Banff National Park is a seemingly endless outdoor playground, making it the perfect destination for a family vacation. In the summer, families visiting Banff with kids will love the endless opportunities for hiking, biking, wildlife viewing and more. While in the winter, your family will love snowshoeing, winter hiking, cross-country skiing and downhill skiing in Banff.
No matter the season, you’ll need a family friendly hotel as your mountain base camp. Banff is an extremely kid-friendly destination with a wide-selection of family-friendly hotels. We live in the Bow Valley, but we have traveled extensively with our kids, so we know a thing-or-two about finding the best hotels for kids – even in our own backyard!
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Here are the Top 6 Family Friendly Hotels in Banff:
1. Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
The castle-like Banff Springs Hotel is the most famous luxury hotel in Banff. For over a century, the Banff Springs Hotel has treated every guest like royalty (whether they were actually royalty or not).
Despite being known for luxury in the Rockies, the Banff Springs Hotel is one of the most family friendly hotels in Banff National Park. In fact, the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine recently voted the Banff Springs Hotel as one of the best family resorts in Canada!
The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel has a Kids at the Castle program offering a wide variety of exciting Banff activities for kids aged 3 to 12, including outdoor wilderness adventures, tennis lessons, float tours and scavenger hunts. Extra fees apply to these kid friendly activities and advance reservations are required.
In addition to the Kids at the Castle program, the Banff Springs Hotel offers recreation programs for the whole family including a creativity evening, bingo, geocaching, a treasure hunt, music trivia, tennis and croquet. You can even try out the driving range or putting green at the incredible Banff Springs Golf Club!
If you are staying at the Banff Springs Hotel in the winter, you can go skating on the Vermillion Room Skating Rink or enjoy toasting s’mores on your own private campfire pit. These are also the perfect family activities for a magical Christmas in Banff!
As if that’s not enough family fun, the Banff Springs Hotel also has an indoor pool, an outdoor heated pool and even a bowling alley on-site. Plus, there’s tons of fun activities near the Banff Springs Hotel too!
The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel has a wide variety of family friendly rooms to choose from. The basic configuration is a standard room with two double beds, but your options also include the Gatehouse Suite, a 1-bedroom suite or even a much larger 2-bedroom suite. Having a separate bedroom for the parents almost always leads to a better night sleep for the whole family.
Your family will never forget a stay at the Banff Spring Hotel – the most luxurious, yet surprisingly, the most kid friendly hotel in Banff!
If you are considering a stay at this iconic Banff hotel, be sure to check here for any Banff Springs Hotel deals first.
2. Tunnel Mountain Resort
If you’d like a family friendly hotel in Banff which is near the Banff townsite, but is actually in the forest, check out the Tunnel Mountain Resort. Just a 5 minute drive from downtown Banff, the Tunnel Mountain Resort is a resort in a natural mountain setting just outside of the Banff Townsite.
In addition to the beautiful natural setting, families at this kid-friendly Banff hotel will enjoy the indoor pool, the fitness room, a sauna & steam room, bike rentals and an outdoor playground for the kids.
A short walk or drive from this family friendly Banff hotel is the popular the Banff Hoodoos and the trailhead for the Banff Hoodoos Trail, an excellent easy hike between Tunnel Mountain and the Bow River. This kid-friendly Banff hike ends up at Surprise Corner near the Bow Falls and gives excellent views of the famous Banff Springs Hotel.
The Tunnel Mountain Resort is one of the few hotels near Banff with cabin rentals. These fun Banff chalet rentals feature a master bedroom and an upstairs loft, with enough beds for up to 6 people. You’ll also enjoy a fireplace and a balcony or patio.
In addition to the cabin rentals, additional family friendly room options include a one-bedroom apartment with a loft or a superior suite with a queen bed and two singles.
3. Hidden Ridge Resort
The Hidden Ridge Resort is another excellent family-friendly Banff hotel tucked away in the forest on the side of Tunnel Mountain. You are just minutes from downtown Banff, yet you feel miles away.
When traveling with kids, eating out three times a day can get very tiring! This is why families will love the apartment-style accommodations at the Hidden Ridge Resort. The apartments at this kid-friendly Banff hotel feature full kitchens, allowing families to cook some meals at home. In addition, you’ll love the wood-burning fireplaces (with complimentary firewood), balconies and the DVD player.
Additional reasons the Hidden Ridge Resort is one of the best family friendly hotels in Banff are the beautiful outdoor pool and adjacent hot pool, the outdoor playground and bike rentals.
There are plenty of fun and easy Banff hikes in the area, including the very popular hike to the top of Tunnel Mountain.
The family-friendly apartments at the Hidden Ridge Resort come in 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom varieties. One of the two-bedroom apartments even has a games room in it! Another of the two-bedroom apartments is one of the few hotel rooms in Banff with a private jetted tub!
4. Rimrock Resort Hotel
The Rimrock Resort Hotel joins the Banff Springs Hotel as the only 5-star family friendly hotels in Banff. The Rimrock Hotel is the closest hotel to two of Banff’s top things to do with kids.
Families can take the Banff Gondola or hike up Sulphur Mountain to enjoy some of the best views of Banff available anywhere. Or, after a day of enjoying the mountains with your family, take a short walk from the Rimrock to the Banff Upper Hot Springs for a relaxing soak with the kids.
Within this luxury Banff family friendly hotel, there are lots of things to do with your kids. Enjoy a swim in the large indoor heated swimming pool or a soak in the large indoor hot pool. If you are lucky enough to stay at the Rimrock Hotel with your kids in the winter, bring your skates and go ice skating on their outdoor skating rink.
Families will love the opportunity to rent one of the Rimrock Hotel’s outdoor fire pits. Located right next to the outdoor skating rink, you kids will love toasting s’mores or hot dogs while you soak in the Banff mountain scenery.
Speaking of food, the Rimrock Hotel is home to one of Canada’s finest restaurants. The Eden restaurant is one of only 4 restaurants in Canada which has earned a coveted 5-Diamond award from AAA/CAA. Don’t be intimated by this elite restaurant status though, as you are welcome to dine at the Eden Restaurant with kids.
If 5-diamond restaurants are not your style, the Larkspur Lounge has an excellent kids menu with burgers, pizza and more.
The Rimrock Resort Hotel has a wide variety of family friendly rooms, ranging from a room with two queen beds to a 1-bedroom suite.
5. Banff Park Lodge Resort Hotel
If you’d like a family friendly hotel in downtown Banff, check out the Banff Park Lodge. This kid-friendly hotel is only 1 block away from the best restaurants, shops and attractions of downtown Banff, yet it also backs onto the Bow River, giving guests the opportunity to easily enjoy some nature.
Kids will love playing in the large indoor pool or soaking in the hot tub at this family friendly Banff hotel.
A short walk north on the Bow River walking path will lead you to the popular Fenlands Loop Trail. If you go south on this easy Banff walk, you can go all the way to Bow Falls.
Besides its excellent downtown Banff location, the best part about the Banff Park Lodge for families is the very spacious Family Suites. Measuring an enormous 74m2 (nearly 800sqft) the Family Suites feature two double beds and a sofa bed, sleeping up to 6 people, making the Banff Park Lodge an excellent Banff hotel for large families.
Best of all, in case you are visiting Banff on a budget, the Banff Park Lodge made our list of the best affordable places to stay in Banff!
6. Moose Hotel and Suites
Enjoy a warm elegance at this popular family friendly hotel in Banff. The Moose Hotel has an excellent location in downtown Banff and has an indoor pool, an exercise room and two rooftop hot pools with amazing views of the surrounding Rocky Mountains.
The Moose Hotel has a wide-variety of family-friendly rooms. Superior rooms with two queen beds are the standard offering at the Moose Hotel, but families will really enjoy their 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom options. Our experience traveling with our kids has proven that a separate bedroom in a hotel room leads to a much better sleep for everyone.
Be sure to check out their massive, two-bedroom rooftop family suite which rivals the Banff Park Lodge as the largest family-friendly hotel room in Banff!
Family Friendly Hotels in Banff for Pets Too
If you want to bring your pet on your family vacation to Banff, there’s a good selection of pet-friendly hotels in Banff. In fact, five of the family friendly hotels in Banff listed above also accept pets:
- The Fairmont Banff Springs
- Tunnel Mountain Resort
- Hidden Ridge Resort
- Rimrock Hotel
- Moose Hotel and Suites
The only hotel on our list of kid friendly hotels in Banff above that does not allow family pets is the Banff Park Lodge. Please check with the Banff hotel of your choice for their specific pet policies.
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Dan Brewer, a life-long Alberta resident, calls Canmore home along with his wife and two kids. He is the co-owner of Travel Banff Canada, where he gets to share his passion for the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Dan, along with his family, love being outdoors doing one of the many activities they enjoy in the mountains: hiking, mountain biking, paddleboarding, skiing, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.
When he's not in Canmore enjoying one of his favourite local hikes, you can find him hoping on a plane to explore a new country with his family or working on one of their other two travel sites: Family Can Travel and Baby Can Travel.