Athens
Madeleine
In her element planning active, mountain-heavy itineraries. Also the one to call for group travel — reunions, milestones, friends going together.
Banff and Lake Louise are the postcard. The province behind them is the reason to stay a week.
Most Alberta trips are built around the Canadian Rockies, and rightly — Banff and Jasper are open year-round, and the lakes really are that color. But two hours east of Calgary the landscape turns to badlands and fossil beds, where some of the largest dinosaur finds on earth came out of the ground. It’s a genuinely strange and wonderful counterweight to the mountains.
The practical questions are season and pace. Summer is hiking, paddling, and long light. Winter is powder that skiers describe as floating. Both work; they’re just different trips, and the drive times between regions are longer than people expect.
Where to go
Three places worth building a trip around
Two in the mountains, one that looks like another planet.
Banff & Lake Louise
The crown jewel
Snow-capped peaks, emerald lakes, and a national park that works in every season — skiing in winter, hiking and paddling in summer. The most photographed corner of Canada, and it earns it.
Jasper
Wilder and quieter
The larger, less-trafficked of the two mountain parks, reached by one of the great drives in North America. Miette Hot Springs for afterward, and dark skies good enough for an official preserve.
The Canadian Badlands
Where the dinosaurs were
Hoodoos, fossil beds, and Dinosaur Provincial Park, where some of the biggest finds in the world were uncovered. Two hours from Calgary and completely unlike the rest of the province.
Endless ways to experience it
What kind of Alberta are you after?
Hiking and the outdoors
Thousands of miles of trail across mountains, grasslands, badlands, and forest — graded from easy walks to serious climbs.
Skiing
Dry, light powder and lift lines that barely exist. Several resorts within reach of one base, which makes a week here easy to plan.
Wildlife
587 species, including grizzlies, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, and wolves. Guided viewing gets you closer safely and improves the odds considerably.
Indigenous experiences
Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park and Métis Crossing offer First Nations and Métis history firsthand — including staying overnight in a tipi village.
Food, beer, and whisky
Alberta grows more barley than anywhere on earth, fed by glacier streams — which is why the craft distilleries and breweries here are worth a detour.
Wellness
Miette Hot Springs in Jasper and the Nordic spa at Kananaskis. The right second half to a week of walking.
Who you’ll work with
Pick the office nearest you.
All four of our advisors plan Alberta. Which one you work with is usually just a question of which office you’d rather walk into.
Dunwoody
Leslie
Planning trips since 1990. Ask her about the history nobody told you to look for.
Dunwoody
Steve
Left a career as a chiropractor for a year-long trip around the world, and came back to help other people take theirs.
Tuscaloosa
Stella
She builds trips around local life rather than the tourist checklist — which in Alberta means the small towns and the farmers’ markets, not just the parks.
Go deeper
More on Alberta
Region guides, lodges, and current offers — kept up to date through our relationships with colleagues around the world.
Ready when you are.
Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we’ll take it from there.
