Weekend in Calgary
 

We are flying to Calgary next Thursday on business, and will be staying at the Sheraton Suites Eau Claire until Sunday.

We are meeting people at the airport for dinner Friday night, so that leaves Saturday to head to the mountains.

My questions are: where exactly should we go to get up close and personal to the Rockies if we have only one day (this will be our first trip there), and how crazy busy will things be on an August Saturday?

We won't be doing any hiking at this time - we are content with driving and sightseeing.

Our departure flight on Sunday morning is 10:30am (international) so we wouldn't want to get back to our hotel too late.

Thank you,
Boots

Hi Boots!

If I had one day to explore the Rockies, I'd head out first to Lake Louise (since that's furthest away from Calgary, and also extremely busy with tour buses), and explore the lake and Lake Agnes Teahouse. After Lake Louise, I would make the short detour to Moraine Lake (which used to be on the Canadian $20 bill). Then, drive to Banff and go up the Gondola before exploring downtown Banff and the hotel Fairmont Banff Springs; a magical castle hotel in the heart of the Rockies with plenty of dining options.

Hope that helps. Have a lovely trip!

Thank you kindly for your input, MissMandy. I didn't know where to start so this will prove very helpful on our trip. :)

Boots

I suggest stopping first at Moraine Lake. We made the mistake of going first to Lake Louise. It was very beautiful and we enjoyed our visit, but when we left there and tried to visit Moraine Lake, the road was closed due to the parking areas being full.
When we returned 2-3 hours later, the road was open, but it had started to rain. We were only there for a short while. I would definitely get an early start on your drive from Calgary.

Thank you for this suggestion, mlm59 :)

I'm a little stressed about time allowance...

our flight leaves at 10:30am but we have to get to the airport much earlier to process a visa at the immigration desk. This might take an hour.

I'm wondering if even an early start for the mountains would give us enough time to cover all this if we want to be back to our hotel at a decent time to pack and get a good night's sleep?

I'm hoping I wouldn't have to get up earlier than 7:30am :S

Any advice on this?

"Process a visa at the immigration desk"

Can your clarify. The only time you would be going through immigration at the Calgary Airport would be flying to the US. Any other immigrations/customs would be at your destination. For flights to the US, it's suggested you arrive 2.5+ hrs before your flight. I believe the US immigrations area opens at 5am.

For Saturday, I would spend your full day in the mountains. They are spectacular and worth being a little sleepy the next day. You can snooze on the plane.

I also suggest going to Moraine Lake - and getting there by 8:30. Means a very early start from Calgary, but well worth it. Then head to Lake Louise - even then you may need to wait for parking, but they do run shuttles from the overflow lot on weekends. You could spend the rest of the day there, or make your way back through Banff/Canmore. Banff can have gridlock traffic on weekends, so Canmore could be a nice alternative - nice places to eat and some pretty local walks.

I agree with kgsneds - you should spend as much time as you can in the mountains. Get up early, have breakfast en route and pack as much as you can before Saturday.

Spending time in this magnificent part of the world should be maximised. Sleep is for the other 51 weekends of the year plus you can also sleep on the plane on the way home :)

Lake Louise and Banff gondola are must dos!

Yes, we would be having the visa processed on our return flight home to the U.S. from the Calgary Airport. We've done it a number of times - I just want to make sure we allot enough time for it prior to boarding.

Thank you for the planning tips :) . We'll try to head out as early as possible, and either have our breakfast en route or order room service early and eat while we get ready.

Boots

We recently flew back to the US from Calgary. I believe there was a sign that said they will not allow you to go through US customs until 2 hours before your flight. Our flight was at 12:30. We got to the customs line around 10:20. We had our passports, not a visa. Even though there was a large line on Saturday morning, we got through fairly quick. The Calgary airport is a mess in the area of our gate - we were flying Delta.

Well, we landed in Calgary and to our surprise and dismay were told at the car rental desk that BOTH our driver's licenses expire tomorrow. Unless, by some miracle, California laws allow us to renew online and things go into effect right away, we won't be driving to the mountains afterall :(

We are going to call the DMC first thing in the morning and see what they say.

We are not bus tour kind of people, but we may not rule it out if that turns out to be our only option.

We also discovered that Uber doesn't operate here, nor it seems does Lyft. Ah well, we'll figure out something.

Boots