TRAVEL – Edmonton, Alberta: Shopping, Arts and Culture, with a diverse LGBTQ+ Community

As part of all the travel features GayCalgary has been doing on places we sponsor events at, writing a travel feature about Edmonton is something that I knew I would have to eventually do. The problem is that GayCalgary sponsors a lot of events in Edmonton, so trying to figure out which weekends would work best to cover the event we are sponsoring, plus explore Edmonton was not easy. With most destinations, gay pride either ties in travel adventures like it does for Whistler or Jasper, or the events are easier to manage to cover activities, like Lethbridge, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, and Banff. Edmonton Pride is just too massive of an event to try to also visit museums or art galleries, do food reviews, check out West Edmonton Mall and other things that would be of interest for a tourist.

I was planning to be in Edmonton twice in one month which worked perfectly for a travel feature. One weekend would be for the Great Canadian Bear Weekend and then a couple of weeks later for the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose Coronation. GayCalgary Magazine is a proud sponsor of both events and they both also draw visitors to Edmonton outside of Pride Weekend.

My transportation to Edmonton for the Great Canadian Bear Weekend was with Ebus, a discount bus service provided by Red Arrow. The Edmonton downtown stop is a couple blocks away from most of the hotels. Even though it is a discount version of the standard Red Arrow buses, it still has free wi-fi and the same drop off locations as the main service. It has 4 seats per row like a standard charter bus, while the higher end Red Arrow buses have 3 seats per row which offers more room around the seats and they also have self-serve free cookies, tea, coffee, bottled water and pop.

My hotel stay was at the iconic Chateau Lacombe Hotel. Check out the complete article at http://www.gaycalgary.com/a5755 . Bus and LRT routes are just a couple blocks from the hotel, which makes it easy to get around if you don’t drive or traveling on a budget. If you want to explore the valley, there are sidewalks around the hotel that will give you a spectacular view of the city as well as stairs that will take you down into the valley.

The first event, outside of covering the bear weekend, was the Cariwest parade and festival...