"Calgary - A Friendly City" a Calgary Travel Page by Bwana_Brown

In July, 2006 my wife and I returned to Alberta for another go-round of Calgary! This time we started our journey in the city, then drove north to Cold Lake for a week before returning for a few days while the Calgary Stampede was on. After enjoying some great adventures in the nearby countryside, we headed south for another week to take in Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta) and Glacier National Park (Montana). Once again, Calgary totally impressed us, and the fantastic summer weather of 25-30 C was very agreeable!

On our previous trip, in September, 2004 we flew into Edmonton, Alberta as a central point for visits both north and south to Cold Lake and Calgary (since we had daughters living in both of these locations). On the second stage of that journey, we drove south from Cold Lake for almost an entire day before reaching this bustling 'oil capital' of Canada. Our main objectives were to visit our youngest daughter who had been living there for a year, as well as one of my younger sisters who was a long-time resident. This was our first proper visit to Calgary, other than a brief stop-overs in 1982 and 2001 when we merely passed through in the course of other major trips. The weather was great, in the low 20s C, but dipping down to freezing one night, allowing us to take in a tour of the city as well. On our previous visits to the city, we had not sampled any of its sights at all due to the short length of our stays. Not only did we get to see the city, but we also managed a day-trip to the fantastic 'Banff National Park' (see my separate page for the details of that trip!).

I was surprised at how user-friendly Calgary was. The traffic was not bad, the tree-lined streets were beautiful and the people seemed friendly. Altogether, I was greatly impressed with the city on both of these major visits!