Banff Caribou Lodge
The Banff Caribou Lodge is located on the east end of the main street in Banff, Banff Ave., so it's not quite in the middle of all the action. The main part of town is about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. The lobby is decorated, as you would expect, like a lodge, dark brown woods and a big fire place in the middle, very inviting looking. The young man at the front desk when we checked in was quite nice, which is nothing less than expected in Banff. We were offered a free bus pass for the duration of our stay. The room itself was not decorated like the lobby at all, but was rather your basic hotel room. The room itself was a bit smaller than what I was expecting. The bed was extremely comfortable with a big, soft duvet and good soft pillows. The bathroom was very dim and the shower was odd (faucets). There is a couch and a tv in the room, as well as a table with a couple of chairs. There is no fridge or microwave, but there is tea and coffee. We had a nice view of a mountain right across the street. The Banff Caribou Lodge also features the Red Earth Spa which has a variety of treatments, massages, manicures and the like. I didn't get any of these services, but I did use the heated 35 person pool, which feels almost like a hot tub, and the sauna. There is a small exercise room with a treadmill, elliptical machine and some weights. Breakfast is not included. There is a Keg restaurant in the hotel and you can have breakfast there, but it is fairly expensive. The Keg is also a chain restaurant, so I'd rather go somewhere local like Bruno's (all day breakfast) instead. Overall, the Banff Caribou Lodge is a good option in Banff if you want something slightly cheaper than a lot of the other hotels in Banff. One of the perks of the hotel is that there is free underground parking in the hotel's own private parkade. Just make sure you keep your parking validation on the dash when you're parked in the parkade.