Anyone been to Calgary on holiday?

[EachandEveryone]

Im going for a wedding next year and its costing a fortune. Im taking my mother and we have both been to the area before but not to the city. Someone has just told me its boring! We were thinking two weeks but ive been put off now and, its true, I do get bored of mountains and lakes after afew days.

It’s great but I wouldn’t spent two weeks there. If you’re willing to hire a car there are so many places you can go to including Vancouver.

I live in Calgary. It's an awesome city but for a few days, not for a 2 week holiday. It is about an hour to the start of the mountains, but if you're staying in Alberta you'd want to base yourself in Canmore/Banff/Lake Louise/Jasper to make the most of your time in the area. It really is stunningly beautiful and there is tons to see and do, personally I never tire of it, but if hiking/mountains/lakes aren't really your thing it'll get pretty samey pretty fast! What kind of things are you into? If you're here early/mid July the Stampede is on in Calgary which is definitely worth seeing.

Driving or flying to Vancouver might be your best bet for a bit of variety. It's a long (but very beautiful) drive so if you want convenience I'd price up a flight with West Jet. If you drive I would go via the Okanagan and spend a few days in wine country, it's beautiful. Or if you want something really different you could do a week in Alberta and then fly to Toronto, or even over to Halifax for a week in the Maritimes. You can fly from Halifax back to the UK or Dublin with WestJet.

We flew to Calgary. Had a night or 2 round there (something to do with dinosaurs?), then Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, Banff and home again. Was one of our best holidays ever.

We will be in Calgary then Edmonton. A friend of the family has offered to drive us. Sadly not to Vancouver as its too far as we have to fit the wedding in.

How long will you be in Calgary and how long in Edmonton? What time of year - that really matters for making recommendations!

June. One week each.

Just drive from Banff to Jasper. Via Lake Louise IIRC. Athabasca glacier. Absolutely beautiful.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller is worth a visit. It's about an hour and a half from Calgary. www.tyrrellmuseum.com
The Ukrainian Village and Fort Edmonton in Edmonton are interesting if you like a bit of history. You should definitely go to Banff and Jasper. There are festivals in Edmonton all summer. exploreedmonton.com/festivals?page=2&nextMonth=2020-06&nextSkip=3&more=4

We stayed a couple of days in Calgary, then another couple in Canmore, before driving across the Rockies and basing ourselves in Radium for 10 days - we drove up to Golden Springs 2 separate days for rafting and to see Boo the bear at Kicking Horse, went buggy driving up to a silver mine another day, and Canadian canoeing on a lake another day. Went to a wolf sanctuary. Climbed a couple of mountains. Swam off the beach on the same lake some afternoons, and in the Radium hot springs another couple of days. And went to the former Olympic park in Calgary for some fun adventures.

They were not cheap outings but as a trip in a lifetime, we were happy to do them and they were all fun.

We stopped in Banff, but didn’t have time to explore it, and didn’t go as far as Jasper or Lake Louise - maybe if we ever get back. If you have a car, and are happy to do some driving, there is a LOT to see and do. (And I stocked up at the quilting shop in Canmore with some really great fabrics).

We had rented a house so cooked at home a fair amount, especially bbq’ing. But ate out a bit as well.

The national parks are great!

Haven’t been to Calgary itself but flew into there and we stayed in Edmonton for a while. It’s not the most exciting city and I wouldn’t stay there for more than a few days. It is great for a short stay though!

As pp have suggested, I would do a few days in each city and go to Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff. Jasper is very small and it’s amazing, my favourite of all the places mentioned, but if you get bored quickly maybe you want to a bit more time in Banff than the other two.

I lived there for a year, probably would agree that it is definitely not a holiday destination beyond a few days. However, we had people come and stay and we tried to entertain with the following:

Shopping - The CORE Centre, Chinook
Walk along the Bow River, Edworthy Park, Eau Claire Park (there are lots more walks)
Fort Calgary Museum
Loughheed House
Glenbow Museum
Calgary Zoo
Calgary Tower
Ice Hockey - Calgary Flames
Visit Kensington & Inglewood areas - quirky areas with some small shops and cafes

Banff - 1.5hrs up the road. No buses at this time of year but there is a $10 bus in summer or you can hire a Car2Go. Various walks, nice little town. Take the Gondola up the mountain.

I presume it's a summer wedding but take warm clothes anyway, weather can change very quickly!

A local will be driving us. Like I say I’ve been before. I don’t know the wedding will be in the middle and take up a lot of days. It’s going to be expensive as it is and I can’t see myself rafting with a pair of 80 year olds😃

Do you have to actually stay in Calgary for the whole week or could you do say 4 days in Calgary and 3 in Banff and then go to Edmonton for the wedding?

ItWillBeFridaySoon has suggested some good stuff to do in the city above, although the ice hockey season will be over by June so you won't be able to see the Flames. The Stampeders (American Football) will be playing pre-season games in June though which are fun.

The new library in Calgary is beautiful and worth a visit, as is Studio Bell/The National Music Centre, they're easy walking distance from each other. Other than that, there's lots of shopping - Core, Chinook, CrossIron Mills. Go for ice cream at Made by Marcus on 17th Avenue. Calgary Farmers' Market is open Thursday - Sunday and is a great way to spend a few hours, we usually take visitors there. Fish Creek Park is one of the largest urban parks in North America and has walking trails, a visitor centre, guided tours, a nice café, a lake etc. If you're lucky you can see lots of birds, deer, beavers and even the occasional black bear

We flew to Calgary, hired a car and drove to Vancouver Island via Banff, Jasper, Harrison Hot Springs, Kamloops (not necessarily in that order) and ended with a couple of days in Vancouver itself before flying back from there. Calgary itself was just a big, hot city in August (feet deep in snow and sub zero temperatures in winter) and I don't remember much about it except going up a very high viewing tower.

It's a fab city. We spent time in the city, lots of shopping and we bought loads and at the time 4 years ago seemed cheap. We did the calagary tower.

We did hire a car and do Banff, Lake Louise , the hot springs are amazing.

Loved the place, so much so we are looking at going back.

What kind of shopping? Better than the States?

Very similar to the US, and the CA$ is weaker so you get more for your £ here.

We have all the big US stores - Nordstrom, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sephora, Williams Sonoma, Apple etc. and the usual clothes stores - Gap, Banana Republic, Victoria's Secret, American Eagle, Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M etc. Plus Canadian stores/brands - Hudson's Bay, Chapters Indigo (amazing bookstores), Lululemon, and a lot of outdoors stores - MEC, Icebreaker, Patagonia, Arc'teryx, Fjallraven, Atmosphere etc. The Chinook Centre has quite a few high-end stores - Tiffany, Canada Goose, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Burberry, Armani, Kate Spade, Michael Kors etc.

There are lots of interesting independent shops in the Inglewood and Kensington neighbourhoods, everything from clothes to spices to records to $800 hand-made Japanese kitchen knives.

Thanks for this Canada is on my list to go to but wasn't sure where. I do want to see the Rockies is the train a good way of seeing them?

ohdear do you mean the Rocky Mountaineer? I haven't been on it but I know people who have and they said it was lovely, but to be honest, they are all older/less active people. It depends what you want - if you want 'passing through' views or an overview of the mountains then the train is good. However, if you want to really experience the area and/or you're more active and into hiking etc. then hiring a car (or an RV) and driving yourself around is better.

To get the best of both worlds you could fly to Vancouver, take the Rocky Mountaineer to Jasper and then pick up a hire car there to drive down the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise and Banff, and then fly back from Calgary.

Thank you VetOnCall that sound good.