Winnipeg with kids

This city is abuzz with activity as the mercury drops. There’s the Festival du Voyageur (Feb. 17–26), which features sleigh rides, fiddling contests and dozens of performances in warm, packed music tents over its 10-day run. Plus, what would February be without pea soup, tourtière and mascot tug-of-wars?

And sorry, Ottawa, but Winnipeg actually boasts the longest natural frozen skating trail, the Assiniboine River Trail. Rent skates at The Forks Market, the city’s downtown riverbank hub, where you can also snowboard and toboggan at the Arctic Glacier Winter Park. Or challenge the kids to a game of pickup hockey: The park’s rink is maintained with a Zamboni, and there are nets and warm-up shacks on hand.

Indoors, the city’s Children’s Museum reopened last year — with 12 new galleries. Climb through the tactile Lasagna Lookout, slide down the Illusion Tunnel or board Junction 9161, a 1952 diesel locomotive.

Snapshot moment: The blacksmith building iron tools and talking about fur-trade era life at Fort Gibraltar during the Festival du Voyageur.