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Saskatoon : June 2025
Upon booking our trip to Saskatoon, I found myself continuously justifying that decision.
It’s not like *everyone * questioned my Choice, just the overwhelming majority.
‘What’s in Saskatoon’ ‘what made you pick that place’ ‘any particular reason’
Now I’m going to go out on a limb and say same questions to go out on a wouldn’t have been asked if I’d
Said I was going to Cancun, Mexico. So this post is to tell you there is reason to go to Saskatoon
(in my opinion). I spent 3 nights there with my partner and 2 children (ages 5 &3) in June. This post will go over what we got up to.
Monday
This was the day we set off Leaving Edmonton Shortly after 8am. The trip time from South East is a
Solid 5 hours straight. However, we knew we would take several stops. There are 2 possible routes there
but it is recommended to take the Trans Canada Highway (#16). We planned to stop in both Vegreville and Lloydminster. which worked out well as we didn’t need to take
extra stops. By Canadian Standards, this is a relatively short and quick road trip. But not being born here,
I still need to build up my car tolerance and feel 5 hours is a good maximum with young children on
board.
Vegreville
Home of the world’s largest Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg). My daughter is obsessed with eggs
(anyone else?). She asks for eggs for breakfast every day, she sleeps with a giant gudetama every night,
and she looks for the eggs at every dinosaur attraction. So I knew this would be a hit and was a town we
were genuinely looking forward to.
It only took around an hour to get here, we went straight to Kinsmen Park and after admiring the egg we
came across an old train that you could walk through. When we went inside the visitor centre we further
discovered that they have mini golf! This is only $5 per person and free for 5 and under, so I just let my
kids have a go. They thoroughly enjoyed the town-themed golf course followed by the large playground
suitable for both of them. This turned out to be a great stop.
Lloydminster
This stop was made for lunch and to say we had been to this border town for Alberta / Saskatchewan. It
ended up being a brief stop as it started to rain as we took out the Sandwiches. Not to fret, we got a
quick glance at the park and made a note to come back returning. This is the point in the trip where we
took out the tablets for the kids to watch cartoons for the second half of the journey.
Hotel
We arrived to our hotel Sometime after 4pm, which was the Best Western Plus East Side. I’m a fan of
this chain as it hasn’t disappointed me, and while it was a pleasant stay there were several factors that
Made me think I wouldn’t Choose it again for a family trip. I have worked at several luxury hotels
before, so if interested, I could do a more detailed ‘hotel review later. Anyway, the location was good,
we crossed the road to the Mall to eat in the food court for a simple meal after the trip and to stretch our
legs. This was when I was hit with the horrifying fact that the sales tax is double in Saskatchewan than
in Alberta ! So eating from the same chain restaurants cost significantly more. I vouched at that moment
to not be tempted to do any vacation shopping. I also don’t feel this was the best option for dinner,
perhaps ordering to the room would’ve been best.
Either way it didn’t matter as right before bed, the trip caught up to my daughter and proceeded to puke
up her guts all over the hotel floor!
As I made a late night run back to shoppers for some Meds (luckily across the street open late), our day’s
adventures came to a close.
If you’re interested to learn what we got up to on the following days, I’ll post next.
Typed transcripts of my written notes and voice recorded audio files will be available
below – along with photos.
Thanks for reading, Rebecca