You can have an elegant tea service with an incredible view throughout the Rocky Mountains in Canada.
There’s the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton National Park, the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise in Banff National Park, and the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge in Jasper National Park.
All of them offer wonderfully formal tea services with tiered trays of sandwiches and a proper cuppa. If you want a relaxing, classic high tea in the Rockies, those are all wonderful (expensive) choices.But if you want to have the best high tea in the Rockies, you need to earn it .. by hiking to a higher altitude.
All through the Rocky Mountains there are assorted tea houses to service hikers needing respite on their adventures. This is where you will have a truly wonderfully satisfying high tea experience. Because you’ve earned it.
For my latest high tea experience, I spent an afternoon with my two sons climbing to Lake Agnes some 368 metres above the Chateau Lake Louise‘s formal tea room.
The Lake Agnes Tea House is the oldest alpine tea house in Canada, originally built in 1905 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. Cynthia Magee rebuilt the Lake Agnes Tea House in 1981 and it is now run by her grandchildren.
There’s no electricity, so bring your cash and your patience. All of the items are made from scratch, by hand, and it can take some time to boil water on their propane stove. Supplies are hiked up and garbage taken down the 3.4km every few days by staff.
It is a truly wonderful place to relax and enjoy an incredible lakeshore view.
You can have soup, sandwiches, salads, or snacks and, of course, there are dozens of teas to sample on their patio. I choose a chocolate mint roiboos to pair with fresh tea biscuits, while my boys shared a gluten free brownie and a big cookie with lemonade.
Up for a walk to earn your high tea in the Rockies? Here’s a list of alpine tea houses you can visit:
Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House
In addition to the alpine tea houses, there are other backcountry lodges where you can have a full service retreat after a long hike in: Skoki Lodge
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Dad. Broadcaster. Writer.
Three time Guinness World Record Holder.
I run the world for Team Diabetes.