Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity — Attraction in Banff

The BEST Conference facility in Canada. Period.

Been coming to the Banff Centre for Conferences for 18 years and it is simply the finest gathering place in Canada for groups - period.

THIS year however I was blown away by the Lloyd Hall renovation! Small rooms but highly contemporary wood themed design. New washroom too, stand up shower with a rain shower head!! I was in heaven all week falling asleep and waking up to a huge window at the foot of the bed. And there are gathering areas on the third and first floor, also bright contemporary spaces.

Here’s another bonus - Lloyd Hall used to be dingy/studenty type lodging so no one stayed there - NOW with the reno it’s also attached to the Vistas Dining room AND the Sally Borden building underground so you can walk over in Gym/Swimming gear!

If you are a meeting planner or new to the Centre the Kinnear Building is an outstanding place for meetings and conferences.

MacLab Bistro is THE place to have a glass of wine and enjoy a view like none other.

Vistas Dining room is no cafeteria! Each day brings new creative delights of local and healthy but delicious and delectable food. You will need to hike and swim each day :)

The Sally Borden building has a full gym, massive swimming pool with hot tub and steam rooms as well as a full climbing room and daily yoga.

Lastly, you can’t visit without being greeted by the gracious Jim Olver. A king of a man he is the living embodiment of the Banff Centre and the master of hospitality. Seriously, take his number and text him any time.

I’m part of a professional business community ( called CAGP ) who have been coming to the Banff Centre for 29 years and our thousands of members think of it as a second home now.

Always improving, consistently memorable, affordable and...

This is more for their website and contact system more for the facility itself. First off, the website. Like most educational sites, the homepage predominantly displays promotions, press releases and alumni in the news rather then a program and staff directory. (A program list is shoved off to the left and is categorized by discipline). The site is difficult to navigate, and if you want to find a program you want to register for, you're better off typing "banff arts centre [program name]" in Google to find the program you want to register for.

If you want to contact some one, there is only one place you can contact- The Office of the Registrar. The lady or man who answers will politely state his or her occupation, and will regularly not know the answers to your questions since it will be mostly about their programs (stuff reserved for the program heads). They will try to direct your calls to the office of the program head, but they will never be there. Personally, I have no care for their state of business or influence, this is unprofessional and more secretaries and fill-ins are needed.

About the arts center in question, I visited it and it's not so bad. There are lovely views of the mountains and the place seems well-maintained (Keyword "seems"). A disadvantage would be that it is completely accessible only by car, unless you want to walk, bike or skateboard along side cars on roads that have little clearance. It is also farther from the main centre of town then it looks. I also noticed lots of First Nations people around. I'll let you be the judge on if that is a bad thing or not (some Natives can be a...

There are so many beautiful places to stay in Banff that you cannot really go wrong. This place is no different. It has beautiful views and the people here are pretty exceptional. One of our biggest annoyances though is that THERE IS NO PARKING available anywhere. It was so difficult to find a parking spot, we had to park a few ways from anywhere near our conference and the road did not feel safe because cars blocking both sides only allowed room for one lane and put us quite close to the traffic. We were constantly late and ruined our shoes :( Thats not their fault of course, but shopping for shoes in the Bow Valley is NOT an easy task. And you need a good pair of shoes because this campus has a lot of outdoor trails (uphill, and the buildings are pretty far apart) and it is SO DIFFICULT to find your way around.

We tried out a few of their restaurants and Vistas was our favorite by far. They had a few different themes each day and the food was OUTSTANDING. Le Cafe has a few made-to-order sandwiches with very generous portions but there was not much variety and they weren't our favorite. MacLab had tasty food, we tried their chicken tenders and burgers and enjoyed them. However, ALL were quite expensive. It is better to just head to town to eat, there are so many more options for less money (and more parking!).

Whats really cool about this place is that there is a wonderful library and a very cool gym. The library was free but the gym (and pool) was an additional cost. I am rating this so low because the higher than average cost of everything and the limited parking left a pretty bad taste...