Banff is really an outdoors town — most of its sights are the landscape. Within a short drive you have Bow Falls at the edge of town, the Hoodoos sandstone pillars, the knife-slot Johnston Canyon with its waterfalls, and the sweep of the Bow Valley from Tunnel Mountain. Further along the Bow Valley Parkway and the Icefields Parkway are Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Bow Lake, Peyto Lake, Crowfoot Glacier, and the Columbia Icefield — a two-hour drive that is arguably the most spectacular road in the Rockies.
In town, the 1903 Banff Park Museum and the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies are both small and worth an hour. The Cave and Basin National Historic Site marks the hot springs that led to the park's creation. The Banff Upper Hot Springs, open to bathers year-round, sit halfway up Sulphur Mountain; the Banff Gondola takes you to the summit in eight minutes.