Things to Do in Calgary: Tours, Tickets & Day Trips

Ranked by traveller reviews: 1) the Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and Banff day tour, 2) the premium Banff National Park day trip, 3) the Calgary city highlights walking or bike tour, 4) the Yoho, Emerald Lake and Lake Louise tour, 5) the Drumheller dinosaurs and hoodoos day trip to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, 6) the Calgary Tower and its glass floor, 7) Heritage Park Historical Village, 8) Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre, 9) the Calgary Zoo and 10) the Calgary Stampede in July.

Plan two days in the city and at least two for the Rockies. Day one: the Calgary Tower, Stephen Avenue, Studio Bell, the Central Library, lunch in East Village, then Inglewood and the Bow River pathway. Day two: Heritage Park in the morning, the Zoo or WinSport’s Olympic Park in the afternoon, dinner on 17th Avenue. Day three: Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Day four: Banff, the gondola and Johnston Canyon. Day five: Drumheller’s badlands and dinosaurs.

Walk Prince’s Island Park and cross the Peace Bridge, cycle the Bow River pathway (one of North America’s largest urban trail networks), visit the Central Library, browse Stephen Avenue and the Kensington and Inglewood districts, climb Nose Hill for the skyline with the Rockies behind, walk Fish Creek Park or the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, tour the Alberta Legislature-style City Hall, catch free Stampede events — the parade, Sneak-a-Peek evening and the pancake breakfasts all over town — and see the Olympic cauldron at Canada Olympic Park.

Lake Louise and Moraine Lake (two hours; tours from about $54–115, shuttle $15), Banff town, the gondola and Johnston Canyon (90 minutes; $72–96), Drumheller’s Royal Tyrrell Museum and hoodoos (90 minutes; $99), Kananaskis Country and Canmore (one hour), Yoho’s Emerald Lake and Takakkaw Falls (2.5 hours), Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump (two hours), Waterton Lakes (three hours) and Bar U Ranch. The Columbia Icefield is a long 13-hour day.

Dinner and the view from the Sky 360 revolving restaurant in the Calgary Tower, the bars of 17th Avenue, Kensington and Inglewood, a Flames game, concerts at Studio Bell or the Jubilee, the breweries of the Barley Belt in the south-east, the Grey Eagle and Cowboys Casino, live music at the Ironwood in Inglewood and, during Stampede, the Nashville North tent, the grandstand show with fireworks and Cowboys Dance Hall. Prince’s Island Park’s summer festivals run late into the long evenings.

Ski Nakiska (one hour), Sunshine, Lake Louise and Norquay (90 minutes), or slide, skate and ski inside the city at WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park, skate the lagoon at Bowness Park, walk the frozen Johnston Canyon, watch the Flames at the Saddledome, see ZooLights at the Calgary Zoo and Heritage Park’s Once Upon a Christmas, and warm up at the Glenbow and Studio Bell. Chinook winds can lift temperatures by 20°C in a day; Lake Louise’s ice castle and Banff’s SnowDays are an easy day trip.

The Calgary Zoo and its Prehistoric Park, TELUS Spark science centre, Heritage Park’s steam train and paddlewheeler, the Calgary Tower’s glass floor, WinSport’s ziplines, luge and skiing, Calaway Park amusement park in summer, the Stampede’s midway and rodeo, Prince’s Island’s splash park, Studio Bell’s instrument rooms, Fish Creek Park and the Bow Habitat Station fish hatchery. Drumheller’s Royal Tyrrell Museum is the best day trip for dinosaur-mad children.

June to September — warm, long days and the Rockies’ lakes thawed to their turquoise colour. Stampede takes over the first two weeks of July (book hotels months ahead). Late September brings golden larches in the mountains; winter is cold but bright with Chinook thaws and skiing an hour away.

Worth a day or two — the Calgary Tower, Heritage Park, Studio Bell, the food scene of Inglewood and 17th Avenue and the Stampede in July give it a character of its own, and hotels are far cheaper than Banff’s. Use it as your base for Lake Louise and Drumheller day trips, then move to Banff or Canmore for the mountains proper.