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.
