The Fairmont Banff Springs - Banff, Alberta

This hotel, set in the middle of the dramatic Alberta wilderness, looks at first sight like Hogwarts meets a Disney castle, with a touch of Scottish baronial. You get a plan of the hotel when you check in so that you don’t get lost (though it’s no guarantee), but you may just want to wander, since it’s so impressive: endless staircases, vaulted ceilings, towering stone columns—and the $2.3 million renovation in 2003 only made it more so. Still, this place is about recreation, the outdoors, and drinking in the clean air of the Canadian Rockies. READ FULL REVIEW »