Best Activities for a Rainy Day in Winnipeg: For Families
Winnipeg is one of the sunniest cities in Canada, with clear and sunny skies for over 300 days a year. Unfortunately, the remaining 65 days can bring clouds and rain, drenching any hope of outdoor fun.
Thankfully, our city still has a lot to offer indoors where it’s warm and dry. So when it starts pouring, keep the fun soaring with this list of things to do in Winnipeg when it rains.
1. Visit museums and galleries.
Rainy day or not, visiting one of Winnipeg’s museums or art galleries is a fun way to learn and spend time with your family.
Winnipeg is home to some of the most impressive museums and galleries in the country, with the Manitoba Museum and WAG Qaumajuq as prime examples of Manitoba’s rich culture.
Meanwhile, the Children’s Museum is a great place to keep kids engaged for hours on end.
Manitoba Museum
The Manitoba Museum is the province’s largest non-profit center of culture and heritage and is a must-see attraction featuring a variety of exhibits that cover everything from the fur trade to the solar system.
The museum has an emphasis on Manitoba’s history, wildlife, and geology. It also features a planetarium and science gallery, making it perfect for sating kids’ curiosities.
Winnipeg Art Gallery – Qaumajuq
WAG-Qaumajuq is a museum comprised of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, founded in 1912, and Qaumajuq, which opened in 2021. Together, they are home to an impressive collection of over 27,000 pieces of historical art from around the world.
Qaumajuq itself – pronounced “KOW-ma-yourk” which translates to “it is bright, it is lit” – is of particular interest. It is the largest public collection of Inuit contemporary art in existence.
Children’s Museum
The Manitoba Children’s Museum is a fun interactive museum that’s perfect for kids of all ages (and their parents too). This museum features twelve hands-on exhibits that encourage learning through play.
Each exhibit is designed to support children’s learning, from mathematics and science to arts and social studies.
2. Play at indoor playgrounds and activity centers.
For outdoor folk trapped inside by the rain, Winnipeg has a number of indoor playgrounds and activity centers to choose from.
As fun as museums and galleries can be, some people, like me, have more energy to burn than even interactive exhibits can handle. Indoor playgrounds allow these guests to engage in physical activity from under a roof.
Fun Park Amusement Center
Fun Park Amusement Center is probably best known for its massive multi-level jungle gym featuring an assortment of slides, tunnels, and climbing structures. It also features a lot of trampolines.
When we say a lot, think classic trampolines to dunk challenges, to trampoline dodgeball. Of course, all-time favorites such as wall climbing and laser tag are available too.
U-Puttz Amusement Center
The U-Puttz Amusement Center offers activities for every definition of “fun” one might have. Bumper cars and laser tag facilities entertain more competitive guests, while the arcade caters to people looking to play games and win prizes.
The highlights of the center are the XD Extreme, which features a selection of 10 3D experiences, and the glow-in-the-dark Blacklight Mini Golf Course, famous for its underwater and prehistoric themes.
Hide n Seek Winnipeg
Hide n Seek Winnipeg is our playground of choice for younger kids. It’s spacious and safe, and the parent’s lounge and café offer a chance for grown-ups to unwind while children have fun.
Facilities include ball pits, trampolines, slides, and a massive jungle gym. It’s affordable too, as each child booking also comes with a free pass for one accompanying adult.
3. Escape from an escape room.
Some people enjoy more mind-bending activities rather than physical ones. On a boring rainy day, these puzzle lovers are sure to have a blast at one of Winnipeg’s many escape rooms.
While a relatively lesser-known indoor activity, escape rooms are some of the most fun adventures in the city.
Rules are simple: players are locked in a room and must solve a series of puzzles and clues within a set time limit to escape. Escape rooms often come in themes, turning them into neat indoor mini-adventures.
Enigma Escapes
Enigma Escapes is often regarded among the – if not the – best escape rooms in Winnipeg. It has three locations, each with four unique escape room puzzles catering to players of all skill levels.
Enigma’s offered scenarios are mysterious and challenging without being scary. The exceptions perhaps are What Happened in Raven Woods and The Butcher of the Catacombs, so horror lovers watch for those!
With puzzles designed for participants aged 12 and up, Enigma is a great choice for you to take the kids for some family fun.
The Real Escape Canada
This escape house focuses on solid stories and narratives to draw in guests. The Real Escape’s 8 challenges include settings ranging from 40’s noir hotel rooms to medieval castles, with plenty of immersive themes and challenges.
It’s difficult to talk about The Real Escape without spoiling their experiences. We can confidently say, however, that they have stories for just about everyone, and are worth checking out.
GET OUT! Escape Rooms
Get Out might not have as many rooms as our other two recommendations, but it makes up for lack of quantity through quality.
Unique challenges include the Drunken Bar Heist, which reverses the traditional escape room scenario and has you break into a room to recover your passport… without getting caught by the police!
As of writing, Get Out Escape Rooms also has three more puzzles in the works. They also offer a more flexible rate than our other recommendations.
4. Watch a movie.
Sometimes, people just want to sit down and be entertained, so it’s a good thing Winnipeg has no shortage of cinema theatres to choose from.
Everyone has their favorites, but you’ll usually find that movie buffs argue for either Cineplex or Landmark. Still, local cinema chains are available for less mainstream film connoisseurs.
Cineplex Cinemas
Cineplex has a history of amazing audio quality for its feature films. As a result, many people will choose it over its competitors by default.
We can’t really blame them either. Surround sound really does make you feel like you’re in the middle of whatever is happening on screen.
Cineplex also has the advantage of reach, with five theatres (including Scotiabank, SilverCity, and Cinema City) scattered around Winnipeg. This means when it comes to Cineplex, you’re unlikely to run out of seating or screening options.
Landmark Cinemas
Landmark used to have two branches in Winnipeg, but with the closure of Towne Cinema, only the Grant Park branch remains. But based on quality alone, it only really needs one.
While many will swear by Cineplex for its audio, these guests will do the same for Landmark’s comfort.
The Winnipeg branch sadly does not have the Premiere Seats found elsewhere, but from our experience, even standard seats are comfortable enough to fall asleep in.
Not that you’d want to fall asleep when watching a good movie, of course. We just genuinely find them that comfortable.
Landmark allows free reserved seating, so you don’t have to worry about driving in the rain only to find out you can’t get a seat when you arrive.
Flicks Cinema Stonewall
Located in Stonewall, a little outside of the city itself, Flicks Cinema is our choice for those who want to catch a movie without having to deal with the hustle of downtown.
As a smaller cinema compared to the first two options, Flicks offers a somewhat “homier” feel and far cheaper prices than its competitors. It has developed quite a following on its Facebook page as a result.
5. Have a warm drink out at cafés.
Finally, it might be nice to slow down and unwind while the rain pours outside. Winnipeg has an amazing selection of cafés where you can spend a rainy afternoon enjoying good food and hot drinks.
There’s something about rain and coffee that just makes them go well together. A meal and some conversation is sometimes all it takes to make a day, so to that end, here are our recommendations.
Across the Board Game Café
With plenty of food and an extensive library of tabletop activities, Across the Board Game Café is a popular hangout spot regardless of the weather.
We’ve spent hours here with our friends just eating, chatting, gaming, and overall having a great time.
The café hosts regular events and tournaments, turning into a place where gamers can make new friends or establish rivalries.
So if you have a competitive side but don’t like the physicality of our previous recommendations, this place might be for you.
Reservations are not technically required. However, they may be advisable on busy days of the week.
L’Arche Tova Café
Perhaps the most heartwarming fact about this café is that it is founded as a social enterprise. As a part of the larger L’Arche community, the café is staffed by individuals with intellectual disabilities alongside those without.
L’Arche Tova Café not only serves good food but is a community hub where individuals of all abilities can share a slice of life and belonging.
And let’s face it, good company indoors can be just as fun on a rainy day as a sunny day outside.
Café Postal
A minimalistic coffee shop at St. Boniface, Café Postal is a local favorite for cappuccino and hot choco lovers alike… which is excellent for warming up when it rains.
It sports a simple menu to go with its drinks and is particularly good with its croissants.
It’s quite cozy inside too, though with limited space, so you will have to go down a flight of stairs to get a table. Handicapped customers might need assistance.
Still, a lot of people would say this inconvenience is worth it for good coffee. If you need a place to kick back, relax, and warm up until the sun comes back out, we cannot recommend Café Postal enough.