A long layover in Calgary or even a quick 48-hour business trip in Calgary, doesn’t mean you have to be stuck at the dreaded airport. There’s plenty of activities and fun things to do in Calgary, Alberta that will make your layover worthwhile, and staying at Best Western Premier Freeport Inn Calgary Airport as your homebase is ideal for checking up a quick Calgary bucket list. Here’s our roundup of things to do on a layover at Calgary Airport in Calgary Alberta.
After landing in Calgary, you’ll want to chow down. Head over to eat family-style dim sum at the iconic Silver Dragon Restaurant in Chinatown. Located near the corner of Centre St. and 3rd Ave. in Downtown Calgary, the award-winning restaurant has been cooking up authentic Cantonese and Szechuan cuisine since the 1960s. With a huge dining room for all the dim sum carts to pass through, and with over 200 Chinese items on the menu, it’ll be hard to choose between the shrimp dumplings and pork buns, so why not taste them all?
Take a post-meal walk by Graffiti Alley right on the backside of Canton Block. Graffiti Alley, also known as Mural Alley, is a combination of commissioned murals with street art. Canton Block holds historical significance, as the first Chinese-immigrant businessmen, who founded today’s Chinatown, built Canton Block from 1910-1911. The properties are signified by the red brick and large display windows. Stroll around either spots to immerse yourself in Chinatown’s history.
If your layover is in the evening, you may be lucky enough to find one of Calgary’s best speakeasies, right in Chinatown. The Vietnamese tropical, cocktail bar, Paper Lantern, is tucked away in plain sight – you just have to know where to look. Order a Pandan Pain Killer alongside a Banh Mi before departing for your next destination.
Tucked away in an unassuming plaza, a pint at Railyard Brewing. is just what you need for a long layover. In fact, Railyard Brewing is so close to the airport that Gavin Reynolds, the President and CEO of Railyard Brewing Co., shares that, “Some people come here, sit here, and have a beer while they’re waiting on whoever’s flying in. Sometimes, other people get off the plane and they leave together to have a beer with whoever’s picking them up.” Indeed, the microbrewery is less than five minutes from the airport. Opened in 2017, this innovative, industrial, microbrewery creates brews that make you drink twice – from the Railyard Lager to the Railyard IPA, two of their six core beers, plus the beers they have on rotation.
Reynolds believes what makes them stand apart from other breweries is the amount of personal effort he and his team has put in to make the Railyard Taproom as unique as possible. For instance, “That’s 50,000 feet of suspended rope that took me three months to hang from the ceiling,” Reynolds points to, then highlights other various items in the room, from the torched bar to the artist-painted graffiti on the walls.
“When we started the company, we were trying to come up with the concept. This relates to the naming of the company as well. We want to create something that was historical to the Calgary area and artistic because we have a massive art scene here in Calgary. When you drive downtown, there’s murals everywhere. We wanted to come up with something that would combine all the attributes we had,” says Reynolds. “One day, on our way home to Airdrie, we got stopped at the railroad tracks, and the train cars were going by. We did a little bit of research, and it turns out that 80% of all the malt across North America is actually transported by the rail systems – that’s the starting point where we came up with the name ‘Railyard’.”
Perhaps a little retail therapy is what you need after a long flight. Luckily, the newly developed Deerfoot City is the remedy to all your retail needs. With over 150 stores, and cute places to eat, too, this 80-acre site is a destination for not just retail but food and entertainment as well. With rotating events and entertainment, you never know if you will find a roller skating rink with an outdoor bowling alley, a 9-hole outdoor mini golf course, or an outdoor reading series. Head to the Rec Room for cocktail towers and arcade games or shop ‘til you drop at one of the newest retail stores, Thrifty’s by Bluenotes and Suzy Shier / Le Chateau.
The Best Western Premier Freeport Inn Calgary Airport is guaranteed to be a memorable stay that will meet all your hospitality needs. Located only three kilometers from the Calgary International Airport, Best Western Premier Freeport Inn Calgary Airport is an easy gateway to all the activities, dining, and shopping that Calgary has to offer. Boasting spacious suites with an indoor fireplace, a modern fitness center, an indoor heated pool with a waterslide and hot top, plus an on-site bar and lounge, choose how to unwind in any way you prefer, there’s tons of options to do just that.
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