18 Best Sights in Alberta, Canada

This 160,000-square-foot building resonates with the sounds of music and activity, drawing visitors up through five floors of acoustically and visually distinct exhibition, performance, and gallery spaces. You can unleash your inner rock star by jamming out on the tools of the trade, and build and test instruments made from everyday objects. It’s also home to a number of attractions, including the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame Collection.

A fun and funky way to get from Downtown to the North Saskatchewan River Valley, this 48-second ride in a glass-walled elevator will transport you to a promenade where you can have a picnic or read a book. Carry on to the Frederick G. Todd Lookout if you want unobstructed views of the river valley. There’s also a cool set of stairs with built-in benches if you prefer to descend under your own power.

The focal point of this ornate building in the heart of Chinatown is the Dr. Henry Fok Cultural Hall, a building modeled after the Hall of Prayers in Bejing’s Temple of Heaven. The column details and paintings include 561 dragons and 40 phoenixes. The center houses a cultural museum, an art gallery, a crafts store, an herbal-medicine store, and a 330-seat Chinese restaurant.

Also known as the New City Hall, the angular, mirrored walls of this building reflect several city landmarks, including the old City Hall, a stately 1911 sandstone building that houses the mayor's office and other city offices.

This Designated National Historic Site of Canada was constructed from 1913--1923 by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was the eighth temple constructed by the church. The monumental granite structure is built on a hill with large landscaped grounds and views of Chief Mountain in the distance. It was designed by American architects, Hyrum Pope and Harold Burton, in the Prairie School style of Frank Lloyd Wright. The building’s interlocking geometric shapes form a pyramidal shape, evocative of Pre-Columbian architecture. Only members of the church are allowed inside the temple, but there is a visitor's center that can be explored and anyone is welcome to walk around the grounds.

Architecture buffs should plan a visit to Calgary’s newish central library. When it opened in 2018, it was one of Architectural Digest's most anticipated buildings of the year. The building’s curved surface is composed of hexagonal panels that give way to an expansive archway at the entrance, created entirely of western red cedar planks from British Columbia. Inside, six floors provide all the trappings of a modern, tech-enriched library, from a children’s library on the main floor to the Great Reading Room on the top floor, designed so Calgarians and visitors can ruminate over their books and computers in the glow of natural light.

Above the CORE Shopping Centre, this balmy 2½-acre enclosed tropical roof garden provides a welcome escape from the business of Downtown. It holds 20,000 trees and plants, nearly 2 km (1 mile) of lush walkways, a sculpture court, and a playground. Alberta's largest indoor gardens, which are reached by two glass-enclosed elevators just inside the 7th Avenue light-rail transit (LRT) entrance, have a living wall and numerous ponds with rainbow trout, koi, goldfish, and turtles. Art exhibitions are held here, and there's a stage for performances.

Located in Kinsmen Park, this living history museum showcases the life of John Walter, a Scotsman who immigrated to Canada in 1870 to build boats for the Hudson's Bay Company. Walter built one of the city's first permanent residences, and the community of Walterdale grew up around his property. Today, you can watch crafters at work and visit buildings as they would have looked between 1870--1942. You can also explore Kinsmen Park and its numerous walking and biking trails.

Located on the east wall of the TELUS building and the south wall of the Mercer Warehouse building on 104 Street and 104 Avenue, Canada's first museum dedicated to neon is worth a peek. While not a museum in the traditional sense, this outdoor collection of more than 20 colorful creations tells the story of Edmonton's past from the logo for the Running Room (North America's largest chain of specialty running stores), originally installed in 1997, to the sign for the now defunct The Movie Studio, one of Canada's largest independent video stores that shuttered in 2015.

The Blackfoot consider the area around the Waterton Lakes to be sacred. Paahtómahksikimi is the Blackfoot name for Waterton Lake. It means "inner sacred lake." The Paahtómahksikimi Cultural Centre helps visitors connect with the Spirit of Waterton and learn about Blackfoot culture. You can participate in various activities and programs and purchase authentic handcrafted artisan products in the on-site craft store.

Park interpretive activities include campground sing-alongs, wildlife presentations, Indigenous programs, and guided hikes. Many events take place at Whistlers Outdoor Theatre at the Whistlers Campground.

Prince’s Island Park is a beautiful festival park that hosts the Calgary Folk Festival and the city’s Canada Day celebration. It’s easily accessible by foot or bicycle from either side of the river and offers a pleasant natural getaway from the city. Grab a picnic lunch at River Cafe and make a day of it.

Reclaimed from an old mining area, Quarry Lake is a popular local recreation area. There's a beach area where the water is shallow with a sandy bottom and the swimming and wading are best on hot days in July and August. The lake is fed by an underground spring and is over 100 meters (328 feet) deep in some places. There's also a grassy area with picnic tables and toilets and about 5 km (3 miles) of trails are nearby. The picnic area is adjacent to an off-leash dog park.

Built between 1890 and 1891, this historic structure is the little white church on Canmore's Main Street. The church was named in 1942 for its founder and first minister, Charles W. Gordon, who wrote popular stories and novels under the pen name Ralph Connor. Listed on the Canadian registry of historic places, the church is an active United Church with services on Sundays at 10 am and a contemplative service on Wednesday evenings. The church is historically significant for its association with the famed author and frontier missionary and for its Carpenter Gothic architecture.

This vibrant pedestrians-only shopping area is a National Historic District, and boasts dozens of stores, nightclubs, and restaurants on the ground floors of Calgary's oldest structures. The mostly sandstone buildings were erected after an 1886 fire destroyed most of the older buildings.