An all-season Canadian family vacation with waterslides, roller coasters, themed hotel rooms, shopping, great food and far more to do than we could fit into four nights.
Disclosure: This trip was created in partnership with West Edmonton Mall. As always, all experiences and opinions shared here are my own.
There are some family trips where you arrive home feeling like you need a vacation from your vacation.
And then there are the ones your kids are already asking to repeat before you've even unpacked.
Our road trip to West Edmonton Mall was definitely the latter.
We recently packed up the car in Vancouver and headed east to Edmonton for four nights of what turned out to be one of the most action-packed family getaways we've taken. I knew West Edmonton Mall was big. I knew there was a waterpark and an amusement park. What I hadn't quite appreciated was just how much there is to do once you're actually there.
For context, West Edmonton Mall is 5.3 million square feet, with more than 800 stores and services, 16 attractions and over 100 places to eat.
And somehow, after four nights, we still left with a list of things we didn't get to.
We already want to go back.
The Road Trip From Vancouver to Edmonton
We decided to make the journey part of the adventure and drove from Vancouver to Edmonton.
Because we were travelling with school-aged kids, we broke the drive up with a quick one-night stop on the way there. In hindsight, the kids handled the road trip so well that we'd seriously consider driving it in one day next time.
The drive itself is beautiful, too. There's something I love about a Canadian road trip. Watching the landscape change as you move from British Columbia toward Alberta, packing too many snacks, stopping when you feel like stopping and slowly realizing that you've actually travelled a pretty significant distance from home.
By the time we reached Edmonton, everyone was very ready to see what we'd come all that way for.
Staying Inside West Edmonton Mall at Fantasyland Hotel
One of the best decisions of the trip was staying at Fantasyland Hotel, because it is literally inside West Edmonton Mall.
Once we checked in, we could put down our bags and walk straight into the shopping, restaurants and attractions without getting back in the car.
Our room was ready when we arrived, which meant we could immediately settle in before going exploring.
For most of our stay, we were in one of the hotel's Polynesian-themed rooms.
And yes, it was giving Moana.
Our queen bed was built right into a catamaran-style boat, complete with a sail, and even the hallways continued the Polynesian theme. The kids thought the entire thing was fantastic.
There is something particularly fun about staying somewhere that becomes part of the vacation rather than simply being the place you sleep at night.
And then, on our final night, we switched rooms.
More on that later, because we unknowingly saved our favourite for last.
Our First Look Around West Edmonton Mall
We barely stayed in our room long enough to put down our luggage.
Our first mission was simply to walk around and get our bearings so we'd have some idea where everything was over the next few days.
One of the first things you see near Fantasyland Hotel is The Ship, a life-size replica of Christopher Columbus' Santa María anchored in Deep Sea Adventure Lake.
Naturally, the kids were immediately intrigued.
We didn't manage to go aboard during this trip, so add that to the growing “next time” list, but we did race the little remote-control boats nearby, which became one of those simple vacation moments the kids absolutely loved.
And then we started discovering just how convenient our hotel location was.
Indigo was practically on our doorstep.
London Drugs was steps away whenever we needed supplies.
And then there was the LEGO Store.
We visited the LEGO Store approximately two or three times per day, which at that point essentially made it one of our vacation attractions.
Galaxyland Powered by Hasbro
Then it was time to start tackling the attractions.
Galaxyland Powered by Hasbro is an enormous indoor amusement park filled with Hasbro-themed rides and attractions.
This was a huge hit with our family.
The rides incorporate familiar Hasbro games and characters like Monopoly, G.I. Joe, Micro Machines, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Operation and Potato Head, so there was a nostalgic element for the grown-ups while still feeling completely fun for the kids.
One detail I really appreciated as a parent was that the rides are categorized by intensity. It made it much easier to judge what our kids might be comfortable trying before we got in line.
You can browse the Galaxyland rides and attractions here.
And speaking of lines, during our visit, there were hardly any.
Most of the time we practically walked straight onto the rides, which meant that when the kids found something they loved, they could do it again.
And again.
And again.
Our Galaxyland Favourites
The Cootie Coaster was the runaway favourite. I genuinely lost count of how many times we rode it.
We also loved G.I. Joe Laser Mission, the G.I. Joe climbing activities, Monopoly Flight of Fortune, Micro Machines Aero and Hungry Hungry Hippos Feeding Frenzy.
The arcade-style games were another hit, particularly Operation, Potato Head and Monopoly.
There's a really good range here for families because we never felt that our kids were too old for everything or too young for everything. There are gentler rides, plenty in the middle, and some much more thrilling options that our family isn't quite ready for yet.
Which, of course, gives us another reason to come back.
World Waterpark: Summer Weather, Year-Round
If Galaxyland was one of the kids' highlights, World Waterpark was right there with it.
This place is enormous.
The park is kept warm year-round and contains a huge indoor wave pool, waterslides and water-play areas.
It genuinely feels like escaping into summer.
The wave pool was a particular favourite because you can essentially choose your own adventure. Stay farther back and the waves are much gentler. Venture farther in and suddenly you've got some serious waves coming toward you.
That made it fun for different comfort levels within the same family.
There are also slides ranging across different difficulty levels, which, just like at Galaxyland, made choosing appropriate rides much easier.
Our family favourite was Twister.
There's also a smaller splash and play area for younger children, so families with a bigger spread of ages aren't limited to the major slides.
Something else I appreciated: there were plenty of loungers.
Anyone who has ever taken children to a busy resort or waterpark will understand why this deserves its own sentence.
We weren't wandering around trying to claim a chair or hovering awkwardly waiting for someone else to leave.
There are also cabanas and private rental spaces available if you'd rather have a designated home base for the day.
That is firmly on my list for next time.
And you don't need to get everyone dry, dressed and back out into the mall every time someone gets hungry. There are food options inside the waterpark, as well as a walk-up bar, so we could stop, eat and get right back to swimming.
Two things we didn't manage to squeeze in?
Indoor surfing and the Skyflyer Zipline.
They're already on the next-trip list.
How We Structured Our Days
One of the things that worked well was not trying to designate an entire day to each attraction.
Instead, we moved around.
A typical day might begin at World Waterpark, continue at Galaxyland and then transition into one of the smaller attractions, shopping or dinner later in the day.
The attraction hours are staggered, which actually made that system work really well.
West Edmonton Mall keeps the day's individual attraction hours together online, so I would check them and loosely plan the day's order around what opened and closed when.
Because hours can change, this is one of my biggest practical tips:
Check the current attraction schedule each morning rather than assuming everything follows regular mall hours.
Glow Bowling, Mini Golf and a Mirror Maze
Galaxyland and the waterpark could easily fill a trip on their own, but there are so many smaller activities tucked throughout the mall that we kept adding “just one more thing.”
We went glow bowling at Ed's Bowling, where we could order food right to our lane.
Then there was Dragon's Tale, an 18-hole glow-in-the-dark mini-golf course full of dragons, wizards and other fantasy characters.
We played it more than once.
Right nearby is the Crystal Labyrinth Mirror Maze.
It isn't a long attraction, but it produced an unreasonable number of giggles for the amount of time we spent inside it.
Naturally, we did that more than once too.
The Shopping Is an Attraction Too
We couldn't come to West Edmonton Mall and not shop.
With more than 800 stores and services, this isn't the kind of mall where you casually announce, “We'll just look around for half an hour.”
We wandered.
A lot.
On this trip I stopped at places including London Drugs, Mark's, LEGO, Indigo and Old Navy, among others.
One of my favourite things about a road-trip vacation is that you don't have the same luggage restrictions you would if you were flying, which makes shopping considerably more dangerous.
Or convenient.
Depending on who you ask.
And all of that walking adds up.
We averaged about 15,000 steps per day, not including all of the movement we were doing inside World Waterpark.
So despite spending most of this particular vacation indoors, sedentary it was not.
Eating Our Way Around the Mall
Feeding a family on vacation can either be part of the fun or become the thing you spend half the trip negotiating.
Here, it was easy.
West Edmonton Mall has more than 100 places to eat, including food courts and sit-down restaurants, which meant everyone could choose what appealed to them.
Sometimes that even meant four people getting food from different places for the same meal.
We also returned to BRBN st., or Bourbon Street, several times for sit-down meals.
During the trip we ate at places including Boston Pizza, Earls, The Old Spaghetti Factory and CHOW Lucky Noodle Bar.
And one particularly popular dessert stop was Marble Slab Creamery, where the kids could choose their ice cream and personalize it with their own mix-ins and toppings.
It was dessert, but it also felt like another activity.
You can browse West Edmonton Mall's restaurant directory here.
We Saved Our Favourite Hotel Room for Last
On our final night, we switched from Polynesia to outer space.
Our second Fantasyland Hotel room was the Space Room, and this one was the unanimous family favourite.
The room was dark and atmospheric with space-themed lighting, but the star of the show for our kids was unquestionably the capsule bunk beds.
They looked like little sleeping pods built into a spaceship.
We are a space-loving family already, so perhaps the outcome was inevitable, but all four of us walked in and immediately said some version of:
“Oh, THIS is cool.”
Why West Edmonton Mall Works So Well for a Family Getaway
One of my biggest takeaways from this trip is that West Edmonton Mall isn't really just a mall.
It works surprisingly well as a complete family destination.
You can wake up in your themed hotel room, walk to a tropical waterpark, ride a roller coaster, go bowling, play mini golf, shop, choose from an enormous range of restaurants and then walk back to your room at the end of the night.
And you can do all of that without worrying about the weather.
That makes it particularly interesting as a Canadian year-round getaway.
Want something warm and tropical in the middle of winter? The waterpark is waiting.
Summer weather too hot, smoky or rainy? Your plans don't have to change.
Travelling during shoulder season when the forecast could do practically anything? Same thing.
And despite this being such a large destination, one of the things that stood out repeatedly was how kind the staff were.
We noticed it at Fantasyland Hotel, at Galaxyland, at World Waterpark and throughout our stay.
Those interactions matter, especially when you're travelling as a family.
What We'd Do Differently Next Time
Our biggest mistake?
Thinking four nights would be enough to do everything.
It wasn't.
We still want to go aboard The Ship.
We didn't make it onto the swan paddle boats.
The kids want more Galaxyland.
We want another waterpark day.
I'd love to book a cabana.
And we'd like to try indoor surfing and the Skyflyer Zipline.
I'm also pretty sure another stay in the Space Room has already been requested.
The funny thing is, we originally thought of this as a vacation that would be exciting for the kids.
It turned out to be a vacation we all genuinely enjoyed.
That's probably the best recommendation I can give it.
Four nights, thousands upon thousands of steps, countless trips around the Cootie Coaster, waterslides, a pirate ship, glow-in-the-dark everything, one tropical hotel room, one spaceship and a very long list of things still left to do.
10/10. We'd go back.
And we're already talking about when.
Planning Your Own West Edmonton Mall Family Trip
If you're planning a visit, these are the resources I'd start with:
Galaxyland Rides and Attractions