Trip Reports - 9 days in Calgary area-vacation

Flew LAX-SCL-YYC on DL/Skywest
Flight there no problems x the 5 hr layover

Night one at the Hilton Garden Inn (AP). New hotel. Very agressive service. Free shuttle from AP (must call do not just wait!!). Fairly quiet. Nice stay. Eatery acceptable

Day two: Drove to Lake Louise, a mob at the Chateau (expensive and crowded). Lake nice but crowded. Lake Moraine nice. The ten peaks--so what. Stayed at Banff Park Lodge. Acceptable, ($216/nt). Parking covered. Rest. empty most of the time.

Day three: Visited Cave+Basin Nat Historic Site but did not go in (old spa). Visited B. Springs Hotel, very nice for an "antique". Saw Bow Falls (more a rushing river, than falls) but quite pleasant. Luxton Museum was next. Well worth the entry and an hour. Off to the Whyte Museum of the Canadian rockies. Again well worth the time. The B. Park Museum is full of stuffed animals, esp. birds, in a historic rr building-great deal. Passed on the Nat. Hist. Museum (free, mainly bones and rocks). Stayed a second night in the BPL.

day 4: Went to Lake Minnewanka and took the boat ride. 1 1/2 hrs, lots of info on the area, well worthwhile. Also visited Johnson lake, the Two Jac lakes, but only my wife walked these areas as my foot was acting up. Lots of goats and big horn sheep along the side, and on, the road. We then went on the Sulphur Mountain gondola. Nice views. You can walk up the mt on a fairly good (4' wide) path. They say 2 hrs, but the couple we rode down with said it took them 4 hours. If you walk up the ride down is free! Once on top another 20-35 minute walk will take you to the summit. Goats and big horn sheep are clearly visable at the top of the gondola ride area. A eatery is also available but we passed. Drove to the Vilmillion lakes (sp). Went slowly hoping to see more wildlife but did not. Spent the night at the Best Western Siding Twenty Nine Lodge (everything else booked for this Saturday night). Babies crying most of the nigth. A woman in the room across from us received a different male visitor each 25-30 minutes all night. I do not recommend this place. Underground parking, well down Banff Ave away from town.

Day 5: Drove to Heritage Park near Calgary. We had planned to stop in Cochrane to visit the Western Heritage Centre (foot excuse) which would have likely been worthwhile. The HP is fun (adults and especially kids). Rides include a steamship, train (we rode), horse drawn wagon and a motorized truck. A small ride arcade too. Many historical building have been moved to this site. Area "manned" by people in period custome. Drove to Hyatt and stayed their the next four nights (see comments on Hyatt site).

Day 6: returned car (city site) and took train to the Science Center (10% of the Seattle Science Center). Great place for kids, VERY marginal for adults. We did see two IMAX type movies, one on beavers and the other on the aura bolealis (sp!). both great. Passed on Eau Claire market and the Calgary Chinese Cultural Center (foot excuse).

Day 7: we always visit the zoo(s) where ever we go (and related type sites). I had hoped to rent a wheelchair (not available). I tought it out and we had a great visit. The zoo has an excellent area of native animals (highlight), a very good botanical garden and a prehistoric park with full size plastic models. The balance of the zoo was somewhat modest. They do serve wine in at least one of the eateries.

Day 8: Glenbow Museum a must see. Allow 2-4 hours for this experience. The Devonian Garden are on the 4th floor of the Toronto Dominion Square building. A nice, mostly peaceful area suited to having a sack lunch. Allow 1+ hours. We did a little shoping too.
Foot done in, soaked in the hot tub and took a dip in the pool.

Day 9: Leisure breakfast, pack and take the long trip home (reverse of the trip to)

Looking for a week or so holiday. This one is well worthwhile. A little more time, continue up to Jasper and visit the ice fields and see Takakaw Falls. Sorry for typos and spelling.

I am happy that you enjoyed most of your trip. I too am partial to that area and go to the mountains on most of my business trips to YYC.

Ah Calgary, a great city. I've been there for the last two weeks and returning again the day after tomorrow. Staying at the Marriott -- which gives me free admission into the Calgary Tower. Glenbow Museum is down the street; was considering checking it out, now definitely will!

Was at Eau Claire market a couple of days. I was not impressed. It's ok, but I don't think it lives up to the billing it gives itself. There's a great Indian place called Bombay House two blocks from the tower/Marriott. We eat there every week now (we being my team and I).

Unfortunately no chance to go out of downtown on these business trips. I definitely will have to return in the future to venture out towards the mountains!

Thanks for the report!

great trip report - I copied some details into my Palm. Thank you.

a week in Calgary without a meeting with BlondeBomber?

Glad that most of it worked out ranles.

How was DL/Skywest, really? (I thought they just used those dinky little planes). What kind of equipment do they fly on the SLC-YYC route now? I have avoided Delta (can use it to build up my AF account) because of my perceptions of a cramped aircraft-am I wrong?

We probably just missed each other. My family and I were in Banff and Calgary from July 19 - Aug. 2. We spent five nights at Buffalo Mountain Lodge in Banff (nice, but didn't care for the setting), six at Johnston Canyon (great cottages on the river), two at Sheraton Suites Eau Claire (excellent service) and one at the airport Hilton (OK).

I agree Lake Louise is too crowded and Moraine Lake is very beautiful. Would have loved to stay at the lodge there, but it was booked months in advance of our visit.

You mentioned walking slowly to see wildlife ... we spent about five days hiking and never saw animals - except for an owl in an Aspen. They were all over the sides of the road creating traffic jams, but never near the trails. (Although we did see several eagles, deer and elk while canoing on Vermillion Lakes.) Finally, on our last hike we heard some snorting sounds ... we followed the noise and found eight elk in the trees. We had walked past them before, separated by maybe 30 feet, and didn't have a clue they were there because their camouflage works so well. Now I wonder how many other animals I was close to without realizing it.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

BTW ... while in Banff we saw the local production of The Hobbit, which was very well done. Very creative costumes and props. It was moving to the park near Eau Claire Market during August. It could be finished now, but if it is going on, it is well worth seeing.

BB
The Skywest flights are a long walk from the Delta gates. I cannot say the type of plane as it was "new" to me. Two seat on each side of the plane. Smallish seats. Mixed cracker packages. Nothing special, nothing horrible for the relative short duration. Lots of engine noise and hear plugging for a day thereafter.

We were using up left over Delta points. The layover in Salt Lake is 4-5 hours (: so we really were tired at the end of both days of travel. A three hour flight (direct from LAX) ended up taking the whole day with this routing and layover.

It's been 12 years since I've been to Calgary and environs, but I fondly remember great cuisine at Le Beaujolis upstairs on the corner of the main intersection in Banff, best fish and chips of my life at Rose & Crown in Canmore, and wonderful scones at Gallagher's Tea Room in Canmore. Do any of these three institutions still exist?

Nice trip report. It acutally brought back some memories for me. I was in Calgary for one week in september 1998. I really liked Lake Louise, downtown Calgary and the olympic park.

Calgary is my 2nd favorite city in Canada, after YVR.

Good report, ranles. My wife is going on September 8th (on United http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif ). Thanks for the details.