Approaching Calgary
by air
you're rewarded (in the right
weather) with a magnificent view
of the Rockies stretching across
the western horizon.
Calgary
International Airport (YYC),
a modern, often half-deserted
strip, is within the city limits
about 10km northeast of downtown
- a $30 taxi ride. The widely
advertised free hotel coaches
tend to be elusive, but the
reliable
Airporter Bus (tel
531-3909) shuttle into the city
departs every thirty minutes and
drops at nine downtown hotels:
the
Delta Bow, International,
Westin, Sheraton Suites, Prince
Royal, Ramada, Sandman, Palliser
and
Marriott (first bus
6.30am, last bus 11.30pm; $8.50
one-way, $15 return). If you're
headed for the city bus terminal
, the nearest drop-off is the
Sandman
: from here, walk south a block
to 9th Avenue and turn right
(west) and the terminal's a
fifteen-minute walk. Buy
Airporter
tickets from
one of a bank of bus-ticket
desks lined up in Arrivals
(Level 1) by the exit doors:
buses depart from Bay 3
immediately outside the
terminal.
Over the last few years, direct
services to Banff and Lake
Louise have proliferated,
allowing you to jump off the
plane, leap into a bus and be in
Banff National Park in a couple
of hours. Services currently
include Laidlaw (1 daily
May-Nov, 2 daily Dec-April; $30
to Banff, $38 to Lake Louise;
tel 762-9102 or 1-800/661-4946;
Calgary Ski Bus to Lake Louise
tel 256-8473, www.laidlawbanff.com
); the Banff Airporter, 8 daily;
$36 to Banff; tel 762-3330 or
1-888/449-2901, www.banffairporter.com
); Brewster Transportation (3
daily to Banff and Lake Louise,
1 daily to Jasper in summer; $36
to Banff, $41 to Lake Louise,
$71 to Jasper; tel 403/762-6767
in Banff, tel 403/221-8242 in
Calgary, tel 780/852-3332 in
Jasper). Tickets are
available from separate desks
adjacent to the Airporter desk
in Arrivals. Services leave from
Bay 4 or (close by) outside the
Arrivals terminal.
There's a small information
centre disguised as a
stagecoach (daily 10am-10pm) in
Arrivals and another in
Departures (6am-midnight). The
Arrivals level also offers
courtesy phones to hotels and
car-rental agencies, though most
of the hotels are well away from
the center.
Calgary's Greyhound bus
terminal (tel 265-9111 or
1-800/661-8747, www.greyhound.ca
) is comfortable but not
terribly convenient. It's
located west of downtown at 8th
Avenue SW and 850-16th St, a
somewhat uninspiring
thirty-minute walk to the city
centre. Fortunately free tranit
buses operate to the C-Train at
7th Avenue SW and 10th Street,
the key to the city's central
transport system (free from this
point through the downtown
area). The shuttles leave from
Gate 4 within 20 minutes of
every bus arrival to the
terminal and are announced over
the tannoy: keep your ears open.
Shuttles return from the same
point more or less hourly on the
half hour. Alternatively,
six-dollar taxis for the
short run to downtown are
plentiful outside the terminal.
Left-luggage lockers inside the
terminal cost $2 for 24hr, $4
for larger lockers.
If you're arriving by car
, the Trans-Canada (Hwy 1)
passes through the city to the
north of downtown. During its
spell in the city limits it
becomes 16th Avenue. The major
north to south road through the
city, Hwy 2, is rechristened the
Deerfoot Trail, while the main
route south from the US and
Waterton Lakes is known as the
Macleod Trail, much of which is
a fairly grim strip of malls,
motels and fast-food joints.
