Calgary, Alberta

When you think of Calgary, do you think of rodeos, mountain climbing, and skiing? In part, the stereotypes are true: if you're a cowboy, a snow bum, or a general outdoor enthusiast, you'll be very comfortable in this laid-back city of about 878,866.

The city's close proximity to nature means that people in Calgary are always outside doing something active. What better motivator than the majestic Rockies? Every weekend you can easily make the quick hour-and-a-half jaunt to Banff for hiking, world-class skiing and snowboarding, or wildlife watching (coming face-to-face with elk or moose is pretty common).

But even if you stay downtown, you can run, hike, or cross-country ski in the city's more than 8,000 hectares (19,468 acres) of parkland, or you can explore more than 550 kilometers (341 miles) of pathways. And you won't be alone – 90% of Calgary's residents make use of the city's parks, so being outdoors is a great way to meet people. (And if there's a dog in your life, as there should be, there are more than 100 off-leash parks in Calgary!)

But young people are locating to Calgary in droves thanks to a booming job market, and the city is beginning to reveal an exciting cosmopolitan side. Upscale restaurants such as Teatro and the River Café are attracting national attention in the way that Toronto and Vancouver venues do. And beyond the excellent local fare of Grade-A Alberta beef and bison, you can find outstanding multicultural cuisine, including sushi and authentic Middle-Eastern dishes, all over the city.

And while you can find plenty of high fashion in Calgary (most of it in the trendy boutiques along 17th Avenue and the Mission District), you're just as likely to feel comfortable in the relaxed gear, whether it's something sturdy for your jaunts to Banff or a well-worn pair of cowboy boots for a night of line dancing at a local saloon. There's no pretentiousness here. That fact is clear when you consider what the city is most famous for: the Calgary Stampede. Calgary offers a big taste of the Wild West at this cowboy celebration, which draws more than a million people from around the world each July to watch heart-stopping displays of rodeo and chuck-wagon racing. The Stampede is a great time for the city and a time when winter is far from many people's minds ….

Unfortunately, even the most avid nature lover can't ignore Calgary's extremely cold winters. Checking the windchill factor will become a daily ritual. Thankfully, Calgary has a solution: enclosed and heated walkways that connect many apartment and office buildings and shopping centers around the downtown core, meaning you could stay inside all winter long, at least until the lure of the Rockies becomes too strong – or until the Rockies' next gift of a temperature-rising Chinook, such as that on January 11, 1983, when the temperature rose 30C in four hours, from -17C (1F) to +13C (55F).

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