The best time to visit Calgary is definitely in the summer – June to September – when the days are long. Yes, the sun doesn’t set until after 9 pm sometimes even after10 pm and it is up at 6 am for the early birds. This means you have three distinct outdoor activity periods – morning, afternoon and night. Calgary’s summer weather is also great because it isn’t humid like most of Canada; this means temperatures from 15 to 30 Celsius are still very comfortable.

So, with that in mind I thought I’d share with you the top 10 outdoor things you can/should do if you are visiting Calgary. Or perhaps you want to be a tourist in your own city.

# 1 Stroll Downtown’s Bow River Promenade

My personal favourite is along the Bow River next to Prince’s Island in the middle of downtown. There is something surreal about being right next to the skyscrapers but enjoying the serenity of the island and riverbank. Calgary boast one of the best river pathways in North America.

# 2 Float along the Bow River

Renting a raft and floating down the Bow River from Bowness Park to St. Patrick’s Island has become a summer tradition in Calgary.

Floating along the Bow River into downtown

#3 Calgary Zoo and Botanical Gardens

Families love the Calgary Zoo and Botanical Gardens, from the penguins to the hippos from the butterflies to the polar bears. And yes, there are dinosaurs. The Zoo is easily accessible from the Calgary’s Light Rapid Transit system – kids love train rides almost as much as the zoo.

#4 Walk back in time

You must visit Heritage Park, Canada’s largest living history museum. Located on the banks of the Glenmore Reservoir the park has an early 20th Century main street with shops, as well as a small midway and even a farm with animals. Bonus for Dad and Grandpa there is Gasoline Alley Museum with its amazing collection of cars and gasoline artifacts. The kids will love taking the train from the parking lot to the entrance.

#5 Wander Nose Hill Park

Nose Hill Park is one of the largest urban parks in North America, it is 11 square kilometers. It is a reminder that Calgary was once mostly grassland, with trees limited to the river valleys. Wander the trails and enjoy the vistas of the mountains and city skyline makes for a nice morning or evening walk. You can use Google Maps to locate the Blackfoot Nation’s medicine wheel.

#6 Visit a garden

Calgary’s oldest garden is Reader Rock Garden just a short walk for the Erlton LRT station and not far from downtown. The garden 4,000 types of plants and a charming tea house that use to be the house of William Reader (City Park Superintendent) who created the gardens over a 100+ years ago. If you are in the northwest, you will want to visit the Silver Springs Botanical Garden and Forest which is managed entirely by volunteers.

#7 Art & Architectural Walkabout

If you are staying downtown pretty much every block has some public art or a mural on the side of a building. Downtown is also home to architecture by some of the world’s best known architects – Sir Norman Foster (The Bow office tower), BIG (TELUS sky office/residential tower), Snohetta (Central Library) and Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture (Bell studio) to name a few.

And on Stephen Avenue Walk (aka 8th Avenue) there are 3 blocks of historic sandstone buildings from the early 20th century that are a designated National Historic Site. At noon hour on weekdays this pedestrian mall takes on a festival atmosphere with dozens of outdoor patios and street vendors.

Calgary’s City Centre is home to over 100 murals and 100 public artworks. It is literally an outdoor art gallery. Link to Mural Map

#8 Dining Al fresco

Calgary has some amazing patios. Uptown 17th (aka 17th Avenue SW) is lined with patio from 2nd to 8thStreet SW. 4th Street SW in the Mission District also has some great patios. Stephen Avenue Walk is literally lined with patios and the bonus is there are no loud and smelly cars.

But the best patio surely must be River Café on Prince’s Island next to the lagoon. Be sure to make a reservation for lunch or dinner or even brunch. It is not to be missed.

#9 WinSport

If you are into adventure, you will want to check out what’s happening at Winsport or Canada Olympic Park as locals know it from the 1988 Olympics. It has great mountain biking trails, zip line and mini putt.

#10 Cycling

Calgary is a great cycling city with its 1,000+ km of multi-use trails. You can easily spend a day cycling around the city – literally! The Rotary Mattamy Greenway is a 132 km route that circles the city. Most people just cycle around their community to the nearest park, river pathway, pebble beach or ice cream shop. Calgary has two famous artesian ice cream shops – Made by Marus and Village Ice Cream - both have several locations in the city.

Last Word

It is no wonder Calgary is Canada’s fastest growing city with 150,000 newcomers calling Calgary home over the past two years. While Calgary is still a major oil and gas hub, today it holds the title of being the fastest-growing tech talent hub in North America. Great cities have to evolve. Calgary has evolved from a pioneer city, to and agricultural/ranching city, to an oil and gas city, to a multi-modal inland port, to a tech hub over the past 150 years.

Yes, Calgary recently dropped from being one of the tope 5 most liveabie cities in the world according to the Economist Intelligence 2025 Liveability Index Report to 18th. While that may seem like a huge drop, in fact the difference between the top cities is often minimal.

Calgary is still a great place to live, work and play and there are dozens of initiatives to make it even better.

Postcards: Calgary is amazing in the summer!