I notice from maps that Calgary Airport is North East of the city.

Do I need to come back into the city centre to head out to Canmore and Banff on Highway 1?

You just need to head south on Barlow Trail (which is the main road out of the airport). When you hit 16th Avenue, turn right (west) and that road turns into the No. 1 highway and you will end up in Canmore/Banff.

i'll suggest another route to avoid 16th avenue. from the airport, head out west on country hills blvd - it connects from the airport. you will travel about 15 minutes and turn left on stoney trail. take that all the way south until you hit hwy 1 (about 8 minutes), turn right towards banff and you are on your way.
less traffic and lights then doing 16th avenue.

Ltt, I've driven Country Hills Blvd during afternoon rush hours on several occasions during the last few months. Unfortunately I found that it had deteriorated to the point that it was not much better than 16th Avenue / TransCanada Highway. Country Hills Blvd now has quite a few traffic lights on it, and it was choked with traffic during rush hour.

Anyway, mickrory, as Cruiseryyc and ltt have said, you don't have to drive into the city centre to get on the road to Canmore and Banff. Either of the routes they've given you, while they can have a fair bit of traffic on them if you happen to hit them during the afternoon rush hour, are straight forward.

If you go to Google Maps ( maps.google.ca ), click on Get Directions, and type in 100 Airport Road NE, Calgary, AB, Canada as the Start Address and Banff, AB, Canada as the End Address, the website will give you the route that Cruiseryyc recommended, along with a map of it. You can click on the + symbol to zoom in on the airport district and see a close up view of the map.

Thanks once again for all your help.

Hi mickrory,

I have worked out a route that gets me away from the airport in Calgary and on toward Canmore and Banff in good order. It is not at all hard to follow with a map of Calgary.

If you are a AAA member, you can order the Edmonton-Calgary city map from it.

Essentially here is my route:
From the airport, drive south on Barlow Trail to McKnight Boulevard.

At McKnight, turn west.
Follow McKnight as it turns into John Laurie.
Follow John Laurie to the Shaganappi Trail.
Turn south on Shaganappi
Follow Shaganappi until it intersects with the Trans Canada Highway.
Turn West at the Trans Canada.

The route has a few lights, but traffic moves right along. Part of the route goes along the south side of Nose Hill Park where there are no residences.

There is an option off of this route which I used last summer to good advantage.

Follow John Laurie past the intersection with Shaganappi until you reach the to the intersection with Nose Hill Drive.

Turn south on Nose Hill drive until it intersects with Stoney Trail.
Turn south (left) onto Stoney Trail.

Stoney Trail soon intersects with the Trans Canada. Turn west toward Canmore and Banff.

I used Nose Hill to Stoney Trail last August to get out of town on my way to Canmore. It worked like a charm.

We picked up our rental car from Enterprise which is located close to the intersection of the Barlow Trail and McKnight Boulevard. We simply turned west on McKnight and follwed it and John Laurie to Nose Hill where we turned left (south) and followed Nose Hill to the Stoney Trail.

I like that route better than Shaganappi in the early morning because you are north of most of the traffic and at times going in the opposite direction.

Getting tangled up in downtown Calgary can be a mess if you are not familiar with the street patterns. The Trans Canada route actually goes to the north of the main part of the central city, but it can be clogged with traffic like any other city. John Laurie usually is fairly free flowing.

The route may be a little longer in terms of kilometers, but I have found it to be a relatively expeditious way out of the city.