Calgary, Canada

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Alex_sl said:

I'm gonna be there some time next month for business. And I'll probably be there almost a whole week. What's worth hitting up? Sweet bars? Awesome food spots? Spots with a stellar craft beer selection are a plus. Or places with some live music. Or places with pool tables and other typical bar games.

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Charcut is supposed to be amazing food, although I haven't been personally:http://www.charcut.com/

Craft is a decent brew pub, although I'm not generally thrilled with their selection:Craft Beer Market

National is similar, I think there's a few around the city:Home :: NTNL

Saltlik is good, only been to the one in Banff though:Saltlik, A Rare Steakhouse

Wurst is another good beer hall, had really good brunch there this summer:http://wurst.ca/

Basically, there's a shit ton of bars and restaurants in the Stephen Avenue area, and also 17th Avenue just South of downtown.

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Those are the two big areas to hit up with a high concentration of that sort of thing. Personally I tend to not spend a lot of time in Calgary so I can't give too much specific advice, generally I'm just pulling over to pick up a friend and then heading onward to the mountains. Lake Louise, Sunshine, and Nakiska will all likely be open by mid November if you want to hit up the mountains for some skiing/boarding, but depending on snowfall the conditions probably won't be good and only a small portion of them will be open.

Oh, forgot The Living Room:CONTACT US - The Living Room Restaurant. Had dinner with my girlfriend there this summer, and it was an excellent meal. But not cheap! Although nothing in Calgary is cheap, but by comparison to San Fran it might not be too bad, and the loonie is down to 88 cents these days.

What Eomer said. The highest concentration of good pubs are around Stephen Ave and 17th Ave, so they are pretty safe bets. Calgary is a business city with urban sprawl so downtown can be pretty dead weeknights if you aren't in the right spots.

The Ship and Anchor is a good pub on 17th that should have live music at least a couple nights of your visit (The Ship Anchor). It's also the best place to watch soccer if you're into that.

Hop in Brew Pub is a house turned pub that is worth going to (No website, 213 12 Ave SW)

Drum and Monkey has live music a few days a week and some decent specials (The Drum Monkey Public House - Home)

Kensington(on the NW corner of downtown just across the river) has some good pubs and restaurants.

Model Milk is a really good place to eat (Welcome to Model Milk | Model Milk)

Hipster Ice Cream shop worth checking out (Village Ice Cream)

Good Greek food but a little out of Downtown (Santorini Greek Taverna Home)

Best breakfast place in Calgary(imo) but a little out of Downtown (Home | of the soul in a bowl poutine)

If your significant other is joining you, this restaurant is a great place for dinner (http://www.casbahrestaurant.ca/)

Good pizza place on 17th (Una Pizza + Wine) They'll take your number at the door and call you when a table is opening up so you can go have a pint nearby while you wait.

1410 is a decent beer place if you like a ridiciliously inteernational selection

The closest is inside the city (olympic park) but the good/world class resorts are 1-2 hours away from Calgary

Sunshine and Lake Louise would be the best day trips. Sunshine is 90 miles away, Lake Louise about 115.

Yeah, Sunshine is about an hour and a half, Louise closer to 2 hours. There's shuttles etc. Sunshine can be a nightmare for parking these days, best to take a shuttle. Louise is the better resort by far (Sunshine is IMO terrible, too many flat spots, too much wind, and too often white out), but it's not as high so when it opens it tends to only be a few runs that have enough snow making (they concentrate on those runs as they have World Cup races early in the season to get ready for). Nakiska is closest at about an hour away, but it's a pretty small hill.

Realistically unless there's some epic, epic snowfalls in the first part of November, the skiing/boarding is likely to be pretty shitty in Mid November. Things don't really get going until December. The best resort that is reasonably close to Calgary is easily Kicking Horse, but that's a 3 hour drive and won't be open until early to mid December.

grizzly paw in canmore is awesome. Irish pubs in Banff are very good. Sunshine is fun and has a lot of different difficulties.

If youre after breakfast then galaxie diner galaxiediner.com and blue star diner bluestardiner.ca I can recommend, blue star may be a pain to get to though with no car.

Galaxie is about 1/4 mile from where I lived, burgers are ok too. Gets damned busy though

All diners in inner city Calgary are a long wait [.

Yah if you're coming to Calgary you really should head out to Banff one night. Good restaurants out there, and the scenery / touristy stuff out there would be pretty nice to see. Other than that, people have already mentioned most of the trendoid spots to hit up.

Ugh, I don't really agree. The Banff townsite is a tourist trap hellhole. There's tons of nice places and things to do in the Banff Park, yes, but the Banff townsite itself has gotten completely out of control. You may as well just go to a shopping mall. It's a shame really.

If you drive through/back from skiing or a hike it's worth stopping in Banff, but I wouldn't drive there JUST for Banff. Really it only takes like 5 minutes from the highway exit to get to the free parking garage so there isn't much excuse to at least check it out if you're driving by. I would go grab lunch or dinner there and walk around town for an hour for sure.

If you are in the mood for something outdoorsy and the skiing sucks, maybe go check out Johnston Canyon. It's a nice walk that is winter friendly about 20 past Banff. You can see the mountains, go for an interesting walk, and grab a meal in the tourist trap hellhole

National is only good if you like spending $9+ for a 16oz pint of beer you can get 3 doors down for less. Although they do have foosball and bowling you can play which is nice. It's way too expensive though imo.

Charcut is delicious, that shit is right across from my work-they have a $15 sandwich, soup, fries, and cookie lunch deal that is actually really good. Absolutely worth checking out. Specailly if you want to check out the calgary tower anyway, as its right infront of it.

If you want good breakfast you can check outgrumans. which is also fairly close to the tower. They also have really good sandwiches there as well.

Theres also good disum/noodle places likeU And Me, which is also open until like 4am if you're craving chinese food after the bar.

Wurst is awesome, but only if you're going downstairs to party with friends.

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As for outdoor shit, you're pretty much out of luck. Anything worth going to is at least an hour drive away :\
I'm pretty glad i moved from there now heh

Eomer_sl said:

Ugh, I don't really agree. The Banff townsite is a tourist trap hellhole. There's tons of nice places and things to do in the Banff Park, yes, but the Banff townsite itself has gotten completely out of control. You may as well just go to a shopping mall. It's a shame really.

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All popular places are a tourist trap. Go on the gondolas, walk around the town, have lunch, see the Springs hotel, and go to the hot springs. It's worth seeing as a tourist and your judgement is clouded by the fact that you've been there a bazillion times.

niss_sl said:

All popular places are a tourist trap. Go on the gondolas, walk around the town, have lunch, see the Springs hotel, and go to the hot springs. It's worth seeing as a tourist and your judgement is clouded by the fact that you've been there a bazillion times.

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Actually, other than a couple gas/piss/lunch stops while driving through, I haven't really been to the Banff townsite more than once or twice in the past 15 years. I've been to the various ski resorts as well as camping, hiking, and ski touring in the park site, though, and that's all good. I'm more of a Jasper/Golden/Fernie guy myself, again, because they're not complete zoos. Even Canmore has gotten out of control.

Just ignore the 8mill. AZNs taking photos of fucking traffic lights and enjoy the sights man. The Banff Springs hotel is reason enough to make the trip. I mean, the place is fucking haunted, and... its like a castle. Shit's awesome!

The town is busy for a reason. Its beautiful and has a lot to offer if you're not from around here. We're just spoiled because we see it every day.

Where do you work btw Needless? Must be very close to my building.

I work for a company in the Palliser One building, but i moved to Victoria recently-so i'm working remotely for them for the next year or so.

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Banff is okay, I usually only went for a company event or something along those lines.. or to get away for a night or two during an anniversary or something. They have a pretty decent ramen place there, a fudge shop and a lot of shops with shit you probably don't want or need lol

I went dogsledding last year there and felt absolutely awful about it afterwards.. poor dogs were in horrible conditions, and i paid like 80 bucks to do it or some shit like that