Everything you need to know about living, working and studying in Edmonton

Provincial and National Parks around Edmonton

There are provincial and national parks within a few hours’ drive, such as:

• Elk Island National Park: This makes for a great day trip. The park is open year-round but be careful in winter, as there can be closures due to weather conditions. You might see wild animals such as bison or elk. It’s about a 30-minute drive from Edmonton.
• Jasper National Park: This UNESCO heritage site, part of the Rocky mountains, is about a four-hour drive from Edmonton and is the perfect weekend getaway destination. Check before travelling due to closures from the recent devastating wildfires.
• Lakeland Provincial Park: You will find lake country three hours’ north of Edmonton. This is where you can go off-grid with backcountry camping, canoeing, and stargazing in the dark sky reserve.

Visit more of Alberta

It is also possible to make trips further afield, such as:

• Calgary
• Lake Louise
• Banff and Canmore
• Red Deer
• Drumheller and the dinosaurs

To learn more and plan your trip to Alberta, visit the province’s official tourism website.

Transport options for leaving Edmonton (if you don’t have a car)

If you want to leave Edmonton for a day trip or weekend away, but you don’t have access to a car, you will need to consider alternative methods of transportation. Let’s take a look at the options available to you.

The bus

There are different companies that go mainly south to Calgary, but also to cities like Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, and outside the province.

Some of the bus companies you will find include:

• Ebus
• Cold Shot
• Red Arrow
• Rider Express
• The Canada Bus

To plan your trip, you can use Busbud or Wanderu. Note that some bus companies make their trips to Calgary overnight.

The train

There is only one train station in Edmonton. The ticket price is usually too high to make this a viable option, unless you consider it a “once in a lifetime” trip. The Edmonton to Vancouver train is truly incredible with the dome carriage. Taking the train is even more expensive than flying; for a one-way ticket, count on spending more than $300!

The big drawback of Edmonton station is that it is very poorly served. There are no buses nearby, and there also won’t always be taxis around.

Trains do not pass through Edmonton regularly, and are mainly used to transport goods (barrels of oil). If you get stuck at a level crossing, you can easily wait for 10 minutes for the train to pass!

Information can be found on the Viarail website.

Flying

To get further afield from Edmonton, you will most likely need to fly. You’ll find flights to most major cities in Canada and various states in the US.

After driving, flying remains one of the most used modes of transport to get around Canada. It is, after all, the second largest country in the world.

Visit the Edmonton Airport website.

Car rentals

You can, of course, use a car to get around outside of Edmonton. If you don’t own your own car, you can carpool from one city to another, using Poparide. For short-term use, you can also rent a car.

Remember to check out our deal with Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty.
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