Ottawa is the national capital, and for years that was rather held against it — a government town, decorous and a little dull. That reputation is now well out of date. The capital has grown into a handsome, walkable city with a clutch of genuinely excellent national museums, a UNESCO-listed canal running through its centre, and a setting on the Ottawa River that it has learned to use well. It is also bilingual and sits right on the border with Québec, so a short walk across the river takes you into French-speaking Gatineau. It will never be as exciting as Montréal, but as a place to spend a couple of days among the country’s best collections and grandest public buildings, it more than earns its keep.
We have visited Ottawa twice. The first time I remember being challenged by a rather aggressive black squirrel near the parliament building. I returned a few years later and things were calmer. We’ve enjoyed the walks around the national buildings in Ottawa, the parks and also some very good eating spots.
A Little Background
The land where Ottawa stands is the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe people, who lived along and travelled the Ottawa River — a great highway of the fur trade — for thousands of years. The river’s confluences and portages made this a place of passage long before any town existed.
The modern city began as a rough construction camp called Bytown, founded in the 1820s for the workers building the Rideau Canal — a military waterway, completed in 1832 under Colonel John By, intended to give the British a secure supply route away from the American border. Bytown grew on timber and was renamed Ottawa in 1855. In 1857 Queen Victoria, somewhat to everyone’s surprise, chose this modest lumber town as the capital of the Province of Canada, partly for its defensible position between English and French Canada. The Gothic Revival Parliament Buildings followed, and the city has been the seat of national government ever since.
What to See and Do
Parliament Hill dominates the city — a group of Gothic Revival buildings on a bluff above the river, their copper roofs and central Peace Tower the defining image of the capital. The grounds are free to wander, and in summer the ceremonial Changing of the Guard takes place on the lawn each morning. (Note that the main Centre Block is undergoing a long restoration; check what is currently open for tours.)
The Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site running through the heart of the city, is Ottawa’s great set piece. In summer it is for boating and walking the towpaths; in winter the central stretch freezes into the Rideau Canal Skateway, billed as the world’s largest skating rink — nearly eight kilometres of maintained ice that locals commute to work on. Beside the canal’s locks, the small Bytown Museum tells the story of the canal’s construction and the city’s hard early years.
Ottawa’s real strength, though, is its national museums, and they are world-class. The Canadian Museum of History, just across the river in Gatineau, is the country’s most-visited museum, with a soaring Grand Hall of West Coast totem poles. The National Gallery of Canada, marked by Louise Bourgeois’s giant spider sculpture Maman, holds the country’s finest art collection. The Canadian War Museum is moving and superbly done. Between them they could fill two full days. For a break, the ByWard Market — almost as old as the city — is the place to eat, with its stalls, restaurants, and the local indulgence, the deep-fried BeaverTail pastry.
Getting There
Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport sits about 15 minutes south of downtown and handles domestic and some international flights. VIA Rail connects Ottawa to Toronto and Montréal on the busy central corridor. Within the city, an expanding O-Train light-rail line plus buses cover the main areas, and the central core — Parliament, the canal, the museums, the market — is comfortably walkable.
Weather
Ottawa is one of the coldest national capitals in the world, and it leans into it. Summers (June–August) are warm and sometimes humid, and are the easiest time to visit. Autumn brings fine foliage. Winters are long, cold, and snowy — but they bring the canal skateway and the Winterlude festival, which are genuine attractions if you are dressed for it. Late spring to autumn for general sightseeing; deep winter for the ice.
The Bottom Line
Mid-range hotels run roughly CAD$170–300 a night. Two days is enough for Parliament Hill, the canal, and the pick of the museums; a third lets you cross into Gatineau and slow down. Ottawa is best understood not as a rival to Canada’s big cities but as the country’s showcase — the place that holds its history, its art, and its institutions, and does so very well.