Calgary is the gateway to the Canadian Rockies and a city that confounds expectations. Most visitors pass through it on the way to Banff, and many never stop — which is a mild shame, because the booming prairie city has grown into something more interesting than its oil-and-cattle reputation suggests. It has a gleaming downtown, a strong food scene, an outdoorsy population with the mountains an hour to the west, and, for ten days every July, it throws the Calgary Stampede, the largest rodeo and Western festival on earth. It is clean, friendly, and unpretentious, and it makes both a practical base for the Rockies and a worthwhile stop in its own right.
We last went to Calgary 3 years ago. We had driven there from Vancouver. We shopped in the large malls, stayed near the airport and flew to Toronto the next day.
A Little Background
Calgary is Moh’kinsstis in Blackfoot, and the land where the Bow and Elbow rivers meet has been home to Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. This is Treaty 7 territory, the home of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, and the Îyâxe Nakoda (Stoney) nations, and the Métis. The river confluence was a long-established gathering and camping place.
The modern city began in 1875, when the North-West Mounted Police built a fort at the confluence to bring order to the whisky trade on the plains. Two years later, in 1877, Treaty 7 was signed between the southern Alberta First Nations and the Crown at Blackfoot Crossing — a transaction whose consequences still shape the region. The arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883 turned the fort into a town, and ranching made it the cattle capital of Canada — the heritage the Stampede celebrates. The discovery of oil in Alberta in the twentieth century transformed Calgary into the energy capital of the country, and the boom built the modern skyline.
What to See and Do
If you can possibly time it, the Calgary Stampede (ten days each July) is the experience that defines the city — a vast rodeo, chuckwagon races, a midway, concerts, pancake breakfasts, and First Nations cultural events, with the whole city in Western dress. It is enormous fun and books out far ahead. Outside Stampede week, the city’s signature landmark is the Calgary Tower, whose observation deck (with a glass floor) rises 190 metres for sweeping views to the Rockies on a clear day.
Heritage Park Historical Village, on the Glenmore Reservoir, is one of Canada’s largest living-history museums, recreating prairie and railway life with costumed staff, a steam train, and a paddlewheeler, and including Indigenous as well as settler history. The Confluence Historic Site (formerly Fort Calgary), at the meeting of the rivers where the city began, tells that founding story. Downtown, the Glenbow Museum holds a strong collection of Western Canadian and Indigenous art and history. For the outdoors, the extensive river pathways and nearby Fish Creek Provincial Park show why Calgarians are so attached to their open space — and the Rockies, of course, are barely an hour west.
Getting There
Calgary International Airport is a major western Canadian hub, well connected domestically and internationally, and the principal gateway to Banff and the Rocky Mountain parks (about 90 minutes west by road). The city has a useful light-rail system, the CTrain, which is free through the downtown core, plus buses; but a car is valuable for reaching Heritage Park and essential if you are continuing to the mountains.
Weather
Calgary has a dry, sunny continental climate with big temperature swings. Summers (June–August) are warm, bright, and the best time to visit — and the season of the Stampede. A local peculiarity is the chinook, a warm winter wind off the mountains that can lift temperatures dozens of degrees in hours. Winters are cold and can be snowy, but the chinooks bring frequent respite. Summer is the clear choice for most visitors; ski season pairs it with the nearby mountains.
The Bottom Line
Mid-range hotels run roughly CAD$170–300 a night — far higher during Stampede week, when the whole city books out. A day or two covers the city’s attractions comfortably; most visitors use Calgary as the arrival and departure point for a Rockies trip, which is exactly what it does best. Give it an afternoon at least before you head for the mountains — there is more here than the airport suggests.