Experience Alberta Up Close and Personal
Alberta
Bed & Breakfast Association
There’s no better way to experience Alberta ‘up
close and personal’ than by staying at one of the 165
unique members of the Alberta Bed and Breakfast Association
(ABBA).
ABBA is a not-for-profit association whose purpose
is to further the bed and breakfast industry in Alberta by promoting
high standards, cooperative marketing and government liaison.
When you stay with an ABBA host, you are staying with the best!
Whether your visit is for business, vacation or
a relaxing getaway, there is a bed and breakfast that can satisfy
your needs. You can choose from historic or modern homes in
our urban centres, private country homes, cabins or ranch like
settings in our vast rural areas or guest houses, luxury inns
and cottages in our mountain parks regions and throughout the
province.
Small, intimate, quaint, romantic, modern, luxurious, rugged,
mountainside, private, social, elegant, formal, casual, peaceful,
economical, deluxe, hearty breakfasts, pet-friendly, family-oriented,
engaging hosts, whatever your style, Alberta Bed & Breakfast
Association has it for you. Above all, you’ll be assured
of high standards of quality, professionalism and the warm western
hospitality that Alberta is known for.
Come stay with us!
www.bbalberta.com
Visit
the BBCanada.com Alberta Bed & Breakfast Association by
clicking here
All-Star Reasons to Holiday in Alberta
Alberta is the land of the fast and furious good
time. Whether you’re on a seven day fat-tire mountain
bike race, swooshing down a white-knuckle stretch of whitewater,
or hurtling down a zip line in the footsteps of Olympic athletes,
it's a wonderful wild ride.
Discover where the sidewalk ends and your adventures
begin in Wild Rose Alberta.
You can roam where the dinosaurs did, find yourself in Canada’s
oldest spa – which sparked our National Parks’ system
– and explore UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Leave your
worries behind and get ready to smile, smile, smile.
Alberta covers 660,965 sq km (255,200 sq mi) or
roughly three times the size of Great Britain. Here are some
50 great getaways around the province. Go ahead, just scan and
plan.
And at the end of this story, you’ll find
a list of some of our favourite attractions.
-
Lake Louise Mountain Resort was awarded the top spot in the
categories of “Best View from the Slopes,” “Best
Steeps,” “Best Scenery,” “Best Blast
from the Past” and “Most Romantic Accommodation”—Special
Winter edition of Ski Canada Magazine (2002).
-
Canada’s National Parks system began in Alberta with
the creation of Banff National Park in 1885. Today we have
five National Parks, with Wood Buffalo in the far North being
the world’s largest park (the size of Switzerland).
It’s also home to the largest herd of free-ranging bison
on this planet.
- Alberta claims
five of Canada’s 13 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
- One of the most
scenic drives on this planet is right here—The Icefields
Parkway—littered with more than 100 glaciers that form
an icy rooftop on the world. The 230 km (143 mi) classic stunner
runs from Lake Louise to Jasper and is also a popular route
with cyclists.
- In Northern Alberta,
on the fringes of Fort McMurray, you’ll find the Athabasca
Oil Sands, the largest oil deposit in the world. In fact, it
equals the combined land area of Florida and South Carolina.
-
The
world’s biggest tenants left their gargantuan tracks
all over the Canadian Badlands. You can join a camp (for kids
as well as one for families) or tour the world’s largest
collection of dinosaur fossils in the Royal Tyrrell Museum
in Drumheller.
- Alberta contains
half of Canada’s sand dunes. Just south of Alberta’s
oldest settlement, Fort Chipewyan, is one sand dune that is
7 km (4.3 mi) wide and 13 km (8 mi) long. It’s moving
at a rate of 1meter (3.2 ft) per year.
- The Frank Slide
Interpretive Centre, in the Crowsnest Pass, tells the remarkable
geological story of how 30 million cubic metres of limestone
ripped down Turtle Mountain on April 29, 1903.
- Etched in the sandstone
cliffs and hoodoos of Southern Alberta’s Milk River valley,
are pictographs and petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone Provincial
Park that date back more than 2,000 years.
- The Cowboy Trail was recently selected in a publication as one of Canada’s
13 Best Drives by Toyota Canada. It runs 640 km (398 mi) from
Mayerthorpe, just northwest of Edmonton, to its southern terminus
in Cardston, near the U.S. border.
Longest, Deepest,
Most Entertaining
- The Trail of the
Great Bear in Waterton National Park was awarded the “Tourism
Watershed Award” by the United Nations International Year
of Fresh Water & Wonder of Water Initiative in 2004.

- Castle Mountain
Resort, 30 minutes west of Pincher Creek, boasts Canada's longest,
continuous fall-line. The mountain is dubbed the 'Steepest,
Deepest, Friendliest, Cheapest!'
- Fort Macleod’s 'Main Street' is designated the only Provincial Historic Area
in Alberta.
- The Fairmont Banff
Springs received the Platinum Award from Celebrated Living Magazine,
recognizing its Willow Stream as one of the top international
spas.

- Alberta’s
first fruit winery, the Fieldstone Fruit Wine Company near Strathmore,
is ready for you.
- The largest classic
cross-country ski race in North America is the Canadian Birkebeiner,
held near Edmonton every February. Its 55 km (34 mi) track is
modeled after the Norwegian rescue effort that took place in
1206.
- The longest hole
on any Canadian golf course is at The Nursery Golf and Country
Club in Lacombe. The 782 yard, par 6 11th hole is a straightaway
monster that forces golfers to cross the courses’ irrigation
pond at the 400 yard mark. It’s one of only two official
par 6 holes in the country.
- The Post Hotel,
a member of the prestigious Relais & Châteaux Association
since 1991, has been recognized as one of the world's best by
both Travel and Leisure Magazine and Condé Nast Traveler
Magazine. Travel and Leisure, a popular lifestyle magazine,
highlighted the Post Hotel as the highest rated Canadian Ski
Resort in its 2004 edition of the 500 Greatest Hotels in the
World. Condé Nest Traveler included the exquisite Post
Hotel on its 2004 Gold List of the World's Best Places to Stay.
- Lake Louise's Skoki
Lodge was recently rated in the 'Top 10 Winter Hideaways' by
National Geographic Adventure Magazine. This hike-in/ski-in
lodge sits at 2,400 m (7,100 ft) in Banff's high alpine region.
"It is surrounded by five valleys, more than a half dozen
lakes and striated peaks,” the magazine adds.
The Travel Channel
crowned West Edmonton Mall “the most entertaining place
to shop” in North America. The world’s largest shopping
centre beat shopping locations in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Beverly
Hills. Alberta’s No. 1 tourist attraction was featured on
the U.S. television show Top Ten Shopping Heavens on the Travel
Channel.
Bigger, Better, Best
- The Canadian Finals
Rodeo (CFR), held every November in Edmonton, is regularly named
by the American Bus Association as one of North America's top
100 annual events.
- In Banff, the Banffshire
Club, in the Fairmont Banff Springs, and the Eden in the Rimrock
Resort were awarded the prestigious 5-Diamond award by Triple
A (AAA), a rating held by only seven other restaurants in Canada.
- Golf Digest awarded
the Banff Springs’ Stanley Thompson Golf Course with 4½
stars for service excellence and overall golf experience.
- In 1981, the Edmonton
Fringe Theatre Festival was born, becoming Canada's first and
still the country's largest.
- The World’s
Largest Dinosaur in Drumheller won an Attractions Canada award
in 2001 in the Leisure and Amusement Centre category.

- The Crowsnest Pass was named best overall snowmobiling area in Western Canada in
SnoRiders West magazine.
- One of Canada’s
coolest neighbourhoods is Edmonton’s Old Strathcona, according
to en Route magazine.
- The Santa Claus
Parade in Fort Macleod is the biggest and best Santa Claus Parade
west of Toronto, with more than 80 floats participating and
over 8,000 people attending in recent years.
- Big Sky Garden
Railway in Nanton is Canada’s Biggest Garden Railway.
- The biggest trout
ever hauled out of a lake was from Alberta’s third-largest
lake, Cold Lake (home of Canada’s largest airbase, as
well). Nearby is Marie Lake, which holds the bourbot record
for Alberta.
- The world’s
largest ecomuseum, the Ukrainian
Cultural Heritage Village, (UCHV) reflects Western Canada’s
largest Ukrainian and East European pioneer settlement. has
been recognized once again by the Alberta Therapeutic Recreation
Association for its highly successful “Special On-Site
Driving Tours for Mobility-Impaired Seniors” program.
- Just east of Edmonton
lies Lamont County, church capital of North America, with more
than 47 historic churches.
- The Lake Louise area in Banff National Park was the birthplace of mountaineering
in the Rockies, and it boasts a number of storied peaks. Many
are scaleable (advisable with a guide) such as 3,700 m (11,362
ft) Mount Victoria.
- Canada’s version
of the Haute Route is right here in Alberta, known as Banff’s
Wapta Icefield. Nights are spent in some of the Alpine Club
of Canada's most comfortable huts and trips can be organized
through private guides or with the Alpine Club.
High Adrenaline Kicks
- Push your limits in one of the toughest running races around.
Dubbed the Canadian Death Race, this 125 km (77.6 mi) mountain
race in Grande Cache will see participants go flat-out over
mountains and across rivers (lots of ‘em!) during the
August long weekend. Or, if you’d rather, you can just
sit back in a lawn chair and cheer these extreme racers on.
- Poke around North America’s largest collection of horse-drawn
vehicles, at the Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston.
- Birders, grab your scopes in May or June and head to the northern
city of Grande Prairie to spy trumpeter swans.
- Kick up your heels, grab your frilly skirt and cowboy boots
and join in with scores of other tourists who flock to Hillspring’s
Great Canadian Barn Dance, held every weekend during the summer.
This event recently snagged a “Top 10 Things to Do in
Alberta” award from RV West Magazine.
- Rent a bike in Calgary and explore Canada’s longest
web of continual bike paths, totaling 460 km (287.5 miles).
- Try out the harness zipline at Canada Olympic Park and fly
down the hill at speeds of up to 140 km (87 mi) per hour.
Other Bragging Bonanzas
- Feel time move beneath you on a 6 km (3.7 mi) chunk of ice
known as the Athabasca Glacier, one of the six major glaciers
that make up the Columbia Icefield. A specially designed Ice
Explorer takes you on a guided tour to the glacier which is
measured at between 90 m (270 ft) and 300 m (1000 ft) thick.
- “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth,” The Calgary
Stampede, is where you can pony up to the bar with rootin’
tootin’ cowboys for 10 sun-drenched days every July.
- ‘I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream’—hear
that chant every summer when folks line up for a double scoop
of heaven at MacKay’s General Store in Cochrane. On a
record-breaking day, 4,500 cones were sold, most of which were
doubles.
- Tired of trendy, pricey bakeries? Just want an old-fashioned,
gooey cinnamon bun? Then check out the province’s largest
version (the size of dinner plates) at That’s Crafty,
just outside of Rosebud, near Drumheller. Another great bakery
worth noshing at is the one at Calgary’s Heritage Park
Historical Village. Others include the Old Fashioned Bakery
in Smoky Lake, Countries Memories in Radway or Koko’s
Bakery in Andrew.
- Did you know that Alberta clocks about 2,000 hours of sunshine
a year? It ties with Saskatchewan for sunniest province in Canada.
- Want to sleep in a cozy authentic teepee? Do so at the base
of the UNESCO site, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, and with Eagle
Spirit Cultural Programs near Elk Island National Park, 30 minutes
east of Edmonton.

Top 15 List of Attractions
Everyone has their own favourites, but here’s our "first
fifteen" to get you started.
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