Winnipeg

Heart of the Canadian Prairies, with The Forks where two rivers meet, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the historic Exchange District, plus skating on frozen rivers in winter.

Winnipeg, capital of Manitoba, sits on the prairie near the geographic centre of North America, where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet downtown. With about 800,000 people, it is the largest city in central Canada. The Forks, at the confluence of the two rivers, has been a meeting place for Indigenous peoples for 6,000 years and later became a fur-trading post and rail hub; today it is the city's living room, with a food market, riverside walkways and a winter skating trail on the ice. Next door, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, with its glacier-like architecture, is the city's newest landmark. North of downtown, the Exchange District preserves red-brick warehouses from the early-20th-century "Gateway to the West" era, and at the Manitoba Museum you can board a replica of the 17th-century ship Nonsuch; to the south are the neoclassical Manitoba Legislative Building and the Winnipeg Art Gallery, known for its Inuit art collection. Across the river, St. Boniface is the largest francophone community in Western Canada and the resting place of Louis Riel. In the western suburbs, Assiniboine Park Zoo is famous for its polar bear exhibit, Journey to Churchill, and in the southeast the Royal Canadian Mint strikes all of the country's circulation coins. Day trips include Lower Fort Garry, Oak Hammock Marsh, the Mennonite Heritage Village, or north to Grand Beach on Lake Winnipeg and the Icelandic town of Gimli. The climate is classically continental: Jun–Aug is warm and sunny and full of festivals (the Folk Festival in July, Folklorama in August), while Jan–Feb often drops below -20°C but brings river skating, Nordic spas and the Festival du Voyageur in February; bring bug spray in summer. Getting there: Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport is about 15 minutes by car from downtown; downtown is walkable, but you'll need a car for sights outside the city. Plan on 2–3 days.

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