I live on the Atlantic Coast, but I've been to Calgary and it is truly a beautiful area. Calgary is about an hour(?) from Banff which is where the Rockies are. The mountains, though I'm sure are not as magnificent as the Swiss Alps, are nonetheless breaktaking. If I couldn't live by the ocean, the mountains would be a close 2nd.

Calgary gets very, very cold in the winter. Luckily I was only there in the summer! But winters can get to -30 C. But they have shinooks, which are freaky warm spells that occur unexpectantly in the winter. But they come and go pretty quickly.

I only spent a couple days in Calgary itself, but there's a nice zoo to visit. And if you find geology interesting, then definitely check out Drumheller where you can see where the dinosaurs used to roam.

Hopefully someone posts here who lives on the west coast and knows more about the area. Meanwhile, here's the Alberta Tourism website: http://www1.travelalberta.com/conten...algary+tourism