“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous
I got a chance to visit Calgary (as a part of Business Trip) in April 2019.
Calgary is the largest city in Alberta, Canada. Following construction of a railway and the discovery of oil, Calgary soon became a business and agricultural nerve centre in the southern region of the Canadian province.
Most of the cities have an iconic Landmark. Calgary Tower is Calgary’s most iconic landmark.
While visiting Calgary, it is impossible to overlook the towering structure in the city’s Downtown, and even though it is not Calgary’s highest building anymore as surrounding skyscrapers (like Brookfield Place and The Bow) grew higher but still this Tower still draws attention.
After taking the ticket, the staff would show you the elevator which will take you to the observation deck. There is also an ultra-wide screen theater where you could experience the history of this structure in surround sound. Admission to this theatre is already included with the ticket purchase.
You can also visit rotating Sky 360 Restaurant in the Tower and in that case, you don’t need to pay the entrance fee.
Once you’re up, you can spend unlimited time to enjoy the 360 degree view, the exhibition explaining the evolution of the population in Calgary, and of course, you must try standing on the glass floor which initially causes a feeling of dizziness, but once you get used to it, you can enjoy bird’s eye view of 9th Avenue SW and Center Street below.
From the tower (which will be lid with indoor LED Lights), you also would probably be able to see the Northern Lights which will be visible in the night throughout many parts of Alberta.
The tower features an exterior LED light show each morning before sunrise and nightly from dusk to midnight. The shows are created to celebrate National Holidays, Cheer on local/national sports teams, support local festivals and raise awareness of important causes.
There are no much tourist attractions within Downtown. You will see large skyscrapers in all the places. Another major thing what I felt was that the down town becomes silent after office hours and we don’t see much shops open after the office hours.
Since I was on a short 3 days Business trip, I could not explore more places here in and around Calgary.
Anyway, following are some places that you can explore when you are in this part of the world:
1) Calgary Tower
2) Calgary Zoo
3) Heritage Park Historical Village / Gasoline Alley Museum
4) Rafting in Bow river
5) China Town
6) Stephen Avenue Walk
7) Prince’s Island Park
8) Eau Claire Market
9) Devonian Gardens
10) Big Rock Brewery
11) Bernard Callebaut Chocolate Factory
12) Canada Olympic Park (Zip-Line)
13) The Peace Bridge
14) Alberta Mountains / Rocky Mountains/ Banff National Park (1.5 Hours from Calgary)
15) Lake Louise / Moraine Lake / Johnston canyon
Food:
My search for Indian food took me to ‘Calcutta Cricket Club’. It’s a busy restaurant. I sincerely believe that they are short staffed. The food was tasty. Bar is also included.
https://www.calcuttacricketclub.com/indian-food-calgary
Hotels:
There are lot of hotels in Down town. I stayed in Marriott Westin. The stay was quite comfortable. The breakfast spread was also good.
