Tourism Calgary (403/263-8510 or 800/661-1678, www.tourismcalgary.com) promotes the city to the world. The organization also operates two Visitor Information Centres. The one that greets visitors arriving by air is across from Carousel 4 at Calgary International Airport (403/735-1234, year-round, daily 6 a.m.–11 p.m.). The other is right downtown, at the base of the Calgary Tower (101 9th Ave. SW, 403/750-2362, daily in summer 8 a.m.–8 p.m., the rest of the year Mon.–Fri. 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.).

The TransCanada Highway (Hwy. 1) passes through the city north of downtown and is known as 16th Avenue North within the city limits. Highway 2, Alberta’s major north–south highway, is known as Deerfoot Trail within city limits. Many major arteries are known as trails: The main route south from downtown is Macleod Trail, a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) strip of malls, motels, restaurants, and retail stores. If you enter Calgary from the west and are heading south, a handy bypass to take is Sarcee Trail, then Glenmore Trail, which joins Highway 2 south of the city. Crowchild Trail starts downtown and heads northwest past the university to Cochrane.

The street-numbering system is divided into four quadrants—northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast. Each street address has a corresponding abbreviation tacked onto it (NW, NE, SW, and SE). The north–south division is the Bow River. The east–west division is at Macleod Trail and north of downtown at Centre Street. Streets run north to south and avenues from east to west. Both streets and avenues are numbered progressively from the quadrant divisions (e.g., an address on 58th Ave. SE is the 58th street south of the Bow River, is east of Macleod Trail, and is on a street that runs east to west).