What a beautiful park to skate in the winter! Many Christmas lights up around the area, and rangers…read morehave lit fire pits all around for visitors to stop and warm up and enjoy all around the park area. Skating is free of bring your own skates. Can also rent gear by the hour. Charming and natural setting to enjoy a family skating night!

Wonderful park! We did a little bit of kayaking, took the train, and walked around the park a bit…read more It got pretty crowded as the day got a little later (it was on a Saturday). Calgary truly has some beautiful parks! Everything was clean and the workers at the kayak place were very nice.

My visit to Prairie Winds Park was great! There is a small-ish parking lot and a bunch of street…read moreparking. The park is pretty big. There are a lot of activities available for families - picnic tables (you need to reserve the covered ones), grills, A MINI WATER PARK, ice cream trucks, and a playground. We easily spent an entire morning and afternoon here. The only reason I gave it 4/5 stars was because there were mosquitos everywhere. Be warned. Bring that OFF spray!!

Spent 3 days in this fascility for the Canadian National Taekwondo Tournament. Cooincidentally,…read morethere was also a Judo competition going on in the oval right beside us at the same time and the venue had no problem handling both events simultaneously. Impressive place. Would have been nice to have all the blinds open for some more natural ighting...but with them closed, this large building stayed nice and cool. Parking was a little confusing as we would up in a different lot on campus every day. Some required payment...others seemingly did not. Washroom were clean enough. Security staff were friendly and helpful.

The Olympic Oval was built specifically for the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta…read more This facility is a 20 minute walk from my home, and until September 2010, I had never entered it's doors. In fact, prior to my first visit, I had to look up the direction. During a Tweetup (a gathering of twtter tweeps) in June 2010, it was my pleasure to meet a girl that has her sites set on racing the 500m distance in Speed Skating at the 2014 Winter Olympic games in Sochi. When she started to train in the fall of 2010 I asked if I could watch her practise. I had never watched speed skating, and was immediately hooked on the sport. My friend Alex trains with the Canadian National Team, and they are impressive to watch. The discipline that goes into each moment is inspiring. As for the facility - what an amazing venue. Can't beleive I have never been there before - my loss. There is an area displaying training gear, race info, etc., from those that have made their mark on this sport. Also impressive. The arena itself is amazing. The long-track speed skating ice holds an ice area for hockey games, and another ice area used for both short-track speed skating and skating lessons. (watched a group of small children taking skating lessons last week - all wearing speed-skating skates - it was adorable). Around the long-track, there is a running track. Beside the ice, there is an area that is used for track training. Permanent bleachers at both ends of the long-track, make it easy to watch atheletes train or race. There is a 2nd level, with a lounge (area with tables & chairs), that during practice times is a great area to watch from (found plug-in to feed my unending need for battery charging - phones, laptops, etc). There is another level which allows visitors to view the entire ice area in a unique way. Another great vantage point for snapping photos or shooting video. I have developed a respect for the atheletes that train in this facility. Have enjoyed watching university students learn the game of hockey. Have giggled watching kids learning to skate. And with every visit I learn more about the sport of speed skating. If you have never been, take the time to check it out sometime. Make sure to stop by the display area on the 2nd floor - it's worth the time. :)

Honestly, this was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had at VIVO…read more We had the court booked in advance through a league that regularly uses this facility, so this isn't a one-off visit. We've consistently run into issues with equipment setup here, and this night was easily the worst. We showed up expecting the court to be ready, and the volleyball net wasn't even set up. After asking for help, the staff member who came down brought equipment that clearly hadn't been checked. One of the posts had a snapped rope, and the net was completely tangled, which took a long time to rethread and fix. What really stood out was the lack of urgency and accountability. We were told this was the only net available, and then the staff member just left us there with no solution. Meanwhile, a full group of people who booked and paid for the court were stuck standing around trying to fix broken equipment themselves. I went back upstairs a second time to the front desk asking for help, either to find replacement equipment or another staff member who could actually assist. Eventually, I ended up going into their staff storage area myself as a customer, where I found multiple usable replacement posts sitting there the entire time. So the equipment was available, it just wasn't provided. By the time everything was finally set up, we were over a half hour into our booking and it threw off the entire night. At this point, it's not just frustrating, it's a pattern. For a facility that has repeat bookings from organized leagues, this level of disorganization and lack of preparation just isn't acceptable.

visited Vivo few times, not a member just drop in , and as senior citizen i have to pay 12$ to get…read morein. Than after a few days Vivo is trying to charge 31.50 on my bank card,?? however my bank decline transaction, the Facility is fine but the office personnel have to quit doing this to seniors, Just not right!

I visited Prince's Island Park while on a work trip in Calgary. Wow. What a beautiful park. I went…read moreon a jog from downtown Calgary where my hotel was and it is so nice to have a large park so close to the city. I think there's ~50 acres of land with plenty of well-maintained walkways for walking, jogging, biking. This seems like a perfect place to go on a date, walk around a bit during a work break, read a book on the many places to sit there, or just walk/jog like I did. There is also a cafe located near the center in the park. Unfortunately it was closed when I visited but I heard it's good!

This beautiful, 50 acre"urban park" is found on the north side of downtown Calgary by the Eau…read moreClaire neighborhood and is a fantastic place to get out in nature - even though it's in such close proximity to the city. There are paved walking paths and gravel trails - all very well maintained. We saw lots of geese and ducks and butterflies too - it was surprisingly peaceful! I imagine this would be a great place for migratory bird watching when the time is right! Lots of articles call this park the "heart" of Calgary...it certainly is popular but I can see why. It's lovely - there's tons of flower gardens, some native bee habitats, and it's surrounded by the Bow river on all sides and even has a lagoon that you can ice skate on in winter. Calgary holds lots of festivals here. There are picnic areas and playgrounds and even a cute little cafe. Several bridges connect it to downtown Calgary and one of them connects you to the other more northern side as well. It's very walkable and easy to access - I'd definitely say it's handicap accessible as a good portion of the paths are paved and flat. There are lots of info signs dotted around the island as well. Definitely a must see when visiting the city! We loved it!

The Olympic Plaza is located in the heart of the Cultural District at the start of the Stephen Walk…read morewhich takes through down town into Devonian Gardens & shopping. It was built for the 1988 Winter Olympics that took place in Calgary 36 years ago. Today a church group is providing a breakfast with prayer for the indigent. There was a lot of construction, garbage was piled up and security was walking around. There were some flowers. The center of the Plaza functions as a water fountain in the summer and a skating rink in the winter. In the summer there are flowers blossoming around the fountain. This is the venue for many big events in Calgary, the Stampede, the first Night Festival on New Year's Eve, the International Children's Festivals, & special events that include athletes and dignitaries.

A nice downtown park in Calgary. There are plenty of seats. It is way nicer in the summer time…read morewhere there are running fountains and people sitting and having lunch. It is close to the Center Street C-Train. It is a beautiful open space for many Calgarians to enjoy.

North Glenmore Park is an idyllic oasis in the city overlooking the Glenmore Reservoir. This vast…read morecity park boasts numerous walking/biking paths, lots of picnicking areas, and a big, brightly coloured playground for the kids. There are lots of wide open fields, perfect for flinging a frisbee around. There's plenty of parking, and this park is also home to the Calgary Canoe Club. It's a great place in the city to escape the hectic pace and unwind. Unfortunately, as I am writing this, there is an extensive construction project at the entrance to the park. No big whoop once you're in, but one wonders if the urban sprawl might not be creeping into this great green space.

I simply love this park, and I've yet to properly explore it still. Being a member of the Red Eyes…read morePaddling Club, I'm here twice a week to train on the Reservoir and get to see the park from it's heart, that is, the beautiful man-made lake that services the drinking water of 1/2 the city. From the cute domesticated ducks that follow the boats around (I named these 2 particular ducklings, L'Orange and Peking), the long paths that wrap all over the place and the interesting waterways to explore, it's a wonderful place to just spend a quiet day or train intensively for victory. Near the center, there's a huge children's park, surrounded by fire pits all over the place (they can be rented out for group events online with the City of Calgary Recreation website), so it's ideal for families to explore and enjoy. Bike paths are everywhere, as well as running paths, and unfortunately cops with radar traps (speed limit is 30...ah well), but that's how it should be I suppose. The only annoying thing I might say about it is that there's virtually few resources like public washrooms for the most part. Forget about snack shops or anything, it's mostly wilderness which is surprising for its size since it's just south of the middle of the city. And when there are special events, like the annual Loops for the Troops or the Betty Run for ALS, forget about parking. Just park a kilometer away and factor that it to your time. To me, my summer begins in April, when I step foot inside the park to start training with my beloved Red Eyes. And I dread when I leave it in October when the season is over. But every time I'm there, no matter how wet, cold, cold or stormy, it's still the place I probably love the most in this city.