We will be flying into Edmonton for a short stay before taking the train through the Rockies. I am unfamiliar with this area. Is there a nice hotel [and hopefully restaurant] that is convenient to both the airport and the train station? Would it be expensive to take cabs into downtown to stay there? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Nothing is convenient to the airport. It's about half way to Calgary, or at least seems to be.

The station, on the other hand, is on the edge of downtown, a short cab right from lots of good hotels.

I used to be in Edmonton several times a month for a few years, and the Westin was a favorite hotel, cose to the art gallery, nice views from most of the rooms.

BAK

well, have to disagree with the BAK. the airport is only a 15 minute drive from the edge of the city. takes about 35 minutes to get downtown. and the train station is no longer on the edge of downtown. it moved several years ago to the kingsway area.
what are your interests and age? that would help us get you in the right area. there is a hotel close to the train station which has some character
http://www.chateaulouis.com/
or http://www.bestwesternalberta.com/ho...ty-centre-inn/
basic best western. this one is across the street from a mall. the chateau louis is just a few blocks further away.
as mentioned, depending upon your interests, age, quality of hotel etc, you might want to consider staying on whyte avenue.
http://www.varscona.com/
http://www.metterra.com/
it's a very lively area with lots of shops, restaurants and bars. can get loud on the weekends.

Honestly, the nicest hotel in Edmonton is the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald (but it is downtown). The river valley views are beautiful and the main floor lounge for coktails is just wonderful and cosy, with old world sort of charm.

Thank you for all the great input! I will check out the hotels you listed. By the way, where is the "Kingsway" area? The small maps I am seeing on-line are not giving me a very good perspective on distance.

Yup, the train station moved.

The Kingsway area is near the city center airport (most likely not the airport you'll be using)

If you've got maps or photos, look for an airport (runways, etc.) to the north and slightly west of downtown. There's a big shopping center at the "bottom" of the airport, and the new train station is at the north-west corner of the airport, more or less.

The VIA web site say about a $12-14 cab fare from downtown.

As for the main international airport -- it hasn't moved, and still is half way to Spokane, or so it seems.

I used to fly from the downtown airport to Calgary, and change planes there, to go various places, rather than cope with the long drive to the Edmonton main airport.

But anyway...

I typed Via Station Edmonton into both Google maps and Google web, and got good maps, etc.

BAK

Ahhhh... I didn't realize there were two airports, hence my confusion. Yes, it is the international airport we will be flying into. Then on to the train. No wonder the maps weren't making sence to me - than you for the clarification!

I hate to see people who don't live here give misinformation about Edmonton.
There is one airport - the Edmonton International (YEG) - that services travel from Edmonton.
The tiny city centre airport services small charter and private flights (mainly). It is north east of the city centre and has a shopping mall, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, an aviation museum (among other things), and Kingsway Avenue around its' perimeter, and a major hospital (the Royal Alex) very near it. There was an accident involving a small plane and that hospital some years ago that resulted in a plebiscite to close the city centre airport to normal air traffic.
The international airport is a 10 minute drive along a six lane divided highway from Edmonton city limits, and another 20 minute drive to city centre. It's even only a 30 minute (or less) drive from our house, which is west of city centre and further away from the airport.
All major carriers fly only to the International Airport.
There are shuttle buses (as well as taxi) from the airport to major hotels in Edmonton. Shuttle buses are in the $15 to $20 dollar range while the taxi is around $50 (it only makes sense to take a taxi if more than one person is sharing the fare).
The Fairmont Hotel MacDonald overlooks the river valley, is a very nice classy hotel, has restaurants, as well as being near (within 5 to 10 minutes walking) other downtown restaurants. I would estimate that it is a 20 minute taxi ride from "the Mac" to the train station. I think that it would fit your criteria very well. You might also consider the Westin.

http://www.fairmont.com/MacDonald/?c...onald+fairmont

http://specialoffers.starwoodhotels...._072506_NAD_FM

(I hope these links work !!)

Happy trails!!!

Borealis,

Surely the Edmonton City Centre Airport is northwest, not northeast.

JQ

PS. maxster, while waiting for your train at the VIA station, you can paint the underbellies of the small charters and corporate jets as they land or takeoff at the municipal airport. If your train is anywhere as late as ours you may have several hours to "paint."

Thinking about it, I'll stick with this, which I wrote when first respondinggt;The station, on the other hand, is on the edge of downtown, a short cab right from lots of good hotels.<

It's just in a different spot on the edge of downtown than it used to be.

The Mac's web site says the airport is a 45 minute drive from it, and, except in the middle of the night with a police escort, it takes a fair bit more time to get to any other part of downtown, or to any other significant hotel except the Westin.

And, Maxter, be careful if you are driving in Edmonton. It's got a weirdo street numbersin system, where the streets are called some number or other North East, or some number or other North West, and then there's two more streets with the number but ending in South East and South West.

And the natives leave off part of the number most of the time.

So when someone says "Fifth North East," they probably mean 105th north east, and if you drive out to the far reaches of town to get to Fifth NE, you'll be 100 blocks from where you want to be.

Streets and AVenues have the same names, by the way, except for the Street and Avenue part, so you need to check this carefully, too.

There are a few streets with words for their names -- Whyte Avenue, Jasper Avenue, but mostly you'll be talking math.

If you like steak, find yourself a good Edmonton steak house for your dinner, because Alberta has the best beef in Canada, and keeps the finest cuts for themselves and for restaurant eaters.

Restaurants change, and it's been far too long since I've had a steak so I can't make a specific suggestion. But if you stay at the Mac, I'd trust its kitchen.

And I've probably eaten 100 steaks at the Westin, and I can't imagine it has gone downhill.

Don't try to get to the station by going North East from the Mac or the Westin. Won't work.

BAK

Oops - you're right of course JQ - the city centre airport is northWEST not northEAST - don't know why I wrote that - didn't proofread my post very well either quot;> .

BAK - you must be thinking about Calgary with your comment about northwest, southwest, northeast and southeast. Almost all of Edmonton is northwest of some arbitrarily designated spot to the south east of the city that only the post office uses to add to our addresses. Even so, most of my mail, both personal and business, gets to me just fine with no "NW" after my address.
And by the way, having lived in Edmonton for the better part of 50 years, I have yet to hear anyone say anything remotely like "Fifth North East" - where in the world did you come up with that one??

As for travelling times, I find that they are usually overestimated for information purposes on the web. My guess is that it must have something to do with psychology - people are usually happier if they think they get somewhere faster than if it takes longer. It still is a much much shorter ride from the Edmonton International to downtown than it is trying to get to Pearson from downtown Toronto - just about missed my flight once even though I left 3 hours early (had the misfortune of travelling during rush hour).

BAK...with all due respect stop replying to this post on edmonton. you don't have a clue what you are talking about. people come here for help, not to get confused by people who don't know the correct information about the topic.

Borealis I must disagree with your comment about the muni being shut down due to a plane hitting the Alex...the muni was shut down as the aiport authority had this grand scheme that we would get more international flights if we didn't have two airports. My husband is a 20+ year employee of Air Canada who used to work at the muni.

I won't get into the argument re streets, airports etc. We have family in Edmonton and always stay at a hotel when we visit. I always use Priceline and use the bidding section. I choose the Edmonton area (it gives you several options - airport, West Edmonton etc). I choose the 4 star and have had the Westin everytime and never paid more than $65 CAD. You can't go wrong choosing 4 Star and that area as there are just a couple hotels in that category. The only catch with those hotels is the parking - can be expensive but if you are just a couple of nights the savings in the rate more than makes up for it.

Another Edmontonian here, born and raised. The plane vs hospital incident was in the early '80s, and Borealis did not post that it led to the Muni's closure, but to a plebescite to close it. Big difference.

And our street numbering system is dead easy - numbers go up as you travel west & north, down to the east & south, even numbers on the north side of avenues and west side of streets. Canada Post has decreed that all Edmonton addresses should end in "NW" but, being true prairie rednecks, most of us don't care what Canada Post decrees and we still get our mail successfully.

FWIW, the Meterra on Whyte Avenue is a lovely little boutique hotel. A friend from Yukon stays there when she's in town on business, and the rooms are very nice.

It sounds like a lot of Edmontonians don't know that we have NW/SW in Edmonton! My address ends in SW as there is an identical address that is NW. Edmonton has grown so much in the last few years that right around the Twin Brooks area it goes from NW to SW. All of the Rutherford, McEwan, Southbrook areas are all SW. To the original poster, this will have no impact on you unless you venture way south!

My bad...I didn't realize there was a plebescite in the early 80's...I would have been too focused on Duran Duran and Culture Club to worry about that. I thought you were talking about the plebescite that shut down the muni, which was the one in the mid 90's.

And I concur about the SW...my address is SW too...I've had everything from pizza to sod delivered my mistake to my NW counterpart!

All this information about NW/SW in Edmonton is off topic, and not what the original poster was asking.

My recommendation for hotel is still the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald - nice city centre location overlooking the river valley, and an elegant hotel.

Don't want to confuse other Fodorites, it doesn't make any difference to anyone who is traveling here, just suffice it to say the 98% of Edmonton is considered "Northwest". It's not like the center of this coordinate system is in the middle of the city - it is actually to the southeast of most of the city at Meridien Street and not far from Range Roads and Township Roads (country roads); anything north of Anthony Henday is "north", some very new developments are south of that. When referring to addresses in Edmonton, you don't need to know any of this - just give the street and avenue to the cab driver and you will get there!!!

Have fun and don't worry about our addresses maxter!!!

maxster:

As another 50 year Edmonton resident, welcome to my city.

As one previous poster stated, streets travel north/south and avenues run east/west. Most are numbered.

Any 4 star hotel between 109 Street and 100 Street along Jasper Avenue [101 avenue] or between avenues 99 and 103 should be close enough to the rail terminal as well as a selection of restaurants.

Travel from the international airport to city center takes about 45 minutes more or less and of course depends on traffic. We have some of the worst drivers in this world, perhaps other worlds too.

But take heart. We had a mayor who actually moved the airport closer to downtown by "extending the city limit". All Edmontonians are very proud of this fabulous decision.

Shuttle or shared cab is the way to get to downtown unless you arrive late at night when the shuttle no longer runs.

When my wife and I arrived to Edmonton, we found it to be a very friendly place. Passing strangers on the street they would say hello and smile! Having lived here so long, I no longer know if this is true.

I hope that you have a good journey through the rockies and enjoy some good old Alberta steaks and prime rib.

If you shop in Canada, all the other provinces charge a HST [harmonized sales tax] of about 12% and up. Alberta has no sales tax, only the national 6% GST [goods and service tax, otherwise known as gouge and screw tax] so this is a good place to buy your Canadian souviners that you will never want again.

Woodie

Reading all the responses to my original question has given me quite a chuckle! thank you all for your help - and your good humor! Looking forward to our visit.