Length of stay: 1 day
Visited: July 2019
I flew down to Calgary with my good friend A and spent the last four days in Banff National Park. We initially booked a campsite at the Two Jack Main Campground, but the forecast was calling for rain overnight and we didn’t want to pack up a wet tent in the morning. Plus it was cold. Instead, we headed back to Calgary to spend our final day of our trip out west.
Calgary isn’t the largest of cities (especially in comparison to Toronto). Calgary is often used as a gateway to the Canadian Rockies, but there are a few attractions worth seeing in the city.
We arrived in Calgary late last night and didn’t get much of an opportunity to wander around. We woke up to blue skies and sun, a first of the trip. Our hotel room was quite nice and provided great views of downtown Calgary and the Calgary Tower.
To take advantage of the nice weather, I went for a stroll through Prince’s Island Park, while A continued sleeping. This park is located in downtown Calgary on an island in the Bow River.
I walked around the park for about an hour before heading back to grab A. We returned to the park and walked the entire stretch of the island from east to west, ending at the iconic Peace Bridge.
By the time we finished hiking around Prince’s Island Park, we were getting pretty hungry. We headed over to OEB Breakfast CO for brunch. It was well worth the wait for a table.
After eating we walked along Stephen Avenue, a major pedestrian mall located in the downtown core. We walked around for a couple more hours before heading back to our hotel to pick up our bags and then head to the airport.
Banff National Park was easily the highlight of our trip. But it was still nice to walk around and explore downtown Calgary.
L
Calgary is such a beautiful city, we had a chance to visit a few years ago and absolutely loved every minute of it
The only reason we visited Calgary was to go to Banff National Park. But I’m glad we had the opportunity to spend a day here in Calgary as the city itself is quite lovely.
We visited Calgary for the same reason – to venture further into Banff National Park and arrived just days before the Calgary Stampede festival so had a chance to see what it looks like!
I bet the city was very lively when you visited. We arrived in Calgary a few days after the Calgary Stampede had ended and missed all the excitement. This was probably a good thing as we booked this trip last minute and I imagine hotel prices would have been insane during the festival.
Yes, it was amazing to be in Calgary just days before the event started and see it all set up and ready for the Calgary Stampade. We wandered around and saw plenty of chuckwagons, the Indian Village and lots of cowboys – i bet the experience of attending it is unrivaled for variety and excitement.
It’s fabulous!! Very unique
I always thought of Calgary as kind of a cowboy western town with its famous stampede. After reading your blog, I guess it’s not.
Oh, it still is. Especially during the stampede. I’m actually glad we missed it when we were visiting Calgary otherwise the whole city would have been nuts.
We have both very much enjoyed following your wanderings and appreciated your well written posts! My efforts in posting have pretty much stopped to my disappointment as we are moving so far and so fast on our quest to go so many places in a year or so. But our cross country jaunt of Canada has been an awesome experience. I gave a great admiration for the country, it’s people and the natural wonder that we’ve seen!! B n C
It can be tiresome to write about your travels as you are on the road, especially if you are moving around a lot and travelling far distances. Hopefully you’ll be able to get back into it soon though. Canada is quite scenic, especially out west. I too have great admiration for its pristine wilderness. Canadians are pretty friendly too.
It’s such a big country and so much to see that often only certain sections with the hype get seen. It’s hard to see it all that’s for sure.
I was in Calgary in may 2005, so much changed, that bridge for example can’t remember that being there at the time.
Apparently Calgary has experienced a lot of construction over the past few years, whether its roads or buildings. The Peace Bridge is quite new. Construction of it started in 2010.
Thanks for informing me, looks like I will have to visit it again one day if it keeps changing so quickly 🙂 I have a blogpost under Canada and it’s about Calgary and Banff and you can see on the pictures it’s from 2005, So long time ago but it’s fresh in my memory like it was yesterday
I just read your post on Calgary and the city does look different in 2005 compared to now. The unpredictability of the weather is still the same though. I wouldn’t mind visiting again either 🙂
Haha your last sentence made me laugh. I think if I will go to Canada again I would go see Vancouver or Quebec because I never been there before