We chose Hop on Hop Off because of the flexibility. They have many stops and you can choose how to…read morespend your day. Many others only give you an hour per stop but we had so much time to do what we wanted. Bonus, the tour guides Lewis and Dominique are amazing! They help you customize your day. They are also a wealth of knowledge. I enjoyed the stories they told while on the bus. I highly recommend taking this tour!

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.

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.

Surprised my girlfriend with the summer dog carting tour out of Boundary Ranch and it was awesome…read more 14 dogs showed up and they were all so sweet and lovable. The workers were friendly and knowledgeable. We got to pet the dogs, go for a ride, unharness them, and give them treats! It was all so great. We didn't care it was raining or we were getting muddy.

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 do not recommend this taxi service. We booked a few days in advance to take us from Harvey…read moreHeights in Canmore to St Mary's Church in Banff for a wedding. I called to book the cab to and from for 6 passengers. I called the day before to confirm the pick up time and also the morning of the wedding. The response I got from the owner was "you don't have to keep beating a dead horse". I thought this was rude and unprofessional. But this is only the beginning of the rude behaviour. The morning of the pick up another taxi company drove up to the property we were staying at. It was a van that seated six people so we just assumed it was our taxi ride. We all jumped in and we were off to the church on time for the wedding. However, what we didn't realized was that it wasn't the taxi company that we booked (i.e. Three Sister's Taxi). Apparently, this happens a lot in Canmore (i.e. taxi companies take each others business). When Twin Sisters showed up to pick us up we were already gone. The company then left us several phone messages. However, because I was at a wedding I had my phone turned off. After the wedding no taxi showed up to pick us up even though we had booked Twin Sisters for the return drive back to Harvey Heights. They thought that we scammed them. We tried to explain that we were picked up and we were now waiting for our driver to take us back. But they refused to believe us! After much convincing they finally agreed to pick us up. When the owner showed up he literally grabbed the phone out of my hand as I was trying to explain to him what happened. Dave, needless to say we used another company to take us to the Banff Spring for the reception and that company was great! I will be leaving them a positive review.

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.

Extremely Disappointing Experience - Safety Should Never Take a Back Seat…read more My family visited the Columbia Icefield this year, and I returned for my second visit after a great experience last year. Unfortunately, this visit was very different and raised serious safety concerns. Our group had 13 people. When it was time to return from the glacier, 9 family members plus five other guests were left behind on the ice by our driver, Chad, without warning. I had already told the driver that there were people who had yet to board, and as the vehicle pulled away he could see our group waving, including children aged 5 and 11, yet he continued driving. We were stranded on the glacier for 90 minutes, exposed to cold conditions with no clear communication or emergency response. During this time, we repeatedly asked other Ice Explorer drivers for help. Despite several buses having available seats, multiple drivers refused to take us, even with young children visibly cold. It appeared that strict scheduling prevented them from assisting stranded guests, even in a clear safety situation. After 90 minutes, one compassionate driver finally stopped and brought our family back. We are very grateful to that individual for preventing an even worse outcome. This raises serious concerns about procedures and training. No guests should be left on a glacier due to scheduling constraints. A simple head count, final check, or empowering drivers to assist stranded guests could prevent this from happening again. We came back because of a great prior experience, but this visit has left us questioning whether guest safety is truly the top priority--or whether operational efficiency and profit are being placed ahead of basic safety processes.

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.

5 stars for Gabriel who was our evening Wildlife tour guide. He was so awesome, knowledgeable and…read morefun and we saw lots of wildlife local to the area. Highly recommended, with several choices on where to pick up/drop off before and after. My family and I really enjoyed the entire evening!

Very informative . Our guide Buffy was great! She was able to talk about the origin of the valleys…read moreand mountain.

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.

We booked this service a few months ago to ensure we had transport from Banff to Lake Louise. We…read morewere traveling with four bags as we've been traveling for quite some time, including a cruise. The driver showed up 'exactly' on time, right at the front of our hotel (perfect). The driver was super helpful, loaded our bags and we were on our way. We picked up two more stops, including the central station and then it was a quick 45 minute drive out to lake Louise. I would highly recommend this service

FAbtastic tour of the lakes with Hans and Macie! Great people, knowledgeable and super friendly!…read moreHighly ecommended to all!

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!

We had a GREAT Experience & our 10 year old Daughter LOVED it! The staff/guides are professional…read more& courteous & very knowledgeable! My Daughter was all smiles when we returned & Ruby (our guide) was GREAT! Thank You!

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!

My family did the adventure tour -- two late forties parents, two teenagers and a young adult. I…read moreadmit I am scared of heights so was terrified about the rappelling but once I was actually doing it I was okay and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the tour once that was over with. My favorite part was squeezing through the small spaces. They provide knee pads, helmets, coveralls etc. and you will realize how needed they are as you keep bumping your head on the rocks and scrambling on your knees. Our guide, Brent, was so knowledgeable about cave history and formation and it was interesting to see the different areas of the cave. This tour was by far the highlight of our trip to Banff. All my kids loved it. Highly recommend.