The Ice Castle in Edmonton

The Ice Castle in Edmonton, Alberta is one of six stunning frozen attractions located in the cities across North America. This exhibition is one of Alberta’s most popular tourist destinations and the only ice castle of this sort in Canada. I am so glad that I finally got a chance to visit.

Note: The ice castle isn’t in Edmonton every year, so please check for current information.

Each winter, professional ice artists use hundreds of thousands of farmed icicles and assemble them by hand into breathtaking ice sculptures, fountains, frozen thrones, ice-carved tunnels, slides, cascading towers, and much more. During the night hours, the frozen sculptures are lit with color-changing LED lights, and they look simply breathtaking.

We went just before dusk so we got to take photos in the daylight and then with it lit as well. It was mid week and not too busy when we went.

How is The Ice Castle in Edmonton Built?

This acre-sized icy attraction in Hawrelak Park in Edmonton takes around five weeks of growing, harvesting, and hand-placing up to 10,000 icicles to build the annual ice castle. It takes 25 million pounds of ice to build the castle! The icicles are sprayed with water repeatedly until the walls of the ice castle reach around 30 feet. Crazy, right?!? It like stepping into a real life Frozen movie. Definitely a place to visit if you are a fan of Elsa. 🙂

A special thanks to Josh for joining me on this trip and taking my photos.

The Ice Castle Things to See & Do

The Ice Castle in Edmonton offers a range of opportunities for original photos. From LED-lit ice fountains and sculptures to frozen slides and tunnels, there are many spots to take photographs of your unique travel experience. It is a mecca for the Instagrammer or photo enthusiast.

Don’t miss visiting the Ice Castle at sunset, it is absolutely magical. I’d suggest you go anywhere between 4:30 and 5:30 PM to enjoy both the beauty of the glistering ice in the sun and the beautiful lights at sunset. If you can, stay for the night show too – the color-changing lights, fireworks and fire dances spectacle with flaming torches are absolutely amazing!

Whether you come with children or without them, don’t miss sliding down the ice castle’s large ice slides, it’s so exciting! There is also a smaller children’s slide available for the kids.

If you visit on the weekends, you’ll have the opportunity to meet princesses from Disney’s Frozen who will greet you from their ice throne.  I am disappointed that I didn’t go on a weekend.

A Few Takeaways

Don’t forget – you’re in Alberta, Canada. So, dress for the weather with warm parkas, mitts, hats, scarves, and winter boots. It will take you around an hour of walking to see the whole exhibition. Believe me when I say….it is icy cold! You will be cold even on a sunny day.

Have you ever been to an ice castle?

This post has been sponsored by Explore Edmonton and Travel Alberta. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that support me.