I have stayed in BPL with my family skiing on the Christmas break for perhaps 5 of the last 12 years. Its prices are on a par with other hotels in Banff, but you get a better quality stay for your money. It is a traditional style of hotel which gives it a classier feel than some of the others. The location is great, it is a very short walk to the town center with its restaurants, shops and pubs, but it has the tranquility of being off Banff Avenue. It tends to be the last point of pick up and first point of drop off of the buses to the ski areas, which is very pleasant indeed.

BPL has always had very good service at the front desk and the concierge, Robin, is truly excellent - widely traveled, efficient, helpful, cheerful. BPL's problem areas when we first started to stay there were the provision of food and drink, and the indoor pool and spa facilities. The first seemed too expensive, and the second slightly dingy. Both these have been worked on in the last decade.

The bar and bar food (which was really good this time, despite one night when the heavily overworked waiter was run off his feet and a little fragile) have made their prices much more competitive. Efforts have been made to make the family restaurant upstairs more attractive as well, but unfortunately the one meal we had there was very poor. My wife's garlic bread was burned black on the underside and needed very strong teeth to bite through. The veggie option, my vegetable curry, was a lot of vegetables like onions and carrots in large pieces basted in a weak dry curry sauce - not much fun to eat though the basmati rice was good. The source of the food is the same, so I wonder what happened. We have never ventured into the upscale restaurant at the back.

As to the pool area, it was thoroughly renovated and redesigned a few years back, and is very attractive now, with a nice pair of stylish locker rooms, with a shower, a good steam room, two spas one hot and one warm and the swimming pool, with some artistic designs on the wall and a lot of wood. There seems always to be a problem with badly brought-up out of control children in international hotels nowadays, but the management has tried to deal with this in relation to the pool by saying kids out of the area at 9 pm, which was welcome. I really appreciate it when hotel management tries to find solutions to such issues.

Just a small cavil. The bed covers were blankets inserted into covers. We were all cold at night and had to ask for more blankets. The material of the covers was very slippery, and invariably they fell off the bed by 3 am. I personally dislike having hot dry air blowing full blast all night as the only way to keep warm, for its dehydrating effects. There should be a solution to this problem.

We have tried various hotels in Banff, but always come back the Park Lodge, for despite the occasional issue as mentioned above, the service is excellent, the appearance is welcoming, the rooms are large, the location is very convenient, and the management is obviously doing its best.