Alberta is a top tourist attraction, and its wide assortment of differing destinations makes it obvious why there’s such broad appeal. From the museums of Calgary (which is also convenient for skiing and hiking) to many parks (including UNESCO World Heritage sites) that offer spectacular scenery and plenty of hiking opportunities, Alberta has something to tickle every fancy. Among these are brick-and-mortar casinos where players can discover if Lady Luck has traveled with them, and Alberta’s top online casino sites are always open for gaming when there’s little time to kill.
Casino Entertainment
Alberta is brimming with history, cultural sites, and beautiful natural attractions, and these sit comfortably alongside modern tourist destinations such as casinos. These include the River Cree Resort and Casino, which has dozens of gaming tables and over a thousand slots. Stoney Nakoda Resort & Casino has slots, table games, a poker room, and a convenient location just half an hour from Calgary. In addition, there’s a great range of reputable gaming brands for residents of Alberta. Every legal Alberta online casino provides a safe and easily accessible selection of casino games, boasting gaming options that land-based casinos simply can’t compete with. Thanks to mobile casinos’ great support, games can be played anywhere, with limitless gaming options, ensuring players don’t feel left aside, even if they aren’t physically present at the casino.
UNESCO Sites
World heritage sites are important for mankind culturally and also serve as major tourist sites. In 2019, Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park became the sixth UNESCO World Heritage site in the province of Alberta. Located in the province’s southwest, Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park features stunning badlands and hoodoos, bringing in tens of thousands of visitors annually. It’s been popular for quite a while, as the Indigenous Blackfoot people have considered it sacred for over 4,000 years and know it as “Áísínai’pi.” The rocks feature engraved petroglyphs, and the park is also home to painted pictographs, adding cultural and historical significance to this spectacular site. Many of these are truly ancient, and recent additions include a Model-T Ford, with a Blackfoot elder believed to be the artist responsible.
Another of the province’s UNESCO sites is Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, which is a union between Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta and Glacier National Park in Montana. More than 4,500 square kilometers make this a wonderful and enormous place to explore, with soaring mountains and deep canyons. The park has glacial-trough lakes, forests, and prairie grasslands, not to mention the Rockies. As with Writing-on-Stone, indigenous peoples have long had a presence, and it remains a part of Blackfoot life to this day.
Outstanding Natural Beauty
Visitors to Alberta are spoilt for choice when it comes to areas of outstanding natural beauty, and Lake Minnewanka is one unique destination and its underwater ghost town. The lake is considered sacred by the indigenous peoples who have visited it for centuries. This gorgeous body of water is a top tourist hotspot, fed by glaciers that have curative properties. One of the extra features Lake Minnewanka offers is the highly intact but submerged villages beneath its surface. Once a busy resort town, Minnewanka Landing is now only accessible to those determined enough to brave the icy cold waters. However, the water’s very frigidity has helped maintain the settlement.
In Jasper National Park, hikers can make the most of an Albertan holiday by exploring the depths of Maligne Canyon. Suitable for both new and experienced hikers, the canyon is crossed by half a dozen bridges, with the third offering excellent views (and photo opportunities) beside the waterfall. Things are cranked up a notch in winter as hikers can join a guided ice walk along the canyon floor. The waterfall’s beautiful in summer, but the frozen fall in winter is something else entirely. The total hiking time is around one to two hours, with sightseeing time.
Calgary
Urban attractions are also present in abundance in Alberta, and Calgary offers these while also being nice and close to the countryside. The Canadian Rockies and Alberta prairies are within easy reach, and visitors to Calgary can either hike in the Rockies (just an hour away) or go skiing on the slopes by Lake Louise. Summer is the perfect season for hiking.
Those with a head for heights can ascend the Calgary Tower (190.8m or 626 feet) for spectacular views. In addition to feasting one’s eyes, visitors can sate their appetites at Sky 360, the revolving restaurant, while the Vertigo Theatre, located at the foot of the tower, provides live entertainment. Museum-goers are spoilt for choice in Calgary, between the Military Museums, Gasoline Alley Museum, and artwork in the Glenbow Museum. There are numerous pleasant parks to wander as well, and visitors can admire exotic residents in the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo, where gorillas, lions, penguins, wolves, and more can be seen. It’s advisable to check out the zoo’s online map to plan things properly so there’s less walking and more viewing. If there’s a line, that’s a perfect opportunity to check the weather forecast or enjoy a mini-session at the best legal Alberta online casinos.
From frozen hiking in canyons and skiing to exploring underwater settlements and amazing badlands, Alberta is a fantastic place to visit all year round.
