The Lodge at Bow Lake

We had a memorable stay at the Bow Lake Lodge, from the golf car shuttle taking us from the parking lot to the lodge to the next day breakfast! We enjoyed the nature talk during the tea time, the ease of a code for the room lock instead of a key card, meeting strangers at dinner who were friendly, and the walk around the lodge after dinner. The catering staff accommodated our vegan needs and the 4 course meal was great! They let us take the breakfast a bit earlier than the 8am sitting to allow for our early departure. If we didn't have a packed schedule, we would have stayed there another day and enjoyed nearby hikes.

We enjoyed a great 3 night stay at the lodge. Bruce and the entire team, the lodging and the food, the location and scenery were all amazing and exceptional!

My Husband and I enjoyed our experience at the lodge tremendously. We stayed for 4 nights and loved everything about it. Bruce and Allison are warm, knowledgeable and helpful. Their employees are obviously happy and delightful, without exception. The food and baked goods exceeded expectations. Our fellow patrons were lovely and interested people which made for lively conversation each evening. I would not change a thing.

Unfortunately, our experience staying here was very disappointing. The location is, of course, exceptional, and the staff are very friendly (I particularly loved the effort Bruce made to refer to guests by their names), but one can't help but feel that the lodge is something of a construction zone, or at least very much a work in progress. On our first night we discovered mice in the room. Just when we'd managed to usher them out and get back to bed, we heard the scamper of yet more little paws and got up to discover that more had somehow found their way inside, despite our having stuffed a towel underneath the door. Given where the lodge is located, this feels in part like it just comes with the territory, and we laughed it off the next morning with another couple at breakfast. That day, we returned from a hike at around 3 pm to find two of the staff on a mobile platform and painting immediately outside of our window. It was a hot day, and we wanted to open the window, but unfortunately this prevented that. When the staff moved to the floor above ours, we cracked the window open, but the smell of the paint led us to close it again and head downstairs to the bar. It wasn't mice that proved troublesome on our second night, however, but the arrival of a food delivery truck shortly after 5 in the morning. Given the noise, it sounded as though the truck was parked almost directly under our window, engine running the whole time, the clanging and chatter downstairs filling our room. This disturbance I cannot chalk up to the location, and when you're paying as much as you are to stay in a place like this, you expect to be able to sleep better than you would have at a campground. Unfortunately, the campground would have been much better. As it was, we slept only a few short hours and felt quite groggy the whole next day. The rest of our 10-day trip through the Canadian Rockies was wonderful, and we stayed at a couple of excellent B&Bs and campsites, the total for all of them less than our 2-night stay here. In the end, that's what was so upsetting. Spending $900 per night on an accommodation is a real splurge for us, but given the other reviews and the incredible location, we thought we'd treat ourselves. Given our experience, I really wish we hadn't.

Such an amazing place! A must stay if you enjoy hiking, back country skiing, snowshoeing or just chilling in a gorgeous lodge with amazing staff and incredible food! Also a much quieter place than the tourists areas around Banff and Lake Louise!

Excellent value, everything was as advertised or better. More food than we could possibly eat but it was so good we wanted to!