Things to do in Calgary

Calgary began in 1875 as Fort Calgary, a North-West Mounted Police post where the Elbow River meets the Bow. The city stands at 1,045 metres, with the front ranges of the Rockies about 80 kilometres west. Things to do in Calgary start downtown.

Downtown and the rivers

Everything below lies within about two kilometres of the Calgary Tower.

• Calgary Tower. 190.8 metres tall, opened in 1968, with a glass floor on the deck since 2005.
• Stephen Avenue. The pedestrian stretch of 8 Avenue SW. Many of its sandstone buildings went up after a fire in 1886.
• Peace Bridge. Santiago Calatrava's red and white footbridge over the Bow, opened in 2012. It links downtown with Sunnyside.
• East Village. The Confluence, once Fort Calgary, marks the 1875 post. Studio Bell, opened in 2016, houses the National Music Centre and the Rolling Stones' mobile studio.
• The Caesar. Walter Chell mixed the first of these cocktails in 1969 at the Calgary Inn, now the Westin.

What gets booked

Most tours in Calgary are guided days in the Rockies. Pick-up is in the city. Several also collect guests in Canmore and Banff.

A ten-hour day covers Banff town, Lake Louise and Emerald Lake. The Columbia Icefield takes twelve hours, with the snowcoach and Skywalk tickets included. Waterton Lakes, 271 kilometres south, takes nine.

Multi-day circuits run four or five days. They cover Banff, Yoho and Jasper. A private day through the same parks is priced per group, in steps up to ten guests.

Inside the city, the one option is a spy game played on phones. It takes 2.5 hours on foot, over four stops.

Practical

• Weather. January afternoons average -1.5C and nights -13.5C. July afternoons reach 23.5C. The city gets about 2,400 hours of sun a year.
• Chinook. A warm westerly wind can swing a winter day fast. On 11 January 1983 Calgary went from -17C to 13C in four hours.
• Stampede. Ten days in July, starting on a Friday, first held in 1912. Crowds top 1.4 million.
• Getting around. The CTrain light rail serves downtown. The +15 network of enclosed walkways links buildings over more than 16 km, which helps in January.
• Tax. Alberta has no provincial sales tax, so shop and restaurant bills add only the 5 per cent GST.