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Arrival, transport and orientation
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Edmonton is one of the easiest places to reach in western Canada. Its road and rail links are excellent, and the international
airport
, 29km south of downtown off Hwy 2 (Calgary Trail), is served by many national, American and European airlines. There's a small
visitor information desk
(Mon-Fri 7.30am-11.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am-11.30pm; tel 890-8382 or 1-800/268-7134) in the arrivals area: Travelex (daily 5am-11pm; tel 890-2370)
foreign exchange
facilities are upstairs in departures alongside the
Second Cup
coffee concession. The majority of internal flights from the Yukon and Northwest Territories fly here in preference to Calgary; numerous shuttle flights ply between the two cities, and if you phone around, you should be able to pick up some bargain flights. Note that the municipal airport north of downtown, still occasionally mentioned in visitors' blurb, closed to most commercial traffic in 1996; now only very small planes, including one or two shuttle flights from Calgary, use the airport, which is, nevertheless, acquiring a new $300-million international terminal (though until the Air Canada-Canadian Air merger is complete it remains to be seen how exactly that money will be spent). New international connections will certainly be added, including direct flights from Los Angeles and - quite possibly - from the UK.
A shuttle bus , the Sky Shuttle (tel 465-8515 or 1-888/438-2342, www.edmontonairports.com ), runs to downtown hotels on three different routes - two serving the university district and the west of the city as well - with services leaving every twenty minutes (every thirty minutes on weekends and holidays) from 4.30am to 12.15am, for $11 one-way, $18 return; there's a dedicated shuttle-info desk almost alongside the visitor-information desk, but you purchase tickets from the driver - the bus leaves from outside arrivals through doors near both desks. Taxis from the airport to the downtown area cost around $35. Note that the airport shuttle's "West End" route will take you directly to the West Edmonton Mall : this bus runs every 45 minutes on weekdays and every hour on weekends. The new Jasper Express service links Edmonton airport directly with Jasper (information and reservations: tel 1-800/661-4946). Following the closure to passengers of the famous Rockies railway via Calgary, Edmonton is also where you'll arrive if you take Canada's last remaining transcontinental passenger train . The new VIA Rail station is now some 3km or ten-minutes' drive northwest of downtown at 12360-121st St (ticket office usually daily 8am-3.30pm, longer hours when trains are due; ticket office tel 422-6032; Via Rail tel 1-800/561-8630, www.viarail.ca ); the Greyhound bus terminal (daily 5.30am-midnight; depot tel 413-8747, Greyhound tel 1-800/661-8747 in Canada, 1-800/231-2222 in the US, www.greyhound.ca ) is also central at 10324-103rd St and within easy walking distance of central downtown just to the south. It has an A&W restaurant, cash machine and lockers ($2). Note that if you're arriving from, or heading to, Calgary on Red Arrow buses (four daily; tel 424-3339 or 1-800/232-1958 in Alberta, www.redarrow.pwt.ca ), their terminal is at the Howard Johnson Plaza hotel at 10010-104th St. Information centres can be found at the airport in arrivals and dotted around the city, but the most central, on the Pedway Level (one level down from the street and pretty well hidden - follow signs for "Economic Development Edmonton") in the Shaw Conference Centre, 9797 Jasper Ave NW (Mon-Fri 8.30am-4pm; tel 496-8400 or 1-800/463-4667, www.tourism.ede.org , www.infoedmonton.com or www.discoveredmonton.com ), have all the usual maps and pamphlets and can also help with accommodation. There's another big information centre south of the city at 2404 Calgary Trail Northbound SW, site of the Imperial Leduc 1 Oil Derrick and Interpretive Centre (June to early Sept daily 8am-9pm; rest of the year Mon-Fri 8.30am-4.30pm, Sat & Sun 9am-5pm). The downtown area is easily negotiated on foot. Unless you have a car, longer journeys have to be made using Edmonton Transit , an integrated bus and light-rail (LRT) system. Interchangeable tickets for bus and LRT cost $1.65; day-passes cost $5. You can buy tickets on buses or from machines in the ten LRT stations. Transfers are available from drivers on boarding for use on other services for ninety minutes. The LRT is free between Grandin and Churchill stations Monday to Friday 9am to 3pm and Saturday 9am to 6pm. Call 496-1611 for route and timetable information or visit the Customer Services Outlet at Church LRT Station, 99th Street (Mon-Fri 8.30am-4.30pm).
Addresses
are easy to decipher if you remember that avenues run east-west, with numbers increasing as you travel further north, while streets run north-south, the numbers increasing as you move westwards. Building numbers tend to be tacked onto the end of street numbers, so that 10021-104th Avenue is 21 100th Street, at the intersection with 104th Avenue. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Canada,
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