Sunshine Mountain Lodge: review, tips & tricks

Sunshine Mountain Lodge at Sunshine Village in Banff, Alberta, is truly one-of-a-kind — but is it the right kind of lodging for you and your family’s ski trip? I tried to look up reviews of Banff’s only ski-in/out hotel before our visit and found them wildly incomplete.

In this post, I’m going to help you make an informed decision and set you up with the right expectations going into your ski vacation. Essentially, I’m going to tell you everything I wish I’d known before arriving at Sunshine Mountain Lodge, including:

• The check-in procedure and what to make sure you keep with you before you get in the gondola
• Where to get off the gondola to find the Lodge
• Info about rooms (specifically the West Wing Lofts) — what the rooms do and don’t have, what we brought with us and what I wish we’d brought
• The onsite hot tub
• Evening activities at the hotel
• And some general tips to make your stay as awesome as possible

Everything you need to know about Sunshine Mountain Lodge before you go

It’s awfully hard to beat the kind of immediate access to Sunshine Village that you get by staying onsite at Sunshine Mountain Lodge. It lives, literally, at the base of one of the main chair lifts (Standish) and within mere feet of a bunch more.

But the experience won’t be for everyone — I’ll explain why after this quick overview of the hotel itself:

• Check-in to Sunshine Mountain Lodge is a breeze. After you pull into the parking lot in your vehicle or on the shuttle, you’ll head into the side door of the main building, give them your name and drop your luggage at the front desk. Here’ you’ll get your lift ticket to head up the gondola; this is the only time you need to show your ticket unless you decide to do the ski-out run — more on that later — and need to head back up the gondola from the parking lot level
• For the gondola ride, keep your backpacks, any fragile items (hello, wine) and all valuables like jewelry, money and passports with you since your luggage could take up to two hours to make it to your room. This is a gorgeous 20ish-minute ride in an unheated gondola, so stay bundled up!
• Do NOT get off the first time the gondola doors open — this is a mid-station; you still have a good distance more to travel before making it to the village; once the doors open the second time, you’ll hop out and make your way to the right of the gondola — but not the building on your immediate right…that’s Centennial Lodge, filled with a shop, hot chocolate kiosk and restaurants. Look for this building:

The West Wing Lofts at Sunshine Village

There are a variety of rooms in the Sunshine Mountain Lodge, but I can only speak to the West Wing Lofts where we stayed. While it claims on the Banff Sunshine Village website that all West Wing Lofts have a king bed, queen bed and queen Murphy bed, this is not accurate; our room was missing the queen bed and we had to have a floor mattress brought in. This was a better size than a rollaway and worked just fine for one of our kids, while the other took the Murphy bed.

Here’s what we had in our West Wing Loft:

• One wall of 30-foot-high windows looking out at the resort, with mechanical shades on the top to ensure you can create a blackout effect for sleeping — the space is bright and airy because of this and absolutely gorgeous
• One king bed, TV and small bathroom with shower on the top floor; it’s actually very small if you’re larger people but the space is used efficiently

• One queen Murphy bed, TV and larger bathroom with tub on main floor — the tub has jets…powerful ones! And there were bath salts on the side of the tub, which is a nice touch
• Two sets of robes and slippers in both closets, which means you don’t need to bring flip-flops or slides for the hot tub unless your feet are a men’s size 12+
• A lovely balcony — cold enough to act as a makeshift cooler if you need one for, say, a bottle of Baileys, white wine, beer, sparking water, juice, etc.
• A fireplace, though we didn’t get to enjoy ours because the two big chairs that sat in front of it had to be moved to accommodate the spare bed
• A coffeemaker — with lots of mugs, some tea and coffee packets, basic hot chocolate packets (the ultra-sweet kind that kids love) along with a few fixings like sugar and powdered CoffeeMate
• One kettle, which I wish I’d known ahead of time because I would have brought some really nice hot chocolate powder for myself and some cup-o-soups for quick and easy lunches
• A humidifier, thankfully!
• A corkscrew, which I also wish I’d known in advance because I brought only screw-top wine with me just in case (but no wine glasses, folks)
• Daily housekeeping service with a nightly check-in service, too — complete with Lindor balls for every member of the family!

Although the rooms aren’t soundPROOF, we couldn’t make out anything more than a few loud bangs and people walking up/down their loft stairs. With our trusty white noise app, sleeping through the night was a non-issue, even being close to the elevator.

Here’s what’s missing from the rooms at Sunshine Mountain Lodge:

• A mini-fridge — this is a big miss, in my opinion. It prevented us from bringing proper cream for coffee (powdered CoffeeMate doesn’t cut it for me, at all), Baileys to add to hot chocolate or a few beers; looking back, we now know we could have used the balcony quite effectively. But for people who need to bring baby food or medications that need to be stored in a fridge, be aware that they do not exist in any of the rooms here
• Less of an issue, but worth mentioning, is that there’s no microwave either, which is a bummer for those with toddlers who may need to heat up baby food
• This was a strange one — no safe?! I’m sure housekeeping staff is well-screened, but I have major trust issues and was really uncomfortable with the idea of leaving our passports, NEXUS cards and a huge wad of cash we brought for gratuities just sitting in the room. I have stayed in many hundreds of hotels in my life and other than crappy hostels in Europe that were $30 a night, I’ve never seen one without a safe

Pro Tip: if you aren’t used to dry climates, bring some Vaseline or Aquaphor for your nostrils; one of my kids had two nights of bloody noses (that made his bed look like a murder scene) before we found the humidifier in our downstairs closet and used some of our Aquaphor — that we’d originally brought for our lips and cheeks — before bed. You’ll also need water beside your bed because you’ll want to sip throughout the night as you acclimate.

The biggest outdoor hot tub in Banff

It’s a short walk to the Lodge from the gondola, but you don’t want to be dragging anything with you because it’s all snow-covered. But if you arrive early in the day and your room isn’t ready until 4 p.m., you might also want to keep bathing suits in your backpacks so you can at least use the hot tub while you wait.

The Sunshine Mountain Lodge boasts Banff’s biggest outdoor hot tub — and we loved every bit of it. You’ll use the doors going into the spa to find it, for which you’ll need your room key, and then there are men’s and women’s washrooms and saunas before the door heading out to the hot tub. It’s huge, easily accommodating 30 people at its busiest; most of the time, we were the only ones there.

Sunshine Village‘s hot tub is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., which is a really nice, long range. Most days, there was a “gate” opening out to the resort area, too, so you could go jump in the snowbanks and come back to the heat of the hot tub. Very Nordic!

I didn’t see any signage noting that beverages weren’t allowed in the hot tub, so we brought glasses of wine down with us; ours were wrapped in silicone and had lids, ensuring there would be no accidental breakage or spillage. Please, for the sake of other guests’ safety, do NOT bring any actual glassware or the hotel mugs to the hot tub. As a pool owner, I can tell you there’s nothing worse or more dangerous for guests or equipment than broken glass.

Don’t forget to pack a beanie to wear while you’re hot-tubbing on colder days and at night — you won’t regret this decision.

Don’t forget your bathing suit — or anything else — thanks to my handy (printable!) ski trip packing checklist.

Sunshine Village at night

If you need a big après scene, this ain’t it. Nights are quieter here, which was perfect for our family. Plus, we were too tired from skiing all day every day to even make it to the family activities at 6pm! If you want to ski, eat, sleep and repeat — the Lodge is for you.

One of the nice things for families staying at Sunshine Village — especially those with little kids — are the evening activities. I mean, you’re really “stuck” at the village after the gondola stops running at 5 p.m. (except on Fridays when it runs until 10 p.m.), so it’s nice to have a little something to round out your stay.

The activities rotate: hot tub BINGO, snowshoeing and tobogganing — all at 6/7 p.m. You simply sign up at the front desk. The tobogganing is really designed for younger children; mine were keen to try it until they saw the small sleds and a pile of littles heading out to participate. Plus, mine are spoiled, having done tubing and tobogganing at ski resorts that use a magic carpet to transit guests and sleds/tubes up the hill. At Sunshine Village, you’ll be using your two legs and whatever energy you have left after a day on the mountain.

There’s also nightly S’mores at 8 p.m. — no sign-up required. And they’ve got chocolate-covered cookies, y’all.

Some final thoughts about Sunshine Mountain Lodge

With this trip to Sunshine Village now in my rearview mirror, here are my top tips for a stay at its onsite, slopeside hotel:

• Eat at all of the other village restaurants and save the Sunshine Mountain Lodge’s onsite restaurants — The Chimney Corner and The Eagle’s Nest — for dinner, since they (along with Mad Trapper’s) are the only ones open at night. You can read about these and all of the other restaurant offerings in my Sunshine Village post
• Bring your own bottled water and snacks, which you can store on the balcony if need be; there’s no store once you’re up here in which to buy bottled water, and it’s a much drier climate than we’re used to, so we went through our case of 24 bottles within just a few days. The tap water seemed fine and we all drank it for the rest of the week without issue, but if you’re particular about your water, make sure you bring enough of your own
• Bring your own Baileys and use it with the hot chocolate supplied in your room (chocolate snobs like me will want to bring their own hot chocolate mix or get a dark hot chocolate from the Coco Lab, see below, and take it back to your room to go with your Baileys) — such a nice way to end the day in your room without spending $15 plus tax and tip per glass in the restaurants
• Bring a deck of cards or UNO — we brought the new No Mercy edition and it was a hilarious part of our evening routine
• We were so happy that we brought silicone-covered wine glasses with lids; it was nice to drink our wine out of real glasses while lounging at the end of the day, and knowing they wouldn’t break in our bags or at the hot tub was great
• If you’re coming to Sunshine Village to ski, eat, sleep and repeat, this is the place for you! This is your ONLY ski-in-/out option in Banff and there’s nothing like waking up to freshly groomed trails or a “pow day” and being on the snow in mere minutes
• Avoid staying onsite if an après-ski scene is important for your ski holiday; we are long past the age where we have the energy to ski all day and then drink all night, and our kids are still too young to drink alcohol, so it was fine for us. But it’s very, very quiet at night once the gondola shuts down and everyone but hotel guests have gone home or back to their offsite lodging
• If you want to add on exciting non-ski activities, want a lot of variety or upscale options when it comes to dinner or really like to shop on vacation, you’ll probably find that three nights at the Lodge is enough. (Remember: you can always ski here for the day and then head back to downtown Banff on the free shuttle.) But if it’s all about the pow, and you’re not a finicky foodie, a weeklong stay is magical

Now that you’ve decided whether or not Sunshine Mountain Lodge is right for your ski trip to Banff, you can learn even more about this awesome hotel option and make your reservation here.

 

DISCLAIMER: this was part of our hosted stay to facilitate a review; Banff Sunshine Village has not paid for coverage, nor have they been provided an opportunity to review or approve this post. All opinions and suggestions are my own.