The best park in Calgary for a spring day

Spring- a wonderful time in Calgary when the buds begin to bloom on the trees, the sun’s warmth feels incredible on bare skin, and it feels like half of the city flocks outside to enjoy the weather.  One of the best locations in Calgary to get outside and make the most of a sunny spring day is Edworthy Park in Montgomery.  The park has over 5 km of pathways within the park area, and the pathways are connected to the Bow River bike and walking paths. 

Downtown Calgary is a short bike ride or rollerblade away from the park, or a pleasant afternoon park.  Edworthy has several playgrounds for the kids, and numerous areas to sit down for a picnic lunch or dinner (take advantage of the fact it’s light out until almost 10pm this time of year!)

Also found in Edworthy are 400 year old Douglas Fir Pine Trees- undoubtedly some of the oldest trees you will find anywhere in town!

While you’re taking in all of the nature within the city, don’t forget to stop in at Angel’s Café for a latte or ice cream.  It’s located right by the bridge to the park, and offers tables with excellent views of the Bow River.

 Check out the City of Calgary's photo gallery of the park here!

The Best Mall for Spring Shopping in Calgary

Spring in Calgary means wet, cold days, where snow may appear more often than it does in November.  Calgary is one of those cities where spring leaves you wondering whether it will snow 5 times in a week, or only 3 times.  What's a person to do when the weather is damp and cold......shopping at one of Calgary's fabulous malls! Market Mall is close to Centro Motel and is beautiful inside, easy to navigate, plenty of parking, and has a new Target opening up this summer!

A huge perk of Market Mall is the ease and accessibility of parking- both underground and above ground.  With over 200 stores to choose from, and being a mere 5 minute drive from Centro, it is the perfect choice. 

Calgary is an excellent option for shopping in Alberta, and is only a short drive from the many small towns in southern and central Alberta.  Market Mall also has delicious dining options, both with an expanded food court, Moxie's, and Milestones! Another perk is the fact that Market Mall is just one level, saving on those pesy elevators and escalators at other malls around the city.

Spring Skiing in Calgary

Did you know that within minutes of leaving your room at Centro Motel, you could be strapping on your skis and carving out some fresh tracks for yourself at Canada Olympic Park? Calgary is one of the few cities that has a full ski hill right in the town!

As every skier and snowboard knows, it is pretty awesome to be able to have some space on the hill when you're racing down, and the recent addition of a new chairlift at COP added another 100 vertical feet as well as an additional 8 acres of ski able area.  When you do the math, that works out to space for 2400 more people to ski each hour- pretty impressive!

If you're lucky and keep a close eye out while you're on the lift, you might even be able to see some of the professional athletes who use Canada Olympic Park to train all throughout the winter.  COP is a destination for skiers, snowboarders, bobsledders, ski jumpers, and various other winter sports.  In fact, if you're reading this and are an athlete, give us a call at Centro about some awesome rates!

One of the biggest perks about skiing in the city is that when you're tired after a day in the fresh air bombing down the hill, the drive back to your room is a mere 5 minutes- then it's nap time before checking out all of the delicious restaurants that the NW of Calgary has to offer- but we will save details on that for another posting coming soon.

Pub Options Near The Centro Motel

Montgomery is one of the areas of the city that's slated for an ongoing Redevelopement Plan. It has some pretty neat stuff in it; Community Gardens, a San Francisco Trolley-Car style of public transport, even sidewalks designed to be porous so we don't get any ice or water build up on them in the spring. However, until that day off in the future, there is one area of service in the Montgomery neighbourhood that is somewhat under-filled. That area is Pubs. Don't despair though, you can always go...

On A Time Travelling Trip To 1980's Saskatchewan at Pazzer's

If that sounds horrible to you, well... It's not. Trust me. While the decor is pretty kitschy, the beer is well-priced, and the food is surprisingly good. Just to clarify here, I don't mean to say that this is the kind of place you would expect to produce bad food, I mean it is surprisingly good for ANY Pub. Also, $4 beers for Happy Hour is pretty nice. The service is quite good, the prices even better, and the hand made Perogies are fantastic.

This bar is also a very short stagger from the Centro Motel. Which makes the $4 Happy Hour drinks even better.

Grab A Few Asahis' With Your Sashimi at Sushi-Bar Miki

For those who don't know, Asahi is a brand of Japanese Beer. It's pretty good. Not as good as the Sashimi produced by Sushi-Bar Miki, though. Having said that, you can get better Sushi elsewhere in Calgary (there are 66 Sushi Bars in the city according to Yelp), but this place is a must-go if you're looking for the authentic home style Japanese restaurant experience.

The bottom line is, at Sushi Bar Miki there are decent prices, good quality food, and excellent service.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village and now on a completely unintuitive, yet direct, path from the airport. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. Also, our parking lot is just massive. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

Holiday Shopping With Centro Motel

Have you finished you Christmas shopping yet? Yeah, it's okay. Neither have I. Not to worry, though. Calgary's first and greatest boutique motel is here for you. If there's one thing that Calgary is good for, it's shopping. If you're coming from points near the city, you'll definitely want to drive (which is where a Motel comes in), after all some of the best shopping in Alberta is just a short drive away.

 Merry Christmas from the Internet's current ruler. The Cat Named Tardar Sauce.

The Core

Downtown Calgary's solution to the intermittently horrible Alberta weather. The Core is a group of office buildings connected through +15 and underground walkways. If you're looking for some brand name high end fashion items this is the place to go.

Parking can be a bit of an adventure here. But if you head down on a weekend not only is it cheap, but there are Valets.

Chinook Centre

Chinook Centre is easier to drive into and out of than anything in downtown Calgary. They are missing some of the more high-end stores, but they make up for it by having more Tech stores and a movie theater.

The options for eating are better with Chinook as well. I mean, they have Sushi AND a Yogen Fruz.

Cross Iron Mills

Bigger. Better. Faster. Stronger. This is the Bionic Man of Calgary Malls. I guess, technically it is outside the city limits, but at the rate Calgary is growing that won't last more than another year or so. This place is massive though, so if you're going with a group I suggest the 'Divide and Conquer' shopping strategy.

While it is a little further to drive, it has pretty much everything If you only have time to go to one Shopping Centre, go to this one.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.