Canada Banff Car-Free Guide

My most anticipated Banff trip in the US and Canada⛰️🇨🇦
Every photo looks incredibly beautiful, like a postcard 🥺
A perfect end to a 4-day, 3-night trip 💙

Day 1: Flew from Vancouver to Calgary in the morning, about an hour and a half. I took Flair Airlines, but definitely do not take this airline... The takeoff was very unstable, and it was shaky on the plane too. It was the first time in my life I cried on a plane, it was really terrifying...😭
After arriving, I booked a ride at the counter for CAD$58 to Banff town. Actually, there was a cheaper option called On It for only CAD$13, but it only runs three times a day 🚌
After arriving in town, I just wandered around casually~
Day 2: Joined a one-day tour 🚌 booked on GetYourGuide for $58 USD. We visited five or six spots, including Emerald Lake, Lake Louise, and Moraine Lake! It was truly stunning...✨ Although I joined alone, I happened to meet a Taiwanese lady on the same bus, and we helped each other take photos 📷
Day 3: I originally planned to go to the Columbia Icefield, but later decided to spend the day with a Taiwanese guy and his friends I met on the bus from Seattle to Vancouver. Since they rented a car 🚗, they could drive me around. We hiked ⛰️ and took a cable car 🚡. The cable car was an open basket, which was quite scary, but it moved very slowly. The mountain views were really, really beautiful!
Day 4: My flight was at 4 PM. I spent the morning wandering around town, buying postcards and magnets. I ended up mixing up the bus time to the airport, and the bus left without me... I was shaking so badly at that moment. Luckily, I saw a van at the bus stop that looked like the one that came from the airport on the first day. I asked and found out it was heading to the airport now! I immediately paid and got on 🚌 I was such a lucky girl😭😭 Otherwise, I would have missed my flight back to Vancouver, and buying a new ticket would have been super expensive...💸
This solo trip, I stayed in Banff town at a hostel with decent reviews and reasonable prices. Overall, it was quite comfortable 👍🏻 The downside was that there was only one bathroom per room, but it was very large! Breakfast was great because I could make my own pancakes 🥞

Post by Isabella Thompson7Isabella | Oct 17, 2025