The Real Obstacle Isn’t the Distance
Most people planning to hit both West Edmonton Mall and downtown Edmonton on the same trip make the same assumption before they’ve even landed: that the two are far enough apart to be a logistical headache. They aren’t. A direct bus connects them in well under an hour, and if you’re driving or taking a rideshare, you’re looking at roughly a quarter of that. This isn’t a cross-city slog. It’s a short hop, however you cover it.
So if distance isn’t the problem, what is?
I stayed downtown, at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, close enough to the city’s core sights that most of them are a walk rather than a transit trip — and if a downtown base like that appeals to you, you can check current rates at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald.
West Edmonton Mall greeted me with a single word the moment I walked in: overwhelming. It covers close to half a million square metres, and trying to picture covering that on foot, the way you might wander a compact downtown core, is a losing proposition from the start. Downtown and the mall aren’t neighbouring stops on the same afternoon. They’re two full destinations that happen to share a city, and the real planning question isn’t how you get between them. It’s how much of each one you actually want.
What a Downtown Morning (or Day) Actually Needs
Downtown Edmonton rewards you for staying put, which I appreciated more than I expected after years away from the city. From the Fairmont, I could walk to the Convention Centre in about four minutes, reach the Royal Alberta Museum and the Art Gallery of Alberta in ten to twelve, and get to Rogers Place in under fifteen. Nothing downtown demands a bus ride to reach the next thing. That compactness is exactly why a downtown day can quietly swallow more time than you’d expect — not because any single stop takes long, but because everything sits close enough that you keep deciding to add one more.
My own biggest sightseeing day in the city bore this out. I picked up a transit pass with the plan of covering as much ground as possible, and between the LRT lines, the ICE District, Rogers Place, the Gretzky statue outside it, and a stop at the Oilers team store, the day filled itself without much effort on my part. That was before I’d touched the river valley, the Legislature grounds, or anything south of Jasper Avenue.
If the Alberta Legislature is part of your plan, book the guided tour ahead of time rather than assuming you’ll walk up and join one. I watched other visitors arrive without a reservation and get turned away, while we took the last two spots after a cancellation. It’s a small detail, but it’s the kind that can cost you an hour of standing around instead of touring.
Give downtown at least half a day if you want more than a drive-by impression of it. A tighter version — an hour or two hitting two or three highlights — works fine as a taste. It just isn’t really seeing downtown. It’s seeing a corner of it.
What West Edmonton Mall Actually Needs, in Brief
I’ve already broken down West Edmonton Mall attraction by attraction, with current prices and honest time budgets for a quick visit versus a full day versus two, in its own dedicated guide, so I won’t repeat that math here. What matters for this particular question is simpler: the mall isn’t a stop you tack onto a downtown day as an afterthought.
Our first move inside was, predictably, food. We headed for what I still think of as Bourbon Street — it’s since been rebranded BRBN st., though old habits die hard — and ended up at the Taco Shop. Guacamole made tableside, tacos with real heat behind them, and a ceviche Audrey particularly liked. “The biggest surprise ever, that we’re interested in food right away,” she said dryly, which tells you everything about how predictable we’ve become on these trips.
From there we walked through the areas around the indoor lake and its pirate ship, looked down at the Ice Palace from above, and wandered through Galaxyland without getting on anything — we watched more than we participated, which is its own honest introduction to a place this size. I said at the time you could easily lose an entire day there, hotels and all, and I stand by it. We didn’t attempt that day. It isn’t a knock on the mall. It’s an acknowledgment that a proper WEM day and a proper downtown day are both real commitments, and giving one its due leaves less room than you’d think for the other.
Bus, Car, or Trolley: Getting Between Downtown and the Mall
When I was there, Edmonton Transit still sold a straightforward day pass, which is what got me around for that big sightseeing day. That system has since changed. Edmonton now runs on tap-to-pay: about three dollars a ride with a transit card or a contactless bank card, seventy-five cents more if you’re paying cash or buying a single paper ticket, and your fares cap automatically at around ten and a half dollars a day no matter how many times you tap. You don’t need to plan ahead and buy a pass before you start moving anymore — you just tap, and the system does the math. Each rider over twelve needs their own card or phone, which is worth knowing before you’re standing at the fare reader trying to cover a whole family off one account.
For the actual downtown-to-mall connection, a direct bus runs between the two with no transfer required, taking somewhere between half an hour and just under an hour depending on the time of day and where exactly you’re starting from. There’s no direct LRT out to the mall yet — that line is still under construction — so the bus remains the practical transit answer for now. Skip transit altogether and driving or a rideshare covers the same ground in about a quarter of an hour, for roughly twenty to twenty-five dollars by cab.
There’s also a newer option worth knowing about: a hop-on, hop-off vintage trolley that launched this past summer, running two loops out of a hub right at the Fairmont. One loop connects downtown to the Alberta Legislature and out to West Edmonton Mall, with trolleys passing every ninety minutes to two hours and day passes starting around thirty dollars. It’s a sightseeing product rather than ordinary transit, and new enough that I’d check current Edmonton Explorer trolley schedules and tickets before building a day around it. But it’s a genuinely pleasant way to cover the distance if you’re not in a hurry and want the ride itself to be part of the day rather than just the gap between two better things.
How We Actually Ended Up Splitting Ours
We didn’t plan the split in advance. It happened almost by accident, which is probably the most honest thing I can tell you about it.
That biggest-sightseeing-day started with picking up a transit pass mid-morning, already thinking about how to squeeze the most out of it. We rode LRT line after LRT line, worked our way through the ICE District, and by the time either of us checked a clock again, it was pushing eleven and we still had most of downtown ahead of us. West Edmonton Mall was sitting on the list too, and for a moment it looked like we might fold it into the same day.
We didn’t. Somewhere in that stretch we simply agreed the mall would wait until the following morning, and kept going downtown instead. It wasn’t a strategic call so much as a practical one — we were already deep into a day with its own momentum, and stacking a mall the size of a small city on top of it felt less like ambition and more like a way to enjoy neither properly.
One Day or Two? A Straight Answer
So here’s the actual decision, stripped of the geography excuse: you’re not choosing between easy and hard based on the commute, because the commute is easy either way. You’re choosing between a taste of both and a real look at either.
A same-day version is genuinely achievable. Spend a morning downtown on two or three highlights, take the bus, the trolley, or a short drive out to the mall in the early afternoon, and spend the rest of the day there. You’ll come away having seen both. You won’t come away having experienced either the way it deserves — the Legislature tour you didn’t book in time, the museum you walked past instead of into, the mall attraction you didn’t have time to queue for.
If you’re taking that route, the trolley does double duty nicely — one ticket covers the downtown stops and the ride out to the mall, so you’re not juggling separate fares on top of a tight schedule. Worth a look if the light version is what your trip actually has room for: you can see current Edmonton Explorer routes and ticket options before you commit to it.
| Same-Day Light Split | Separate Day Blocks | |
|---|---|---|
| What you’ll realistically see | Two or three downtown highlights, plus the mall’s easiest attractions — the lake, the pirate ship, a meal | A genuine downtown day, plus a genuine WEM visit built around whatever you actually want to do there |
| Time cost | One full day, split roughly in half | A half-day to full day on each side, spread across the trip |
| Best suited to | Short trips, layovers, or travellers who just want to say they’ve seen both | Anyone who wants more than a highlight reel of either place |
If your trip only has one spare day for the two of them combined, take the light version and go in knowing what you’re trading away. If you have the time to give each its own block, do that instead. We backed into that answer rather than planning for it — but eleven o’clock into a transit pass we were determined to use properly, it’s exactly the choice we ended up making, and I’d make it again on purpose next time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is West Edmonton Mall far from downtown Edmonton?
Not really. A direct bus covers the distance in well under an hour, and driving or a rideshare takes about fifteen minutes. The commute isn’t what makes combining them tricky — it’s how much time each side deserves on its own.
Can you visit West Edmonton Mall and downtown Edmonton in the same day?
You can, and it’s a genuinely workable plan if your trip is short on time. Spend a morning on two or three downtown highlights, then head out to the mall for the afternoon. You’ll see both, though you won’t get the same depth you would by giving each its own block.
How do you get between downtown Edmonton and West Edmonton Mall?
A direct bus runs between the two with no transfer needed, taking roughly thirty minutes to just under an hour depending on the time of day. Driving or a rideshare covers the same distance in about fifteen minutes, and a hop-on, hop-off trolley that launched this past summer also connects the two areas for travellers who’d rather make the ride part of the day.
Is there a direct LRT line to West Edmonton Mall?
No, not yet. The line out that way is still under construction, so the bus remains the practical transit option for now.
How much time should you plan for downtown Edmonton?
I’d budget at least half a day if you want more than a quick pass through it. Downtown is compact enough that everything is close together, which paradoxically makes it easy to lose an entire day moving between sights that are each only a few minutes apart.
Do you need to book ahead for the Alberta Legislature tour?
Yes. We watched other visitors get turned away for arriving without a reservation while we took the last two spots after a cancellation. It’s worth booking your time slot before you arrive rather than assuming you can walk up and join one.
Is it better to split West Edmonton Mall and downtown across separate days?
For a real look at both, yes. We ended up doing it that way ourselves, mostly by accident, and it gave each side the time it actually needed. A same-day version works fine if your trip genuinely can’t spare two blocks, but go in knowing it’ll be a highlights-only version of each.
This article is also available in Spanish. [Leé la versión en castellano: West Edmonton Mall y el centro de Edmonton en un solo viaje: cómo dividir tu tiempo]
This article contains affiliate links. If you book through one of these links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.