Alberta’s capital city is known as “Festival City.” The city hosts the Edmonton International Jazz Festival, Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival and River City Shakespeare Festival. Go cowboy for the day at the Canadian Finals Rodeo or watch the checkered flag drop at the Edmonton Indy. You can fuel up at the city’s estimated 3,500 restaurants, bistros and pubs. Try locally raised bison, elk and lamb, or cut into a certified Angus beef steak straight from the Alberta plains.
Who cares if it’s too hot or too cold outside—at the World Waterpark inside West Edmonton Mall the temperature’s set at a balmy 28 degrees C (82.4 degrees F). Surf in the world’s largest indoor wave pool, fly down waterslides and take a tube ride. At Fort Edmonton Park, explore life in Edmonton as it was from the fur traders’ time to the roaring 1920s. And in Old Strathcona, wrap past and present into your evening, shopping bags at side, menu in hand.
The North Saskatchewan River flows through Edmonton and there are 22 major parks running along its path. You can hike, bike and cross-country ski over 93 miles of trails in Edmonton’s Ribbon of Green, the largest expanse of urban river valley parkland in North America.