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Quotethanks for that
Cheers. Now that you've got me thinking about stuff to see in western Canada in winter, I've done the 3 night Northern Lights tour with these guys and they're great. http://www.altacan.ab.ca/english.html They put you up at a hotel and each evening drive the group to a clubhouse away from the city lights so you can see the Aurora in the clear prairie air. Daytime you can poke around the city of Ft. Mcmurray, home to the oilsands (more oil than the middle east). Don't miss the "Oilsands Discovery Center" where you can see how it's all done, including the largest trucks on the planet.
"Ft. Mac" is easy to get to from Edmonton or Calgary by coach or air. Westjet usually has slightly better fares and tons better service than Air Canada. http://www.westjet.com
Another thing I've wanted to do but haven't yet is Ice Cave hiking (tramping) in Jasper in the rockies. Here's one company I googled up, I'm sure they're others as well. http://www.jasperadventurecentre.com/winter.html
And just for the spectacle of it, if you're in Edmonton check out the worlds largest mall. http://www.westedmall.com They've got a full waterpark, amusement center with roller coasters, more submarines than the Canadian Navy, restaurants and cinemas... you don't have to come out for days.
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Doug the DZ Bum
QuoteAnd just for the spectacle of it, if you're in Edmonton check out the worlds largest mall. http://www.westedmall.com They've got a full waterpark, amusement center with roller coasters, more submarines than the Canadian Navy, restaurants and cinemas... you don't have to come out for days.
West Edmonton Mall is not the largest in the world any more. It's been surpassed in size by several other malls, most of which are in Asia. I believe that it's still the largest in North America. It's bigger than anything in Australia and worth a look if you do happen to pass through Edmonton.
With regards to skiing or snowboarding, I'm going to assume since you've never seen snow, you've never skied or snowboarded before. That being the case, you don't need to spend big dollars going to Whistler and you don't really want to waste your time hitting big powder hills like Red. Skiing/riding in powder takes more skill and is hard work. You want to start on nice, gentle groomed runs. I'd probably suggest either trying it out on a smaller hill in town somewhere. I haven't been to Vancouver, but I'm assuming that something like Grouse mountain would be a better place to give it a try. Smaller, more economical. If you really want to try somewhere with big hills, then I'd suggest perhaps Lake Louise. It's near Banff, which has a number of other attractions worth seeing. I never really got into the BC Rockies, so perhaps someone can suggest somewhere that's more cost-effective to a beginner skier.
I'd highly recommend that you get out east. I've only been to Halifax out there, so far, but it's a great town with a very fun atmosphere and lots of good local beers.
If you like sports at all, try to go and see a hockey game, live. I would suggest trying to catch a game in Edmonton or Calgary. They're passionate about their hockey out there, and ticket prices are much more reasonable than Toronto. Most of my friends from here travel to Montreal to see live hockey if they need their fix, so that might be another option. Not sure about Vancouver or Ottawa as far as hockey goes. You don't need to understand the game, I didn't have much of a clue my first time around, but it was still a great game to watch.
I hope that helps. I think other people have give you a lot of good ideas, though.
BTW, snow is good. It's a lot colder under a clear sky then on snowy days.
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