24-04-2025
Want to sleep over at one of Canada's national historic sites? You can at these castle-like landmarks across the country
Canadian Travel
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Victoria's Fairmont Empress, famously surrounded by gardens full of tulips and roses, sits on what might be the most enviable piece of real estate in all of Canada. Perched above the Inner Harbour in full view of British Columbia's Parliament buildings, the neo-Gothic hotel was able to snag the best spot in one of the country's most picturesque cities through sheer longevity: It opened in 1908.
The Empress, currently privately owned but managed by Fairmont, wears its history proudly. The extra-wide, sweeping stairways were built for porters to haul steamer trunks from the Inner Harbour to the guest rooms, and archival photos of visiting British royals are sprinkled around the hallways. Wildly popular traditional tea services are still held in a hall fit with original woodwork and ornately carved ceilings.
Even more extraordinary, the Empress is not unique within Canada. Within a day's drive to the east, you'll find the Fairmont Banff Springs, a resort inspired by a Scottish baronial castle, boldly rising out of the Rocky Mountains. In southern Alberta, there's also the lesser-known Prince of Wales, which appears seemingly out of nowhere on a hill in Waterton Lakes National Park.
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The Fairmont Empress first opened in Victoria, B.C., in 1908.
Fairmont Empress
In Winnipeg, you've got the Fort Garry Hotel near the Forks, and in Quebec City the fortress-like Fairmont Le Château Frontenac commands attention from its clifftop location, adding to the vintage character of its Old Quebec quarter.
These hotels don't just look historic — they've all been designated national historic sites of Canada, in recognition of their architectural significance and contributions to the emergence of Canadian tourism.
Of course, one cannot ignore that this history includes Canada's colonial past. The Banff Springs will always be a luxurious, European-style hotel built in a wilderness sacred to Indigenous Peoples, for instance, and Le Château Frontenac is named after a colonialist who helped defend New France's settlements. Generally, though, these hotels don't gloss over this past; storytelling elements scattered throughout the properties include plaques, history halls and galleries to create a fuller picture of their place within Canada's complicated history.
The majority of Canadian hotels designated as national historic sites are part of the tradition of 'grand railway hotels,' primarily built in the 1880s up to the mid-1900s; many, though not all, now fall under the Fairmont banner.
Opened in 1893, Le Château Frontenac in Quebec City was the first of Canada's grand railway hotels.
Fairmont Le Château Frontenac
The Empress, Le Château Frontenac and Banff Springs were all built by Canadian Pacific Railway, while the Fort Garry and Ottawa's Fairmont Château Laurier were created by the Grand Trunk Railway. The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto and Alberta's Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge are also considered grand railway hotels, though they aren't recognized as national historic sites.
While it's fairly common knowledge that these hotels had a connection to rail travel, it's less clear why they ended up being so opulent and relatively concentrated in Western Canada. Kate Riordon, a reference archivist at Banff's Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, says that in the late 1800s and early 1900s many wealthy European travellers would land in Eastern Canada with visions of traversing the rugged west, and were further enticed by the soft landing and creature comforts of posh European-style hotels.
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'Making something that seemed familiar architecturally out west made it easier for European visitors,' Riordon says. 'They were coming to the wilderness — but it wasn't totally wild.'
The Prince of Wales was established in 1927 to help bring tourists into southern Alberta's Waterton Lakes National Park.
Steve Allen/Envato
For modern-day guests, these meticulously maintained hotels aren't just places to stay. They are destinations unto themselves, for both the history and the hotel operators' tendencies to offer high-end service. Although the room rates may be a splurge, you don't need to sleep over to stroll around the lobby or spring for a fancy cocktail at the bar.
While the national historic site designation does not guarantee protection of the properties or the public's right to visit them, for the most part the hoteliers understand that these are tourist attractions, welcoming looky-loos to come in and purchase a refreshment or browse artifacts.
Time seems to slow down in these historic venues, and it doesn't hurt that most of them have been modernized just enough to ensure the expected degree of luxury and comfort.
Yes, the room layouts tend to be quirky, the doors a bit creaky, and the ghost stories more plentiful than some may prefer, but all of this is just part of the unique old-school ambience, a rarity in a country as (relatively) young as ours.
Elizabeth Chorney-Booth is a travel writer and historic hotels enthusiast based in Calgary. She has stayed at some properties described as a guest of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which did not review or approve this article.
