Hotels near Lake Louise, Lake Louise

Went in May and it was easy to book accommodation and get around.However Lake Louise Gondola doesnt open till end of the month-old Banff Gondola open year round. Best meal at the Train Station where we ate outside and watched the Rocky Mountaineer arrive. Visited the lake by Parks bus as it's $ 21 to park and only $ 11 by bus.Beautiful lake with lots of walks from it.Best to go early to miss crowds. However the routes are quite steep ! Imagine it will be packed out in the summer.

It's a gorgeous looking place on a sunny day, though expect everything to be expensive. Watch where you put your feet though - the ground isn't necessarily even, and if you stumble and twist your ankle it can be a slow painful hobble back even to the bus stop (been there, done that).

We preferred Lake Moraine to Lake Louise. The colours of the lake were more spectacular and also mountainous too. We drove our car to the park and ride spot on the highway near the village to get the shuttle bus to Lake Louise ($3pp). If you do not get to Lake Louise in a car before 8am, the road closes off to cars so the shuttle buses is the only way there. Unfortunately when we got there, we were told we had a 2 1/2 hr wait in queues to get a shuttle bus to Lake Louise. There were 6 empty shuttles sitting in the car park and they were only leaving every 15mins apart. absolutely ridiculous, why they didn't put people on shuttle buses to cut the long queue is hard to fathom. This took the edge of the entire day. Hope this system improves. To get to Lake Moraine there was a 1hr wait for a shuttle bus. ($2pp) Once there the Lake we thought was more spectacular and scenic than Lake Louise was. 3 1/2 hrs waiting in queues took the edge of that day. If you are not staying at the Fairmont Hotel at Lake Louise, then its just a lake and hotel and thats it. We spent about 1 hr max there as we wanted to see Lake Moraine too. This had to be done before the last shuttle bus takes people back to the park and ride near Lake Louise village. Hopefully they will improve as the year moves on.