Oh, Canada!
One year ago I was busy taking in the sights and sounds of Calgary, Canada - our first leg on the trek to visit one of my bucket list destinations, Banff National Park. Calgary is a great city to visit and can totally hold up as a worthy of a trip of it's own. There is so much to do and see here we wished we had more time!
Our trip to Banff begun by flying into the city of Calgary (Banff is about an hour and a half drive from the airport.) If you're going the public transit route there are actually shuttles that you can take directly from Calgary to Banff which can save you the rental car cost (although I highly recommend renting a car so you have full flexibility for your trip.) Calgary has so much to offer and has many great restaurants, bars, parks and museums to see. One of our favorite parts of the city was the pedestrian street mall, Stephen Avenue Walk, that is a few blocks lined with bars, restaurants and oversized hanging flower baskets (perfect for a photo-op!) that are blocked from vehicles making it very easy to explore and meander from spot to spot.
We stayed downtown Calgary for the first leg of our trip and loved being able to walk from the pedestrian mall to the parks, all while looking up at the cities architecture. While exploring Eu Claire area be sure to take a quick walk into the Prince Island Park for a cute lunch at the River Cafe. One of the coolest buildings we saw was the Calgary Central Library. I highly recommend you walk up the stairs and at least enter the main floor to soak up the architecture.
For dinner and drinks we wandered into a great bar and restaurant, One18 Empire, which is known for it's Old Fashioned's. They ask you to select a type of bourbon, a type of wood to smoke your glass in, and what kind of sugar and bitters you'd like added. The best part is being able to watch them torch a barrel of your wood table side to smoke your glass with. For bourbon lovers, this is a must!
For my fellow cooking show lovers- If you've ever seen Final Table on Netflix then you won't want to miss dining at Chef Darren MacLean's Japanese restaurant, Shokunin. They feature options like sushi, ramen, and yakitori.
Definitely do not skip the stay in Calgary as you make your trek west to the Canadian Rockies! Stay tuned for Part 2- Banff National Park!
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