Chateau Lake Louise & High Tea, Lake Louise in Banff, Canada

The Chateau Lake Louise is very nice and on Lake Louise itself. It has great service in all areas, the employees are polite, helpful, respectful – Suzanne is a good-service hound and loved it. They have many (expensive) restaurants, services, tours, can exchange money at front desk – great rate and no fee (better than the ATM in Ft. McLeod where we got Canadian money). There is valet parking for $15, but you can park on own in “government” lots for free. Be sure to get there early in day (before 10am) or after (after 4pm) or parking is a hassle. They even have a “lobby dog” named Sonny who is a seeing-eye dog “drop out” (he was afraid of cars) who hangs by the tour desk (to the left of the reception desk). He was quite sweet & mellow – you can even take him for a walk!

While at the Chateau, we had High Tea in the Fairmont dining room, which is lovely. There was great service and it was a great meal since we took tea at 4pm, and it replaced dinner for that evening. After starting with Champagne, there was fruit cocktail with contrineau, great scones with Devonshire cream & strawberry jam, a variety of four tea sandwiches: salmon rolls, tomatoes on crisonti, cheese, egg salad w/ cucumbers (I’m not doing these justice with these descriptions) and five desserts - small chocolate Mousse, apple flan, citrus meringue, pistachio tartlet with strawberry (filled with cream), a flourless orange cake, and of course, tea.

TIP – If it is sunny, do not sit by windows as if can be very, very hot (the dining room gets direct sun in the afternoon). If you go there for dinner, it is recommended you dine after 7pm, when the dining room cools.