Enhance your visit to Calgary with a Guest Tour

You will be transported across Alberta's rolling countryside to the beautiful town of Banff with visits at Hoodoo Lookoff, Hidden Corner and Bow Falls along the way.

Your first stop in Banff is the Sulphur Mountain Gondola. Here you’ll take an eight minute ride in a glass enclosed gondola to the 2,288 m (7,500 ft.) summit of Sulphur Mountain, where three levels of outdoor observation decks offer a panoramic 360 degree view of Banff and the surrounding area.

After your Sulphur Mountain Gondola adventure, it’s time to enjoy a buffet lunch at the Banff Springs Hotel. Then take time to visit Banff town site, where you can tour the many fine museums and natural history centres in addition to sampling the extensive and unique shopping opportunities provided by an array of the interesting and unique gift shops.

After visiting Banff, your journey continues to Lake Louise, known as the "Jewel of the Rockies." Not only have international royalty, Hollywood stars and heads of state come to Lake Louise to relax, but increasingly the rest of the world is discovering its simple charms as well. Lake Louise, with its blue-green water set against the stark backdrop of Victoria Glacier, is probably the most beloved and most photographed scene in the Canadian Rockies. Chateau Lake Louise presents lake-side views of the glacier, while offering old-world charm and elegance amidst the wilderness.

Join one of the most popular city tours and visit Calgary — Alberta’s “Heart of the New West” — and experience the excitement of its young, vibrant culture. Journey from past to present as we tour through this dynamic city. Our first photo stop will take you back in time to 1875 where Calgary’s historic origin was started at Fort Calgary. We will drive through the streets of quaint Inglewood, one of Calgary’s oldest communities on our way to the Calgary Stampede grounds where we will take time for a photo opportunity as you learn about this famous event. Catch a glimpse of the Talisman Centre and the Calgary Flames’ Pengrowth Saddledome. As we continue through the city, we will see the Glenbow Museum, Chinatown, home of the beautiful Chinese Cultural Centre and also pass Eau Claire Market, one of the trendy shopping and festival areas of downtown by Princess Island Park. Next stop will be at City Hall and Olympic Plaza for an interpretive stroll.

Well-known for its competitive spirit, Calgary boasts world-class sporting facilities. From downtown our tour takes us into the Olympic Speedskating Oval, where speed skaters skate on the fastest ice in the world. On to Canada Olympic Park — home of the 1988 Winter Olympics. Canada Olympic Park is a must-see attraction. Visit the Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum, and the 90-metre ski jump tower. Ride the chairlift (summer only). Venture inside the Ice House, a totally unique facility, it is the only fully enclosed refrigeration building in the world serving the three sliding sports: bobsleigh, skeleton and luge. The Ice House was developed to provide year-round push-start training on ice. Create your own Olympic memories!

This vibrant city reminiscent of the Old West mixed with contemporary culture, framed by a modern cityscape of office towers is nestled in the foothills of the majestic Rocky Mountains.

You depart downtown Calgary and start your journey down the Cowboy Trail. Along the foothills of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains is a narrow band of mixed forests and grasslands known for its moderate climate, a wide variety of wildlife species and broad ecological diversity. Alberta ranching families first settled the territory in the 1880s and transformed the rolling grasslands into cattle country. Today, communities along this corridor are linked together by The Cowboy Trail, a ribbon of pavement extending from Cardston to Mayerthorpe. Along the way, you may see families on horseback or cowboys herding cattle.

Your first stop is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Located 18 kilometers north and west of Fort Macleod, at a place where the foothills of the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains, this is one of the world's oldest, largest and best preserved buffalo jumps. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, Head-Smashed-In has been used continuously by aboriginal peoples of the plains for more than 5,500 years.

Enjoy your escorted tour of the Head-Smashed-In interpretive centre. The centre blends unobtrusively into the ancient sandstone cliff. Its interior is made up of five distinct levels depicting the ecology, mythology, lifestyle and technology of Blackfoot peoples within the context of available archaeological evidence. Interpretation of these themes presents the viewpoints of both aboriginal peoples and European archaeological science.

During lunch you’ll enjoy the Head-Smashed-In Café’s western specialty, Hearty Buffalo Stew, with a tossed salad, Indian fry bread and Saskatoon Crisp for dessert. Then you’ll have time for a leisurely visit to the interpretive center, where you’ll see a native dancing demonstration

The return journey to Calgary will include time for a break, a stroll and a sampling of some of Alberta’s history and culture. Take a walk along the Historic Main Street and Antique & Art Walk of Nanton, where you’ll experience “Where History Lives” in the many restored commercial buildings. Walk along 19th and 20th (Main) Streets and enjoy the great selection of antique shops, gift and specialty stores, art stores and unique eateries.

This morning you set off on a journey into Alberta’s past. Some aspects of our day will encompass the recent past and others will take us back to a land once inhabited by dinosaurs. We will journey into the Drumheller Region, a unique geographical area which tells a story of glaciers and erosion that formed this fascinating landscape. It is also the historic home of Canada's great dinosaur finds, the largest in the world.

Along the way you’ll see the Hoodoo’s, Suspension Bridge, the world’s largest Dinosaur, T-Rex, venture past the Orkney Hill View Point, which has a sheer drop to the Red Deer River Valley, before continuing along the historic Dinosaur Trail, past Horsethief Canyon and the world’s largest “Little Church.”

This is your opportunity for an experience of a lifetime. The world renowned Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology is located on the north edge of the town of Drumheller. Joseph Tyrrell discovered the bones of Albertosaurus (a meat-eating cousin of the Tyrannosaurus Rex) in the Red Deer River Valley in 1884. It is his name that is attached to the premier paleontological museum in North America. Here you will journey back in time. There's been life on Earth for more than 3.5 billion years, so the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology has a lot to show you: ten signature galleries and feature exhibitions that celebrate the spectacular history and diversity of life on Earth, and the paleontologists who bring the story to life. With every step through geological time you'll experience the evolution of life. It's all here…dozens of skeletons and hundreds of fossils that tell the story of ancient Alberta.

Have you worked up an appetite yet? How about a dinosaur burger? Sorry… the restaurant ran out 65 million years ago. No worries, there’s lots of great food to be had at the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s lunch buffet. We know that this delicious meal will prepare you for the interesting return journey to Calgary.

Discover “How the West was Once” at Canada’s largest living history museum. Explore the year-round exhibit, Gasoline Alley Museum, and find out how the introduction of the automobile changed our culture. Then step further back with a visit to the lively historical village.

This is a real frontier town, and the people are as real as their town. From the baker to the blacksmith, they're lovers of the true West. Travel back in time and discover the treasures of Western Canada's past. All the sights and sounds of pre-1914 life are recreated at Canada's largest living historical village. You can cruise the lake aboard the S.S. Moyie steam wheeler, or tour the town by steam train, horse-drawn wagon, carriage or old-fashioned bus. Or, just take a stroll down Main Street.