Nicest/Worst Places In Alberta - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

flamesdyehard · 03-08-2010, 11:57 PM

I thought this would be a neat thread to explore our province and think of the best and worst places in the province.

My 3 Nicest Places in order:

1.) Longview Region: Beautiful Rocky mountains in this wild rugged ranching area. I just love the scenery here.

2.) Kananaskis Country: A little too busy for me, but there are areas you can go where you are alone more or less. The scenery is breathtaking and it's so close to Banff/Canmore and Calgary.

3.) Nordegg Area: Great camping, and fairly isolated. Great country to enjoy nature.

Nicest City: Calgary, setting in beautiful foothills and a beautiful downtown core.

My 3 worst places in order:

1.) Wainwright: There is nothing good about this place. Ugly setting, dirty oil town and I find it very unfriendly and depressing.

2.) Fort McMurray/ Oilsands area: It is actually very nice by nature, lakes, streams and forest lend itself to a nice setting. However, the land has been ravaged and it's a very dirty expensive place. Not a fan.

3.) Brooks area: Wide open nothingness and and ugly town as well. Lake Newell is kind of endearing but not enough to make up for this armpit of Alberta.

What does everyone else think?

wooohooo · 03-09-2010, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamesdyehard

I thought this would be a neat thread to explore our province and think of the best and worst places in the province.

My 3 Nicest Places in order:

1.) Longview Region: Beautiful Rocky mountains in this wild rugged ranching area. I just love the scenery here.

2.) Kananaskis Country: A little too busy for me, but there are areas you can go where you are alone more or less. The scenery is breathtaking and it's so close to Banff/Canmore and Calgary.

3.) Nordegg Area: Great camping, and fairly isolated. Great country to enjoy nature.

Nicest City: Calgary, setting in beautiful foothills and a beautiful downtown core.

My 3 worst places in order:

1.) Wainwright: There is nothing good about this place. Ugly setting, dirty oil town and I find it very unfriendly and depressing.

2.) Fort McMurray/ Oilsands area: It is actually very nice by nature, lakes, streams and forest lend itself to a nice setting. However, the land has been ravaged and it's a very dirty expensive place. Not a fan.

3.) Brooks area: Wide open nothingness and and ugly town as well. Lake Newell is kind of endearing but not enough to make up for this armpit of Alberta.

What does everyone else think?

I think Edmonton is #1 for Ugly. I live here and it's dreadful.

SebC · 03-09-2010, 12:05 AM

Haha, aren't you the Ducks fan?

I'll cover the CP stereotypes right off the bat.

Nicest:
1) Calgary
2) Calgary
3) Calgary

Worst:
1) Edmonton
2) Edmonton
3) NE Calgary

flamesdyehard · 03-09-2010, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wooohooo

I think Edmonton is #1 for Ugly. I live here and it's dreadful.

Edmonton certainly isn't the prettiest city and I hate it as a born and raised Calgarian, but if someone gave me the choice to live in any of my 3 worst places or Edmonton I would choose Edmonton.

wooohooo · 03-09-2010, 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamesdyehard

Edmonton certainly isn't the prettiest city and I hate it as a born and raised Calgarian, but if someone gave me the choice to live in any of my 3 worst places or Edmonton I would choose Edmonton.

Well to be fair, I don't think you can really compare towns to cities. It's totally different. Any town is going to be desolate, dry and boring.

SebC · 03-09-2010, 12:43 AM

Are we talking about places to live, or places to visit?

Berger_4_ · 03-09-2010, 12:48 AM

3 Nicest:

1. Bawlf
2. Kananaskis
3. Calgary

3 Worst:

1. Heisler
2. Round Hill
3. Edmonton

And I'd disagree about town's being desolate, dry and boring. While they may not have the super-exciting stuff to do like a big city, the freedom and openness of the place more than makes up for it. The ability to go quading, skidooing, anything with a simple phone call to a couple buddy's is awesome. The fact that you actually know your neighbours, their kids, and their kid's kids is great...being able to leave your car and house unlocked is awesome.

The silence (I don't think I heard a single siren in 18 years...if I did it was 5 miles away on the highway) and the true darkness at night is something I wouldn't trade for the world.

Jayems · 03-09-2010, 01:06 AM

The absolute weirdest thing. I read this thread, started thinking that it'd be fun to post Google Street View screencaps of the worst, and I swear to god, I randomly chucked that dumb yellow man-figure on Alberta, and landed in Heisler. I thought, what a crap hole. I wonder if I ever played hockey here (Grades 1-3 in Hardisty) because it looked really familiar. But I won't post that because I didn't know if someone was from there. That was before Berger's post. I just got bored and got lost on the interwebz.
That is all. Please proceed to post 'Cool Story, Bro' photos.

The coolest thing I ever did as a kid was growing up in Hardisty, we all had motorbikes. We'd just rip around town on those 50cc bad boys and around the outskirts were cool tracks and jumps. Man, you'd never get to do that in the city.

flamesdyehard · 03-09-2010, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SebC

Are we talking about places to live, or places to visit?

Whatever you want. Mine were places to visit.

flamesdyehard · 03-09-2010, 01:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wooohooo

Well to be fair, I don't think you can really compare towns to cities. It's totally different. Any town is going to be desolate, dry and boring.

Personally I don't really like cities too much. My preference is to live somewhere quiet and less crowded while still living within an easy driving distance to a sizable city. This makes shopping, entertainment still accessible while having the advantage of living outside the city. Just my opinion of course.

Coach · 03-09-2010, 01:58 AM

Personally I really like Cochrane. Nice little town nestled in the river valley, but not so small that there's nothing to do, and close enough to Calgary to have the luxuries of the big city too.

Delthefunky · 03-09-2010, 01:58 AM

1. Whaleback/Porcupine Hills
2. Crowsnest (Coleman, Frank etc.)
3. Wood Buffalo

1. Brooks
2. Hobema
3. Provost

YourMother · 03-09-2010, 02:07 AM

Wetaskwin has to rank up there with the top crapholes in the province.

Mad Mel · 03-09-2010, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berger_4_

And I'd disagree about town's being desolate, dry and boring. While they may not have the super-exciting stuff to do like a big city, the freedom and openness of the place more than makes up for it. The ability to go quading, skidooing, anything with a simple phone call to a couple buddy's is awesome.

Which is a fck of a lot more super-exciting than anything you can do in the city. Seriously, when I lived in Calgary the things I looked forward to most involved getting the hell outta the city. Snowboarding, dirt biking, fishing, that kind of stuff. I guess if doing your best Night At the Roxbury imitation at the clubs is a person's idea of exciting, we'd have to agree to disagree.

In Alberta, I lived in Longview, Turner Valley, and then Calgary. If I didn't have to work downtown, there's no way in hell I'd live in the city. I fought it off for a few years, but eventually the traffic got the best of me and I moved into town. Quality of life is so much better in a small town. If it's close to the city, that much better, the city is still great for restaurants, shopping and entertainment. But when it comes to the things that are really fun, the things that convince you to suffer all week at work so you're able to do them on the weekend, well for me, they aren't in the city.

Nicest:
1. Longview / Black Diamond area
2. Waterton Area
3. Banff - Jasper corridor

Worst:
1. Anywhere on the bald-ass prairie
2. Any city

wooohooo · 03-09-2010, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamesdyehard

Personally I don't really like cities too much. My preference is to live somewhere quiet and less crowded while still living within an easy driving distance to a sizable city. This makes shopping, entertainment still accessible while having the advantage of living outside the city. Just my opinion of course.

I grew up in the city and have never really lived anywhere else. The few times I did stay in the country/towns I was bored out of my mind. I like the busy life style, malls, lots of places to go out... stuff like that.

Although I really do want to go visit Australia and New Zealand. They sound like fantastic places to visit. Seems like they got a good mix of everything except insects. I hate insects.

wooohooo · 03-09-2010, 02:47 AM

I really like San Franciso + surrounding. I used to hate Vancouver (cloudy/depressing) but went there for the Olympics and the weather was amazing!!! If it were like that all winter, I'd move there in a heart beat.

Best: San Francisco, Calgary (I really like it there... not too big, not too small), Cuba (Not to live but for vacation).

Worst: Edmonton, Buffalo, Abbotsford (spent my summer there)

GreatWhiteEbola · 03-09-2010, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berger_4_

3 Nicest:

1. Bawlf
2. Kananaskis
3. Calgary

3 Worst:

1. Heisler
2. Round Hill
3. Edmonton

Hahahaha Bawlf! Hahahaha.

blackgold · 03-09-2010, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wooohooo

I really like San Franciso + surrounding. I used to hate Vancouver (cloudy/depressing) but went there for the Olympics and the weather was amazing!!! If it were like that all winter, I'd move there in a heart beat.

Best: San Francisco, Calgary (I really like it there... not too big, not too small), Cuba (Not to live but for vacation).

Worst: Edmonton, Buffalo, Abbotsford (spent my summer there)

Either, you misread the thread title, or your knowledge of geography is awful.

GreatWhiteEbola · 03-09-2010, 06:53 AM

A nice, perhaps not the nicest, area of the bald-ass prairie.

Nice place to visit...

JohnnyB · 03-09-2010, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Mel

Which is a fck of a lot more super-exciting than anything you can do in the city. Seriously, when I lived in Calgary the things I looked forward to most involved getting the hell outta the city. Snowboarding, dirt biking, fishing, that kind of stuff. I guess if doing your best Night At the Roxbury imitation at the clubs is a person's idea of exciting, we'd have to agree to disagree.

When it comes to a medium-sized city like Calgary I tend to agree with you. When the biggest cities I had ever lived in were Calgary and Vancouver I really started thinking that living in the city was pretty crappy compared to living in a small town. I figured that I was going to go the way of the small town. Of course I then ended up moving to Shanghai and in the midst of that 22 million people and crazy metropolis I realized that it's just the middle cities that are kind of boring. Not far enough to either extreme. Not getting the straight-up nature and enjoyable pace of the small towns, but not getting the vibrance and excitement of the metropolis.

I honestly have very little interest in returning to Calgary now. I lived there until I was 18, and even after going to university in Vancouver I still considered it home until maybe 21, but it holds virtually nothing of interest for me now. On the other hand, I would definitely consider moving to somewhere in Alberta that is much smaller and nicer than Calgary for a while, such as Banff or Canmore.