Michelle's Travel Adventures

September 20 – 24, 2025

September 20

Stephen and Macy have a work conference in Banff for a few days so of course I had to tag along!  We flew out of Charlottetown on the 11:25 am flight to Montreal, had a couple of hours in Montreal and then on to Calgary.  

Good Bye PEI!  And Bonjour Montreal!

What I’m reading on this trip: There Are River’s In The Sky. A FIVE star read!!! So Good!

We landed in Calgary around 3:30 pm, but by the time we got our luggage and ubered to our hotel, the Element Calgary Downtown, we only had enough time to check in, drop off our bags and then uber to our dinner reservations.

We have an early dinner reservation (5:15pm because hello time difference of 3 hours) at Major Tom.  It’s on the 40th floor of Stephen Avenue Place, so the views of Calgary are stunning! And we’ve timed it right to catch sunset too! Perfect!

Major Tom is a pretty happening restaurant in Calgary and the place is packed, even at 5pm, and they are turning people away at the door who don’t have reservations. That’s why I ALWAYS plan ahead for restaurants!

The wine list is hilarious, the sommelier here definitely has a sense of humour.

The menu here is perfect, short and sweet. I love a menu with delicious but minimal options. If the menu feels like a book that would have chapters, it’s a red flag.

Macy and I both order Steak Frites and Stephen ordered MT Cheeseburger. Plus we order a caesar salad and roasted zucchini for the table to share. The caesar salad was delicious but the zucchini was OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!! All and all the meal was incredible!

For dessert we ordered the London Fog Verrine to share, which was delicious

On a side note: the table beside us tonight had piqued our interest. It was 2 young, buff guys and a gorgeous young lady. But that wasn’t the interesting part, it was what they were ordering. Champagne, caviar, wagyu beef etc… We were like how can these young people afford this?! lol…and then it dawned on us that they were probably NHL players with their girlfriends. So after some quick online sleuthing we realized they were Martin Pospišil and Connor Zary from the Calgary Flames.

Anyways, the time difference was catching up with us and we have an early morning bus to Banff to catch, so we had back to the hotel beeline it to bed.

September 21

We’re up early today and head down to the hotel breakfast room, which ended up having a decent breakfast offering. Then we checked out and walked to the bus depot for the bus that will be taking us to Banff. The drive was good, it’s always so cool when you start seeing the mountains. I do love it here!

When we arrive in Banff the shuttle bus just drops you off at the centre of town. We figured we could Uber to the Fairmont Hotel, but we discovered there are no Ubers in Banff. And all the taxis in town were apparently busy when we called for one (!?). Anyways we figured it out that there is a Banff city shuttle that was around the corner and it could take us up to the Fairmont.

Arriving at the Banff Fairmont feels surreal, like you’re arriving at a fairytale castle. Our room wasn’t ready upon check in so we stored our luggage and went to the Rundle Bar for lunch.

The Rundle Bar is gorgeous inside but the views out on the patio are absolutely jaw dropping. We would have sat outside but it was pretty cool and windy so we took a table inside with views of mountains.

We ordered some small plates to share for our lunch. We ordered warm olives, mini wings with black truffle honey and roasted garlic (soooo good), little gems salad and crispy chicken rice bowl. Everything was yummy. And of course we could not resist the Rundle OGC! (oooey, gooey, cookie) – which was incredible.

After lunch we wandered around the outdoor patio to take some photos.

It was starting to rain a bit so came back in and we explored more of the Rundle Bar. We discovered it has a hidden room behind a swinging bookcase! And then we continued to explore around the hotel

We soon decided to brave the weather (it seemed like it couldn’t decide to rain or not) and go out and explore, weather be damned!

We decided to hike the Bow River Trail, which takes you to the Bow Falls and then along the river where there is a wide, open trail with art displays and then into the downtown area.

And eventually the trail system lead us to the downtown area. We wandered around, did some window shopping and grabbed some coffees at Little Wild Coffee by Wild Flower.

We head back to the hotel and get in just in the nick of time before the rain starts! Phew! Now to get cleaned up for the big Welcome Reception tonight.

September 22

Macy and I got up early this morning, thanks probably to the time difference. It was cold outside and we didn’t pack enough warm clothes, so we decided to walk around the hotel.

After they left for the conference I headed to the gym for a bit of a workout and then a swim/float in the outdoor heated pool. The views from the gym are INCREDIBLE! Talk about motivation to go to the gym!

The afternoon was spent with some of the other spouses and we walked into town for lunch at Three Bears Brewery and did some window shopping before heading back to get ready for the event tonight.

I had to share this. photo of Macy! Not a bad place to have your first work conference!

Tonights event theme is “Banff and Bougie” and its a gondola up to Sulfur Mountain for a private dinner. Everybody at the conference usually does a good job at dressing for the them, so I’ve got my Tacova cowboy boots, leather pants, and Fran’s fur stole.

The gondola is a pretty steep ride up to the top!

When we arrive we’re greeted with champagne and the most stunning views of the mountains!

We had a nice buffet dinner as we watched the sunset

I love a good sunset and would never tire of seeing this

September 23

Macy and Stephen had meetings this morning so I had a repeat of gym and pool and then showered and started packing up. We have boxed lunches from the hotel to take with us for the bus ride back to Calgary. We’re staying the night at the airport Delta hotel and fly home in the morning. It was a short and sweet time in Banff but it made us realize how beautiful Canada is and how much there is to see and do. Next time we’ll stay longer!