Destination Guidebook for Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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From humble beginnings—first as a military post and then as a lumber camp—Ottawa has emerged as a vibrant, multicultural capital city. Ottawa is a bilingual city, reflecting its French and English heritage. Home to the copper-roofed Parliament Buildings, the Supreme Court of Canada and foreign embassies, Bytown, as it was originally named, is also a vigorous community housing farmers markets, world-class museums and historic buildings.
Situated at the confluence of the Ottawa, Gatineau and Rideau rivers, the city is bisected by the Rideau Canal. The section running from Dows Lake to the majestic Ottawa River, a distance of 5 mi/8 km, is flanked by bike and walking paths. In the winter, the ice surface is flooded to create the world's longest skating rink. In the summer, colorful masses of flowers, beginning with tulips in May, bloom along both sides of the canal. In 2007, UNESCO declared the entire canal, stretching 125 mi/202 km from Ottawa to Kingston, a World Heritage Site.
The greenbelt encircling central Ottawa and the many parks filled with plants, well-kept lawns and trees add to the city's scenic appeal. Across the river in Quebec, Gatineau Park is a massive natural playground with some of the region's most pristine protected areas, wildlife, lakes and rivers.
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Sights—The imposing Parliament of Canada buildings on Parliament Hill; the hand-operated locks on the Rideau Canal; Laurier House; Rideau Hall; the ByWard Market.
Museums—Acclaimed traveling exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada; the Canadian War Museum; the Canada Aviation Museum; the beautifully restored dioramas in the mammal gallery at the Canadian Museum of Nature; the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Memorable Meals—Freshly shucked oysters at the Whalesbone Oyster House; innovative seasonal cuisine at Beckta Dining and Wine; Le Baccara in the casino; traditional ingredients with a twist at Sweetgrass Aboriginal Bistro.
Late Night—Top international and Canadian acts at Barrymore's Music Hall (located in a 1914 vaudeville music hall) or at the Capital Music Hall; cool blues at Rainbow Bistro; jazz riffs at Cafe Paradiso; Irish atmosphere at the Heart & Crown; hipster cocktails at Kinki.
Walks—A stroll along the cliffs of Parliament Hill; alongside the Rideau Canal trail to Dows Lake; window shopping in the ByWard Market area; hiking through the rugged trails of Gatineau Park. Especially for Kids—The petting zoo at the Canada Agriculture Museum; the collection of wonders at the Canadian Children's Museum (located in the Canadian Museum of Civilization); virtual voyages at the Canada Science and Technology Museum; wintertime skating on the Rideau Canal. Ottawa is located in southeastern Canada, situated at the far eastern tip of Ontario province right on the border with Quebec province. The city is divided by the Rideau Canal, which serves as a popular spot for outdoor activity year-round. On the west side is the core of the city, known as Centretown. There you'll find Parliament Hill, the seat of Canadian government, and the pedestrian mall on Sparks Street. The city half that is east of the canal includes the popular ByWard Market, just across the canal from Centretown, and the neighborhood known as Sandy Hill, southeast of the market and bounded by Rideau Street and Laurier Avenue East.
Immediately north of the ByWard Market and Centretown, the Ottawa River separates Ontario and Quebec. Just across the river is Gatineau. (Formerly known as Hull, the town changed its name to Gatineau in 2001. Many residents on both sides of the river still refer to it by its former name.) Gatineau can be reached by any one of five bridges. To the northwest, you'll find Gatineau Park, a large wilderness area containing the Kingsmere Estate, the former summer home of Canada's 10th prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Centuries before Europeans arrived in North America, a tribe of Algonquians known as Outaouak made its home on the banks of the Ottawa River. The first recorded visit by a European was in 1613, when the French explorer Samuel de Champlain passed through the area in search of a route that would provide passage to the Far East. In 1826, British Army engineers and troops, led by Lt. Col. John By, built barracks on what is now known as Parliament Hill. From this base of operations they constructed the Rideau Canal system, linking the Ottawa River to the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario many miles/kilometers to the south. The canal was built as an alternate shipping route between Toronto and Montreal, in case a U.S. invasion put the St. Lawrence in danger.
The new canal and surrounding forests led to the establishment of Bytown, which became a center of Canada's logging industry. Along with the business of timber and pelts, rough-hewn characters soon found their way to the future Canadian capital.
Bytown was renamed Ottawa in 1855. Two years later, Queen Victoria spurned Montreal, Toronto and nearby Kingston to select Ottawa as the capital of Canada. Many early Canadian governors general were put off by the remote wilderness location, but the choice was sound. The new capital could be easily defended, and a booming timber industry had made it an economic success. Prime ministers Sir Wilfrid Laurier and William Lyon Mackenzie King worked to transform Ottawa into a city that might one day compete with other capitals and replaced the army barracks on the hill with the Parliament Buildings that stand there today.
After World War II, French planner Jacques Greber, the architect of the 1937 Paris World's Fair and town plans for Marseilles and Lyon, created Confederation Square in the center of Ottawa and initiated an overall beautification program, leading to the multitude of parks (known as the National Capital Greenbelt) that help make Ottawa a magnet for recreational enthusiasts. Until the 1980s, Ottawa was mainly a government town. The federal government remains a major employer, but the city is also home to scientific laboratories, numerous national associations, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and Algonquin College. People staying at the Ottawa International Hostel often claim to see ghosts. Before it became a hostel, the building served as Ottawa's first jail and the reputed site of Canada's last public hanging.
A colony of feral cats—looked after by a team of caregivers—inhabits the woods between the Centre Block and the West Block of Parliament Hill. The felines even take shelter in wooden structures modeled after the Parliament Buildings.
Queen Elizabeth II presented the city with six pairs of swans in 1967 to commemorate Canada's centennial. Descendants of the Royal Swans can be seen gliding up and down the Rideau River from May through November.
Mackenzie King, Canada's prime minister during World War II, once asked a Canadian diplomat in London to send him some remnants of the Palace of Westminster after a bombing raid, so that King could add them to his fake "ruins" at his country estate in Gatineau Park. The diplomat dutifully shipped the masonry to Canada by submarine.
Among the celebrities Ottawa has given the world are Alanis Morissette, Tom Green, Peter Jennings and Dan Aykroyd—along with Bonanza dad Lorne Greene.
One of the world's most accurate clocks (its accuracy is better than 0.1 second) is housed in Ottawa's National Research Council.
If you're strolling through the ByWard Market, be sure your route takes you through Tin House Court, a cobbled courtyard east of Sussex Drive and north of Clarence Street. Then look up. Mounted on the back wall of a shop is what was once the intricate facade of a nearby house, created completely from metal by Victorian tinsmith Honore Foisy.
Ottawa provided refuge to the Dutch royal family during World War II—the delivery room of a local hospital was even briefly declared Dutch soil so that a newborn princess could legally inherit the throne. As a thank-you, The Netherlands presented the city with 100,000 tulip bulbs and continued the gift for several decades.
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Editor's Choice of Luxury, Deluxe, and Value priced hotels in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:
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