You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Now with 3x more gears...

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Well, there are dozens of towns. They're just not as well known for being tourist traps as banff. And they're further away. Golden, Revelstoke, Invermere, Kimberly, Fernie etc etc.

There are lots of options if you want to go to a mountain town and stay for cheaper. Most/all have ski hills too if that's what you want. But they don't all have a bunch of overpriced stores that sell kitschy canadiana junk marked up by 400%.

[Mr.Coffee]

Uh huh, sure.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by Bankai

Has Banff always been so expensive? $800/night seem bonkers even during Christmas. Wow.

Does that include a nights company (or few hours)? cos that's better make you feel real good at those kinda prices.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by calf

On all the forms we've submitted to my kid's school, I'm listed as the first contact, mainly because it's faster for me to get in my car at work and get to school. But it shouldn't matter why to the school, but without fail, whenever he has to come home sick, they ignore the form by skipping over my name and call my wife first instead, wasting everyone's time.

yep.
Similar to dealing w/ the medical system... you can SAY call my cell, you can leave messages saying call my cell, you can even scratch out your home number and write your cell and they'll still call not call your cell. Oh... and they still use faxes cos its apparently far far more secure. Holy cr@p the private info I used to see on our business fax... lawyers, medical, mortgages, private stuff on the office fax machine sent in by who knows.
oh wait... that was more than 1 gear grinder...

[8 Ball]

Originally Posted by Bankai

Rimrock. Quoted 694/night plus fees and taxes totalling 774. 25 more for self parking. Nice hotel but this is for a pretty basic room without a view.

We are staying there in February, that rate should get you a full view, plus valet. The kids are staying for 350ish, probably next to the boiler room lol.
It’s a very nice hotel imo.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Well, there are dozens of towns. They're just not as well known for being tourist traps as banff. And they're further away. Golden, Revelstoke, Invermere, Kimberly, Fernie etc etc.

Why does no one ever talk about Louise in this conversation? I mean, if you wanted to make the next "Mountain Town Destination", at least make it somewhere this side of the BC border. And then the tourists can hit both spots since it's like a half hour in between the two.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by btimbit

Thankfully there's new laws, as of September last year DRLs include taillights now, and dashboards have to be dark if the headlight switch is off. Obviously only applies to new manufacturing but step in the right direction.


I say get rid of the headlight switch entirely. Car on, lights on. Car off, lights off

Unfortunately, the car manufacturers got in the ear of the people writing the law and watered it down so it's now an either/or option and not fully mandatory like DRLs.

https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transpo...ts-see-be-seen

As of September 2021 the Canadian Vehicle Lighting Regulation will require that all new vehicles sold in Canada have one of the following:

• tail lights that come on automatically with daytime running lights
  
  
• headlights, tail lights, and side marker lights that turn on automatically in the dark
  
  
• a dashboard that stays dark to alert the driver to turn on the lights

This standard will apply to all new vehicles (cars, trucks, SUVs, 3-wheeled vehicles, motorcycles and heavy trucks).

Basically, no one has chosen option 1 because it's not something required in any other country, so it would require them to do something different for the Canadian market only. A large percentage of newer cars were already compliant with option 2, so they didn't have to change anything. Option 3 should at least work for all but the least observant drivers on the road, and solves the problem for the vehicles with the pre-lit instrument cluster.

This is why, even though the law has been in place for over a year, you probably haven't noticed an increase in the number of vehicles driving with their taillights on in the daytime.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Why does no one ever talk about Louise in this conversation? I mean, if you wanted to make the next "Mountain Town Destination", at least make it somewhere this side of the BC border. And then the tourists can hit both spots since it's like a half hour in between the two.

I did mention LL. It’s right there in the etc etc.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Bankai

Rimrock. Quoted 694/night plus fees and taxes totalling 774. 25 more for self parking. Nice hotel but this is for a pretty basic room without a view.

Yeah, that is expensive for the Rimrock. I've stayed their twice and I'm not a fan. It's not far off Banff Springs price wise, but it has about 1% of the sense of occasion you get at the Springs. Plus not a lot going on inside the hotel, there's no grounds to speak of and it's not in the heart of the town.

If I'm spending that much money, it's gotta be the Springs.

Not to #### on your plan, though. My best friend loves that place, so I know there's something there that really clicks with people that I just don't see. Any time in Banff is a fun time, though, so I'm sure it'll be great.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Bankai

Has Banff always been so expensive? $800/night seem bonkers even during Christmas. Wow.

We are headed to Banff Springs for a few nights right before Christmas and I was pleasantly surprised by the rates. It was less than this.

Of course also helps when I do the conversion to USD as well.

[Bankai]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Yeah, that is expensive for the Rimrock. I've stayed their twice and I'm not a fan. It's not far off Banff Springs price wise, but it has about 1% of the sense of occasion you get at the Springs. Plus not a lot going on inside the hotel, there's no grounds to speak of and it's not in the heart of the town.

If I'm spending that much money, it's gotta be the Springs.

Not to #### on your plan, though. My best friend loves that place, so I know there's something there that really clicks with people that I just don't see. Any time in Banff is a fun time, though, so I'm sure it'll be great.

Honestly it's just a spur of the moment thing the wife wanted to do.

Last time we stayed at the Rimrock was 2013 and can't really remember much other than the fact that we paid 220 for the same room according to an old invoice. Crazy.

[Bankai]

Originally Posted by 8 Ball

We are staying there in February, that rate should get you a full view, plus valet. The kids are staying for 350ish, probably next to the boiler room lol.
It’s a very nice hotel imo.

Yeah I don't remember much from the last time I stayed but it seemed very nice. Confirmed there is no view but I mean this is a peak occupancy date (Dec. 26) so prices being high is not unusual. Just surprised at how high it really is.

Enjoy your trip!

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Bankai

Yeah I don't remember much from the last time I stayed but it seemed very nice. Confirmed there is no view but I mean this is a peak occupancy date (Dec. 26) so prices being high is not unusual. Just surprised at how high it really is.

Enjoy your trip!

Everything else aside, you have a super legitimate gear grinder there. Hotel room prices have gone off the deep end there in the past - I'd say - five years.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by calf

On all the forms we've submitted to my kid's school, I'm listed as the first contact, mainly because it's faster for me to get in my car at work and get to school. But it shouldn't matter why to the school, but without fail, whenever he has to come home sick, they ignore the form by skipping over my name and call my wife first instead, wasting everyone's time.

That drives me a bit crazy as well. I have full physical custody of my kids, but joint legal custody, I have changed everything to my primary numbers and have even asked to document that I'm the primary caregiver, but still need to leave her number as being her mother. Every single time the teacher or admin call her first.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Everything else aside, you have a super legitimate gear grinder there. Hotel room prices have gone off the deep end there in the past - I'd say - five years.

5 years? I think the rate of increase has been far steeper than that.

I've stayed at the Springs a few times in the last 12 months. Last Christmas season was about normal-ish, in my experience, which was the same as last February, which was cheaper than April, which was about half the price of August, which is about the same as it is now... It's nuts... The rates are up almost 3X in just the last year, where they'd been relatively consistent since, oh, 2018...

[Sliver]

Yeah I've been staying in Canmore over banff for the past year and a half so I'm not up to snuff. I just know six and seven years ago I'd stay for a weekend once a month minimum and could always find cheap rooms. Then about four years ago it became super expensive and just not worth it to go as much.

That is to say, you're correct that I didn't know it was extra bad over the past year.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Not surprising. Population visiting the mountains has basically doubled in the last 25 years and resources to service those people have stayed the same.

On the bright side, this is the cheapest it'll ever be again because prices are only going to keep going up.

That’s not really true at all Canmore significantly expanded as have Fernie and Invermere. I would suspect total residences and hotel beds have doubled in the past 25 years.

Roads and parking have been upgraded significantly in many locations, the highway got twinned the whole way through the parks.

It’s certainly misleading to say resources haven’t increased.

Look at the inflation in Mexico and Hawaii prices this past year. Vacation pricing is significantly up because of Covid

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Which is again, precisely why another mountain town is needed.

Very, very obviously. Thousands of square Kms or pristine wilderness….

1 small town with restricted growth laws.

Makes sense.

expand at sask river crossing . then beautiful areas like Abraham lake would get more exposure . it's at a major highway junction like jasper and half way between there and lake Louise . makes all the sense to plop down some hotels , stations and restaurants

and highway 11 can share that volume going into the mountains

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

expand at sask river crossing . then beautiful areas like Abraham lake would get more exposure . it's at a major highway junction like jasper and half way between there and lake Louise . makes all the sense to plop down some hotels , stations and restaurants

and highway 11 can share that volume going into the mountains

You mentioned this idea when you were posting as djsFlames, but that highway would need a lot more care than it currently gets to make it able to accommodate winter tourist traffic of any appreciable volume, as well as another gas station or two along the way.

That highway is better left as-is.

[81MC]

Developing these idyllic mountain spots are also important wildlife corridors, no? Sometimes wealthy Patagonia billboards seeking to cosplay as wilderness enthusiasts should be confined.