Luxembourg meets the World
5 things to do in Calgary Canada
Never heard of Calgary? Well it is a city located in the province of Alberta in Canada. With over 1.2 million people, it is actually the largest city in Alberta. As Calgary is located very closely to the Canadian Rocky Mountains, people chose it often as starting point to visit the Rockies.
Beside being a starting point for further adventures, be sure to plan at least one day in Calgary!
Calgary Tower
To avoid crowds of people and to have the top of the tower just for yourself, you can stay at the Le Germain Hotel Calgary, which is located just in front of the tower.
The Calgary Tower is a 190,8 meter free standing tower in Downtown Calgary. The tower opened in 1968 as the tallest building in Calgary and was firstly known as the Husky Tower. It changed its name quickly into Calgary Tower, as a tribute to all the citizens of the city.
The highlight of the tower is certainly the glass floor extension on the observation deck. Most people are standing on the glass floor so if you want to get a picture without people, it is recommandable to visit the tower early in the morning. If the weather is very good, you can even see the starting of the rocky mountains from the tower. Sadly there was no clear sight when we were visiting Calgary, because of all the fires in British Columbia.
All in one, the tower is not to miss when you’re in Calgary. Especially in the evening, the tower illuminated with different colors.
Fort Calgary
Fort Calgary is a kind of interactive museum, which I recommend highly to visit. Basically, the fort was established in 1875 as Fort Brisebois by the Police. The fort was built firstly to control the illegal American whisky trade, secondly to prepare everything for the coming of the Canadian Pacific Railway and thirdly to create better relations with the Indigenous people to which the territory actually belongs.
As the fort is located on the traditional territory of the Indigenous people, their culture and history also plays a role in the exhibition of the historic site. You can simply walk through the history of Fort Calgary.
Outside of the museum, they build up some walls and bricks to show the outline of the old fort. If you have a little bit of time, you can walk also to the bank of the Bow River.
Prince’s Island Park
The Bow River is the main river in Calgary. Prince’s Island Park is an urban park located on an island on that Bow River. The whole park was built in 1947 and donated by the Prince family to the city.
Big Rock Brewery
The Big Rock Brewery is a Canadian public beer company with head office and also the largest brewery in Calgary. Additionnaly, they also brew in Vancouver, Eobiocoke and Toronto. The brewery was created in 1985 and gained one brewmaster after the other.
If you’re interested in beer, you have to do a tour of the brewery. It is interesting how the whole process of making beer works. Of course, after the tour, you’ll get some beer and ciders to try. The guy who did the tour with us, was very kind and even gave us some tips for Calgary.
Palomino’s Smokehouse
To be honest, I’d never have walked into that restaurant, if we didn’t get a tip that the food there is amazing. Indeed, I was positively surprised about the food and the whole ambience of the restaurant. At Palomino’s Smokehouse you’ll gett barbecue all year around. I went for pulled pork and Yannick took some ribs. We can recommend both of them.
After spending 2 days in Calgary, I was ready for Banff National Park. Have you already been in Calgary?
Read next: Top 10 things to do in Banff National Park, Canada
