to the supportive, carefree atmosphere you created for our group. The knowledge you shared was invaluable, and your demeanor was perfect. I felt challenged in a way that pushed me to grow without ever feeling afraid. This speaks volumes about the quality of the tour and the guidance you provided. Thank you for an experience we'll never forget--one we'll be talking about for years to come!

It was my first time "caving", and what an experience! I must admit it was a bit more intense than…read moreexpected, and I am glad my husband didn't join me, he would not have enjoyed the pulling on ropes, rapelling or squeezing into tight spots (you can opt out though). We were lucky that our group was just four people; I can imagine it would not be as enjoyable in full season with multiple groups of eight (the maximum size) in the cave. I was surprised they run the tours year-round, as the hike to the cave must be a little challenging with snow and ice on the ground. Although they provide all the equipment: knee pads, crampons etc. And believe me, you will need all of it! My upper body was sore the following day; you certainly want to be in good shape to tackle this advendure! You also need your own car to drive first to the office, and then to the start of the hike. Our guide was very friendly and knowledgeable, and I am glad I did this tour. An experience I won't forget!