Fairmont Banff Springs

The Canadian Pacific Railway opened the Fairmont Banff Springs in 1888, one of the first of Canada's grand railway hotels, designed by Bruce Price in a mix of Scottish Baronial and Loire château styles. The original wooden building burned in 1926, J.W. Orrock's rebuilt wings were finished in 1928, and the hotel became a National Historic Site of Canada in 1988. Known as the Castle in the Rockies, it stands where the Bow and Spray valleys meet inside Banff National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and takes its name from the hot springs of Sulphur Mountain, whose water was once piped into the hotel. It is a grand base for the mountains in any season. Three ski areas are close by, Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise and Mount Norquay, and summer brings hiking, riding, cycling and gondola rides, plus the Stanley Thompson golf course of 1927, whose par-three Devil's Cauldron is one of the famous holes of the game. The adults-only Fairmont Spa, open all year, has a mineral pool and waterfalls, and dining runs from the 1888 Chop House to the alpine Waldhaus, with afternoon tea in the Rockies tradition. The hotel holds One MICHELIN Key.