Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre

The best drive I've taken. It's a daytime activity with plenty of views, set aside a whole day just for this.

I arrived late so they put me on standby. I was able to get on the bus half an hour later. The guide on the Icefield Explorer was a Brit. He was excellent with information and very funny too. He took photos of me and we got another guide to take photos of us. The Glacier was cool! I even drank the ice cold and very refreshing water. Not too slippery unless you walk down to the stream of melting glacier. Scenery was spectacular.

The building is beautiful but there are a lot of stairs to climb to get to it. I suppose there must be elevators for people with mobility issues. Inside, there’s a lovely gift shop and Starbucks. Upstairs there’s a restaurant but I think it was only open for events. I’m not 100 percent sure.

There are hiking trails just outside and there are some hungry ravens and chipmunks outside.

A once in a lifetime experience at The Jasper National Park Icefields! I will never forget this amazing experience walking on the glacier! It was absolutely magnificent! The ride up on the ice explorer was incredibly entertaining. It was hysterical to watch everyone slip sliding around, trying to maintain their balance! Make sure to wear proper footwear! I was amazed to see a lot of people wearing shorts with no jackets! It definitely gets cold up there, so dress in comfortable layers. You are encouraged to bring your own bottle to sample some of the refreshing glacier water right from the stream. If you are anywhere near Jasper, put this adventure on your bucket list and go!

Book in advance for a cheap price.
Same day you will cost you $106 PP after 3: 30PM
And before 3: 30 it's $120

Hike the very long ways to realize a river was between us and the glacier and we were never going to get close to it at all. Also it is extremely windy so be prepared.

What an experience and must see before the Glacier is all gone. It feels so strange to be standing on ice over 150 meters deep.

Easily the finest sunscreen (essential out here), fridge magnets (essential back at home), and views on the Icefields Parkway. It was strange to have hiked wilderness all day and then pass through fifty people in a Starbucks, but the visitors center's amenities (i.e. Cell service) are seriously useful - and I'm grateful!

Great place to stand on a glacier. Well organized, but not cheap either. You can see that the ice has receded a lot.

Great place to start your Icefield Parkway drive or glacier walk or SkyWalk trip. You can have lunch, coffee and browse the gift shop.

Even though there are several businesses and not just a restaurant, I was denied access to use the washroom as I didn't have ID on me.

Worth visiting its so beautiful! Also Opens up your eyes on what we have done as human race to our glaciers!

An amazing once in a lifetime opportunity to visit a famous Canadian glacier. Visit it soon before we lose this Canadian treasure to global warming.

Even the tour guide, Colby, was fun with historic lessons and jokes along the way, especially how he kept the entire bus enthusiastically engaged! And the buses they use are modern, durable, rugged, and designed specifically for the glacier tours!

Amazing experience. Satisfied. Its very very cold, so visit with layers, so that you can enjoy.

Ever wanted to walk on a glacier? Drink glacier water? This place is it! They bring you right on the glacier and give you a bunch of information on glaciers and Icefields. Sam was our Ice Explorer driver and he was the absolute best! Funny, witty and knowledgeable.

Why only 2 stars? You can't experience the glacier on its own. They force you to bundle the glacier walk with the Skywalk tour. Making it a 2.5h excursion. Really felt like they need to make their skywalk profitable somehow and I despise this kind of obvious tourist trap. The Skywalk is more an engineering/building feat and has absolutely nothing to do with glaciers. All the information posts there is about the materials/tools/process they used to build the thing. Was incredibly boring in my opinion and I would've skipped it entirely but the way they drive you straight there after the super fun glacier experience makes it impossible to avoid. It's a good picture spot though.

I wouldn't pay the 91$ fee for this again but it feels like a once in a lifetime kind of experience to walk on a glacier and drink the water which was absolutely delicious and pure so I'm glad I did it. If you have 2.5h to spare I'd do it once for the glacier walk. If you're not that into it, I'd totally skip it.

So much fun to have funny bus and tour guides. Thanks Ben! And so fun to be taught about ice/glaciers/history. Thanks so much for all the work you guys do! Be aware that if you get the Alberta resident tickets, they do not include the skywalk.and the skywalk is a rip off.

Great place to walk out to yourself and enjoy. Pricey tours better off taking the hike up yourself for free. Have to take the bus to go over to the skywalk no parking. Cant eat at restaurants unless your with the tour group. Had to settle for Starbucks.highly understaffed and unmotivated cashier that was there. Would reccomend better product placement so we can see what to order when at the cashier around the corner as it's so busy just eats up more time. But on the plus side I guess we can say we had Starbucks at its highest elevated location. Overall experience better to eat prior or after unless starbucks is your thing and hike up and check out the glacier for yourself and save some coin!

None of the restaurants were open. Couldn't get a coffee or a sandwich.
It was busy though busses were coming in steady. It is always neat to visit. It had snowed overnight. Parking lot was treacherous slippery.

Too expensive just to take the ride to the Glacier. Not much to do once to get up there besides standing around for 30 mins.

Beautiful. Disappointed that we weren't able to collect or drink any glacier water as there had been a few days of snow which covered the streams but it's nobody fault. We had a pretty small area we had to stay in once on the glacier. We weren't able to explore but saw others hiking along.

Riding a big bus is something new for me but when the ice explorer start to climb up and going down I feel the excitement. I am happy to witness the ice formation in the mountains top. It was a good experience.

Very nice! Very clean well organized. Everyone super friendly and helpful. All the tour guides were awesome and very knowledgeable.

Its a great spot to stop and let me tell you the view is just spectacular from there, we stopped to go to the bathroom and got Starbucks and sat on the rooftop, it was just an amazing view of the mountains and the glacier.

My visit to the Columbia Ice Fields was an eye opener. The well organized Staff took us up to the Glacier in huge busses, that were designed specifically for this purpose. I was shocked to see the narrow trenches of clear water, running down the face of this Glacier. It really pointed out to me the drastic effects that Climate Change is having, on our Planet. If you visit Jasper Alberta, be sure to visit the Athabaska Glacier!

Nice place to visit been going here for years if your RV is more then 25 feet you can camp here in the parking lot over night. Very quite and safe.

The construction of the structure is super cool and the use of steel and the cantilever design is impressive. And the views are excellent. Definitely recommend including the experience with the ice fields tour.

Nice place with info about glaciers. We didn't have time to watch the videos and stuff thats here but there is a bit to explore and learn. They have a Starbucks here too for coffee and snacks.

Very disappointed to find out that not only the restaurant is closed but Chalet cafe also closes at 4pm in peak summer season. There is only starbucks left on the premises to grab something while waiting for bus tours. Don't rely on discovery center for any food requirements. I knew and stayed prepared but was still surprised to find out the cafe closed at 4pm.

Great overall experience. The tour guides were very knowledgable of the glaciers and kept it fun at the same time. Definitely worth the time and trip.

The is a beautiful drive through majestic mountains. The icefield was amazing and educational too.

This place is awesome. I can spend hours here the glaciers the howling winds.the mountains.nature is magnificent and brutal at the same time

Beautiful views. The day we went to the center it was crowded and the food is soooooo over priced and not the greatest. There’s no places close to eat. So pack a lunch or eat a big meal before going.

Not sure for how long but when i went the gallery was closed because of covid. It was still a decent place to use the washroom and has wifi.

Amazing facility, very clean and organized. You have to come and park here if you are going to the Skywalk. They have shuttle services to drive you there and back!

Beautiful feel standing on the glacier. One of a kind lifetime experience. Beautiful memories of the Banff National Park and surrounding sites/activities of interest around Calgary

Really cool place, it was very busy when I was there. It’s no wonder though, the scenery is so beautiful my friends joked that I had gone to work for National Geographic when I posted my trip pictures. Awesome super friendly staff!

Although beautiful.it was far too expensive to take bus up to glaciers. But nice walk up to top where you can see far and wide. Nice shop at the top to look around in and find yourself a souvenir.

The Columbia Icefield Discovery Center is a crazy place too stop. People just park anyplace it's very crazy in the parking lot. Then you go inside that even crazier. They have maps and info inside about things. You'll have to wait too talk anyone as this is very busy. It has info about the area and the icefield. Just be ready for all kinds of people here.

It is very beautiful and unique. You can go up to see the glacier by their special vehicles. There are very few places to see the glaciers in the world. If you come to Canada Alberta province, you must visit this place. The place is cold and I recommend to bring winter clothes. But if you can bare the lower temperatures around 0 celsius good hoodie and ice cap is enough. Do not forget to taste glacier water. If you like you can bring samples of glacier water. In addition to that you can go to see the skywalk bridge. Their transit system allows you to complete the full tour. It is very good to visit this place in June or July

Fantastic place, but at least 10,000 other people also thought so the day we were there. People had no idea how to park and the tours to the ice were way to pricy. However, we "camped" in the parking lot that night, and when everyone left, we have a very enjoyable evening watching the sun set over the valley sitting around our propane fire pit. We were very glad we did not bolt out of the place after dealing with the crowds.

If you've never seen a glacier before, this might be an amazing experience. If you have been to Iceland or Glacier National Park (etc.) you may feel a little underwhelmed. It's a big time consuming reservations-required production to stand around and take pictures of the edge of a glacier that's still a quarter mile away. In other places in the world you can just hike up and walk on the glaciers.for free.and stay as long as you like.without pushy selfie stick people everywhere.

And if it snows you don't even see the glacier at all. Not the Icefields Center's fault.but know that you'll go through a a lot just to take pictures of.snow in the distance.unless the sun has melted it off.

Also beware the glacier walk is a few miles up the road from here, so that's a whole separate trip that must be arranged and you can't drive to yourself.

The food at the discovery center is what you expect: low quality extremely expensive pizza and burgers, etc.

We thought this would be the highlight of our trip after weather closed the icefields parkway on our first attempt a few years prior, but we ended up being a bit disappointed.

Pretty but overpriced experience. We did this as part of the Glacier Adventure so I’ll include my full impression. From the website, you get the impression you’re going to be climbing onto a glacier. You do end up walking on a glacier but the actual experience is less thrilling than expected. To get to the glacier you have to wait in line to board a bus that then drives you to a glacier capable vehicle. It’s a long experience for only a 30 minute time limit on the glacier. You’re then driven by the glacier vehicle to a waiting bus that transports you to the skywalk. The skywalk consists of a walkway that is clear and stretches over the mountain. Definitely interesting to see the cliffs belles but nothing more than a ten minute experience. Plenty of free things to see in Jasper and Banff that are better experiences.

Weird place. So busy. Nice to walk near the glacier (free) but crazy that they let massive diesel Brewster buses drive into such a fragile environment with no recognition of the impact it has. They're not getting my money.

We only did the short hike to the toe of the glacier, but it was gorgeous. And lots of cool/informational plaques along the way that describe the history of the glacier

Good pit stop, plenty of tourist from those buses, tour to the icefield walkway start from there, also the ice truck tour. All in all is okay, just crowded when we got there.