Calgary recomendations

In My Humble Opinion
21

Without a car you more or less have to be downtown or on Banff trail if you aren’t planning on spending all your time in your suite.

The Ramada downtown is pretty nice and more reasonable than the Sheraton, Delta or Paliser hotels, also if you go down a level when it comes to price, the Sandman Inn downtown is a decent hotel albeit not as posh, and the Holiday Inn Express downtown is a decent clean hotel as well.

As for restaurants, there is more than just steak here albeit steak is the official food of Calgary. For a classic old fashion steak in a very old fashion place, since Hy’s isn’t in a new location yet, try out Caesars Steak House downtown. The restaurant is a step back in time, but still one of the best steaks in town. Do not go to Ric’s Grill - service is terrible, food is cold, and it is highly overrated. Check out Fast Forward Magazine, or John Gilchrist on CBC radio online for reviews of other restaurants.

As for stuff to see, what are you in to? Being March, the weather might not be too conductive for outdoor activities like the Zoo, or Heritage Park. You can take a bobsled ride at Canada Olympic Park, it is a bit costly and considering you are snowboarding before hand, it may not be what you want. I have had friends from other places who like the Glenbow Museum for the native & Canadian exhibits. We have quite the indie music scene here in Calgary, if you are up for a night out. You’ll have to give us a hint of what you’d like to do & see.

22

If you’re looking for steak, Carver’s in the aiport Sheriton arguably is the best beef in town. Other options would include Caesar’s downtown, Hy’s (if it’s open – I’m not sure), or the Chicago Chophouse. All those options are pretty swanky, though, so plan to spend some money. Pretty well anywhere you go, you’ll find very good beef, however, since Alberta beef rules. :slight_smile: If you’re looking for a decent meal on a budget, the Old Spaghetti Factory by Eau Claire will feed you lots of decent pasta for a very fair price. One of our favorite spots, The Chili Club Thai House on 17th Ave., is probably too far out of your way, but I’ll throw it out there as an option anyway.

As to sight seeing, there’s a fair bit you can check out downtown in a fairly short period of time. Of course, the Calgary Tower is the main attraction. It used to be the tallest free-standing structure on Earth and now isn’t even the talest building in our downtown core, but the view from up top is quite spectacular. They also have a high-end restaurant up there which is built on a turntable, so you get to see the whole city while dining. The downside is that the food is unremarkable, especially given the price. The Tower is right next to the Palliser hotel, which is worth a quick walk through. Across the street to the north you’ll find the Glenbow Museum. A block further north puts you on Stephen’s Avenue Mall, which starts at City Hall on the east side (also a nice building to check out), goes through Olympic Plaza, which has an open-air skating rink in it right now, and then continues west for several blocks of shopping, leading to the big downtown shopping mall, TD Square, starting with the old Bay building at one end and a Sears at the other. Mid-way along in there, if you go right to the top floor, you’ll find the Devonian Gardens, which are very nice to walk around in, especially at this time of year. On the north side of downtown is Eau Claire, with a slowly dying mall and few restaurants, framed by condo complexes. Across the pedestrain walkway from Eau Claire is Prince’s Island, which is a nice little park space in the heart of the city. And if you continue north across the next pedestrian bridge, you’ll find yourself at the Calgary Curling Club, where you can go upstairs, watch some curling, and get really hammered at the bar. There is a big-ass stairway on the north side of the CCC’s parking lot that takes you to the top of North Hill (so named because it is a hill to the north of downtown – very creative, I know), where you can get a very nice view of downtown Calgary.

If you head east past City Hall, you’ll shortly find yourself walking through the kinda sketchy East Village, but if you keep going, you’ll get to Fort Calgary, which is a fairly cool exhibit and reconstruction of the old fort. Past that, you’ll find yourself in Inglewood, which has some neat shops and such. And to the north of Inglewood is our Zoo, which I love.

All that would be a butt-load of walking, but making use of the LRT (Light Rail Transit) downtown, where it’s free (you have to pay once you leave downtown) or busses would make that a little easier on your feet. Also, using the +15 system downtown will allow you to walk just about the entire core without ever stepping outside. Other sight-seeing features, like Canada Olympic Park, are harder to get to, but can be fun to check out.

Hope you have fun here! :slight_smile:

23

Thanks all - huge amounts of good info there.

I’m going to book a transfer. There seems to be a number of firms offering private transfers, with vans that seat up to 11. With 9 people in total, it seems to be a lot cheaper than even the scheduled transfer, and the convenience is obviously a big plus.

So, I was thinking to get the transfer back to drop us off at whatever hotel, then a night out, a days sightseeing, and off to the airport.

Now, based on the two recomendations for Carvers at the airport sheraton, and the tip that the hotels near the airport will be cheaper, I’m wondering if a good bet wouldn’t be to stay out there, then get transport into town the next day for sightseeing, before going back to the hotel to pick up bags and getting our flight.

Waddya reckon?

24

Personally without a car, I would not stay around the airport.

From the airport a taxi ride is around $30 average to downtown, and there is no easily accessible public transit out there. Taxis are also notoriously hard to get in this city. Last time I needed a cab, on a Friday afternoon abour 2 weeks ago, I waited almost 30 minutes and that was a short wait because the weather wasn’t that bad. If we have a snow storm, or you are going out night clubbing waiting cabs sometimes just don’t show up at all. Taxi service here is unreliable at best.

This is a car city, and without a car, Banff Trail and downtown are the only places which are easy to get to and from via transit.

25

Don’t the people who own/run River Cafe also own/run Mescalero’s? I know they used to…

As far as steaks go, I always recommend Caesar’s Steak House, but I do miss the fried beef ribs…

26

There is a Chili Club Thai House downtown on 11th Avenue SW, too. Oh, that’s another thing - while you’re here, watch the SW, SE, NE, and NW additions to addresses - Calgary is divided by quadrants, and theoretically could have the same address in all four quadrants, differing only in the quadrant location. You might be looking at two place to go to, thinking they are right next to each other, but one is in the NE and one is in the SW and are a 45 minute drive apart.

Staying near the airport is not a bad idea - there’s a reason there are so many hotels so close to it. :slight_smile: While the LRT doesn’t run right to the airport (yet), there are buses that can take you anywhere (assuming you’ll be here on a day other than Sunday - bus service is terrible on Sundays).

27

Regarding downtown, the downtown mall, TD Square is undergoing renovations right now. A bunch of the stores are closed currently, and Devonian Gardens are closed until summer 2010. 17th Avenue SW, Inglewood or Kensington are far more fun for tourist shopping anyway!

I always forget the Calgary Tower, perhaps because the view isn’t the same now with so many more buildings downtown, but Jimbo is right, the food is highly over-rated.

If you are downtown for lunch or breakfast (from 10am until 3pm Saturday & Sunday) try The Palomino: http://www.thepalomino.ca/. It is in a seedier part of downtown, but during the day there is nothing to be afraid of, despite what some locals may think - :wink:

28

Sure, I just wondered about chartering a tour. We’ve got a company that does private transfers from airport to Banff, then back to hotel. For reasonable money they can do a tour round Calgary, including breaks for shopping/sightseeing. Just seems like the easy way to do it.

29

The Devonian Gardens are closed until 2010 and I wasn’t informed?!? WTF?!? Well, I guess that’s just one more reason not to pay the highest parking rates in Canada to visit downtown. D’oh!

30

I don’t know of a company that does that but I haven’t worked in a hotel for 12 years so many things may have changed (I’d call tourism Calgary at 1-800-661-1678 and ask), but you can rent a large vehicle like a van or a large SUV and drive yourself around (and it will have GPS).

31

Too late to edit, I found the tourism calgary page or tour & charter operators.

http://www.tourismcalgary.com/e-cvb/Quicksearch/Qsearchresults.cfm?mc=MTOUR

32

I am involved in the theatre community and if you say when you are coming I can tell you what shows are worth seeing.

And I won’t even be biased towards the theatre I work for. Well maybe a little:) And just because our show right now is great.

33

If you could charter some kind of tour, I would highly recommend that for your whirlwind tour. Traffic here sucks, parking sucks, the roads suck, other drivers suck - if you can hire someone to do the nasty part of getting around for you so all you have to do is look at what there is to see, I say go for it.

34

Hmm I think I’ll go try some of these restaurants on the weekends. I didn’t know about them and I live here! I’m just too frugal I guess.

35

nom nom nom

ahem

Gotta get there for dinner next time I’m in town. Stoopit husband.

36

Well, geez, I want to know that. My son goes to a fine arts school, and specializes in Drama and Music. We are always looking for productions to attend together.

Please spill (if you wouldn’t mind, of course).

37

My friends and I stayed at the Sandman when we were in Calgary. We’re young and on a super-tight budget so it was way above the hostel dorm I’m used to, but I can say that we were able to get around walking, even though it was -14 (in mid April).

No ideas for entertainment, sorry. A friend told us we had to see the Red Mile or whatever it’s called, though I truly have no idea why, and we went to a Flames game.

38

Boobies. If you were in Calgary during our Stanley Cup run a couple of years ago, it was THE place to be (if you liked drunken idiots). There are still good bars there, I suppose - we don’t go to bars much any longer. Too old and tired. :slight_smile:

39

There’s a Ruth’s Chris in the Calgary Tower if you’re into that kind of thing.

40

Cool. Two recomendations for the Sandman, and a quick check shows very decent rates as well.

Can anyone advise if there’s any good restaurants within walking distance of there? Ideally, something fairly casual.