Limo and chauffeur service across Alberta

Two cities, one corridor and the mountains between

Alberta books chauffeurs for two cities three hours apart and for the mountains that its airports are the gateways to. Calgary and Edmonton have their own pages, as do their airports; Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, Kananaskis, Jasper, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray and every other address in the province price on the same engine to the same standard. This page is the rest of the map: the airports, the QE2 corridor that the province's businesses run on, the Trans-Canada and the Yellowhead into the parks, the chinooks and the ground blizzards, the sectors, the occasions and the provincial rules.

The airports

Calgary International with its domestic and international terminals and Edmonton International with its single terminal a long way out have their own guides; Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray handle the regions and the oil-sands traffic; the Springbank and Villeneuve fields handle the private jets. Every one is on the airports page and on the engine, with the car warm at the curb from October.

The QE2 and the corridors

The Queen Elizabeth II Highway between Calgary and Edmonton is the province's spine - three hundred kilometres, three hours, Red Deer halfway - and the weekly run for the energy sector, the government, the lawyers and the universities; the Trans-Canada west from Calgary into Banff and on to British Columbia; the Yellowhead west from Edmonton into Jasper; Highway 2 south to Lethbridge and the US border; Highway 63 north to Fort McMurray; Highway 43 north-west to Grande Prairie. The city-to-city service prices each as a fixed fare with the return built in.

Figures are approximate; the engine prices the exact address. There are no road tolls in Alberta; the Parks Canada entry pass is added at cost for Banff and Jasper.

The chinooks, the ground blizzards and the winter

Alberta's winter has two personalities. In the south the chinook - a warm, dry wind off the Rockies - can lift Calgary from minus twenty to plus ten in an hour and leave the roads glazed by dark; in the north and on the QE2's open stretches the ground blizzard - wind-driven snow across a flat, treeless highway - closes the corridor a few days a season. Every vehicle in the fleet runs winter tyres and block heaters from October, the chauffeurs keep the car warm at the curb, and Alberta 511 is what dispatch reads before every long pickup; a closed QE2 is a phone call before the pickup and a trip that cannot go is cancelled without charge.

The mountain parks

Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper are national parks and every vehicle entering them needs a Parks Canada entry pass, which the chauffeur has and which is added at cost, shown at booking; Moraine Lake's road is closed to private vehicles in season and reached by the park's shuttle; the Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper closes in winter storms and is glorious in September. Wildlife on the highway at dusk is not a figure of speech, and the chauffeurs drive the Trans-Canada and the Yellowhead accordingly. The airport-to-resort transfer with the skis in the back is the booking the province is known for and the Calgary airport page covers it.

The sectors that book the corporate account

The energy companies' head offices in Calgary's towers and their operations in the heartland north of Edmonton and the oil sands beyond, the engineering and pipeline firms, the provincial government and the University of Alberta in Edmonton, the agriculture and food companies in Lethbridge and Red Deer, the tech companies in both cities, the health authority: the corporate account's one monthly invoice covers YYC on Monday, the QE2 on Wednesday and the Banff client weekend on Friday.

The occasions

The Banff and Canmore mountain weddings, the Calgary hotel weddings, the Edmonton river-valley weddings and the June grad seasons in both cities; the Stampede's ten days in July and the Oilers' and the Flames' winters; the Calgary Folk Festival, the Edmonton Fringe and Folk Festival, K-Days and the Grey Cup years: the wedding, prom, sporting events and nights out pages cover each, and Stampede week should be booked in the spring.

The rules a passenger might want to know

Chauffeurs hold the province's Class 4 licence for taxis, limousines and small buses and the vehicles carry commercial passenger insurance; the cities license the operators. Winter tyres are not required by Alberta law but every vehicle in the fleet runs them from October. Child restraints are required by the Traffic Safety Act until the child is six or eighteen kilograms, and boosters are strongly recommended beyond that; the chauffeur fits the seat at no charge when it is noted at booking. The drinking age is eighteen and alcohol in a vehicle is permitted only in a licensed limousine with a partition, for passengers of age.

What a limo costs in Alberta

Fixed by the addresses and the vehicle class, shown before you book. YYC to downtown Calgary in an Executive Sedan is the province's most-booked transfer; Banff, Jasper and the QE2 are fixed fares with the return built in and the park pass at cost; the Stampede week's hospitality runs and the grad night are priced by the hour with a minimum. No surge in Stampede week, no meter, no gratuity added. The fleet page has the capacities.

Cross-border from Alberta

The Coutts crossing south of Lethbridge to Montana's Interstate 15 is the province's border, and the cross-border service runs to Great Falls, Kalispell and the Montana side of the Waterton-Glacier park on our own cars; the drive to Seattle or Vancouver is through British Columbia and its pages.

Two questions Alberta travellers ask the desk

Is the QE2 open? Alberta 511's answer on a winter morning, read before every corridor departure; a ground blizzard closes it a few days a season and the trip is cancelled without charge. Can we do Banff and Jasper in a week from Calgary? Yes - the Icefields Parkway between them is the best day of it - as a touring itinerary with the chauffeur's overnights quoted and the SUV carrying the luggage. A third, asked every June: Stampede week's cars are booked by May.

The Alberta year, month by month

Booking notes by vehicle class in Alberta

The Executive Sedan is the YYC and YEG airport car and the QE2 corridor car; the Premium Sedan is the Stephen Avenue and legislature choice; the Luxury SUV is the Banff, Jasper and Kananaskis vehicle with the skis and the one to book for the Trans-Canada and the Yellowhead in winter; the Executive Sprinter carries the wedding party, the Stampede hospitality team, the ski house and the mountain wedding's guests; the Stretch Limousine is the grad and wedding car in both cities and the only vehicle in which the province's alcohol rule permits a glass; the Minicoach is the corporate shuttle and the Stampede group's vehicle for twenty. The fleet page has the capacities and the booking page prices each class against the address.

Three Alberta itineraries the desk builds most often

The YYC-to-Banff ski transfer. Pickup at the domestic or international arrivals with the flight tracked, the Trans-Canada to Canmore and Banff in ninety minutes in an SUV with the skis and the park pass at cost, and the return at the week's end - one fixed fare each way with the return built in, and the Calgary airport page covers the airport end.

The Stampede week corporate programme. The client's guests met at YYC through the week, the hospitality tent's shuttle by the hour each evening, the Sprinter for the chuckwagon night, and the airport departures on the Sunday - built with the account in May, one invoice, and the Calgary page has the grounds.

The Icefields Parkway day. Banff or Lake Louise pickup, the Parkway north with the chauffeur stopping at Bow Lake, Peyto and the Columbia Icefield, the Skywalk, and Jasper by evening - a touring day priced by the hour or as a fixed transfer with the stops built in, and the Edmonton airport page covers the Jasper end.

The Alberta numbers a traveller might want

Alberta is home to roughly four and a half million people and its two cities are the country's fourth and fifth largest; Calgary International handled close to twenty million passengers in its last full year and Edmonton International more than eight million; the QE2 carries more than sixty thousand vehicles a day at its busiest; and Banff National Park receives more than four million visitors a year, which is why a Christmas-week transfer is booked in October. Alberta 511, the Calgary Airport Authority and Parks Canada publish the figures.

Book a chauffeur in Alberta