Set 15 minutes’ walk from the irresistibly photogenic town of Banff within the pristine surrounds of Banff National Park, Buffalo Mountain Lodge lives up to every rustic Rocky Mountain vacation fantasy. Deer can even be spotted nibbling on the lawns just outside. Classic cabin style is the order of the day, with the spacious rooms decorated in a soothing range of earthy browns, greens, and mustard yellows. Each room boasts hefty river rock fireplaces and leather baskets piled high with logs. A full renovation in 2014 added flat screens to each room, but the views from the windows—of the Bow Valley, Mount Rundle, and Cascade Mountain—puts anything man-made to shame. In fact, don’t even pick up the remote. Throughout summer, the nine acres of grounds ringed by towering pines, fir, and spruce offer a showstopping display of flowering blossoms, which even the locals come to photograph.
