Tourism Winnipeg

Journey to Churchill: Tara Wuennenberg Nonsuch: Photo courtesy of The Manitoba Museum 39 www.tourismwinnipeg.com Winnipeg Itineraries More outdoor magic — which can be experienced from the comfort of your heated car (or a horse-drawn carriage — because they offer that too) can be found at the Canad Inns Winter Wonderland, which takes place every year from December through to early January at Red River Exhibition Park. Your family will be dazzled by the over one million lights in 26 different themed areas on this 2.5 kilometre tour, while a beautifully lit outdoor skating rink is also onsite. If the great indoors is more your family's thing, Winnipeg still has you covered with plenty of options that will keep you out of the cold. If you are looking to feel the humidity of a tropical oasis during the middle of winter head to the Assiniboine Park Conservatory. This place is a year-round verdant jungle, home to over 8,000 plants and trees (along with turtles and fish) with flora displays that change with the season, including a particularly extravagant display during the holiday season. Best of all, it's free. Further down the road in Assiniboine Park is where you'll find Assiniboine Park Zoo, a place that is guaranteed to impart the greatest sense of wonder on your crew. Nothing does winter better than polar bears — they were literally built for the cold — so be sure to see them in their element at the zoo's Journey to Churchill, a multi-award winning exhibit where you can get nearly nose to nose as they swim right over your head in the Sea Ice Passage. Along with playful bears, Journey to Churchill's 10 acres also includes wolves, muskoxen, snowy owls, Arctic fox and more. There's also the Aurora Borealis Theatre — which projects the vast Arctic landscaped on to a domed 360 degree horizon, and the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre — where you can learn about the bears, the Arctic ecosystem and climate change. For a further sense of wonder there's The Manitoba Museum, an edutainment centre filled with life-sized dioramas, replicas of the sea serpents, dinosaurs and giant mammals that once walked this very land, along with an interactive science gallery and planetarium. Kids are especially enthralled when they get to walk the plank onto the Nonsuch, a massive replica 17th century ship that sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668 (to get it here, they actually sailed this replica from England to mark the 300 year history of the Hudson Bay company in 1970). More modes of historic transportation can be found at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada which houses an astounding fleet that details Canada's diverse history of flight. You'll find workhorse planes from the bush, and ones used in war, to conceptual crafts like the Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar, which looks like it just floated in off the set of a UFO sci-fi film. If you happen to enter the city from the east, you can't help but notice one of the coolest buildings in Canada, which is the Royal Canadian Mint. Inside you'll embark on an experience that sets the gold standard for tours, seeing how over 55 billion coins for more than 75 countries have been created here. They also have fun interactive games and an outstanding gift shop full of collector's items. Plus, you can hold a gold bar worth over $750,000 (it's really heavy). If team-building exercises are your family's thing, we have plenty of escape rooms located throughout the city like Enigma Escapes, The Real Escape, Epic Escape, The Escape Hatch, Ultimate Lockdown and Codebreakers. There's also laser tag at LaserTopia, a mammoth trampoline park at Sky Zone, super-fast go-kart racing at Speedworld Indoor Kart Track and the rock climbing walls of Vertical Adventures, should you and your crew be looking for something a little sportier.

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