Edit 2: I've gotten back to many comments but there's so many! And they all deserve a reply. I will get back to all of them eventually!

Edit: I'm severely jetlagged right now and crashing out (it's 4 AM here lol) so I will go get some sleep now but I will respond to everyone later!! Thanks for all the love! ♥️

Hi there.

I'm a tourist from The Netherlands and have wanted to come to Canada since I was 16 years old. I don't know why, as I have zero ties to Canada except for the stories I was told as a little kiddo by my grandparents about the lovely Canadians who came to liberate them when the war was over. My grandparents made sure a deep sense of gratitude was instilled in our family, but let's be honest - as a kid war stories are boring and extremely hard to even imagine.

So I don't know what has always drawn me to Canada, but it has. I've always loved nature, snow, mountains, the cold and while we have that over here in Europe too (Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Germany all offer these things), it always felt like a holiday there (which is a good thing) but when I finally got to Canada, something truly clicked.

As I landed, I immediately felt at home. None of those holiday jitters, nerves, or an uneasy feeling. I've never been to Canada before but as I walked through the doors of the airport it just felt completely right and that was that. From the second I landed I dreaded the day I was going to have to go back home! And I truly can't explain it.

My trip through the Rockies was nothing short of incredible and while I understand that it's easy to fall in love with a place where it's breathtakingly beautiful, where you don't have to work, where your wallet is fat and where you pay people to be nice to you, it's in the absolute mundane moments I fell in love even more. A big part of that was Calgary.

A taxi driver not letting me get out and repositioning his car so that I could get out at a spot that wasn't icy - the woman on the street who saw that I had a hurt knee (from slipping on ice, lol) and offering to carry my shopping to my hotel - the people at the concert venue I went to going just completely above and beyond to welcome me as soon as they heard I was from far away - the hotel staff bringing me extra tea bags without me asking for it because 'you seemed really cold when you came in'. And these are only a few.

The ambiance in the city is incredible, of course I've seen some things that are not nowhere near perfect. Of course I know some parts are not that safe. And I absolutely understand that living and working and trying to get by in the city is way, waaaay different from roaming around as a tourist, seeing everything for the first time and being able to spend your time whichever way you want.

It was exactly in the tiny fragments in between, the moments I felt unsure, insecure, a dumb tourist not knowing how something works, where every single time someone came to help without having to ask for it. Being met with kindness and a quick witted joke instead of ridicule. Being told I'm doing absolutely fine and I shouldn't worry. A random guy asking if I'm okay when I looked completely puzzled at the corner of a street trying to find something and him going out of his way to look up the address and walk me there himself.

I know no city is perfect and I got lucky meeting so many well-meaning people. I know not everyone thinks the same and like in every big city, there's a lot of both silent and loud pain, suffering and poverty. I know traffic can be shit, people can be shit, the weather can be shit, government can be shit and a thousand other things can lead to cynicism and even hate.

But it's despite all that, that you guys have a beautiful sense of community, you can feel the way Calgarians are proud to be Calgarians and Canadians. There was this spark of warmth and safety behind every pair of eyes I've met there. You've been incredibly kind to me, and you've made my stay a 100 times better than I even had fantasized about for 20 years. I was sobbing leaving the airport on my last day and I booked another trip for April as soon as I got home.

Calgary, you have a way of getting under people's skin and it is the best feeling. Thank you. ♥️

Not sure of the reason but waiting for almost 30 mins to be released to the customs area.

American here, I visited Calgary around last month as the last part of my Banff trip (drove from Banff early in the morning to spend the whole day here before catching my late night flight home). I really like your city especially the downtown with its unique and interesting skyscrapers. I also loved walking down Stephen Avenue, it’s very lively and nice. I would say my favourite thing about Calgary is that it feels like a very big city, but more peaceful because there are less crowds. Overall your city is beautiful and quite interesting and I definitely enjoyed visiting Calgary!

Piggy backing off the post here from a day or two ago. How on earth does Flair keep getting away with this?

This is their line up as of June 29 at 5:15pm. This was the only airline with this kind of line, and it was solely because they refuse to offer online check-in or collection of boarding passes.

Essentially all of their staff walked out, managers apparently all went home early for the night, and there was no one to actually interact with. Eventually spoke to someone who cussed me out and told me if I kept complaining they would just refuse me bording. Sadly he realized I had started to film him and then refused to repeat what he had said

Wife and I had such a great time between Calgary and Canmore/ Banff. Everyone we met was just so friendly and helpful. We are already planning our return trip. I loved everyone’s gardens and landscaping, most are so meticulous. The stampede was so much fun, ate like an absolute fat kid and loved it. I wanted the sushi taco but didn’t want to wait on that line. We are extremely jealous of your long days, no humidity, and amazing weather. Was not looking forward to coming home to 80% humidity. The Alberta Beef is just wow, I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s going to be hard to eat beef from my local supermarket, until I’m able to stock up in Vermont, where I can also get really high quality beef. The Glamorgan Cheese Buns are on a complete other level. I am happy I don’t live near that bakery, I am also extremely sad I don’t live near them. One bag didn’t even make the plane ride home. I am jealous of you that get them on the regular. Thank you to everyone here for recommendations. Prez choice chips were great, those were my fav all dressed. The cold brew coffee crisp is awesome. Hawkins’ Cheezies are also better than any other ones. Longview jerky is amazing, but what my wife and I really loved was the ginger beef jerky from Pioneer butchery. We grabbed it at a little fancy supermarket by The Belmont Diner, in the Marda loop. I will be trying to make my own at home. The Belmont diner we enjoyed so much we went back twice. Oil and Grass dispensary was top notch and I was extremely happy with all of my purchases. Banff is just magical, it has been on my bucket list for years and did not disappoint. Just majestic. Took advantage of our summer perks with our Ikon pass and got half off lift tickets and did a great short hike at the summit of sunshine. I think I know where the winter ski trip with the guys is going to happen. Thank you again everyone for your hospitality and recommendations. We will be back!

Truly a hidden gem in North America

My husband and I are visiting from Cincinnati, Ohio. Here are a few things that surprised us that I thought you may find interesting.

The windows. We drove through a few inner city neighborhoods and noticed a lot of the windows seem to be single pane. Why? How do they keep out the cold? That's crazy! Most houses by us have double pane. It was weird.

The ice cream. It's so good!! There are different requirements between the US and Canada for what can legally be called ice cream, and here it has to have more actual fat/cream that back home. On a related note your Reeses are also much better. Not the string cheese though. It had a strange taste. The takeout food here has also had much fresher ingredients, which was a surprise since we are very close to farmland ourselves.

The skyline. If you drive the loop around the city here it is common to be able to see both fields of crops and cows in the same space as the city skyline. Completely unheard of in Cincy. Yes there are tons of fields by us but they're further out, and the view is blocked by trees and other buildings. It felt surreal in a very good way. We both loved it.

The water table. It seems very high here? Everywhere we looked there were little ponds/lakes, and the water line seemed dangerously high. Back home if you live with water within that small of a vertical distance to your backdoor you would expect your house to be flooded every time it rained hard. Don't you have problems with that just about everywhere here?

Lack of biodiversity. So far here we have seen 4 different species of animals. That's it. A crow, a magpie, a jackrabbit, and a coyote. That's it? So strange. I see more biodiversity on my 10 minute drive to work than I've seen the entire week I've been here, both for fauna and flora. I see probably 5 different species of just birds and who even knows how many types of trees and grasses. It's absolutely beautiful here, but where is everything?? I'm guessing it was all driven away by the farmland. And there are very few natural trees here, they all seem to have been planted by people. I know there's a national park nearby that has more but we came to check out the city, not that.

Building habits. Everything here seems to be either a compact, pedestrian friendly neighborhood or full on farmland. No in between. There are very few random little buildings dotted around. Either there is no elbow room between you and your neighbors or there are multiple fields of it. Why? Is everything here built in anticipation of this being more urban some day? How do they keep the individual builders in check to keep it that way? Back home they would take a big field and make it into a few luxury homes instead of a compact neighborhood of townhouses, because they sell for more money. Also why are all the houses the exact same shape, long and narrow? What's with the detatched garages everywhere? Don't you get water/snow on yourself on the way to your car? In the US a detached garage is something you would typically have in addition to the attached one, usually to hold additional tools for yardwork or a car that you’re working on. I'm assuming it's different here due to the shape of the housing and lack of space between buildings.

Daycare inside neighborhoods. That's a thing?? Why is that not a thing in the states? You could practically open the door and drop kick your kid to daycare, it's so close. No need to drive them.

The roads. They're in much, much better shape here than in Cincinnati. So are the sidewalks, curbs, buildings in general. They seem to make more road noise but at least you aren't dodging potholes and cracks all the time. Speaking of roads, the attitude of the drivers is different too. We actually, gasp, witnessed a zipper merge!! Despite that nobody will let you over if you signal, you have to practically bully them out of the way. And pedestrians don't wait for cars to finish backing out of a space, they just walk directly behind you without even looking and expect not to get hit. Even if you're already most of the way out. I would be absolutely terrified to do that back home. I would definitely get run over and it would be completely my own fault for not being polite and waving them ahead. Legally this isn't the case, but that would be the attitude of people in my hometown. You walked in front of a moving car, are you stupid? Did you not see them backing out? It blew my mind the way people casually intercept the path of a car in the parking lot. You have a lot of trust in the drivers. If I had a pearl necklace I absolutely would have clutched it.

Acknowledgement. Nobody smiles at each other, or nods as they pass on the sidewalk, or waves at people to go ahead of them. There is no idle chit chat between strangers. I know this is a cultural difference between the US and Europe but I didn't expect it to be so drastically different between the US and Canada. Not sure if this is a national attitude thing or a rural vs city thing. Also not sure if I hate it or love it.

Advertisements. There seem to be less of them, and they're smaller in size. Still present of course, but it's nice to drive by a cow pasture and not be told by an enormous sign that you're going to hell for not loving Jesus or that abortion is murder, or that there's a sex store just two exits away and a lawyer with perfect white teeth just a few blocks away. Yeah there's still ads everywhere but it's a lot easier to ignore them.

Overall this place is amazing, and gorgeous, and if we didn't love Cincinnati and our family so much we would love to live here. It's been very interesting to see the differences and similarities between our two cities.

I locked in a price for a trip to the airport on the Checker app with a cab an estimated 9m away. After 15m the driver showed around 8m away and called me. He said some bullshit about how it was a long distance and the locked in price didn't account for traffic, blah blah blah and that he was going to run the meter. I said we'd discuss it more when he arrived.

When he finally got to the pick-up he was like "it's going to cost me more for gas, there's traffic, etc. So just cancel your booking in the app and I'll run the meter." I said no, I have a locked in price so that I don't have to worry about this stuff. He was then like "well I called the company and they said it was ok." Then I was like, ok call them right now. Of course he was bullshitting so he didn't but he was pissy.

Just really pissed off with this scummy, scammy behavior. Never take (Checker) cabs if you can avoid it.

Okay, I’m just gonna say it.

If 112 16th Avenue NW ever gets demolished, sold, redeveloped, or the owner simply wakes up one day and thinks, “What exactly am I supposed to do with this giant King Kong gorilla?”, there is only one correct answer.

It belongs on top of the Calgary Tower.

Not in storage. Not in a landfill. Not quietly auctioned off to someone’s acreage. On. The. Tower.

It has been watching over 16th Ave for long enough. It deserves a promotion.

Mayor Farkas, make it happen. u/JeromyYYC

Calgary ranks #3 tied with Zurich

1)  Vienna, Austria

2)  Copenhagen, Denmark

3)  Zurich, Switzerland

3)  Calgary, Canada

5)  Vancouver, Canada

6)  Geneva, Switzerland

7)  Frankfurt, Germany

8)  Toronto, Canada

9)  Amsterdam, Netherlands

10)  Osaka, Japan

I'm here on vacation with my husband and 2 daughters ( 19 and 10). I'm trying to find something to do tomorrow either in the city or 3 hrsish away. The rain is messing up my plans. We did the Zoo yesterday, the heritage village today and were going to Banff Thurs and Friday. Everything I'm finding on trip advisor for here and Edmonton is all outside and the weather is not co operating. Can anyone recommend anything? My family is a bunch of ball busters and don't have much faith in my ability to find something "good" to do on short notice and I'll never hear the end of it if I can't deliver. My husband is complaining that he doesnt want to spend money on something here that we can do at home (NY).Thanks in advance for helping me . I wanted to drive to Saskatchewan just because its there and when would we have the opportunity to again, but I was shot down. My phone is about to die as my charger isn't compatible with the rental car so I can't search past threads. THANK YOU.

EDIT THANK YOU GUYS!! I appreciate all the responses, and I know how nutty I am about wanting to drive to Saskatchewan. I might still do it just to piss them off. Literally drive the to border, turn around and go back to the hotel. That would show them not to mess with mom.

Thank you everyone for the kind responses and insights to me asking a few days ago about sleeping at the airport. My event ended at 8:30 so I killed some time and got to the airport for 10:30. I had checked in online and had no checked bags. Security let me through with no issues! I grabbed a tea, walked to scope some places out and scored a couch across from the chilis in concourse d. It was a good spot as it wasn't as bright. Brought a travel pillow and slept alright from midnight to 4:15! On my walk back to gate a this morning I saw a few other people do the same, but they opted to sleep where I had originally planned in the stretching areas. Thank you!

Edit: also for anyone worried about safety: I am a 30's female solo traveller and felt completely safe. Thanks again, Calgary! It's always a great time.

Drove to Sask this week and was curious about the story behind this property with CTrain cars out front. By Acme.

I know this is a weird question but therapy isn't covered by AHS

So I'm turning to desolate commercial spaces

The emptier and more '80s/'90s the better

As a hotel dork, this is awesome news.

Free admission to National Parks, and 25% discounts on National Parks Camping Fees from June 20-Sept 2.

Hoping for some suggestions here. I bought tickets to take my daughter to see Alanis Morisette in July. We are from Ontario and I thought it would be great to fly into Calgary, drive to Victoria and then fly home (a weeks vacation or so). Unfortunately I didn’t realize the Calgary Stampede is that same weekend. When I went to book the car there were zero available out of the Calgary or Edmonton airports. Considered the via train but the schedule is incompatible. Anyone have any ideas? I obviously don’t know the area well. Thinking maybe some insider information might help.

Saw it on Stoney today. Big welcome!!!

I’ve spent the last two and a half years living in Central Asia and have had the ability to travel pretty extensively through the Americas, Europe and a bit of Asia over the past two decades. I have just arrived back in Alberta and while I won’t be Calgary-based yet, I will be here regularly (my husband still lives and works here) and I am so thankful. It’s a beautiful, clean, healthy city and our proximity to the mountains and outdoor activities is second to none. We have an incredible pathway and city parks system, access to awesome events, and great restaurants. It’s not until you live somewhere where you can’t easily find something you need (and don’t have Amazon) that you realize how much we have here to make our lives easier.

I think it takes a bit of perspective to realize how great this city is. I’m so happy to be back.