I'm giving this a very generous 3 stars, but tbh if you're booking a powder highway journey I'd…read moregive this one a miss. We stayed at "the approach". The upside is that you're just a few steps from the lift. The downside is that you'll be schlepping gear and bags up several flights of stairs as there are no ramps or elevators. If lot 1 is full? Then you have to schlep your gear on an open air mini gondola. Luckily we got parking in lot 1. Pros : New building. Access to the hot spring pools but there is also an outdoor tub in the approach. Laundry, gym, etc all on site. Cons (and why we will never return): -For the amount of housing food options are extremely limited. On Monday evenings the bar is the only food option. There was an hour +, wait for a table. On Tuesday the other restaurant was totally booked. Which left the bar again. -We are here at the end of Feb and coverage is extremely light. Off piste had brush and stumps exposed and on piste had gravel and chunks of tree debris open. We called it a day after half a day since we didn't bring our rock skis. Can't recommend this one.

An overpriced place. Went during the summer, it felt like it was a cash grab for all the rides…read more The swimming pools are worth it.

We stayed here during our 2 days in Banff - it was a quick 15 minute drive to the main village…read more(shuttles are also offered by the resort). The coolest thing ever is taking the gondola up to the lodge. Never have I ever taken such a long gondola ride (it's 25 minutes)! And yes the gondola pass is included as part of your hotel stay. Absolutely gorgeous scenery along the way and once at the very top, the lodge is there along with a nice sit down restaurant as well as a decent sports bar/saloon (both open late) . The gondola runs from 8am to 6pm so plan accordingly - if you show up after 6pm you just check in with the front and they have shuttles driving you back up the mountain - it's twisty , turny, dirt road and quite a white knuckle ride lol. Props to the young guy who drove us back one night in pitch black - grateful we didn't go over a cliff! My ONLY complaint is the walkway from the gondola to the lodge is literally GRAVEL. Like big chunks of gravel. Trying to roll our luggage across this was horrible. I'm pretty sure it didn't do my luggage any service either. The crap thing was that several employees saw us trying to pull our luggage and never stopped to help. When I checked in, the front desk was like "oh, there's supposed to be luggage carts to help with that". Nope. There. Weren't. Checking out the lovely guys (one of which was our driver that pitch black night) helped us take our luggage to the gondola. We didn't hike any of the trails up there - but the resort does lead guided hikes. There's also a decent cafe to get some breakfast and a cute little gift shop to get sundries late at night. All in all I would totally stay here again for the experience - just now I know to just run ahead and get help with my luggage!

We were here in the summer and used the lifts to get to hiking areas. Parking is vast so no…read morefighting for space. We took the gondola up and around the mountain to the village area. There are shops and places to refill your water bottles. You can hike from here but we took the ski lift to the lookout area and started our hike from there. The path takes you through meadows, to look out areas and along alpine lakes. We ended up walking back down to the village area to get in a hike just under 5 miles. For fun we took the lift back up and down and saw some mule deer along the way. The village has some educational displays as well as shopping and snacks. The gondola ride is long and provides some great views. We enjoyed this very much.

I had a blast doing the Via Ferrata here at Norquay. My running group company booked this adventure…read moreas an excursion on our trip to Banff. The Via Ferrata (Italian for the Iron Path) has five different types of adventure tours: Explorer, Ridgewalker, Alpinist, Skyline and Summiteer. Each of these trails cater to all different types of skill levels. My travel company booked the Explorer package for our group which is 1 km (3,280 feet) in distance and lasts just over 2 hours. The views are breathtaking and I really enjoyed doing my first Via Ferrata. You can see one of the coolest looking mountains Mount Rundle in the distance while on the trail. Mount Norquay has a rich ski culture that goes back to the early 1900s. It lies directly northwest of the Town of Banff and is one of Banff National Park's three major ski resorts. The mountain has a top elevation of 6,998 feet. The main chair lift is one of the oldest lifts in North America and has been providing riders with views of the Bow Valley since 1948. Mount Norquay Ski Resort is operated by Norquay Mystic Ridge Ltd. Norquay has a total of 60 runs and is a huge supporter of alpine ski racing. The Mount Norquay Via Ferrata is located in Banff National Park. We had a great guide that took us up the sheer rock wall and across the suspension bridge. I initially was a little nervous, but felt safe the whole time with the harness that attaches to the mountain's steel cable pathway. Those cables can hold a ton of weight. Anyone without rock climbing experience can do this. Before we started our climb, our guide went over all of the safety rules and let us do a practice run on a short wall before we headed up the chair lift. Norquay Via Ferrata offers complimentary hiking boots if you forgot to bring some and has a bistro and snack bar if you are hungry. The Norquay Via Ferrata is a must if visiting Banff National Park.

The best experience we have ever gone into blindly. Very well curated guided experience, great…read morecondition equipment, amazing and funniest guide. We had lot of fun with the Ridgewalker hike/climbing we did. Worth every dollar we spent on it. It was safe and the instructions were clear, concise and easy to follow. The work that goes into maintaining those trails is very much unknown and underappreciated. So thank you!

This was my first Banff mountain to visit for 2024…read more When you arrive there is manually scanning at the lifts. The lines are pretty short- crowds were not bad on a Saturday. The runs were reasonable challenging and length was good for an intermediate skier. Disclosure, just accounting for the green and blue runs- was not able to visit the black diamond. We were able to get a close parking spot on a Saturday- so overall can't really complain. The only thing that may slow you down is the manual scanning but your aren't elbow to elbow waiting in line.

This family friendly and smaller ski resort is amazing to get away from the crowds. If you are…read morestaying in Banff downtown, grab the free Norquay shuttles it picked us up from Ptarmigan Inn. They are on time and extremely efficient, if one bus gets filled another one is called immediately. We didn't wait more than 5 min for the second bus. It takes about 15 min to get to the mountains depending on the traffic. The mountain only has a few lifts but it's a wonderful experience, the minimal crowds to the friendly atmosphere I don't think it gets better than this. The snow sport culture can sometimes have a very pretentious and obnoxious vibe but this place is the absolute opposite. The runs are steep with plenty of options for every level. The ski school was so good, my 5 yr old son was in the two hour 1pm time slot with Ryan and he did a fantastic job. The ratio was 1 teacher and two kids. The magic carpet is long and you can get a good run as it isn't too short. The school check in is next to the rental building, the lesson starts with the instructors meeting by the check in building. The main lodge is old school and homey. The staff are all sweet and relaxed. We had the chili and the smoked salmon to go sandwiches both are fairly priced and solid. Multiple lockers and a ton of shelves for bags etc. Small gift shop inside for some souvenirs. Parking is free if you decide to drive up yourself but I'd say take the shuttle, it's an easy and hassle free experience. Stay safe and have fun shredding!

DUDE. I went into basically every ski shop in Banff and this was the place that I knew I had to buy…read morefrom. Andrew, the owner, took time to listen and ask questions about my ability, my preferences, and what I needed to work on. He gave me advice without trying to sell me on anything - very different than some of the other shops in town (cough, cough, Abominable). I decided on some skis and wanted to work out some boot issues I'd been having. He told me to come back the next day and Brody would help me out (because Andrew was going out of town). Brody = freaking amazing. I ended up getting new boots and he helped me figure out that I was in a boot way too big for me. I got the new boots and after a day of riding, came back to make some adjustments. He and Tristan really thought through what options I had to make the boot fit perfectly. I was so impressed with how cool Brody was with my MILLIONS of questions. You could tell that he really cared about doing things right and making sure I felt great in my boots. It was an awesome experience. They do heat molding, waxing/tuning, sell Nórdica, K2, and Technica (and a few other brands I think). Great shop with great people! We meant to stop by to say thanks again before we left but didn't have time - if you see this review, tell them Andrea from Las Vegas sent you!

This was my first time renting bikes in banff. We wanted a more relaxed ride so we could explore…read morethe town of the banff and the bow river. We opted for cruiser bikes. The staff were friendly and eager to help. We received a helmet and a lock along with your bike, charging you 10 bucks for an hour or if, over 3.5 hours, it'll be 35 for the day. We found these to be pretty reasonable prices! The bikes were comfy and easy to use. There were also lots of trails and places to bike around town that could allow you the whole day to explore. We would definitely come back here. Maybe next time I'll try a mountain bike!