Alberta: Travel Activities and Adventures

Travel activities, adventures, and itinerary suggestions for your Alberta vacation...with a difference!

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Our Charming Inns provide a special and unique accommodation option: charming, personal and different. Our itineraries are different too, allowing you to put together your very own activities and adventures, according to your personal interests and time schedules.

Accommodation, Activities, Adventures and Attractions are key components of any memorable vacation. Let us help you package all these components together!

  • Travel Alberta Home Page

  • Alberta South Tourism Destination Region

  • 2008 Explore the Mountain Parks Guidebook

  • 2008 Explore Kananaskis Country and The Ghost Area Guidebook

    • Here are some exciting Alberta travel suggestions for each of our Charming Inns:


  • Looking for a little peace and tranquility?


  • Interested in shopping, festivals and night life?


  • Searching for some nature or mountain adventures?


  • Want to discover some real history?


  • Alberta's UNESCO Trail




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    Looking for a little peace and tranquility?



    - Jasper East (Overlander Mountain Lodge)
    - Lake Louise - Nordegg (Num-ti-Jah, Baker Creek Chalets, Aurum Lodge)
    - Banff/Canmore (The Juniper, Georgetown Inn or Bear & Bison)
    - Kananaskis Country (Mt. Engadine Lodge)
    - Drumheller (Inn & Spa at Heartwood)
    - Waterton Parks (Crandell Mtn. Lodge, Kilmorey Lodge)




    Simply you and the Alberta countryside. Peace and tranquility. No set itineraries, no crowds to endure, zero chaos, zero confusion. This itinerary is for you and determined by you. A self-driven, quiet picturesque journey through the Rocky Mountains, and some of the most spectacular foothills, forests, lakes and meadows anywhere in the world.



    This off-the-beaten-path excursion will begin and end at a location of your choice, and will take you to quaint, cozy villages that provide you with the perfect portrait of Alberta. You will have the chance to meander along hilly roads and wander through amazing wilderness, while pondering nature's beauty. Your package might also take you to an assortment of small, scenic hangouts and locales.



    Try beginning at the soothing hot springs near Jasper or Banff, or take a wilderness walk through Lake Louise - Nordegg, then experience a Yoga retreat at Mount Engadine Lodge, or maybe pamper yourself at The Inn & Spa at Heartwood, and then retreat to the quiet, uncrowded National Park at Waterton Lakes!

    And should you wish, visit other hidden jewels in between your lightly planned excursions.




    Interested in shopping, festivals and night life?



    In Edmonton, you will find a wealth of cultural attractions, some great theatre, music and food festivals, parks and pathways, live performances, spa experiences and sights to see! Edmonton and Calgary are both Festival Cities, with great pathways for biking, rollerblading, jogging, walking and enjoying the scenery.



    Take in world-class shopping (at the world's biggest mall), along with experiencing some of the unique handicraft stores and restaurants in both these cities. Rich culture blossoms, providing exciting choices of live performances: from ballet, opera, philharmonic orchestra and musicals to cutting-edge theatre and dance.



    Indulge your passion for science and art with a visit to their many galleries and museums. Enjoy all the thrills of pro sports, exotic dining experiences from around the world, lively nightlife, and a wealth of other attractions. There's always an exciting mix of hot new things to discover in both of Alberta's urban centres.




    Searching for some nature or mountain adventures?



    - Waterton Parks (Crandell Mtn. Lodge, Kilmorey Lodge)
    - Cypress Hills (Elkwater Lake Lodge)
    - Jasper East (Overlander Mountain Lodge)
    - Lake Louise - Nordegg (Num-ti-Jah, Baker Creek Chalets, Aurum Lodge)
    - Banff/Canmore (The Juniper, Georgetown Inn or Bear & Bison)
    - Kananaskis Country (Mt. Engadine Lodge)


    All of the Charming Inns offer a perfect setting to enjoy the natural habitat of the regions' plant and wildlife including bald eagles, ravens, heron and owls, as well as coyotes, moose, elk, deer and beavers. From prairie to alpine meadow to marsh and lakeland - enjoy access to a great abundance of natural resources, outdoor adventures and activities.


    Alberta has it all, and you don't have to go far to find it. There are always exciting activities and adventures to be discovered each season! Alberta is a place that celebrates nature and adventure. This is a nature-lover's paradise, thick with forests and dozens of creeks that flow into pristine valleys and rivers!


    Whether your outdoor activities evolve around riding, hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking, golfing, nature watching or climbing. On water or snow, horseback, from the air, or on foot, activities for all can be found in and along the Rocky Mountain Parks and throughout the province, at any time of the year!




    Want to discover some real history?



    - Drumheller (Inn & Spa at Heartwood)
    - Cypress Hills (Elkwater Lake Lodge)
    - Edmonton (Hotel Selkirk)



    There's been life on Earth for more than 3.9 billion years, so the Alberta badlands and the Royal Tyrrell Museum have a lot to show you! Experience some of the most remarkable fossil displays anywhere in the world. Visitors can spend a day or a week working with paleontologists for field experience, day digs, dig watches, or dinosaur day camp.


    Then move onto Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, the first and only interprovincial park in Canada. Rising up to 600 metres above the surrounding prairie, these hills and fescue grasslands represent the highest terrain between Labrador and the Rocky Mountains (with four distinct habitats, and 18 species of orchids and more than 700 species of plants).


    Fort Edmonton, explores Edmonton's development from a fur trade post to a booming metropolitan centre. The park features over 75 structures. Costumed interpreters live the way of the past. Enjoy the free steam engine train and streetcar rides, and rides on wagon, stagecoach, pony and buggy.


    Calgary has over 25 different museums, reflecting its location in the West and its cultural diversity. The Glenbow Museum combines a museum, art gallery, library and archives all under one roof, boasts over a million artifacts and some 28,000 works of art in its vast collections and is one of the largest museums in Canada.




    Alberta's UNESCO Trail (source: Travel Alberta)

    Of Canada's 13 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Alberta claims five.

    - Waterton Parks (Crandell Mtn. Lodge, Kilmorey Lodge)

    - Cypress Hills (Elkwater Lake Lodge)

    - Drumheller (Inn & Spa at Heartwood)

    - Banff/Canmore (The Juniper, Georgetown Inn or Bear & Bison)

    - Kananaskis Country (Mt. Engadine Lodge)

    - Lake Louise & Nordegg (Num-ti-Jah, Baker Creek Chalets, Aurum Lodge)

    - Jasper East (Overlander Mountain Lodge)

    Start in Waterton Lakes National Park, the world's first International Peace Park in 1932. Girdled by a chain of deep glacial lakes, this gem of a park offers an unbelievable variety of high-altitude day hikes, horseback riding, and 1,200 species of plants and wildlife.





    Then head north to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. The largest, oldest and best preserved of all bison jumps in the world. At the base is a vast graveyard with thousands of years worth of bones from butchered bison piled 32 ft. high. The jump represents an exceptionally ingenious hunting technique used by Plains Indians up to 10,000 years ago.


    From there it's just a skip to a lunar world, swollen with coulees and hoodoos and other mystical things. Dinosaur Provincial Park has some of the most extensive dinosaur bone fields in the world, now protected under the UNESCO designation. Daily summer interpretive programs and digs walk you back through time.


    From there, make a beeline to Banff and Jasper National Parks - two spectacular Rocky Mountain parks declared as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Stays in either the Banff or Jasper areas could range from an overnight to several weeks. Both parks are loaded with opportunities to hike, canoe, cycle, camp, golf, play tennis, go horseback riding or just laze around a steamy hot pool.


    Still, undecided?

    Have time, will travel?

    Try our GRAND tour of Alberta

    Required: three weeks, an open mind and endless rolls of film!