Kaye.

Hi all,

Just looking for a bit of advice please as to when the best time to visit Alberta is. We are planning our recce for next year, and will be focusing on Calgary and surrounding towns, and maybe further north to Edmonton if we can manage it.

I know there's no point choosing a specific season as if we moved there we would have to go through all the seasons... but is there a best time to visit and why?

Also, is one week enough to get a quick look around, or is that just not going to be enough time? Given the choice is it better to take the kids or leave them at home with family? (for the recce not when/if we move )

Sorry for all the questions

Merry

Sorry can't help you much on location but if you're only going for say a week, I'd leave the kids behind. It depends on their ages I suppose - we went for a few days visit without ours and got so much more done than if we'd had them with us. I then felt a bit guilty so took the two eldest (then 10 and 7) over for a week and that let me focus on them and what they wanted to see and find out about. We went last October in our 'tattie holidays' but as they don't have them in NS it meant the kids could also see a school there. The youngest has never been - his first visit will be when we land in January.

Almost Canadian

What do you wish to achieve? If it is to see how cold it gets, what driving is like, etc. in the Winter, then go in the Winter. If it's to see how warm it gets, how full of tourists Caglary is during Stampede, what the Rockies look like in Smmer, etc. go in the Summer. Same for fall and Spring.

Have you been to Canada before?

A week will give you a feel for the places, but will not really allow you to get to know Calgary and Edmonton, particularly if you visit both and surrounding communities. You will leave with holiday specs on.

We always took our kids with us and they didn't stop us doing anything. You may choose to leave them behind if you plan to do nothing but "reccie stuff" (although I fail to see what reccie stuff you could be doing that they would stop you doing - it's not like you are planning a military operation behind enemy lines). If you plan to do any form of vacation stuff at all, I would assume that they will make that more fulfilling.

Each to their own.

Piff Poff

I would suggest in between May and September (Labour Day). Why? 'Cause everywhere will be open (apart from ski hills and community ice rinks of course). You will be able to get around easily and quickly and you won't have to stress about the snow and temps if you've never dealt with all that before. I would also bring kids - they are moving too and if they've never been it could be a way of dispelling some fears, for example all their friends telling them they'll be living in igloos and it's always cold - my Mum still thinks this

Kaye.

Sorry I should have said in the original post that my kids are 4 and 18 months, so by the time we are going for our recce they'll be around 5 & 2.... if we were to leave them with family I'd only be able to cope with a week!


We have not been to Canada before, so it's really just to see what we think of it, whether we want to put an application in or not. Also we'd try to meet with some companies to see what the job situation would be for my hubby.

I completely agree that having them with us will make it more of a fulfilling holiday..

Thank you Piff Poff thats exactly what I was after

MR79

go when the flights are cheap and the exchange rate is good....

Getting There

As AC has indicated, there's value to be had in a visit at any time of year. We never did a winter research trip and so that remained as a residual concern for us when we actually moved here, so there's maybe something to be said for coming over in that season, if only to take the edge off one aspect of the fear of the unknown. A week is certainly at the shorter end of research trip durations, although we have helped one family that moved here on the back of the wife coming here for a weekend! Two weeks, if you could manage it, would certainly allow you to explore in more depth. But any time here at all will add greatly to your knowledge so just do what you can.

Kind regards,

Eamonn & Janet.

JET747

We went end of October early November. We thought that if we go out of holiday season when the weather is dull you get to see it all at it's worst with regards to season - and also avoid tourists - which we did. Any later the snow would have been in.

I think some of the other comments are also valid with respect to air fare, currency exchange etc.

JET

Kaye.

Thanks to all for the replies, we'll look into flights after Christmas and try and work out when the cheapest time to go is.

We'll take the kids and visit for a fortnight I think..

Sam-in-Okotoks

Our recce was for 3 weeks and the kids were left with the grandparents because we didn't want to take them out of school. I have to admit looking back it was hard on the kids and hard on us but we did manage to achieve everything we wanted to do during the recce trip.

A recce trip is very important and anytime you can manage over here will help with future plans. One thing to think about is you will be spending many hours in the car and this can be difficult with young children. We have seen some people who put their kids off Canada during the recce trip because the whole trip was spent travelling with no real fun time for the children. If you do decide to bring the kids make sure you stay in hotels that have a pool and build some activities into the trip that the children will enjoy.

If you are concentrating on Edmonton and Calgary, two weeks will give you enough time to have a really good look at both. We are in Okotoks, so please feel free to pop in for a cuppa when you are here.

Sam

Piff Poff

Very valid points about long hours in car! We hired an RV for our recce trip, our daughter was 9 at the time (just one kid), she was at times bored silly and at other times amazed by the scenery - one comment she made that stands out 'Mum I can see why you want us to move to canada - at least it's clean there.' We were standing amongst the litter and dog ends at Gatwick airport waiting for the shuttle bus to collect our car.