Hey you EC canadians, so i think i'm going to visit Ottawa, Canada during spring break, which is this coming week for me (well actually it's more like starting today) What are good things to see and do in Ottawa?i'm planning to stay three nights there. Any tips, suggestions, ideas would be greatly appreciated Thanks!
Get a tour of the Parliament buildings. Walk around that area in general as well, byward market, rideau centre, bunch of scenery. Depending on who you are with, you may try and see if you can ride a bike through the trails, Ottawa has an extensive network of bike and hike trails that you can basically use to get access to all parts of the greater ottawa area and the ones along the rideau canal/ottawa river are quite scenic and it leads you directly to Parliament Hill. The culture and museums if that's what shakes your feather-tails. The war museum, the aviation museum, art gallery, canadian museum of civilization just across the ottawa river in Hull/Gatineau, theres a good casino nearby too in that area. Other than that, theres not much else in Ottawa. (lived there for quite a significant portion of my growing up)
Bascially a lot of museums, government offices, nice people, Byward Market,... there are also Tim Horton's it's truly a beautiful city (when the air is not a tad saturated as it has 2 rivers and a canal running straight through it) English people, French people, anyone in between and beyond. Say "bonjour" they say "bonjour", say "hello" they say "hello" (it actually works) Parks and hills and banks. Famous people, bronze people, art. =) In short: everything you need to not bore you. ^^
I love Ottawa! I doubt you can still skate on the Rideau, but the canal that weaves through the city is the longest skating rink in the world during the winter months! I used to skate from my University Residence to the downtown, when I was energetic!
(Spent my summer in Ottawa...Partying and working!) Really? From Carleton then? Wow! Good for you. I guess I was biking that distance in the summer. What is there to do? Well if you got nice spring weather then just walk some of the walking/biking paths around downtown Ottawa or just around Ottawa. If you love a good party then depending on your night the Byward market is a good place to catch a pint or any kind of pub food. Heart and Crown is definatly a must see if your in the market area as it's always busy and always has something going on. Now if you wanna check out Gay Bars. Mecury Lounge in the Market on Wednesday is gay night/drag show on the TOP floor. I think the Edge is open on Friday's and Saturday's which is another gay bar...but I didn't like it very much. But the best time to drink in Ottawa is on Sunday. If Edge has it's rooftop patio open for Sunday then you DEFINATLY need to go there for cheap beer night before 11. Usually not that many people there and a lot of straight people end up showing up too.... But after cheap beers... Walk down the street to the bar called Babylon on Bank st. That Bar is a REALLY good time to be had on Sunday. It's like 70's funk and rock music (The Doors, David Bowie, Nancy Sinatra, Michael Jackson...) but the WHOLE atmosphere is just young, vibrant and energetic. Honestly, never had a bad sunday night at Babylon (MoD night is the name of the night) Oh and if you are in Ottawa on Satuday the 26th then you have to go to Zaphod's (Downtown market) cause my friend's from P.E.I are playing there and they rock a really good show. If drinking isn't really your thing (or if your underage forget to check), then there is always the parliment buildings to check out and TONS of museums if you are feeling cultural. Oh and in Gatineau I think there's a huge Paintball field that might be opening up soon. If you like Paintball. ....I miss Ottawa
Wow InaRut thanks for the plenty of info the food here is really amazing btw )) tomorrow im going to lunch to apparently famous restaurant place in bymarket area....can't waitttt
no, it was kitchen/wine/checutarie (did i spell that right?) on murray street, but i did pass by the heart and crown. i tried sunday brunch at checutarie place but it was soo full and they had reservation filled out til end of brunch time, so i had lunch on monday...it was interesting eating shaved ox tongue XD I found it surprising how many people spoke french in ottawa, cuz it's in ontario, which i thought used english...like the street signs were all both in english and french, and most people in stores and restaurants seemed to speak primarily french when not spoken to in english, which in that case they spoke almost perfect english, so it was definitely interesting how adept bilingual they were.
Well it is Canada's captial. You expect us to respect both of our languages Glad you had fun though! What did you do?
Mostly walking around the downtown area, and especially the Bytown Market bc they had tons of stores and cafes and restaurants. This bakery or something called Le Moulin de Provence had really good pastries so I ended up having breakfast during my stay in Ottawa. Also I went to parliament hill. it was pretty magnificent, but some ppl were having protest thingy in front of the parliament, which was...interesting to watch XD Also walked along Ridieau Canal, went shopping to Ridieu Center, went to National Gallery of Canada, and did little spa in a hotel XD Unfortunately, I didn't have much chance to experience nightlife bc it was family trip, but definitely if I had gone with friends, it would have been fun to go to clubs and stuff :/ But yea all in all it was a fun trip.
