Southern Alberta, Canada
Towering snow-covered mountains, vibrant cities, cattle roaming on the plains, dinosaur bones found hiding in the ground and first nation people. These might be some of the images that come to mind when thinking of Alberta, Canada. It’s a beautiful Western Province of Canada that’s full of natural beauty, great cities and plenty of places to explore. We have visited Calgary, Banff National Park and the Drumheller area so far in Alberta. It’s a wonderful place for adventure and you’ll see why here!
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Getting to Alberta and Transportation
Getting to Alberta, Canada is easy from the US and beyond as the province’s major cities are very well connected with the world. Calgary and Edmonton have a worldwide service. Calgary (YYC) is the main hub for Canadian Airline WestJet that services destinations throughout North America and services destinations in Asia, Europe and the Caribbean beyond extensive Canadian service. Edmonton is a smaller airport but still has service throughout North America and destinations like Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Alberta is just North of Montana and has a border checkpoint so you could drive into the province. There are also the famous scenic trains through the Canadian Rockies as well.
For transportation in the area, they have bus services like Red Arrow between cities like Edmonton and Calgary. Both Calgary and Edmonton have light rail and extensive bus routes. We used the light rail in downtown Calgary that is free to use downtown and was very nice. You can of course rent/hire a car as well. We chose to take guided tours, and we got a lot out of them with the local guides!
Calgary Transportation Options
Country Information
Canada is the second largest country in the world with vast and different land that includes frozen tundra, high mountain peaks, temperate rainforests, vast and fertile plains and rocky coastline with highly tidal waterways. It has relatively mild summers and very cold winters. Canada is also a melting pot of cultures. Driving is on the right side of the road just like in the US. There are many land border crossings and of course many international airports throughout the country. For the languages spoken, English is the language spoken in the majority of the country with French being the predominant language in the Quebec Province (French Canada). There are many indigenous languages also spoken throughout the country. The currency is the Canadian Dollar that at the time of this writing in April of 2026, 1 Canadian Dollar is equal to $.72 US. US Citizens do not need a tourist visa if visiting for less than 180 days. Like the US, Canada is strict when it comes to entry if you have a criminal record so if that is an issue for you do some research and get advice if needed. Also download the Arrive Canada app and fill out your customs form before you arrive for faster service. The weather greatly varies as it was somewhat warm in Toronto when we visited.
Calgary - Alberta, Canada
Calgary is towards Southern Alberta and is the third largest city in Canada. It’s got a unique culture and history mixed with the cattle trade, energy companies, first nations heritage and more. It has a nice downtown with the Stephen Avenue Shopping, Calgary Tower, Multiple museums in the area and plenty of art and sculptures around the city. Its only 50 miles from the Canadian Rockies and around an hour away from the badlands, plains and dinosaur dig sites in Drumheller. We thoroughly enjoyed our winter trip to this wonderful city and can’t wait to go back! Here’s all we have found in Calgary!
Where we Stayed
While in Calgary we stayed in the boutique and unique Westley Hotel in the perfect location in downtown Calgary. It’s a Tapestry Hotel by Hilton that has a unique vibe of a vintage by gone era with an eclectic modern spin. Our room was stylish, roomy and well decorated. The staff were all incredibly friendly and helpful and the restaurant Fonda Fora served great Mexican food that we had at breakfast. We got to know the wonderful staff at Fonda Fora including a waitress that moved to Canada from Mexico. The location is perfect with the rail system, a short walk away and it’s easy to get to downtown attractions. It’s a 20-minute drive to the airport and we easily got to a Calgary Flames Game and walked a couple blocks to see the fireworks for New Years Eve! Check out more about it below in our tour!
Calgary Tower
Calgary Tower was the first place we visited in Calgary as we love visiting observation towers to get a good view of the area from a different perspective. The Calgary Tower is 190 Meters or 626 feet tall and is the tallest building to have served as an Olympic flame. It was built in 1968 for the Canadian Centennial celebration but was part of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games where it was the Olympic Torch. Today you can head up to the observation deck where there is a rotating restaurant called Sky 360 and the deck for tourists to view. It’s very well done with maps pointing out what you can see and you get stunning views of the Rocky Mountains in the distance. You can pick out places like the Saddledome (where the Calgary Flames play), the Bow and Elbow Rivers and other historic and modern sites. You can also read about the history of the tower and the Calgary Winter Olympic Games. They have a glass floor there that if you dare you can stand on it and look straight down to the ground. We spent a good amount of time admiring the view and at the well-done gift shop on the ground floor. It’s a must-see location and does have a cost to go to the observation deck.
Scotiabank Saddledome
The Calgary Scotiabank Saddledome is the stadium in Calgary that hosts the Calgary Flames NHL team, events for the World-Famous Calgary Stampede Rodeo and other teams and concerts. It was built in the 1980s with its unique concave roof and was used in the 1988 Olympics for figure skating. We visited the stadium for a wonderful New Years Eve Calgary Flames game against the Philadelphia Flyers. We are huge hockey fans with it being our favorite sport to watch (we are aware how blasphemous that is as a native Texan). We currently have no hockey in Houston due to the Houston Rockets former and current owners’ unwillingness to work with the NHL or AHL to bring a team in. We jumped at the chance to attend Canada’s favorite sport while in Canada. We found the staff at the stadium very friendly, and they even had a “snacks happy hour” if you go to the stadium early. Special and incredibly friendly service is something sometimes lacking in the US around sporting events. The fans were incredibly polite but also incredibly into the game. We were at the end of the row and each time people needed to get out they were incredibly apologetic. They had great activities and a local band playing during the intermission between periods and afterwards they had a fireworks show for New Years Eve Inside the Stadium. The Flames won a very good game, and we would absolutely go again if given the chance! There of course is a cost to go to the game that is comparable to any other pro team in the US or Canada (not cheap).
Calgary Stampede Tours
The Military Museums
Canada has a proud and strong military that has been a part of US military operations for decades. The US and Canadian friendship over the years is apparent as they have been heavily involved supporting the US recently in Afghanistan and Iraq having lost many a courageous soldier. In Calgary there is a wonderful museum that features multiple Canadian regiments including many from Alberta, Canada and a museum to the Navy and Airforce of Canada. The regimental museums showcase the history and major actions they have participated in. Many fought in World War I, World War II and countless other engagements throughout modern history. The museum has multiple tanks and very well-done reenactments from scenes such as a bombed-out city during World War II with a Canadian Sherman Tank, a horse stable for the Royal Canadian Mounties, a Canadian Churchill Tank coming off a landing craft at Normandy and more. There are displays on UN Peacekeeping missions and of course Iraq and Afghanistan operations. The Navy Museum has multiple naval aircraft and naval guns from different ships. I had no idea the Canadian Navy had as many ships including submarines as possible until viewing the well-done exhibit. The Airforce Museum similarly has great exhibits and artifacts from World War I onwards. There is a separate building that houses a Canadian Starfighter, Saber Jet and a F-18 Hornet. They have a great giftshop as well. There is a small cost to visit the museums but its well worth it as the museum quality is high! We spent a couple of hours at the museums but could have spent much more!
Military Museum Tickets
Calgary City, Food and Drink Tours
Banff National Park
Banff National Park is one of those magical wilderness parks that you must see at least once in your lifetime. It’s a UNESCO World heritage site and was Canada’s first National Park founded in 1885. It’s a truly spectacular place with towering mountains, gorgeous lakes and quaint resort towns. We visited in January, so we got to see the beauty of winter in Banff. The Christmas lights were still up and so was the festive atmosphere. The park is perfect for skiing, hiking, snow shoeing and walking on frozen lakes thick enough to hold people. Wildlife viewing is also great within the park as we saw many different animals. There are also many luxurious accommodations and those for budget travelers. It’s around a 1.5-to-2-hour drive to get there from Calgary and you can do day tours like we did from there. In the winter you absolutely need to be prepared for below freezing conditions as should be expected in the Rocky Mountains. The snow when we visited was multiple feet deep and it snowed during the day while visiting. Here are the different places we visited in the National Park!
Banff Day Tours
Banff Town
Located in the middle of the park is the small resort town of Banff that has a little over 8,000 residents and sits at an altitude like Denver, Colorado. It’s a great central location to stay while there and has plenty of restaurants and shops. The city is surrounded by the Rocky Mountains and has hot springs. The main street is full of souvenirs and supply shops and plenty of restaurants. There are plenty of places like Subway to get a quick bite, but also many unique restaurants like the Grizzly House that serves many exotic meats and dishes. It’s one of the most popular places in Canada for the richness of the attractions and nature. It’s also home to the famously luxurious Fairmont Banff Springs hotel that looks like a castle in a valley. We went to a Viewpoint to see it from a distance. We spent a couple hours here on a day trip where we had the chance eat a quick meal, do some shopping and explore!
Snow Shoeing on Bow Lake
On our first tour on Banff on a day trip we first stopped by Bow Lake on the Ice fields parkway to do an activity we have never done before but loved it! Bow Lake is a glacier fed lake that is near the source of the Bow River that flows through Calgary. When we visited on New Years Day the lake was completely iced and snowed over, but during other months its a turquoise color due to the glacier fed water. At the lake is the famous Lodge at Bow Lake that was once named Num-Ti-Jah Lodge. It was reopened in 2023. It is a completely “off the grid” hotel as they have no TVs, wifi or any other connections to the outside world so you can focus on yourself and nature. The Lodge was closed for the season and snow was piled up above the doors.
We were there to snowshoe on the lake trail and put on snowshoes for the first time. It took us a bit of time to get used to them as they somewhat feel like what I imagine oversized clown shoes feel like. Once we learned not to step on our own shoes we really enjoyed walking on the lake and snow with the beautiful Rockies and glaciers surrounding us. The shoes had metal spikes for gripping that helped us walk. You still have to be careful as I fell slightly after one foot went through powdery snow and went through a very shallow area of the ice near the shore. Falling into the powdery snow was like falling into a pillow. After the beautiful hike we headed to our next stop.
Alberta Adventure Tours
Abraham Lake - The Ice Bubbles
We headed off to a more remote lake an hour away from Bow Lake that has a very interesting phenomenon that we have never seen before! Abraham Lake is actually man-made and is used as a water reservoir, but still has the clear water that glacier fed lakes have. The unique phenomenon here is trapped methane bubbles in the ice that you can only see when the lake is frozen over during the winter months. As the water freezes over and plants on the lake bottom decay methane is released and trapped in the ice. This leaves unique bubble formations in the ice that look like odd bubble towers. It’s quite windy in the area so the snow is blown off the ice, so you get a good view. We could see ice cracks and small crevasses as we walked on the Ice. We put crampons (spiked shoe overlay) on to give us traction on the Ice. It absolutely worked for us as the spikes clawed into the ice and made it easy to walk.
We took multiple pictures with unique bubbles and could see down to the bottom of the lake. Like all areas of Banff, it was gorgeous scenery surrounding the lake.
Abraham Lake Day Tour
Peyto Lake Hike
Our final stop on, our first day in Banff we headed to the Peyto Lake Overlook on the Icefields Highway. The Overlook is a little less than 1 mile hike through the forest that is not overly difficult. In general, it’s relatively level with a few inclines. The snow covered much of the parking lot up to near the top of a stop sign! We kept our crampons on as the train in the winter was snowed over. It was a beautiful hike of snow-covered pine/Christmas trees and beautiful terrain.
Johnston Canyon
Located in Banff National Park is a great relatively short hike through a canyon full of limestone Cliffs and small caves with a small creek that runs through it. In winter its truly spectacular with small waterfalls frozen and ice and snow in the trees and more. At the visitors center massive icicles were hanging from the building. We wore crampons on our hike that took 30 minutes in and 30 minutes out. The crampons gave us more stability while walking on the slick snow and ice. If you come during the winter, I heavily recommend crampons. Much of the trail is level ground but there are inclines, declines and stairs in different areas. With the high altitude watch your pace as you can get out of breath more easily. There are catwalks you take attached to the side of the canyon as well that can be slick. At the end of the trail is the lower falls that have a small cave where you can see the waterfall closer. When we went in early January the waterfall was nearly frozen with a small flow going. You can continue up to Upper falls on a much more strenuous track, but we turned back for a more relaxing hike as you don’t have unlimited time on guided tours. It’s a beautiful hike and as we got back we purchased some crampons of our own as we love winter hiking. We headed off to our next stop after a great hike!
Johnston Canyon Tour
Lake Louise
We headed over to Lake Louise which is a famous turquoise water lake where the watercolor comes from rock flour that comes from glaciers in the area. The lake was called Ho-run-num-nay or “Lake of the Little Fishes” by the first nations people. Like the other lakes in the area, it was completely frozen over. It started to snow while we were there and made it a more beautiful sight than it already was. The lake is surrounded by majestic snow-covered mountains with a glacier in the far distance. Signs for an avalanche danger zone on one of the distant mountains highlight the ferocity of the snow that occurs there. The UNESCO World Heritage Site marker is located there at Lake Louise. A short walk away is a luxury hotel called Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise that does look like a towering castle overlooking the lake. If you are not staying at the hotel then you are relatively limited to where you can go as shortly after you enter you will see a “Hotel Guests Only” sign. There is a Cafe and some shops you can visit. It’s a beautiful hotel and outside the hotel some of the largest icicles we have seen hanging high on the hotel facade. There are plenty of hiking trails around that would be nice. You can walk on the frozen lake, but we decided to visit the hotel and just enjoy the view of the area. A family was really late coming back to the tour bus and others had a strict time schedule to get to a bus in Banff so they ultimately where left at Lake Louise and had to find their own way back to their hotel. Our guide did everything he could to find them and texted, called and searched for them. It’s why it’s important to be on time!
Drumheller
Drumheller is a small town in the plains of Alberta that has a lot to offer! It’s in the Badlands so it has great hiking and scenery, but the Badlands also are full of dinosaur bones. There is the world class Royal Tyrrell Museum and the “Tyra” World’s largest dinosaur representing dinosaurs. There are other unique and quirky attractions as well. It’s around 1.5 hours away from Calgary and is a great place to add to any tour.
The World’s Largest Dinosaur
Near downtown Drumheller and a nice park you’ll find “Tyra”, the world’s largest dinosaur! She’s a Tyrannosaurus Rex and was the first stop on our Drumheller tour. It’s 86 feet tall and 151 feet long so it’s a towering attraction in the city. You can buy a ticket and walk to the top (the mouth) or just enjoy it from the bottom and you can visit the gift shop that supports the attraction and the city itself. As of this writing in 2026 “Tyra” is scheduled to close in 2029, but I’m hopeful they will keep it!
The Royal Tyrell Museum
In Drumheller there is one of the best Paleontology Museums that we have ever been to. The Royal Tyrrell Museum is a large and spectacular museum that does the amazing dinosaur fossil find in Alberta great justice. The museum has multiple different exhibits that showcase over 800 permanently displayed fossils. The museum has many one of a kind fossils of rare dinosaurs including the Ornithomimus that is the bridge between dinosaurs and birds that have feathers. You can see multiple rare variations of triceratops skulls, eggs, ankylosaurus clubs and some of the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons we have seen such as the “Black Beauty”. Most of the exhibits are by time period such as cretaceous and Jurassic for example. They have an amazing Cretaceous garden where you can see what plant life might have looked like back then. We spent two hours there, including a bit of time relaxing at the café but could have spent more time there! There is a charge to enter but it’s well worth it as this museum should not be missed!
The Star Mine Suspension Bridge
As we continued to visit sites around the Drumheller Valley we visited the Stat Mine Suspension Bridge that spans over the Red Deer River. It was built in 1931 originally to help coal workers get across the river to go to work. It’s a pedestrian bridge that is from. The historic mining era in the region. While mining has halted in the area today Alberta keeps the bridge as a memorial to those days. We walked halfway across the bridge to look at the frozen river and the countryside. We were alone in the area, so it was nice. We also had snowflakes land on our jackets where we could see the true shape of a snowflake. In Texas it’s something we do not see often so it was unique for us! It’s free to visit the bridge and there is no manned facility there.
Horsethief Canyon
Horsethief canyon is a part of the Alberta Badlands. The hills have multiple colors of rock and dirt that looks kind of like a parfait. It named what it is as in the 1800s a horse smuggling operation hid the stolen horses in the canyon before sending them to the US. It’s been the location for some films like Ghostbusters: Afterlife. There are hiking trails but with the very cold weather conditions we just stayed at the overlook and enjoyed the quiet and vast landscape!
The Little Church
In Drumheller there is a Little church by the roadside that is open to the public. It is only large enough to hold a few people at a time and has a small alter. It’s available for weddings and other events and has been around since the 1950s with restorations occurring through the years. It’s free to visit and a nice stop for a few minutes for pictures and to go inside this miniature church.
Wayne – Alberta, Canada
Wayne is nearly a ghost town with only 29 inhabitants during the summer and is in the Guinness book of world records for the most bridges in a small area. In 4 miles or 6.6 kilometers there are 11 bridges crossing the Rosebud River. The town was completely deserted in the winter, so we just drove on the numerous bridges and viewed the city. Its a nice and interesting place to spend a bit of time to see.
Willow Creek Hoodoos
Another unique site that is the best representation of the Alberta Badlands is the Willow Creek Hoodoos. You might ask what’s a hoodoo? Well, it’s a column of soft rock that erodes fairly quickly (well when talking about rock) that has a cap and the main “trunk”. After thousands of years of wind, moisture and other forces that is what is left. They are very fragile and continue to lose rock until they collapse. There are several hoodoos at the Willow Creek Site and you have metal walkways and fencing to stop people from damaging the stone. There are many First Nations legends around the stones such as they are giants that wake up at night, or they are people turned to stone for disobeying the creator. Either way it’s a sacred site for some Canadian indigenous peoples. It took us around 20 minutes to tour without reading each plaque due to the very cold temperatures and snow but could have spent more time. It was free to visit as well!
Drumheller Tours
Conclusion
Alberta, Canada is a must-see destination that has a perfect mix of scenic nature, vibrant cities and historic spaces. Banff is stunning year-round and we especially enjoyed the winter activities. Calgary has great activities and sites and has a wonderful New Years Eve celebration. Drumheller has spectacular museums and very different scenic views.
We have barely scratched the surface of this amazing province as there are plenty of things to do in Banff, Calgary and other areas of Southern Alberta we did not have time to see. The Calgary Stampede is a great event and rodeo to see, there are other museums in Calgary and First Nations sites in the area. Edmonton and Jasper in Central Alberta are also amazing places to visit that we have not seen just yet. Heading to the “Great White North” to visit our friendly neighbors is something everyone should do as it provides an adventure you will never forget!
Other Calgary Day Tours
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