Vacation in this four-season North American capital, gateway to a land of polar bears, spas and festivals.
Winnipeg, Manitoba’s capital, is known for its sophisticated city life and exciting natural surroundings. Build your Winnipeg visit around one of its many festivals and enjoy meeting the wildlife of the prairie region.
Bring the family to Journey to Churchill, where polar bears swim overhead in a fascinating Assiniboine Park and Zoo Arctic exhibit. Observe snowy owls, muskox, and wolves of the Hudson Bay wilderness area and learn about conservation, climate change and biodiversity.
Walk along the Red River, which winds through the city past public art and popular sights. Visit the Forks National Historic Site to understand the region’s 6,000 years of human history. Run, bike, skate or cross-country ski along the Red River Mutual Trail or take a boat tour of the city. Stop at The Forks Market for food, drinks and shopping.
Nearby, admire the astounding architecture of Antoine Predock’s design of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Take a tour to learn about human rights stories from around the world and climb to the Tower of Hope at the top of the structure for great city views.
Many of Winnipeg’s seasonal festivals focus on music. Enjoy summer events at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, Winnipeg International Jazz Festival and the 2-week multicultural Folklorama. Escape to the Winnipeg Folk Festival, 4 days of music just outside the city.
In winter, see giant ice sculptures during the Great Ice Show and celebrate the past of French Canadian fur traders in the grand Festival du Voyageur, which lasts for 10 days in February. Winter is a great time to pamper yourself in the town’s spas, some featuring treatments inspired by indigenous traditions.
Explore the Manitoba Legislative Building and take a tour that explains its mysterious hieroglyphics, freemason symbols and codes. Find more history and mystery in the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection of Manitoba Museum, with more than 10,000 artifacts spanning 300 years of Canada’s past.
Fly to Winnipeg’s international airport or drive across the border from the U.S., just 90 minutes away.