Why go to Ottawa and what activities did we do during our visit to Canada's capital city?

Get inspired by our experiences and experiences and share yours in the comments if you like! How did Ottawa impress you?

Book a hotel in Ottawa in advance

Museum tour

Ottawa may not be Canada's largest city, but it certainly offers the greatest concentration of museums in a small space, so you can easily catch all the museums in one day.

Some of the museums we visited in person, we describe those in the details of the places, including links to the official websites:

• Canadian Museum of History - a huge museum of Canadian civilizations from prehistoric times to the present
• Canadian War Museum - history of the wars Canada has been involved in with many exhibits such as fighter planes and tanks
• National Gallery of Canada - a large gallery of art by Indigenous, contemporary Canadian and international artists
• Canadian Museum of Nature - a popular museum with over 30 skeletal dinosaur remains

But there are other great museums in Ottawa. Have you visited them and were they worth it?

• Bytown Museum (official website: bytownmuseum.com) - a small museum of Ottawa history
• Canadian Museum of Science and Technology (official website: ingenium.ca) - a small interactive museum aimed primarily at children and teens
• Canadian Museum of Aeronautics and Astronautics (official website: ingenium.ca) - small compared to other world aviation museums and geared more towards children
• Canadian Museum of Agriculture and Food (official website: ingenium.ca)

Discounted combined admission

If you plan to visit at least 2 major museums with admission fees over $20 (which is most of the above) in 1 day, it's worth buying an Ottawa Museum Pass.

This pass is sold in several variations and is valid at all of the above museums:

• 1-day Ottawa Museum Pass - 40 usd
• 3-day Ottawa Museum Pass - 80 usd

The Ottawa Museum Pass can be purchased online at the official website: visitottawapasses.ca/museums.

Výlety lodí po kanálu Rideau i řece Ottawa

Enjoy Ottawa not only from land, but also from a water perspective.

There are currently 2 Ottawa cruise companies operating.

Unfortunately, neither of the regular cruises sail through the famous historic locks of the Rideau Canal.

Ottawa Boat Cruise

This company runs two different cruises and information can be found at ottawaboatcruise.com.

• The smaller boat cruises the Rideau Canal (without locks) through downtown Ottawa
  • this cruise is interesting and shows the less touristy parts of the city, but I enjoyed it more
  • length - 90 minutes
  • price - 48 cad
  • online booking: ottawaboatcruise.com/ekeau-canal-cruise
  • cruises take place every day 4 times a day from May to mid-October
  • boarding point near the Senate building in the centre (see map)
• A larger boat cruises the Ottawa River
  • offers spectacular views of Parliament Hill, the Canadian Museum of History, Rideau Falls and the Alexandra Bridge
  • Length - 75 to 90 minutes depending on boarding point
  • Price - 45 cad
  • Book online: ottawaboatcruise.com/ottawa-river-cruise-tours
  • Cruises run 5 times daily from May to mid-October
  • embarkation point available in Ottawa (see map) or Gatineau (see map)
• You can take advantage of discounted combination tickets for both cruises at the same time for 80 cad

Water Taxi

This company uses small boats that pendlet on a regular schedule once an hour between 11:00 am and 7:00 pm between three locations on the Ottawa River.

This is the least expensive option to float the river.

It costs money to sail between the two docks. 6 cad and you purchase your ticket during boarding with a card or cash. There is also a day pass available for 20 cad.

• Ottawa, docks at the Rideau Canal locks (see map)
• Richmond landing, convenient for visiting the Canadian War Museum and Chaudiere Falls (see map)
• Gatineau, landing at the Canadian Museum of History (see map)

For official information, visit watertaxieh.ca.

Sights and History

Most of the monumental government buildings were built in the second half of the 19th century, when Ottawa became the capital of Canada.

Ottawa is worth a visit just for the government buildings on the famous Parliament Hill. They are truly monumental and quite iconic for Canada.

The magnificent interior of the Roman Catholic Notre-Dame Basilica is also worth a visit.

Enjoy fine dining at ByWard Market

Ottawa's most vibrant neighbourhood, full of pedestrian malls, shopping centres and markets, is right in the heart of downtown and is called ByWard Market.

It's home to a huge variety of restaurants, bistros, bars and pubs and is Ottawa's only neighbourhood that stays alive late into the evening.

Find a hotel in downtown Ottawa

Walks along the river and canals

Unlike most North American cities, Ottawa is an absolutely great city for walking.

The downtown core is lined with the famous Sparks Street pedestrian shopping area running parallel to Parliament Hill, which flows freely into the lively ByWard Market district.

The Parliament Quarter and ByWard Market are separated by the Rideau Canal with its historic locks, along which beautiful pedestrian promenades run.

The nicest, most relaxing pedestrian walkways run along the Ottawa River near Chaudiere Falls and then virtually along the entire shoreline of Gatineau to the Canadian Museum of History.

Our tip for a day's stroll through the city

One of the days we spent in Ottawa was devoted entirely to walking, and it made for an awesome itinerary.

We started our day in downtown Ottawa before 9:00am at the Parliament underground tram station.

We had our morning coffee and croissant at one of the cafes on Sparks Steet and headed west along the Parliament and Supreme Court buildings.

The first short stop was at the canal for water slalom in Bronson Park.

From there, we walked within 10 minutes to the Canadian War Museum, which was just opening and since I'm not personally interested in the military, 40 minutes was all it took to visit. But you can easily stay here for more than 1,5 hours.

After that, within 5 minutes we walked along the Ottawa River to the beautiful Chaudiere Falls, man-made waterfalls created by the dam.

From the falls, we continued across to the town of Gatineau and followed the walking trail along the river to the Canadian Museum of Civilization, where we spent almost 2 hours.

In the afternoon, after visiting the museum, we walked across the beautiful Alexander Bridge to the Kiweki Point overlook and from there a quick visit to the National Gallery and the beautiful Notre-Dame Basilica across the street.

It's a little after 4pm, so there's still time to walk along the Rideau Canal locks and at least take an outdoor tour of Parliament Hill before dinner.

Where to spend the evening in Ottawa? Well, in the only really vibrant neighbourhood , the ByWard Market, where we had a great meal.

It's also just steps away from one of Ottawa's main transportation hubs, the Rideau subway and bus station, which makes it easy to get all over the city, even quiet late at night.

To find out how to get around Ottawa other than on foot, see the Transportation chapter.

Finally, we've included a map of exactly where we went.