Can you have fun in Banff with two toddlers?

This spring, I got the chance to go to Banff, Alberta for a week. My hubby was away so I was solo-parenting and living in a hotel room for a week. I must admit, I was a wreck thinking of how I was going to entertain two kids every single day in an environment that I was not familiar with.

I didn't really know the town of Banff that well so I didn't want to venture to far. I was afraid that the car would break down somewhere and I would have a bear attack us. I watch too much TV.

The drive down to Banff was about 5 hours from Edmonton. We stopped in Calgary to stretch our legs and let the boys visit with their cousins. I packed lots of movies or should I say Treehouse dvds. I think I can recite all the Max and Ruby skits without actually seeing them.

After settling in for the first night which went surprisingly well, we decided to set off early the next morning to see what the hotel pool looked like. The kids loved the pool which had a kids play area and a hot tub. Since we went during the week, we had the pool to ourselves for almost the entire time.

After the pool, we ventured into the town. Each day I tried a different route in and around Banff so that I could get a feel of the town as well as discover some new and fun non touristy things. We found a couple of playgrounds and met a few other children to play with.

One of the first days that we were there, we went to Bow Falls. The kids liked it but they were still a bit tired  so I did the pictures and told them that there was a Castle nearby. That got the kids excited. We drove to the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and back down the hill. My older son was not impressed as he thought we were actually going inside. So the next day we did the tour of the hotel. Although it was not what he expected, but we had fun exploring in our own little way.

Another highlight of our trip was visiting the Banff Gondola. I was a little worried about this one as it is a bit expensive. The Gondola ride was awesome but the kids were a little afraid because we were so high up in the sky. I showed them the Castle and the trees and tried to distract them from the fact that we were dangling by a cable a million meters in the air.

Once we got to the top of the mountain I showed them to the steps to get to Sulphur Mountain and they immediately took off. I don't know exactly how many steps we climbed but they were too busy passing other people for me to take pictures and enjoy the amazing views. I will admit that I was out of shape to climb those stairs but they had no trouble running up them so I had no choice but to follow.

When we did get to the top, they didn't want to leave. The view was amazing but since there was not ample barricades at the top, I didn't want to chance one of the kids falling off the mountain. I bribed them  to get down and finally we started our trek down having little snowball fights along the way. I submitted a picture with them climbing down the stairs to Unplug and Explore Contest.

Vote for these troopers 

Some of the other things that we did that were toddler friendly:
Throwing rocks in the river
Collecting cool looking rocks
Going on a trail hike
Eating at kid friendly establishments
Looking out for wild animals and poop
Eating Ice Cream from Cows
Shopping
Riding elevators and escalators
Checking out the horse stables and watching out for more poop
Finding a new mountain or waterfall.
And finally watching mummy make a hundred wrong turns looking for parking spot.I hope you get the chance to visit this amazing place. I can't wait till they are older so we can do more amazing things. I will start getting into shape to keep up with them. We had so much fun and so can you.