Edmonton Travel Guide
Edmonton offers a great variety of restaurants, galleries, museums, festivals, theatres, sporting events, recreational centres, golf courses, outdoor biking and ski trails, and much more. Another huge attraction is West Edmonton Mall, the world' s largest shopping and entertainment centre.
Edmonton
The capital of the province of Alberta has a metro population of one million people, a world famous mall and a hockey team that gave rise to The Great One.
Telus World of Science
Yes, another in a long line of interactive science museums that often draw a fair amount of attention in this blog. But wait, this one is special. The Edmonton Space & Science Foundation operates the Telus World of Science, which lures over half a million visitors per year. The museum contains the Margaret Zeidler Star Theatre, the top planetarium dome in Canada. The Forensics and Robotics sections prove particularly popular with parents and kids alike.
Edmonton Composting Facility
The Edmonton Composting Facility may win the prize for the most oddball must-see attraction ever in the history of this fair blog. But why should that be? The fact is that Edmonton is one of the most progressive jurisdictions in North America when it comes to waste management. The city’s Composting Facility is the top stainless steel structure on the continent in square meters and can process 200,000 tons of residential waste and 25,000 dry tons of biosolids every year. Visitors can arrange a tour of this superb facility via the City of Edmonton.
Fort Edmonton Park
Canada has a lot of historical reenactment and heritage museums (look for a future article on this topic) and Fort Edmonton Park is one of the most notable. Open from May to September, the park is very much a time warp and spans a beautiful section of the North Saskatchewan River’s south bank.
Francis Winspear Centre for Music
A remarkable modern pipe organ, built in 2002, is the first element that strikes many about the Francis Winspear Centre for Music. Easily one of the most impressive concert halls in Canada, the home of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is a relatively new and fresh face on the city’s skyline.
Art Gallery of Alberta
As the provincial capital, Edmonton has the privilege to host various cultural landmarks like the exquisite Art Gallery of Alberta. The public art gallery has a great collection of more than 6,000 works but what draws the most acclaim is a recent redesign by Frank Gehry protégé Randall Stout.
Edmonton International Fringe Festival
As the first festival in North America to pay tribute to Edinburgh’s famous annual event, the Edmonton International Fringe Festival has a lot of clout and street cred. Since 1982, it has been the top annual festival in the city, with average attendance in excess of half a million people.
Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market
Old Strathcona is a cool historic district of Edmonton with a lot of wonderful, heritage architecture to enjoy. From coffee shops to restaurants, nightclubs to boutiques, there’s much to love about the district. The Farmers’ Market however, is Old Strathcona’s best attraction.
Royal Alberta Museum
Thanks to royal patronage by Queen Elizabeth in 2005, the Provincial Museum of Alberta became the Royal Alberta Museum. Exhibits on indigenous cultures, wildlife, archaeology, entomology and natural history are some of the best in North America. A fancy facelift will provide even more reason to visit the museum in the near future.
West Edmonton Mall
The West Edmonton Mall is no longer the biggest in the world but hey, it had a good run for over 23 years. Beat out by formidable competition in Asia in 2004, the mall is still tops in North America and incredibly, draws over 28 million visitors and shoppers a year.
Edmonton Oilers
A trip to Edmonton, between October and April that is (and hopefully beyond that into the playoffs), is incomplete without a trip to Rexall Place to catch the hometown Oilers in action. This was after all, the team of #99, Wayne Gretzky, and other Hall of Fame legends like Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr. Taylor Hall, the number one overall draft pick in 2010, will bring new hockey excitement to the city.