We had a great reason to put Edmonton on our travel bucket list, and visit there this summer: my sister-in-law lives there, and we couldn’t wait to visit her for the first time. We had no idea when we started planning our visit, how many things there would be for our family to do in Edmonton! We filled five amazing days with fun family activities, and could have stayed much longer!
My daughter’s were very extremely excited to see West Edmonton Mall, a destination in itself! It hosts the world’s largest parking lot, world’s largest indoor amusement park, world’s largest indoor wave pool, world’s largest indoor lake (complete with a replica of Christopher Columbus’s Santa Maria) and the world’s largest indoor triple loop roller coaster. The mall also has an indoor skating rink, mini golf course, sea life caverns and a sea-lion show. Not to mention 800 stores and services! It didn’t disappoint us, we spent two whole days there enjoying exploring and shopping. You can read all about our visit to West Edmonton Mall HERE.
Our next stop was the Telus World of Science. We love going to science centre’s and museums. The Telus World of Science in Edmonton had a temporary exhibit about conservation on, called Wildlife Rescue . My youngest daughter currently wants to be a zoologist when she grows up, so she loved the emphasis this exhibit put on taking care of wild animals. The Body Fantastic was a fun permanent exhibit about our body and how it works. There was a lot of our tweens to do in the Science Center.
There were multiple staff doing science demonstrations, while we were there, or ready to chat with us about the museum. The service was excellent! Before leaving we watched the IMAX movie Island of Lemurs: Madagascar. The movie was really cute and the IMAX theatre was one of the best I’ve ever been in. The seats were very comfortable and you could buy snacks to bring in with you! The Science Center is also playing full length movies, in the IMAX theatre on certain nights this summer. If you live in Edmonton, you should definitely try to make it to one!
We also visited Fort Edmonton Park, a historical village in Edmonton where you can step back in time. The really unique thing about Fort Edmonton Park is that you can walk through four different time period’s, not just one! The park has streets showing what life was like during the fur trade in 1846 and the pioneer days of 1885, 1905 and 1920. You can ride a real steam train to the end of the park to the 1846 Hudson’s Bay Fort and then walk back through the different time periods.
There are period houses, a bank, the Capital Theatre, the Hotel Selkirk, a 1920’s midway and more! You can even have lunch or stay a night in the hotel. The street car runs through the town and there are lots of people dressed up in period clothing, who help to make your time travel adventure more authentic. My only caution is that there are not a lot of places with air conditioning.
If you’re looking for a perfect and free spot to visit on a hot summer day with kids then head downtown to the Alberta Legislature Building. There is a huge fountain and wading pond in front of the building that children are allowed to swim and play in. This was a wonderful relief on a hot day! The Alberta Legislature Building is also located on the grounds of the original Fort Edmonton. We had a fun day wandering downtown and went to a fantastic restaurant for supper, Taqueria Tres Carnales! It was some of the best Mexican we’ve ever had! Our favourite tacos were the Pescado (fish) and Hongos Mixtos (mushrooms with garlic and capers) and the watermelon juice was a treat!
We couldn’t leave Edmonton without trying out the new attraction, Launchpad Trampoline, 24,000 sq ft, indoor, trampoline park. This is the place for extreme, family fun! They have a large open area with many trampoline’s all over the floor and trampolines that curve up onto the wall, a trampoline dodgeball court, a foam pit with trampolines on the edge to launch you into it and slam dunk trampoline basketball courts. We had a blast there and were exhausted after only minutes! We lasted an hour but I can’t imagine taking one of their trampoline exercise classes!
There was so much else we would have loved to do in Edmonton which we didn’t have time for: tea at the Fairmont Hotel, The Royal Alberta Museum, The Muttart Conservatory, Elk Island National Park and so much more. We’re going to have to plan another visit some day! If you’re looking for more information on Edmonton please visit the Explore Edmonton Tourism Website. They helped us plan our visit and had many great suggestions for things to do!
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