Alberta!

[/////AMG]

Ok I need you guys to help me out. I got a PM on a UK forum, and this guy is very interested in Calgary and Alberta.
They're going to move to Canada soon, and Alberta is #1 on his list, but he has never ever visited Alberta.

I think he will cover more places that a short period of time than I couldn't while I was in Alberta for 8 years!
So with that statement, I probably won't be able to give him much advice.


As you may have noted we are hoping to emigrate to Canada & Alberta is top of
our list.

We have a family holiday booked in August (with a little research thrown in) & I
am trying to formulate a rough itinery, but its hard as I have never been that
far west before & trying to guage what the towns are like & what attractions are
there.

My rough plan so far is arrive & spend one night in Calgary

Next day to Medicine Hat (theres a water park but not sure if its part of the
hotel or not).
Lethbridge for 2 nights, taking in the Summer Fair & Rodeo.

Thinking of moving down into Montana & across The Rockies a bit & up through
Kootenai National Forest towards Banff & Lake Louise (glacier walks?) & then up
to Jasper & possibly Kamloops, before heading down to spend the latter half of
the holiday enjoying Calgary itself & possible see a few realtors Open days on
houses over the last weekend just to get a feel.

I may break the grand tours out of Calgary into two seperate entities to give us
more time to enjoy the places & two full weekends in Calgary.

Thanks in advance for any advice or local knowledge that you could give.

It's too bad they are coming in August because they will miss the Calgary Stampede (http://calgarystampede.com/).
Regarding open homes, eh won't have a p[problem with that since there are tons of show homes, or if they aren't interested in nee homes they could always get a realtor to take them out.

Please throw anything and everything about Alberta in this thread, if you have link, even better, I'm sure that'll help him out.
Thanks, I'll give him the link to this thread.

[topmade]

http://www.discoveralberta.com/ToursActivitiesAdventures/index.html

http://www.tourismcalgary.com/

[C4S]

www.discoveredmonton.com

:thumbsup:

Calgary is great .. however, I still like Edmonton .. consider everything is 30% less .. almost .. :dunno:

[l8braker]

Drumheller and The Tyrell might be interesting.

Don't bother with anything in Edmonton (no offense)

[DC2]

waterton national park is not bad,
but i'd say the drive up to jasper is best

[Weapon_R]

Originally posted by l8braker
Drumheller and The Tyrell might be interesting.

Don't bother with anything in Edmonton (no offense)

There's quite a few attractions in Edmonton he would love to see. The legislature is awesome to visit in Summer time. Try and book a tour there.

Also, there's West Edmonton Mall, which could take an entire day to check out and there's Whyte Ave and the night clubs and the Fringe. Might not seem like a big deal to us, but foreigners would love to see some of this stuff.

[Rassilon]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to AMG as I know him for posting here for more info for me, Unicorn aka THO (The Horned\Hooved One) & the kids to plan our holiday with a little research trip at the same time & thanks for the links & suggestions so far. :D

This was supposed to take place in May as a research trip just for me & THO, throw my Resume into the mix to try & bump our application up by 9 months under PNP\arrange employment & build up a network of useful contacts like Realtor, employment agencies & the such. :bigpimp:

However it now looks like I have 2 years wait before our application is assessed, not quite sure which target the CHC in London is trying to hit for processing times in our case but its now 3+ years for all new applications. :drama:

So with a new contract & uncertain processing time, everything got shifted to August & became a family holiday instead. :confused:

All information received is useful & much appreciated.

Thanks

[nismodrifter]

If you are in Jasper, spend some time at the hot springs that is 60km outside the town. It will be well worth your time. It is called Miette Hot Springs and is the hottest in the rockies.

On your way to Jasper check out the Athabasca Glacier and you can go walk around on it.

[/////AMG]

Hey Rass, glad you joined up, got your e-mail. Sorry to heard about the 2 year wait. :(

I was just wondering about your travelling plans. Are you planning to rent a car and drive around? I think that would be best.

Oh yea, another ting you can be happy about is cheap petrol!! Usually around 40-45p/litre. :eek:

[sweetchariot]

LOL, you may want to remind your friend o the size of Canada. Im pretty sure (although it looks small on the map) that the last thing he wants to do after an 8hr plane flight, along with an 8 hour time difference is to drive 3 hours to Medicine Hat (and really what the hell for???). I personally would do Calgary for a few days, take trips to Banff, Canmore etc, then do West Ed Mall. I used to live in the UK and frequently have friends visiting, they look a t a map and say "lets go here", not realising its hours away.

[/////AMG]

Hes been to Canada a few times before, so I'm sure he knows Alberta alone is about the size of England!
And by the looks of it he will be arriving in Calgary and staying a night before taking off to other parts of Alberta. And I'm wasn't talking about when he gets off the plane, just the trips to and from where ever he wants to go.

[Si_FlyGuy]

Originally posted by nismodrifter
If you are in Jasper, spend some time at the hot springs that is 60km outside the town. It will be well worth your time. It is called Miette Hot Springs and is the hottest in the rockies.

Agreed. The Miette Hot Springs is the most beautiful by far when compared against Banff, Fairmont, and Radium. It doesn't seem like a lot of people know about it though.

[ca2p3r]

WEM! :D

[sweetchariot]

Originally posted by /////AMG
Hes been to Canada a few times before, so I'm sure he knows Alberta alone is about the size of England!
And by the looks of it he will be arriving in Calgary and staying a night before taking off to other parts of Alberta. And I'm wasn't talking about when he gets off the plane, just the trips to and from where ever he wants to go.

England actually fits into Alberta 4 times!!!!

[sputnik]

Originally posted by ca2p3r
WEM! :D

WEM = Walking through Sunridge 20 times.

[heavyD]

Originally posted by sputnik


WEM = Walking through Sunridge 20 times.

So true. :rofl: :rofl:

[Rassilon]

ROTFLMOL - I had all the comments about not sussing the size of Canada on my first trip in 99. :D

I have two important tools in my chest for planning my route:

Mapquest for approximate times & distances between places & Worldweb for choosing hotels.

Tonight I got back on to research routes after being distracted by double glazing salesmen the past two weeks :drama:.

Working on about 3 hours driving a day covering about 180 miles.

Plan is still fly in on the Saturday, pick up a people carrier (thank goodness for your cheap (to us) gas), a night in Calgary (daughter picked one she liked with a water slide) & depart Sunday for MH, mainly because the hotel appears to have a water slide or theres a water park nearby from the look of the blurb on one hotels website (are you sensing a pattern here about water & my daughter?).

Part of the trip is getting a feel of the towns & the outlying area's outside Calgary itself & where to do more detailed web based research prior to a research trip without kids next year.

After a bit of time in MH its head over to Lethbridge for the fair & rodeo & the next day meeting the neighbours in the US for a drive through the national parks & forests to Whitefish then back up towards Fairmont Hot Springs BC & Calgary for the end of the first week.

Thats as far as I got at the moment.

TTFN chaps, any input regarding the waterslides in MH or not would be appreciated.

[/////AMG]

She will love West Edmonton Mall then.
http://graphics.worldweb.com/PhotoImages/Alberta/TravelAlberta/slide43.jpg
http://www.westedmontonmall.com/images/wwp.jpg
:thumbsup:

[Rockski]

they kootaneys is the best destination on your trip so far, its magical there, really crazy, stop by lake koocanusa and check it out, wonderfull place

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Go to the Athabasca Glacier, the tours are great and you get to walk around on the ice field!

[schurchill39]

Just avoid medicine hat all together, the "water park" you have read about is super super ghetto, so unless you love fiberglass slivers/ gashes, dont bother. The only other attractions we really have are the nice walking paths through our parks (worlds largest teepee) or the stampeed when it comes; its nothing compared to calgary but its pretty decent for a city with 60 000 people. I recommend Scratching Medicine Hat off your list and go to tyrell or something instead. Or maybe go to 'Writing on stone" That place is fricken sweet!

Trust me, I live here!