High-culture and mega-malls, endless festivals and never-ending parks help to make Edmonton a state capital of summertime buzz and wintertime thrills.
In its short 100 years of history, Edmonton has taken many interesting twists and turns. It began as a fur-trading fort in the 18th century and became a boomtown in the 20th. The story of those dramatic changes is told at the city's living museum, Fort Edmonton Park. The role that the “Chucks” – the area's Ukrainian immigrants – have played in building up its surrounding fertile farmland is revealed at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. And history doesn't get more extreme than Edmonton's Jurassic Forest, where dinosaurs literally come to life.
For more modern pursuits, spend a day at the biggest shopping centre in North America, the West Edmonton Mall. With hundreds of shops, a water park, a zoo and much more besides, this shopping centre promises to cater to all tastes.
Edmonton is a cultural hub with some educational, artistic and musical gems. Pay a visit to the iconic Alberta Legislature Building to learn about the political history of the area. The city also has some of the finest art and music centres in Canada, including the bold and innovative, like the Art Gallery of Alberta, and the elegant and award-winning, like the Winspear Centre. One of the biggest Canadian theatre complexes is located here, the Citadel Theatre, as is the gem of Old Strathcona, a little slice of bohemian lifestyle just over the North Saskatchewan River. Theatres, comedy clubs, alternative music and fashion all jostle in this, one of the city's older districts, which also hosts the most important of its many festivals.
The river dividing Edmonton and Strathcona provides more than just a boundary between two halves of the modern metropolis. Known as Edmonton River Valley, this 60-kilometre chain of parkland stretches, unbroken, from one side of Edmonton to the other – the city's “Ribbon of Green”. Edmontonians and visitors come here to walk, cycle or jog in the summer, and to ski or snowshoe in the winter. As the most northerly metropolis in all of North America, Edmonton is no stranger to long winter months.
