A city enamored with independent business, warehouse music venues, and nature-loving urbanites, Winnipeg is an often overseen Canadian city due to its more popular cousins, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. But that only makes Winnipeg that much cooler! Here are the best underrated things to do in and around town.
Photo Credit: The Forks Facebook
The Forks
Where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet, The Forks is a historic gathering place with aboriginal roots. Home to an outdoor market plaza, a children’s museum, and a stoic hotel, it’s a great place to spend the afternoon.
Royal Canadian Mint
A coin producer for 75 countries, the Royal Canadian Mint’s facility offers 45-minute guided tours through the fascinating process of currency creation. You can also try your hand at lifting a pure bar of gold worth a ton!
Deer + Almond
At the heart of the Exchange District, this fine dining restaurant nods to two crucial ingredients in the Manitoban diet, which are – you guessed it — deer and almond. Small plates and an artsy ambiance also make it a great late-night stop – try the parmesan fries!
The Red River Mutual Skating Trail
When winter comes, the Red River turns to ice, and locals utilize this to the best of their ability – through ice skating! Famous for being the longest natural ice-skating path, it’s a scenic way to see the city.
The River Walk
Part of The Forks, the Assiniboine River Walk continues west, offering a tranquil stroll to lesser-seen city landmarks like the Osborne Street Bridge and Bonnycastle Park.
Atikaki Provincial Park
Home to a crystal clear freshwater lakes and prehistoric rock paintings, Atikaki Provincial Park is about an hour’s drive outside the city, and well worth your time. Make sure you don’t leave any food out – the bears will smell it.
The Northern Lights
Though a few hundred miles north of Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Hudson Bay shoreline is considered one of the greatest places in the world to see the Northern Lights – if you have the patience, try to make the drive to see it.
Birds Hill Provincial Park
A good all-in-one escape just outside the city, Birds Hill Provincial Park offers cross-country skiing in the winter, epic wooded hiking paths in the spring, and a huge lakeshore beach where you can bury your toes in the summer.
The Exchange District
Along the north end of downtown, the Exchange District is Winnipeg’s cultural hub. Home to the ballet, the opera, and the Centennial Concert Hall, an array of theaters and indie boutiques line the neighborhood’s historic streets. Deer + Almond is here!
Trappist Monastery
For those in search of solace, visit the Trappist Monastery at the end of your trip – the abandoned monastery is well maintained and open to explore, and the surrounding parkland home to plenty of angles to watch the sunset.
Canadian Museum for Human Rights
One of the coolest architectural phenomenons we’ve ever seen, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights “is the first museum solely dedicated to the evolution, celebration, and future of human rights.” The Forks is right near here!
