Most people haven’t heard of Cranbrook unless you are one of three kinds of people: you drive across the country, you love skiing or you love mountain biking. This is a big loss because Cranbrook is a really wonderful place. It has a lot of the laid-back vibe of the Rockies without the high prices or big crowds of Banff and other tourist spots.
Cranbrook is on highway 3, which is the more southern of the highways that passes through the Rockies. If you drive straight west from Lethbridge, it takes about 3 hours. I’ve never driven Cranbrook to Vancouver straight west but it would probably take about 10 hours.
Cranbrook itself isn’t that big of a city, probably about 80, 000, but it draws people from across the Kootenay region for shopping and restaurants and the like. So there’s more amentities than you’d guess in a city that size. There’s a quaint strip of shops all in a row and you can find some really one of a kind things. Ive picked up a few pieces of decoration for my house that have a cool mountain feel without being too cheesy. Everytime I pass through town there seems to be more and more expansion of the big box stores at the end of town. So far theres a Walmart, a Home Depot and a Canadian Tire. In a sad but true way Id bet that the cool downtown area is being squeezed.
If you are a train buff, there’s the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel. I cannot recommend the place enough. There’s lots to see and everyone there was very nice and EXTREMELY knowledgeable about trains and what it was like to grow up in a train town. I don’t know enough about the city to know if there’s a busy nightlife but I would think it’s mostly the pubs. The younger party crowd Is more likely to head to Fernie which is a quick drive away. I caught a Kootenay Ice game. They play in the Western Hockey League; which is part of the Canadian Hockey League. The city is VERY passionate about their local team!!! The Ice has been a very successful team for the last few years and you can almost certainly catch some future NHL players at prices that are very reasonable.
I’m not a mountain biker but I see tonnes of people with very elaborate bikes in the summer and fall. There are off-road trails all across the area and some people even bike down the ski hills! I’ve yet to come across a tennis court that had anyone playing but I usually pass through town outside of key season. I’ve run all around the area and it’s amazing. There’s not one knock out view like in Banff but the whole environment is really refreshing. If you're into relaxed tourism vibes this could be a great place for you.
By Nicholas Paul Hanson
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