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13-Nights Great Canadian Rail Journey

Price: $8,126 - # of Days: 13 days
All aboard for an epic rail journey across captivating Canada. Settle into your first-class, art deco train car aboard VIA Rail’s The Canadian to cruise and snooze your way through five picturesque provinces. Your epic adventure across Canada begins with two overnights in Toronto, featuring a visit ...

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12-Nights Pure Canada - Whales & Bears, Art & Culture

Price: Please call for rates - # of Days: 12 days
This 13-day Canadian Wildlife Adventure delivers up-close encounters with polar bears, whales, and a myriad of other wildlife at a fly-in eco-lodge along the shores of remote Hudson Bay. Plus, delve into the art, culture, and major attractions of Vancouver with 5-star lodging. Note: This adventure i...

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5-Nights Manitoba: Polar Bear Adventure - Land Journey

Price: $8,690 - # of Days: 5 days
Manitoba: Polar Bear Adventure Manitoba's vast open spaces are filled with unique wonders, stories, and adventures on this awe-inspiring journey to the far reaches of the Canadian wilderness. Embrace your inner explorer on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to Manitoba in "Pola...

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6-Nights Northern Lights & Arctic Exploration

Price: Please call for rates - # of Days: 6 days
A Winter Adventure in Churchill, Canada—One of the Best Places to See the Aurora! In the same land that hosts the beluga whales of summer and polar bears in autumn comes an amazing phenomenon that illumines the dark winter skies. The northern lights—also called the aurora borealis, me...

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6-Nights Aurora & the Arctic: Women in the Wild

Price: Please call for rates - # of Days: 6 days
Women in the Wild: Nat Hab's Women-Only Adventure Series You'll benefit from the exceptional knowledge and experience of our all-star female Expedition Leaders. Learn firsthand what it took for them to get where they are as consummate naturalists and outdoor explorers. Each small-group jo...

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6-Nights Polar Bear Safari

Price: Please call for rates - # of Days: 6 days
A Polar Bear Safari Experience: Polar bear watching is best done naturally, and nowhere does it better than Churchill Wild’s collection of luxury ecolodges in the Arctic tundra. A short flight from nearby Churchill, venture beyond the Arctic Circle deep into bear territory for an extraordin...

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6-Nights Polar Bear Travel - Great Ice Bear Tour

Price: Please call for rates - # of Days: 6 days
A Polar Bear Travel Experience of a Lifetime Imagine coming face to face with one of the world’s most majestic and powerful creatures in its natural habitat. This journey takes you to the tundra of northern Manitoba, near the shores of Hudson Bay. Here polar bears roam free, and you’l...

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6-Nights The Stories of Canada - Manitoba

Price: Please call for rates - # of Days: 6 days
Welcome to the edge of the Arctic – a remote region where polar bears march towards the coastline, wolves play in the barren tundra, and moose drift through frozen forest. Here you’ll experience a seven-day adventure like no other. Your days will be filled with hikes and excursions near ...

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5-Nights Ultimate Polar Bear Adventure

Price: Please call for rates - # of Days: 5 days
On this amazing 6-day adventure, visit the arctic tundra of Churchill, Manitoba, where polar bears roam free and the Northern Lights appear 300 nights of the year. Watch for wildlife like arctic fox, hare and camouflaged ptarmigan, and enjoy activities like cultural tours to historic sites and dog m...

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Overview

Introduction

Winnipeg surprises. It's a large and cosmopolitan city rising from the vast plains of southern Manitoba, not the regional town some may expect. Winnipeg is home to the world-class Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Blue Bombers football team and many other treasures. Fine museums, good local transit and a stimulating, multicultural atmosphere contribute to the sophistication.

Settlers in Winnipeg have included indigenous aboriginal people, French- and English-speaking Canadians, Germans, Ukrainians, Chinese, Filipinos and others. This mix gives the town its international flavor, which manifests in a wonderful variety of markets, restaurants and cultural centers.

This sophistication is nicely balanced by the town's wide-open, Western feel, its proximity to the surrounding farmlands and by the fact that it's relatively small, as big cities go. Winnipeg is easy to get to know and yet complex enough for an interesting visit.

Must See or Do

Sights—Esplanade Riel Pedestrian Bridge; St. Boniface Basilica; The Forks; the Riel House National Historic Site.

Museums—Folk art at Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre; the world's finest collection of contemporary Inuit art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery; bush planes that opened up the north at the Western Canada Aviation Museum; The Costume Museum of Canada, with its 35,000 pieces of clothing, accessories and textiles spanning 400 years.

Memorable Meals—Quebecois cuisine in a restored train station and railcar at La Vieille Gare; bison and pickerel (the local term for walleye) at Allora; a kubie, Ukranian-style hot dog, from a Broadway Street vendor.

Late Night—Line dancing at the Palomino Club Lounge; cocktails at the Palm Room; dancing at Alive.

Walks—Wandering through the lovely outdoor Leo Mol Sculpture Garden; strolling around The Forks, especially at the point where the Assiniboine and Red rivers meet; meandering through the 20-block Exchange District with its vintage buildings, galleries and boutiques; Chinatown and Little Italy.

Especially for Kids—The Manitoba Children's Museum; Assiniboine Park, where children will find the Assiniboine Park Zoo and a miniature railway; the planetarium and science center at the Manitoba Museum.

Geography

History

Winnipeg takes its name from the Cree word winnipee, or "muddy water." The area gained its first permanent colonial occupants in 1812 with the Red River Settlement, when Scottish Lord Selkirk began taking Scottish and Irish immigrants to the area where French-speaking fur traders and Metis people had been living since the late 1700s. (The Metis are those descended from unions between the Scots or French and the Native Americans.) Metis native son Louis Riel (after whom a provincial holiday in mid-February has been named) became a prominent local leader, heading a provisional government 1869-70 that eventually negotiated an act with the Canadian government to establish Manitoba as a province and to protect French-language rights. Riel, however, also led civil insurrections against a fledgling Canadian government in both southern Manitoba and neighboring Saskatchewan. Although hanged as a rebel in 1885, Riel later came to be recognized as the father of Manitoba.

Winnipeg was incorporated as a city in 1873, and the arrival of the railway in 1881 formalized the city's role as Canada's "Gateway to the West." Once called "Chicago of the North" for its early rail yards and meat-packing industry, Winnipeg today is Manitoba's largest city and its capital. It is also home to a growing biotechnology sector, with the Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health (Canada's version of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control) and the National Research Council Institute for Biodiagnostics. Now one of Canada's largest cities, Winnipeg covers more than 145 sq mi/375 sq km.

Potpourri

The Manitoba Legislative Buildings located in downtown Winnipeg are made of Manitoba Tyndall stone and said to possess the design of a secret Hermetic Hode (the Manitoba equivalent of da Vinci's Code.) Read the book The Hermetic Code or take the on-site tour to learn more of the intrigue.

When construction began in 1875 on Winnipeg's original City Hall, the city fathers placed a tin box of dead grasshoppers in the building's cornerstone. The building was torn down in the 1950s and replaced, but the box of bugs was lost in the demolition.

A favorite bear of children around the world, Winnie the Pooh was named after Winnipeg. Captain Harry Colebourn, who bought a bear cub in 1914 in Ontario and took it with him to England, named the little cub for his hometown. Colebourn gave the bear to the London Zoo, where writer A.A. Milne and his son Christopher encountered Winnie—and the rest is literary history.

Winnipeg is the indigenous capital of Canada, with 10% of its population declaring themselves indigenous people. It is therefore no wonder that The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN)—the world's first and only national indigenous network—is headquartered in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg-born Olympic athlete Clara Hughes was the first Canadian to earn medals in both the summer and winter Olympics, while teammate and fellow Winnipegger Cindy Klassen was the first Canadian to win six Olympic medals. (Both achieved their historic status at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy).

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, granted royal designation in 1953 by young Queen Elizabeth II, was the world's first "royal" ballet company and is Canada's oldest and North America's second-oldest dance company.

Films such as Shall We Dance?, The Assassination of Jesse James, Capote and You Kill Me were all filmed in Winnipeg's historic Exchange District. Also worth a look: local filmmaker Guy Maddin's bio-doc My Winnipeg.