"Calgary, Alberta, Canada" a Calgary Travel Page by penumbra

I like traveling because then I really enjoy coming home to Calgary. If I’m in Calgary for several months without a break it trends to get a bit boring. But if I’m out traveling, I really appreciate the city it when I get back.

Sure, there are some drawbacks. We don’t have a beach (sand beside a lake doesn’t count). The weather changes more often than the price of gas. The roads either have pot-holes, are dug up for construction or are covered with ice and snow.

But there are compensations. Calgary is a nice size… large enough to have all the amenities but small enough to avoid most of the mega-city problems. Although the temperature fluctuates wildly, we get a lot of blue sky days. The prairies are to the east, two rivers meet in the middle of the city, hills surround the outskirts and the mountains are on the horizon to the west. The people work hard, play hard and display a hospitality normally reserved for small towns.

Getting Around
Calgary is divided in four quadrants: North-East (NE), South-East (SE), South-West (SW) and North-West (NW). The dividing lines for these quadrants are Center Street and the Bow River (at least downtown). The central part of Calgary is a grid: streets run North-South; avenues run East-West. The same street/avenue combination can show up in each quadrant, so it’s important to pay attention to the two letter quadrant abbreviation after an address (NW, SW, SE, NE). In the newer outlying areas, planners have chosen to use twisting turning roads to prevent high speed driving through residential neighborhoods. Unfortunately, they often give the roads names similar to the neighborhood making it difficult to navigate if you’re unfamiliar with the area.