TURNIPSEED TRAVEL
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Partner With Us
  • New Visitors
  • Social Media

A Taxi Ride With A Slice Of Humble Pie: Adventures Finding Calgary Airport Hotels With Shuttles

15/12/2015

 

We broke some basic travel rules and learned our lesson the expensive way. Here's what we wish we had known about booking Calgary Airport hotels with shuttles. Don't worry - there's a happy ending!

Calgary Airport hotel with shuttles Four Points by Sheraton Calgary Airport bed.
Searching for Calgary Airport hotel with shuttles: This was the best part of our evening - the great beds at the Four Points by Sheraton in Calgary.
Say hello to the Four Points by Sheraton hotel by the Calgary airport! This was our home for less than seven hours when we were cobbling together a series of inexpensive flights to make our way across Canada and eventually to Hawaii. Without enough time to visit friends or see the city, we nevertheless embraced our short stopover as an opportunity to get some much needed sleep on what was a very long voyage.

A quick look at a map told us that were many Calgary Airport hotel with shuttles that were so close to the airport, they were practically touching it and, even better, there were dozens of properties to chose from. That gave us an advantage when it came to online booking. We knew we were spoiled for choice and the Four Points won thanks to a combination of its price (under $100!) and its star rating (it was less expensive than some adjacent three star properties.) This was a chance for us to treat ourselves to some sweet stop-over sleep and we were very smug  for being such savvy spenders. 

Little did we realize we were about to make a big, BIG mistake!

We went searching for Calgary Airport hotels with shuttles but we found a whole lot of adventure!

Coffee Station Four Points by Sheraton Hotel Calgary Airport
Coffee in a cute little burlap bag and to-go cups ready for the morning.
Before I go any further, I should point out that the Four Points was indeed everything we were looking for and everything we wanted it to be. It was not our big mistake! The beds were clean, soft, and comfortable. The room had plugs galore and great Wi-Fi (a key requirement for airport hotels). We were able to enjoy a solid dose of both work and sleep. 

Like most Sheraton properties, there was a coffee station prepped so we could take freshly brewed coffee with us in the morning, and they also included complimentary bottles of water. Such a nice touch! We were thrilled with this change from our usual airport accommodations (aka: the floor!) and we couldn't have asked for a better hotel at that price point. 

But when it came to actually getting to the hotel.... well, talk about making some mistakes!

A few lessons about the layout of Calgary Airport - and how the shuttles actually work!

Four Points by Sheraton Hotel Calgary Airport Free Water
The world can be divided into hotels that offer complimentary bottled water.... and then there's all the rest. Such a tiny touch but it makes a huge difference.
Our big, BIG mistake wasn't our choice of hotel but rather our plan on how to get there.  With just one quick glance at the map, we made the hasty judgement that the hotel's incredibly close proximity to the airport meant it wasn't necessary to purchase the $5 tickets for the airport-to-hotel shuttle.  We could walk!

Now why in the world did we ever think we'd WALK to the hotel!? I have no idea what we were thinking! We were either insane (likely) or we perhaps had vague memories of an earlier trip to Europe where encountered airport terminals so oddly configured that it was often less frustrating and much quicker to walk to our destination than to wait for a shuttle. Did I mention this was March, this was Calgary, and we were arriving near midnight?

​But no, our plan was to walk. To walk in the middle of the night, in winter, without a map or direction. Or jackets. Because: HAWAII!
http://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/8121398/type/dlg/https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Hotel_Review-g154913-d1737188-Reviews-Four_Points_by_Sheraton_Calgary_Airport-Calgary_Alberta.html Beautiful weather in Kauai
THIS is the weather we dressed for. Oops!
Of course, as soon as we landed, we decided we didn't want to walk. Because the truth is that we're lazy sometimes. Or maybe it's a lot of the time! Either way, we were lazy that night and that's probably a good thing, given how woefully unprepared we were. The taxi was sounding pretty good.

And, as expected, there was no waiting around.  Our friendly driver helped load our backpacks and we were off! See ya, shuttle suckers! We'll be asleep in bed and you'll still be waiting by Pillar 16! 

It wasn't long before we noticed something was wrong. We had only been driving a few minutes but already the meter showed almost a $20 fare. What was going on!? Were we being charged extra for our luggage? Maybe the fare was more expensive because we were in a van? Nope. Welcome to Calgary. Vancouver might be called Canada's most expensive city but that night I believed Calgary could give it a run for it's money.

Ready for a good dose of irony? In Calgary, it costs $3.80 for the first 120 meters of a cab ride - but when you're picked up at the airport it costs $8.30. It's all due to an airport levy tax. It's the same tax that necessitates a ticket price for the hotel shuttle. So you're paying that airport levy one way or another.
Picture
Well done us. We either had to trudge in the snow, in the dark, with no map or take the world's most expensive taxi. Travel FAIL!
We looked at each other in horror as the meter kept creeping higher and higher. Ryan frantically did a GPS search on his phone to make sure the driver was indeed taking us the shortest possible route. Turns out, like every other airport in the world, the roads around Calgary airport are a bit of a tangle and you have to basically loop around the airport (and halfway around the city, and a few mountains, and backtrack on a few highways) to arrive at the cluster of airport hotels that are so tantalizingly close to the tarmac. 

That ride goes down as the saddest $40 we've ever spent on travel and we wallowed in shame for a good hour or two. Thank goodness we had a nice room as compensation!  
Bed and arm chair Four Points by Sheraton Hotel Calgary Airport
Thank goodness we had a nice room waiting so we could sooth our rumpled souls!
While our hotel choice was a winner, our overall plan was a huge fail and we had no one to blame but ourselves. We let ourselves get cocky and assumed it would all work out for crafty, experienced travelers such as ourselves. On some subconscious level we probably thought "How complicated can a Canadian airport be"? Hadn't we navigated every airport from Athens to Yangon with ease?  Lesson learned. The travel world will always find a way to humble you and a bit of extra preparation is never a waste of time.

We also broke one of the key rules  of value travel and focused on the price tag and not the value. Booking the airport shuttle in advance, no matter the cost, would have brought peace of mind and that's something worth paying for. And, frankly, the more expensive hotel located directly on the airport property might have been a worthy investment, given the time and money we wasted on transportation. Miscalculating the hotel's distance from the airport didn't just cost us money; it also cost us a lot of extra sleep considering how much time we spent in transit. 
Picture
Humble pie is my least favorite kind of travel food and I felt foolish for a very long time that I hadn't looked up proper directions, that I was so naive to think we could walk from the airport to the hotel, and that I ever thought a taxi would be an economical choice.  

We're fortunate that this travel disaster was relatively minor in the grand scheme of things and the only thing that was wounded was our pride (and pocketbook!)

​Happily, our return trip to the airport was far less problematic. The shuttle is free for those being dropped off at the airport. By the time we boarded our flight to Honolulu, our moods began to match the sunny weather and we could take our Calgary travel memories with a grain of salt. If you too are looking at Calgary Airport hotels with shuttles as an option - take it! 

Picture
Surely we're not the only ones who have made a mistake like this, right guys? Right? Um.... guys?

Tell us some lessons you've learned the hard way!


​
If you enjoyed this article, you'll also like:

Taking the Ferry to Newfoundland
Why We Love Layovers So Much
Is Hawaii Affordable?
Claudia link
17/12/2015 03:11:27 pm

Because Hawaii! You made me laugh. I have had some really long layovers. I spend days studying the best options. In London, I managed to find a good hotel that wasn't to far from the Terminal (and before actually booking, I had checked that there was a shuttle to take me there as I knew from experience that taxis in London are crazy expensive). In Miami, all hotels near the airport had a check in time of 1 pm when I was landing there at 4 am. So basically I would have to book 2 nights to only be allowed to sleep for 8 hours during my 15 hours layover. In the end, the best option for me was to buy a day pass for the Admirals' Lounge where I put 4 chairs together, got a few pillows and blanket and slept like a baby. It was the best 50 USD I have ever spent while traveling: I could shower in spotless bathrooms, they had free food, great wifi, and what not. Totally worth it and definitely cheaper and better than paying 30 USD to get to a hotel which I'd pay no less than 150 USD per night!

Vanessa
17/12/2015 03:18:50 pm

Lounges are so often the way to go! The bathrooms, the showers, the service - it's such a civilized break from the airport. And you can often get REAL food. Usually it's just stuff like soup and salad but I'll take it any day!

Tamara (Globe Guide) link
17/12/2015 06:43:27 pm

Sorry to hear, friend! Even the most seasoned of us travellers have flubs once in a while- I always try to remind myself "it will make a good story someday" lol

Vanessa
18/12/2015 10:08:55 am

That's exactly what happened here!

anna link
19/12/2015 02:39:15 pm

Hahaha! We've had our fair share of airport mess ups...and walking in the night times! You can only laugh about it.

Vanessa
20/12/2015 10:17:32 pm

I still don't know what we were thinking there. Travel brain freeze!

marta link
19/12/2015 04:24:33 pm

Nooo, I can feel your pain!! It's always so annoying when we think we have devised the perfect plan and it falls totally flat. For me, it wasn't a layover, but rather a night in Mexico that I decided I would spend travelling by bus to save money: it would have worked, except in Chiapas the bus got stopped and searched pretty much every hour, so at 6 am instead of visiting my destination, I checked into a hotel and slept the whole day! What a waste!

Vanessa
20/12/2015 10:19:18 pm

UGH. Miscalculating things related to sleep is my travel nightmare. We had the same situation in Myanmar. Thought we could sleep overnight on the train from Bagan to Yangon. Um..... NO! A horrible night, followed by 20 hours of sleep in Yangon. So much for traveling overnight and saving time to see more of the city.

Stefan link
20/12/2015 08:03:31 am

Airport taxis- always a pain in the back side. But guys, what is the alternative to get from the airport into town? Does the shuttle go as well? Or it's just to take you to the airport?

Vanessa
20/12/2015 10:20:37 pm

No idea! I think if you wanted to get into the city you'd have to take a taxi from the hotel to the downtown core - or perhaps there's a bus? But for the return trip to the airport we could take the shuttle for free.

Laura link
20/12/2015 06:53:08 pm

That's horrible! I've definitely made mistakes that were costly like that and it just feel so bad to hand over that money. But you couldn't really have known. I mean, when does a taxi ever cost that much for a 1-mile ride?

Vanessa
20/12/2015 10:22:38 pm

The crazy thing is that it was nearly 15 kilometers because we basically circled the entire airport property on this tangle of highways. It was so much further away than we thought.

Alli link
20/12/2015 09:03:05 pm

I always think that with these travel "fails," the best stories are made! :) I know what you mean when you say the only thing that was affected was pride and pocketbook - I was lost in Paris once and drove around in a taxi all night trying to find my campsite. It cost me a couple hundred Euros! :P

Vanessa
20/12/2015 10:24:26 pm

Oh no! Now I feel much better about my own taxi problems!

Mar Pages vidal link
21/12/2015 02:13:49 am

Yes, we all have done this before. I once walked in the middle of the night to what seemed to be right across from the airport in Cook islands and it was indeed, what I didn't count on was that it was an extremely 45 degree steep hike for the 5min with all my luggage, I struggled so much some passer by had to come help me. lesson learned

Vanessa
21/12/2015 09:24:39 am

Is there anything so humiliating as being such a travel fail that you become a spectacle and locals feel compelled to step in and help? Yep. Been there, done that!

Jenna link
21/12/2015 02:44:07 am

Oh no! This sounds like something we would do, too. I'm always tempted to try and walk to save a bit, but sometimes it's a horrible decision, lol. Glad you at least had a nice hotel to relax in and it's great the ride to the airport was free! Hope Hawaii was wonderful!

Vanessa
21/12/2015 09:25:24 am

Hawaii was absolutely awesome- it totally made up for all the adventure we had in getting there.

antonette link
21/12/2015 12:46:21 pm

So sorry to hear about this - how ridiculous is that airport charge? Didn't the hotel have a complimentary shuttle? I thought most airport hotels do nowadays...

Vanessa
22/12/2015 06:18:40 pm

Most do - the key here is that there is an airport levy tax for all commercial vehicles parking at the airport (taxi, shuttles, etc) and of course that is passed on to the consumer. Hence, it's free to return to the airport but it's not free to take a vehicle from the airport going outwards.

Christine
14/1/2016 11:57:23 pm

Oh man, I feel for you! I live in Calgary but don't use the airport much. There used to be a road that took you on a much more convenient (direct) route towards those hotels but, but, but, it was shut down in the name of progress. i.e. a brand new, extra-long, extra-wide (or something like that) runway. They was even a mega-debate for a few years about building a road tunnel underneath it. They built the tunnel. Except that they haven't really connected it to anything yet!

Vanessa
15/1/2016 08:15:23 pm

Isn't there always crazy roadworks that affect airports? It would be awesome to have a tunnel - or a subway or a commuter train - to move people with less difficulty.


Comments are closed.
    Recent Posts
    Posts by Location
    Turnipseed Travel Category Canada
    Turnipseed Travel Category USA
    Turnipseed Travel Category Europe
    Turnipseed Travel Category Africa
    Turnipseed Travel Category Australia
    Turnipseed Travel Category Asia

    Post Categories

    All
    $200 Challenge
    200m Challenge
    Accommodation
    Africa
    Amsterdam
    Anti Adventurist
    Asia
    Australia
    Belgium
    Business Travel
    Camping
    Canada
    Central Counties
    Cozy Travel
    Destinations
    Europe
    Experiences & Activities
    Female Travel
    Food And Drink
    Gear And Packing
    Golf
    Greece
    Guest Posts & Interviews
    Health
    Inspiration
    Making Travel Memories
    Montreal
    Most Popular Posts
    National Parks
    Norfolk County
    Ontario
    Ottawa
    Paris
    Partners
    Pet Travel
    Photo Essay
    Preparation
    Press Trip Portfolio
    Reviews Accommodation
    Reviews Gear Packing
    Round The World
    Saving
    Toronto
    Transportation
    Travel Cooking
    Travel Memories Series
    UK & Ireland
    United States

    Posts by Date

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

Disclaimers, Privacy, and Cookie Policy

Top 100 Travel Influencer
As named by the Obama White House in 2014.​
White House Study Abroad Logo 2014
Turnipseed Travel Logo 2019
DMCA.com Protection Status
© COPYRIGHT 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Partner With Us
  • New Visitors
  • Social Media