Traveling to Alberta was a new experience though I had been to four different provinces in Canada. I did an extensive amount of research, and yet you learn so much by being there.
To help you should you make the trip, here are some initial observations about the center of power in Canada.
-- If you want to find conservative in Alberta, you won't have to go far. Liberal can be found. In Calgary, check out the Kensington neighborhood. This is a place so liberal even those in Ann Arbor, MI would take notice. Berkeley, CA might not be as impressed but can you blame them? Edmonton has a lot of culture in and around the bars of Whyte Avenue.
-- Calgary and Edmonton are multicultural cities — not on the level of Toronto, but quite impressive. And unlike a lot of U.S. cities, Canadian cities are multicultural all over, not just in one neighborhood.
-- 5% sales tax in Alberta is lower than Michigan and a bunch of other states and the lowest by far in Canada. If you've traveled to Canada and been freaked out by GST, PST, and HST, Alberta will be a fresh breeze. For the citizens, you get what you pay for, but tourists can take great advantage.
-- When traveling from Calgary to the mountains, really pay attention to how the mountains suddenly come into view. On the reverse trip, watch how the mountains drop down into flat land.
-- Banff is touristy to the naked eye. By all means, check out the tourists in their natural habitat. You go two blocks east of Banff Avenue and you are in a regular neighborhood with houses. Go two blocks west of Bear Avenue and the tourists disappear from your mind. The tourist area is really small, but pretty crowded. Kind of like New Jersey.
-- Doing the Canadian mountains without a car is possible, but not easy. If you live within driving distance and you have a car, visit. Then again, I didn't have to pay a Banff National Park fee. The Lake Louise shuttle worked like clockwork and the Banff buses don't run often enough, but you can get around with them.
-- Set a pace knowing that altitude is a factor. Lake Louise is at about 5,400 feet and I got to over 7,000 feet on a couple of climbs. Water is your best friend, though bring plenty of water and/or cash on the Lake Louise hikes. You can't just refill your water bottle at the tea houses. They boil their water since they don't have a clean supply.
-- The locals will tell you that the Queen Elizabeth II highway isn't the best way to see the land between Calgary and Edmonton. But without a car, Greyhound Express is a nice way to go. If you need to rest up from all that hiking, riding a bus is a cool way to go. While the land is flat, you will see cows and horses. Unlike the dominance of the U.S. billboards, no sign that I saw was taller than the bus, so you can see more of the beautiful countryside.
-- Sunsets are later as you go up north. Edmonton is the largest city that sits far away from the U.S. border. In mid-August, the sun goes down after 9 p.m. Closer to the Summer Solstice in late June, sunsets happen after 11 p.m. I took the 6 p.m. Calgary to Edmonton bus and watched the sun set outside my bus window. With very flat land, you see the sun right until the end.
-- You don't have to drive to get to the major sporting events in Calgary and Edmonton. McMahon Stadium is a short walk from the Banff Trail C-Train stop. The Scotiabank Saddledome is inside the Stampede grounds. Get off at the Victoria Park stop and follow a well-marked and extensive path to the facility. In Edmonton, Rexall Place and Commonwealth Stadium are in back-to-back stops on the LRT northeast of downtown.
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