Category: Accommodation

The final stayover, for one night. Not that impressive. When we arrived our room wasn’t ready (2pm, so fair enough) so we left them to finish it and headed out for lunch. When we got back it was ready, but after a few minutes in the room we discovered a patch of the carpet was soaking wet. Jo called for help, and they sent maintenance and housekeeping to take a look. Maintenance didn’t seem to do a great deal, whilst housekeeping used towels to mop up the spill. They muttered about it being the fridge until I pointed out that it was wettest under the air conditioning unit. On this information they immediately decided we needed to change rooms, but that we had to sort this out with the front desk. Jo phoned and got passed around, so I went down to the lobby to sort it out direct. To be fair they were very helpful and gave us a new room immediately, but whilst I was downstairs a different maintenance man had visited, apparently fixed the issue, and said to Jo we should stay. I don’t think Jo was too happy with this given we were then offered a bottle of wine (which became water and Sprite on our request) in our new room. The view was better though, of the city’s library.

Part 2 of the disappointment came next morning. We were told when checking in we’d get a breakfast next morning (we didn’t know this as all our hotels were bed-only apart from one) so we headed down in anticipation of the feast. Nope. The tiniest selection of four cereals, bread for toasting, yoghurt pots and a bowl of fruit. And we sat at a table in a corridor between conference rooms!! Quality of food was low. Amelia’s fruit loops were vile, and Jo opted for peanut butter and banana on toast. Overall, 1/10. Don’t visit.

For our two nights stay in Victoria we were at The Inn at Laurel Point, the opposite side of the inner harbour to the museum, the large government building and the start of the shopping area. A reasonably nice but quite large hotel, best summed up by its pool being full of kids whilst the restaurant terrace, where we had drinks, had an amazing view. It also had a really good café/bakery.

The views from the rooms was also really good, and the rooms were comfortable. 7/10.

We quite liked Tofino, and the accommodation felt a lot like the room (101) we used to stay in when we visited Bedruthan Steps hotel in Cornwall. Quite simple, with pretty thin walls, but very comfortable and a great view from the little porch. A nice place to spend a few days. 8/10.

Something slightly different, an apartment hotel where we had 2 bedrooms (one was actually built on what used to be a balcony!), a kitchen/diner, lounge and bathroom. The building used to be apartments, so they’d just converted it into an apartment hotel. The main entrance and reception was underground – the only place they could fit the required entrance facilities, so the taxi drove us into the underground car park and we just got out right next to reception!

Really good location, in an area of town that wasn’t as expensive as many others, but there were loads of food places to pick from and a big supermarket, all within minutes. Whilst it wasn’t as modern as we’d like, it was well appointed. The only downside was no air conditioning, so they’d retro-fitted portable units which were quite noisy. Otherwise a good choice. 6/10

Given the size of Jasper, and what seemed like endless variations of available accommodation, The Crimson felt like a good choice by Audley. A modern, large, perhaps drab, hotel but it had what we needed…almost. When we arrived we were checked into 2 rooms on the top floor with views over the mountains and expected railway tracks. We had been warned the trains were noisy, but as it turned out we couldn’t hear them – over the huge din created by the restaurant air-conditioning units on the roof above us!!! We complained immediately, and to their credit the hotel staff moved us the next morning – into a far bigger room for Jo and I) and a quiet room for the kids. They were a bit further apart from each other, but it didn’t seem to be much of an issue.

We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant (“Terra”) on our final day for simplicity, and the food was excellent – but far too plentiful. It’s rare we don’t finish, but none of us did.

Overall, a solid choice, and a deserved 7/10 only let down by the noise for the first night.

A different kind of hotel, the hotel is a small main building with reception, bar and restaurant and the rooms are small lodges of various sizes with beds on the ground floor and additional beds in the roof space accessible via a slightly lethal wooden ladder.

Generally quite nice, bed extremely comfortable and food excellent – this was our only hotel where breakfast was included, and we had dinner one night. The door to the bathroom slid open with magnetic catches which were really hard to open.

The benefit of this hotel is that it is owned by the same company who have the only hotel at Moraine Lake, and who seem to run the canoeing on the lake – so we were able to use the lake hotel facilities, got free canoe trips and the transfer to the lake was also free (and private for us!) The canoe trips alone were $160 per boat, so that’s $320 plus the cost of the transfer – our driver told us small minibuses are charged $700 per trip by Parks Canada.

Lots to like about this hotel, 8/10

A really nice hotel in the centre of Banff, with extremely friendly and helpful staff. The rooms were huge, comfortable and very clean. The restaurant and bar were excellent, and the corridor from our room to the lifts smelled of bacon due to the kitchen extractor fans! This hotel was rated by Audley as “Medium”, but it was so nice I think it should be higher rated! 7/10

We knew this was going to be a quick stopover bed, but this was not the best hotel we’ve ever stayed in. Dull but clean room, generally quite scruffy, really busy and noisy inside and out, and in a fairly dubious area nestled between Ikea and a strip club that seemed to promise a lot! No redeeming features other than the bed was pretty comfortable. 2/10.