OT: What to do in Edmonton?

tempest2i

Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Oct 25, 2009
9,118
91
Cowtown
You can also float in the North Saskatchewan or better yet take a quick trip out to Pembina, I think you can take a bus to an upriver spot and even rent inner tubes to float back down to where you parked.
http://www.pembinarivertubing.com/

Years ago a group of 8 of us took a canoe trip from Devon to Fort Edmonton and it was super fun. We rented canoes, they drove us out to Devon from the Zoo, set us up and dealt with the canoes once we arrived back in the city. I can't remember the name of the company, but I do remember the canoes were red. :laugh:

Imo, few things beat a day on the water.
 

Captain Pilsner

Registered User
Sep 1, 2005
2,013
23
Years ago a group of 8 of us took a canoe trip from Devon to Fort Edmonton and it was super fun. We rented canoes, they drove us out to Devon from the Zoo, set us up and dealt with the canoes once we arrived back in the city. I can't remember the name of the company, but I do remember the canoes were red. :laugh:

Imo, few things beat a day on the water.

I'm no shill, but have taken CanoeHeads a few times for this exact trip - Edmonton Canoe also does this. Their prices are similar, I'm not sure of any differences really.

I challenge anyone to come up with a better way to experience the Edmonton region's diverse natural environment in 6 hours! A. MUST. DO.
 

Section337

Registered User
Jul 7, 2007
5,356
722
Edmonton, AB
If you are art fans or feel like checking out some art, I think the current exhibits at the Art Gallery of Alberta are one of their better recent sets. The Jack Bush display tells a good story, made it easier for me to accept his art, and the Baroque exhibit, well there is just something about an old painting well displayed. If you are in town on a Saturday you can consider combining a visit here with the 104th St. Farmer's Market, ICE district centre visit and checking out the construction.

If you do use the high-level tram and/or White Ave/109th St. Walk, in conjunction with the Fringe Festival, and visit the Leg grounds, you might as well go in for the tour on the hour. Only 30 minutes and free.

My feeling on some of the Restaurants mentioned and not:
- At Mercer's Tavern, I would recommend their Mercer's Fried Chicken. Tasty and not nearly as heavy as it sounds.
- Rostizado by Tres Carnale, which is in the same building, has left me feeling that they sell more than they deliver. They deliver good, but there found they do some upselling.
- Blue Plate Diner is a place my Mom, who is a bit of a bad orderer, likes. I usually enjoy the meals there, though the place can get really noisy. Favourite item is the Apple and Sage Porkchop.
- Finishing off 104th St, has anyone been to the Black Pearl Seafood Restaurant or the Barrel and Cask.
- Corso 32 is good, but I doubt I would go in a situation when travelling with a group of friends.
- Other downtownish, nothing spectacular, but places you will likely enjoy as group of friends - Craft Beer Market, Cactus Club, Joey's Downtown
 

Cawz

Registered User
Sep 18, 2003
14,372
3
Oiler fan in Calgary
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For Calgary rather than recommending particular establishments (different tastes exist0 I find it more conducive to recommend certain areas.

I'm a walker. Love walkable cities, areas. A good downtown Calgary walk is along the Bow. Starting from east, exploring the river, Princes island park, going to Kensington.

Thats the Riverwalk. Just won a Canadian Landscape Architecture award and was up for a Urban Land Institute prize against developments in New York, Oregon and Alabama (dont think it won though, but still nice to be nominated).

http://www.stantec.com/about-us/news/2015/stantecs-riverwalk-wins-cla-award.html#.VcVGxflVh4I

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/riverwalk-in-calgary-up-for-award-1.1255825
 

Dorian2

Define that balance
Jul 17, 2009
12,250
2,232
Edmonton
Everyone has great ideas on where to go in both Edmonton and Calgary.

But I think there should be more talk of the Edmonton area for the OP.. not so much about our Southern neighbors .... both for the ideas as well as his/her sanity. jmo
 

Baby Nilsson

Registered User
Apr 20, 2006
1,606
1
Victoria
NO

Ask any family-owned business. Yelp asks for money to remove bad reviews and to display good ones. It's a racket. If you refuse to pay Yelp, your scores will fall.

Urbanspoon was much better but now that it's under new ownership it looks to have lost its appeal as well.

Meh, I think it's no more than a conspiracy/confirmation bias. I've read arguments on both sides and the nobody can prove that Yelp actually extorts people, much less win a lawsuit, and business owners aren't exactly computer scientists who can analyse and interpret the data spun out from Yelp's Algorithm.

I think people see Yelp's aggressive sales tactics as nefarious blackmailing especially when they see negative reviews/reviews filtered out, thereby conflating the two together.
 

blobloblaw

Registered User
Nov 6, 2014
89
2
Earth
Well, you could get up on the first day and head down to the OEB for breakfast. Once that is done, head down one of the rental places in town, pick up a raft and take a float down the bow for the entire afternoon. In the evening, head down to the National on 10th for something to eat and try your hand at some bowling.

On day 2 you'll probably be hungover like hell and you'll be getting up pretty late in the afternoon. Peel yourself out of bed, and load up on bacon at diner deluxe. Once you've fed yourself, wander down the hill into downtown and enjoy some of the cool sights down there (peace bridge, the giant head, other street art). See if you can find a bored Cenovus or Encana employee to take you up to the 56th floor of the Bow. If you're less interested in making friends with random oil company employees, buy a ticket and get up the Calgary Tower. Once you're done looking at the mountains and standing on the glass floor, get back down to street level, cross 9th and get your eat on a Charcut. There's a plethora of bars, live music and all sorts of **** to entertain you downtown for the rest of the night. Might I suggest some late night authentic Asian Karaoke at Nanta? Comes complete with giant beers, rowdy locals and a staff that's way too tolerant of their guests.

Day 3, lets work some of that booze out of your system from the last couple days of going crazy. Take a quick drive over to Nose Hill and walk amongst the wild grass lands that Calgary used to be before the crazy urban sprawl swallowed everything up. If walking hills isn't your thing, go down to fish creek, or the trout hatchery (they're in very different sides of the city, so it'll probably be one or the other) and enjoy some of the other actually nice parks in town. Later, after lunch at one of our world class eateries, go to Winsport (Calgary Olympic Park), where you can take a ride down the bobsled track or zipline off the highest ski jump tower. While you're there, remember to pop into Canada's Sport Hall of Fame and get lost in some of the greatest Canadian sport memories. You'll be across the parking lot from Hockey Canada's headquarters there as well, so if you're feeling super adventurous, sneak up to the 2nd floor and introduce yourself to Tom Renney. I'm sure he won't mind. Hit up Notable in Montgomery for something to eat when you're done at Winsport. It's a couple blocks off highway 1 and totally worth it.

Maybe on Day 4 you'll be ready to leave the city but already done the mountains/k-country thing, might I suggest a quick drive out to the badlands and visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum? It's nothing special, just the world's premier Palaeontology Museum. Don't leave without finding the 1 m in diameter Ammonite covered in gem quality Ammolite. One of my favourite things in a place full of the coolest fossils in the world. When you're done there, drive 2 minutes down the road and play 18 holes at the Drumheller G&CC. A great little course with a back nine to die for (watch out for snakes if you hit it into the scrub).

Unmentioned: Waterton Lakes National Park, hiking in K-country (Highwood Pass FTW), Frank Slide, the Okotok outside of Okotoks, taking a brewery tour at Village Brewery, golfing in Canmore, hitting up a local small town rodeo, not dying in a kayak in Harvey Passage, fishing the Bow River in downtown Calgary, the Ironwood in Inglewood, watching the Dawgs at Seaman Stadium, Telus Spark.

After growing up in Edmonton and now living in Calgary here's some more Calgary tips. Lot's of things to do in both cities but since I'm here now I'll stick to the Calgary comments.

You can go down the Skyline Luge at COP (apparently the world's longest luge track) while you're there. They started working on an interchange between COP and the Trans Canada so it's a traffic mess right now.

For the kid in them there's also Calaway Park which is only five minutes west from COP.

I'd strongly recommend the Calgary Zoo which has some amazing exhibits and is Calgary's biggest attraction. You could spend the majority of the day there. The zoo is on St. George's island and they just opened a new island park next to it on St. Patrick Island. South of the zoo you can cross the bridge to Inglewood and get an awesome lunch at Spolumbo's if you like Italian lunches; but especially Italian sausage.

For nightlife and dining there's Stephen Avenue (8th Ave downtown - businessman oriented) and 17th Avenue SW (youth oriented and AKA The Red Mile). You can go down to Mission (4th Street SW) and there's tons of restaurants there. If you want some western nightlife then there's always Cowboy's (more nightclub than western) on the Stampede Grounds and Ranchman's (more western/old cowboy) south of downtown. Sticking to the western/nostalgic theme there's also Heritage Park and you can go on the paddle wheeler on Glenmore Reservoir from there, but check when it's running first.

With the water theme you can also float down the Elbow River instead starting in the SW and wind up at the Bow. More effort is involved on the Elbow as it's much smaller and shallower than the Bow. If you still want to do something on the Bow you can always go fly-fishing instead of rafting.
 
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Philly85*

I Ain't Even Mad
Mar 28, 2009
15,845
3
AGA
provincial museum
muttart conservatory
festivals
Hawrelak park
getting lost in the river valley (in a good way)
WEM
Whyte ave
pembina float
Canoing down North Sask

that's about it
 

Ogopogo*

Guest
1. Find a computer with Internet access

2. Get credit card ready

3. Buy plane ticket to somewhere else.

That applies to those who live here as well. I hope you have a for sale sign in your yard. :sarcasm:

It is a good point though that Edmonton is a fantastic place to live....for tourists it is not as exciting. I travel a lot with my job and I have been to a lot of cities that are not tourist hot spots but are excellent cities - St. Louis and San Antonio come to mind. Edmonton is like that, a great place but not a noted tourist destination.

That being said, I read an article online recently that named Edmonton as the best place in Canada to visit during the summer - it sited our extensive festival schedule as the reason to come...we do have a lot of cool stuff going on all summer so, that part is quite true.
 
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ChaoticOrange

Registered User
Jun 29, 2008
50,579
29,244
Edmonton
For me I guess it depends on what kind of person you are. If you want to go out and club, or visit historical sites and things of such nature, you're probably going to be bored by Edmonton. It's not London, Paris, or Rome, and never will be. However if you appreciate nature and the outdoors Alberta generally and Edmonton specifically will be right up your alley.
 

Narnia

Registered User
Mar 1, 2002
16,548
0
Surrey, BC
picasaweb.google.com
Has anyone mentioned the Telus World of Science?

I hear there's a dinosaur exhibit.

Just checked and it is:

http://telusworldofscienceedmonton.ca/

I don't know if it is age appropriate though.

Is it more for the kids?
Dinosaurs is for everyone. We went to the dinosaur show when it was in Vancouver in 1995 and we also went to Tyrell Museum in 2001 and we're all adults.

Edit: Ultimate Dinosaurs is in Vancouver, not Dinosaurs Unearthed.
 

Dorian2

Define that balance
Jul 17, 2009
12,250
2,232
Edmonton
Dinosaurs is for everyone. We went to the dinosaur show when it was in Vancouver in 1995 and we also went to Tyrell Museum in 2001 and we're all adults.

Edit: Ultimate Dinosaurs is in Vancouver, not Dinosaurs Unearthed.

I agree. I was trying to be sorta half assed politically correct.
 

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