Great way to spend a rainy day, as you can still view nature while indoors (it was pouring rain…read morewhen we went!). The different plant varieties and climate environments (tropics, arid, etc) were wonderful to experience and shows this place is run by people who care about plants. The plants in each section were well taken care of, and the design with the pyramids separating the different ecosystems was pretty unique. There's also a koi pond here. It'll probably take about an hour or less to walk through all the plant exhibits. They also sell plants too in the gift shop area. They have a small cafe to rest, but the drink was okay.

Right, this place has mixed reviews and I'm torn between 0 and 5 stars. It's Edmonton's only spot…read morewith special plants and a lovely view, making it a great place to visit. However, the ridiculous part is they also host Christmas parties for companies. While some might enjoy the visit, the banquet food, the team and the service were absolutely terrible. I can't even find another word to describe it. Imagine a 100-person company Christmas party and there were people who didn't have any food to eat. The food was also disgusting and I'm glad some people didn't have to eat it. I refuse to go back and my wife's company has vowed never to return either.

UABG is a nice, tranquil, and relaxing place for a nature stroll. It's also in wide open Edmonton,…read moreso the grounds are spacious and you can get a lot of fitness steps in here. They don't have the largest amount of botanic displays but it still provides for a pleasant visit. We experienced the gardens here on a beautiful and crisp fall Saturday morning. It was uncrowded and there are 3 main sections - a Kurimoto Japanese garden, a Middle East themed Aga Khan garden, and a section with local history. In the history section, I particularly enjoyed learning about early Canadian explorer David Thompson (1770-1857) and who is considered the greatest explorer of western Canada.

My husband and I attended a U of A fundraiser on August 22, 2024. We vowed to return to visit the…read moregardens properly. My husband had never been, and my last visit prior was for a friend's wedding photos in 2004. We specifically chose a weekday to avoid crowds and went on 23SEP2024. Lucky us that when we arrived, we were met with a bunch of what I assumed to be Jr High kids on field trips. They were obviously on their lunch break, and they sounded like a pack of rabid Howler Monkeys. Sigh. Once we were far enough into the gardens and I could not longer hear the teenagers (which was pretty far into the Aga Khan Garden, yes they were that rowdy) I thought I would be met with the sounds of nature, birds, squirrels etc instead my entire visit, no matter where in the garden I was, all I could hear was the constant traffic on Hwy 60. Disappointing. I don't remember hearing traffic that night in August, but it could have been drowned out by the classical music, etc. As we walked back toward the entrance to visit the Japanese Garden, after exploring the other garden, we once again could hear the howler monekys along the tram trail. Great. As we entered the garden, they entered the Showhouse, and we made a note not to go in there so as not to cross paths with them. We stopped at the cafe to grab some water, and I noticed they offered Chapman's Ice Cream. I was a bit excited as I am a Celiac, and most of Champman's ice cream is gluten-free free. I was ready to order some until it saw that if I NEEDED a cup instead of a cone, there was a $1.00 upcharge. Nope. The gift store was pretty sad. A few hats a couple of stuffed animals some water bottles. We will be back. We will just be back on adult only events in picnic nights.

The Ukrainian Cultural Hetitage Village is a great place to visit,…read moreIt is an open museum in nature with restored buildings and volunteers telling the story of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada, specifically to central Alberta from the 1890 to 1930. Volunteers have clothing from the era, and tell you stories of immigrants - they were farmers, educators, smiths, railroad employees, and so much more. The village grows its own food, and tend to the homes and buildings of the village. It is such a great experience to talk and interact with the volunteers, it creates an interactive ambiance!! The village also has its own restaurant, the Kalyan Kitchen, which serves Ukrainian specialties like perogies and sausage. Service is great and a super great place to visit. Prepare to walk a lot, but it's worth it because it's fun and you get to learn a lot.

I've lived in and around Edmonton my whole life, 27 years and this was my first visit to the…read moreUkranian Cultural Heritage Village. For some reason whichever class I was in always missed out on the field trips to here. I went to the Village a few weeks ago with a friend. It is smaller than Edmonton's other outdoor historic attraction (Fort Edmonton Park) but it still took about 3 hours to get through the site. There are no information signs at each building explaining what each thing is, and how it was important to the Ukrainian settlers. Instead there are actors who assume the rolls of Ukrainian settlers from the early 19th century, and they explain what life was like back in the day. I liked that you got to go inside each building, and see how things were, but there were some buildings we couldn't go to because they were under construction. I had a nice time, I just wish I got to do this as a kid. Still I'd come back again. Note for anyone visiting/new to Edmonton: The address listed here on Yelp 8820 - 112 Street NW, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P8 is not the actual location of the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. I've been trying to get Yelp to change the address, but it hasn't been changed yet. The museum is actually located outside of Edmonton, 50km east on Highway 16. You can get information about the location from their website: http://www.history.alberta.ca/ukrainianvillage/location/location.aspx

A real YEG gem, hiding near the river banks off of Kinsmen Sports Centre. That means free parking…read moreand great views. I love this little museum, it's run by some of the most dedicated and enthusiastic interpreters in Edmonton. Esther, Jeff, Christina to name a few, all dressed in period attire and chock full of information about the history and the era. Ask them about anything! There are 3 houses to visit, from a log cabin to their last house, almost mansion-like by comparison. They bake in a wood stove, offer meeting venues, birthday parties and summer camps! Plan a short trip, bring a picnic if you plan to spend a bit of time there enjoying the grounds and pathways. The city website says they are open Saturday and Sunday during summer holidays from 1pm to 4pm. As far as I know, it is open on Sunday only and they continue right up to November. On their last opening day last fall, they had cinnamon buns and Apple cider. Spool yummy! His entire business was washed out in a flood in 1915, 5 years before he passed. He did a lot for the community through public action, carpentry, employment and philanthropy. Worth a trip, and did I mention that it's offered by the city... for FREE? Yes the baked goodies and hand-made lemonade is also pro-bono. Love, love, love this place. Thank you YEG for providing this to Edmontonians every year.

I'm going to start off by saying that this is a FREE Museum. And they say you can't get something…read morefor free anymore. But that's not the only reason that this place earns my five star rating! Very culturally and historically significant for Edmonton, it seems that without this little highly accessible gem, some people might not know about many of the conditions that Edmonton was founded on, or about the flood of 1915 that forever reshaped our city. If you find yourself in need of a crash course in these matters, take yourself on a self-guided tour using their graphic and detailed information panels. These panels are outside of the three buildings which comprise the museum, so they can be accessed any day of the week, any season of the year, at your leisure. If you have questions, would prefer a much more immersive experience, or would like to see inside the houses, drop by between 1 and 4 on a Sunday (March-December) and the staff and volunteers would be more than happy to share their vast banks of knowledge with you, and maybe even ask you to help them finish some of the mounds of cookies they've baked (again, *free*). They are occasionally open on other days and times, check their website or follow them on Facebook for upcoming programs and events. The houses themselves are a treat to visit as well, as with other well curated living history museums, these also offer the sense of time travel, with the sights, sounds, and smells of a bygone era. Some things they just don't make like they used to, like washing machines, and toilets. So, if you have a curious little one that you want to impress, this is a wondrous place to show them something old, but new to them. Located in scenic Kinsmen Park, a visit to this museum can easily be incorporated into a larger outing. Perhaps a walk through the river valley, a day at the Queen Elizabeth pool, or it can be a magical rest-stop on a long bike excursion. And did I mention it's free to visit.? Not even a guilt trip 'admission by donation' sign.

There's so many cool and exciting things happening here! So much goodness…read more I was here for the first time last weekend at the Compost S'Cool to learn about home composting. Excellent afternoon! The exhibits are wonderful, the compost experts are also wonderful and the compost toilet is even more excellent! They offer courses and programs as well. There are other exhibits at the centre; Prairie Pond, Honeybee Hive and the Tegler Discovery Zone. Great learning and fun activities for families. They also offer birthday parties! It's located right beside the Fort Edmonton Park so you can do both in one day! The parking lot is big and spacious.

A great place to bring the kids to learn about the local flora and fauna. My nephews (age 2) loved…read morethe indoor play area, where they got to run and climb and generally wear us out. They also liked checking out the reptiles on display as well as the pelts and skulls from a few former river valley residents. The trails outside include interpretive signs about what you will see On your walk as well as a few historical details. There were one or two birthday parties going on while we were there, with both outdoor and indoor spots for the celebrations. The renovations look like they are mostly done, but perhaps there is more to come in the months ahead.

Like some of the other reviewers, 2017 was my first time attending the Deep Freeze festival and I…read morehave to say: I was definitely impressed with what I saw. We were under a bit of a time constraint but somehow managed to pack in some street hockey, curling, ice sculptures, glass blowing, a horse-drawn sleigh ride and pierogis (sooooo good). I can only imagine what we could have done with more time! Festivals like this are the reason I love Edmonton so much. It gives you a reason to look forward to winter and it forces you to go outside, even in -30 weather. Lucky for us, Sunday was bright, sunny, and fairly warm so we didn't have to worry too much about the cold but I definitely recommend bundling up if the weather isn't as nice. You're going to want to spend as much time as possible outside. Of course there are opportunities to pop inside for a bite to eat (again, the pierogis are sooooo good) or to see some live music. I can't wait for next year!

I went to Deep Freeze for the first time this year…read more This is a winter festival, and while there are things that happen inside there are a lot of outside events as well, so be prepared for the weather. If you forgot your toque the festival was selling some, as well as Raising The Roof (a fundraiser for Homeward Trust Edmonton). I really liked this festival. My friends and I went on Saturday when it was the Ukrainian day (they celebrate Francophone culture on the Sunday). The them for the festival was fairies and orgres, which you could see in some of the snow and ice carvings, and the artwork. There were supposed to by fairy doors in the business windows along 118, but I didn't see any, which was kind of sad. It was cool checking out the festival, from the snow scultptures outside to the performances and the art inside the Nina (a gallery I hadn't been to). The festival is free to attend, but they accept donations and if you wanted to get any food that was a purchase as well. We went on the really cold day of the festival, but there are heaters outside and lots of places to warm up. We were sad that we had missed the actually deep freezer races by about 10 minutes. Maybe another year I'll catch that. I love the festivals that Edmonton has and the fact that we continue to have festivals all year long, not just in the summer. Winter isn't my favourite time of year, but it's fun to get out and spend some time outside and check out an awesome festival like Deep Freeze.

We spent a few hours at the museum before it closed. The first floor of the museum leads you to the…read morehistory of Alberta. Although this museum exhibit and artifacts are nicely displayed and seems to be of significance, the museum flow was haphazard and didn't guide you towards a narrative or chronology, which is kind of jarring. The descriptions throughout the museum themselves don't really dive deep and maybe seems more like it's geared towards school-age children. Had I just seen this part of the museum, I would've disliked the museum overall. The second floor with the natural history section was much better, with fossils and even some live exhibits (like the beautiful, healthy corals and the turtles, though they didn't seem as happy). I live learning about the animals that roamed the area, including the Edmontosaurus. I was kind of fatigued from all the taxidermied/animal models behind glass cases though. The minerals/gem exhibit was also pretty exquisite and there's even an interactive section about magnetic stones and meteorites. My favorite is probably the special exhibit on "Death: Life's Greatest Mystery," which I think did a wonderful job in portraying different customs revolving around death. I also like the Francophone exhibit, especially the audio exhibit. Overall, I enjoyed the majority of the exhibits and thought the museum was worth visiting.

It was only last year that I finally visited the Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) in it's "new" downtown…read morelocation. But since then I've visited 3 times, once for my birthday, once for a friend's birthday, and then again to see an exhibit on Orcas. The RAM is the largest museum in western Canada. There are several permanent exhibits including the Children's Gallery, the Bug Gallery, the Human History Hall, and the Natural History Hall. I didn't visit the Children's Gallery, cause I'm an adult without kids so that would be weird, but I did visit the other ones. The Bug Gallery is really cool if you love bugs, but even if you're not a big bug person the bugs are all in contained closures, and I thought was really interesting. My favourites were the two halls, which if you couldn't tell from the names deal with human history and natural history. The human history one goes through the history of the people who've lived in this area from the Indigenous peoples who have been here since time immemorial to European settlers, modern immigration, and present day. The natural history hall has the history of the different flora and fauna that have been in Alberta. This includes exhibits on dinosaurs, which if you've been in Alberta for any length of time you'll know we have a lot of fossils here. And there is also an exhibit on various minerals in Alberta and in Canada. I like shiny rocks so I liked it. Then there is a feature gallery and a changing exhibit. The feature gallery is smaller, but the changing exhibit (when one is in) is usually quite large. The changing exhibits I saw where the ones on Angkor Wat and Orcas (different times). Both were great exhibits, but I think they've changed now. The museum space is huge, and there's lots to see so give yourself lots of time. My downside to the museum is just that I don't live nearby so it's a bit of a pain to drive downtown and park (especially with construction). The LRT is nearby (I think Churchill is the closet station. The museum itself can also get really busy, especially on weekends or if a school field trip is in. But hey, I have fond memories of school field trips at the RAM in its old location in Glenora so I hope kids get good memories of the RAM in its new home. If you're planning to visit the RAM a few times you can get an annual pass. The other option is buy an Alberta History Pass, which will get you into a few different historic sites for a yearly fee. That's what I did. You can buy the pass at the RAM and it's pretty easy to get your money's worth if you come back for a couple of visits. Not sure when I'll visit again, but I'll definitely be back.

I love the fact that one can utilize these great telescopes and learn more about astronomy here!…read moreUnfortunately light pollution does impact just how much one can see (as can cloud cover) but generally it is well worth a visit!