Here are the top 5 Winnipeg attractions

Looking for the Best Winnipeg attractions and things to do in Winnipeg?

Here they are:

#1 among Winnipeg attractions - The Forks

A meeting place for six thousand years or more, The Forks is the place where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet. It is still Winnipeg’s most popular gathering place.

Today, The Forks is also the most visited Winnipeg attraction.

Here's why both locals and visitors love The Forks -- patio, fine dining and ethnic restaurants (including the best fish and chips in the city); interesting shops and an antiques market; a food market offering local produce; prairie gardens and a riverside walking trail; skating on the river in winter; outdoor concerts in summer; museums and theatre; guided and self-guided walking tours and a river marina where you can take a water taxi or rent a kayak.

The Forks also has concerts; musicians and buskers; bicycle rentals and pedal-cab tours; theatre, festivals, seasonal events and celebrations, and Canada's best skateboard park!

There are also events geared to families every weekend year-round and special events, including festivals. But just about any time there's something interesting going on at The Forks!

AND, it's close to downtown hotels or, if you have a rental, there's lots of (free!) parking (though it can be difficult to find a spot close to The Forks Market. And the parking spots in front of Manitoba Children's Museum have meters. Best bet is to park further out or in the parking structure).

If all that activity sounds just too energetic, get yourself a drink or a cone, find a place to sit (usually there's plenty of choice) and watch the passing parade, either riverside on a fine day, or in the market's sunroom when it’s less balmy outside. Read more about The Forks

Assiniboine Park and Assiniboine Forest

The Park has formal gardens including the beautiful Leo Mol Sculpture Garden and Mol's studio where you can see how his bronze statues were created.

There are also walking/cycling trails, a train ride for children in summer, the Victorian Pavilion with its gallery of contemporary artists, restaurants, playing fields, picnic spots and the Zoo.

Assiniboine Forest is a wilder place, a city forest of ancient oak trees. Assiniboine Forest is a good place to cycle, hike, or jog where you will see birds and other wildlife including white-tail deer who come to drink at the pond.

If you visit in winter and would like to skate on a frozen pond head to Assiniboine Park, where there is also a toboggan slide (bring your own sled).

The Exchange District

This popular Winnipeg attraction is the city’s commercial birthplace, where century buildings (from an era of opulence) now house boutiques, art galleries, antiques and vintage shops, nightclubs, theatres, artists’ workshops, museums and restaurants.

The Exchange includes Market Square, the recently re-designed park that is home to summer festivals. And, in the last decade, it has become a desirable address, with warehouse converted to luxury condos, among the city’s most pricey real estate.

Manitoba Museum

If you can fit in just one museum during your visit to Winnipeg, make it this one!

In addition to offering insights into the fur trade, how the Ojibwa and Cree people lived before Europeans arrived, and after; and allowing you to wander through a street (and go into the homes and shops) of a Prairie small city circa 1920, this museum houses an entire ship that you can board and explore!

It also has the Planetarium, where you can lean back and see the night sky while the resident astrologer (also quite a good storyteller) entrances you with tales of the constellations and updates on the space program’s most recent discoveries.

Explore Forts in and near Winnipeg!

There have been many forts in and near the city, built to support the fur trade and defend the interests of ever-warring Britain and France before Canada's Birth at Confederation.

Today, there are just three forts, all favourite Winnipeg attractions. Two have been completely restored, with costumed guides and lots of activities and events, while the third remains a ruined remnant, with just a gate still standing, though plans are underway for its restoration.

Together, Lower Fort Garry, Fort Gibraltar and Upper Fort Garry Gate have a fascinating story to tell.

More things to do in Winnipeg

One of the surprises about coming to Winnipeg for the first time is all the art. You see it everywhere.

There’s sculpture on the streets and in gardens, huge wall murals, architecture both grandly historic and strikingly modern, commercial/advertising art, ghost signs of businesses long gone and nearly forgotten, galleries both for viewing and buying art and the works of talented artisans.

Go Shopping!

Winnipeg has five major malls with all of the major department and chain stores either at these malls or very near-by (Sears Canada, The Bay, Zellers, Wal-Mart, Chapters, RONA, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Winners) you’ll find across Canada, plus a number of smaller/specialty and locally-owned stores.

The largest (and grandest) Winnipeg mall is Polo Park, west of Downtown on Portage Avenue.

If you prefer a mall that’s all on one level, and also has plenty of choice, head for St. Vital Centre, south-east of Downtown.

Or, if you’d rather not venture beyond walking distance from Downtown hotels, there are Portage Place (on Portage Ave.), Winnipeg Square and cityplace. All three downtown malls have less selection than the two major malls, with stores catering mainly to the weekday needs of downtown office workers.

There is just one major department store that still has a city core presence, and it is iconic -- The Bay, in it’s historic store (worth going if only to admire the beautiful exterior details, though it also has a small exhibition space and is the temporary home of the Sports Hall of Fame) at Portage and Memorial (across the street from Winnipeg Art Gallery).

Prefer boutiques and one-of-a-kind finds? You’ll find them at:

Try your luck at the Casinos!

There are two casinos in Winnipeg, both operated by Manitoba Lotteries.

Beyond the Perimeter is the smaller and newer Native-owned and -managed casino near Grand Beach, about 45 minutes away, attached to a contemporary boutique hotel (in the photo above).

All three have slots and table games plus restaurants (with some of the best meal deals in the province), live entertainment and special events.

The Top 5 Winnipeg attractions for kids are:

More Winnipeg attractions

Manitoba Museum is the largest and best-known, and absolutely worth visiting.

But Winnipeg has more than 40 more museums and heritage homes with intriguing collections. Many are run by volunteers; some are open summer only, or summer and limited hours in winter, or only by appointment.

Among them are museums dedicated to planes and aviation history; fire-fighting; policing; trains; war, peacekeeping and military history; clothing design, and, well, a whole lot more.

I made the rounds this past summer of Winnipeg and area museums (and didn’t quite get to all of them, but that’s another story). What I did find is that there is surprising variety (amazing what our ancestors kept!).

You can explore all these interests (and a whole lot more) at Winnipeg and area museums.

Winnipeg attractions - Nightlife

Looking for live blues, funk, hip-hop, jazz, electronic or dance music?

Want to go clubbing, dancing on a midnight river cruise, or find the city’s gay clubs? Winnipeg attractions -- the hottest clubs are here!

Still more fantastic Winnipeg attractions!

Festivals, ballet and contemporary dance, theatre, pro sports, concerts and movies are all listed at Winnipeg Events.

Looking for golf, skating , downhill and cross-country skiing, walking and hiking, cycling, tours, boat cruises, extreme sports, bird-watching and encounters with nature? They're all in Winnipeg Outdoors.