Low Cost Hotels in Calgary ➤ Best Prices Guaranteed!

For much of its history, Calgary was just a quiet farm and ranch trade center in the lovely Bow River valley, with the Canadian Rockies rising to the west. In the 1960s, when oil was discovered nearby, Calgary quickly morphed from country town to booming city, and it hasn’t looked back since. Although it’s now a global energy capital, the city’s Wild West roots come alive in July during the Calgary Stampede, the world’s largest and richest rodeo. The rest of the year, Calgary’s old-and-new dichotomy is seen along Stephen Avenue, where handsome 1890s stone and red-brick storefronts (many now upscale bars and restaurants) huddle at the base of soaring office towers.
The city that locals unabashedly call "Cowtown" has a reputation for thinking big, and then delivering. Calgary has long been known as home to the "Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth" aka the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede. It hit the big, big time when it landed the 1988 Olympic Winter Games. And now this city of dreamers and wheeler-dealers is after another big prize, the 2005 World's Fair. Thinking big and then doing it is just part of life in this sprawling city in the long shadows of the Canadian Rockies. It started off as a pioneer outpost along the Bow River, and grew slowly for decades. But then an exploration drill hit oil in the area, and Calgary hasn't looked back. The city is now a world energy capital filled with gleaming skyscapers and spanking new neighborhoods. All this and brains too: A recent study showed Calgary to be the best educated city in the country. Calgary also boasts world-class skiing, speed skating and equestrian facilities, not to mention fly fishing rivers anglers daydream about. And Banff National Park, one of the world's great wild areas, is only an hour away.