Winnipeg is generally not a walking-centric city. Because municipal law mandates that all new buildings must contain large amounts of parking between the sidewalk and the building itself, pedestrians will be confronted with a morass of cars in all directions. Winnipeg's main arteries all contain boulevards and are extremely wide by world standards, with Main Street having ten lanes where it meets Portage Avenue downtown. However, this pedestrian-unfriendliness is primarily perceived rather than real. Virtually all streets contain sidewalks on both sides running for the street's entire length, and stoplight crossings are frequent even on highways.
One should note that walking across Portage and Main is prohibited and physically impeded by concrete barricades. Since the 1970's, and despite protests, pedestrians have been required to cross this famous intersection through an underground concourse, which has a variety of entry points in or near the office towers on all four corners.
Downtown from Esplanade Riel.
Distance from Portage and Main to:
The Forks: 10-15 minutes
St. Boniface: 15-20 minutes
Osborne Village: 20 minutes
Corydon Ave: 30 minutes
Interesting walks in Central Winnipeg:
River Walks along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers (notably from the Legislature to The Forks)
Esplanade Riel from The Forks to St.Boniface
Tache and Provencher Avenues in St. Boniface
Broadway from Osborne to Main
Exchange District, all around.
Osborne St from River to Pembina.
Winnipeg Walkway
As it can get very cold during Winnipeg's winters, the downtown area has a network of tunnels and sky-walks. The Walkway is a system of 14 skyways and 7 tunnels connecting 38 buildings and allowing for a maximum protected walk of 2 km. As far east as the Fairmont Hotel east of Main Street all the way west to One Canada Centre on Portage Avenue (across from The Bay). It connects you to all of the buildings around Portage and Main, Winnipeg Square, Cityplace and Portage Place malls, the Millennium Library (Winnipeg's central library branch) and the MTS Centre arena. It has many shops along the way, making travelling during the winter a lot easier.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Winnipeg
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Winnipeg - updated May 2024
SAVE up to 75% on Last Minute deals! Search for discount Winnipeg hotels, motels, apartments, hostels, guest accommodations and vacation resorts. Book now and pay at the hotel. Instant email confirmation!
Winnipeg Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
