July 1st at Ottawa

[MCFADDEN5]

Thinking of taking the kids to Ottawa for Canada Day stuff. Any tips, good things to do? THANKS

 

[bdoyledimou]

You are NUTS!!! the only thing busier than Disney is Ottawa on Canada Day!!!




Make sure you head down to the south west (just down behind Parliment buildings) and get yourself a Beaver Tail! I hear they are the national Canadian dessert!!

I am sure they will have a lot of fun things to do being Canada Day and all.. just enjoy it!!

 

[poohbear37]

We stay with family sometimes on Canada Day. All the museums are free that day and we usually get 2 or 3 in during the day. It's a lot of fun. We stay away from Parliment Hill due to the crowds but they do have alot of things going on all day and into the night.

 

[Nahanni]

The Queen will be celebrating Canada Day in Ottawa this year.

With younger children, you'll want to visit the Children's Museum in the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

See the RCMP musical ride ... we did this last year.

http://www.ottawakiosk.com/canadaday/rcmp-musical-ride.html

Also to take a relaxing time, ride a boat on the canal ... was a great time to get away from the crowds!

 

[Gigi22]

Well, it is a local tradition to go down to Parliament Hill. There is always an entertainment program. Fireworks at night. But, there is an ungodly traffic jam afterwards. Everyone sees the fireworks, and then takes a bus to go home at the same time.
The Byward Market area, which is a major tourist and shopping area downtown, is very crowded.
There is a lot of activity on various restaurant patios. Canada Day is one of the busiest days in the year for restaurants downtown.
FYI--a lot of the major arteries downtown are closed for much of the day, and buses rerouted. You will be walking a fair bit.
If you want to see the fireworks on Parliament Hill, I suggest you get off of Parliament Hill and view the fireworks on an angle, the are good views to be had for quite a distance along the Ottawa River. My favorite place is just to the east of the Supreme Court where there is a terrace, and not too huge a crowd.

 

[MCFADDEN5]

Thanks for all the help. thinking of getting a room in Belliville, 5hr. drive home. Where do we park? Do we take a bus into the core?

 

[capitalmom]

You are NUTS!!! the only thing busier than Disney is Ottawa on Canada Day!!!

True - but everyone should do it at least once

To answer OP's question - the bus probably is your best bet. Check out: http://www.octranspo1.com/?from=splash - closer to the the date they should have info on special routes and schedules. There are free park and rides, but they're all pretty far out in the burbs - Greenboro station is probably the closest, in the south end of the city. The other area with good transit access and relatively close to downtown is the area around Tunney's Pasture (a huge government complex just west of downtown) where there's lots of free parking on residential streets and a transitway station at Holland and Scott St.

The party on the Hill is a must-do, but if you have small kids, I'd reccommend going to the daytime show (even though HRH wil be there this year). The crowds at the evening show can be kind of overwhelming. The full schedule is available at: www.capcan.ca/canadaday

 

[Gigi22]

You're sure you really want to do this? I stopped going to Parliament Hill on July 1 about 20 years ago. It is terribly crowded. If it is hot, people faint from heat exhaustion.
In fairness, there will be a lot of entertainment, but it will crowded and crazy.
If you want to go downtown, my advice is to get to one of the major bus stations early in the day. Suggest you check the OCTranspo website for details on bus transportation downtown. The best advice I can give is to park at one of the Park 'N Ride parking lots next to a bus station, but to select one that is the furthest away from the downtown core--possibly at Terry Fox (in the west) or even further out. All the buses fill up at the bus stations that are the farthest out, and then they just don't pick up anyone else at all until they hit downtown and start dropping passengers. It is pretty well the same deal leaving downtown--you may wait well over an hour to get a bus out of town.
If you have small children, I wouldn't do it unless you want to rent a hotel room downtown and stay there for the night. DH and I have done that, and it works out fairly well. You should still be able to get a reasonable room rate at a lot of downtown hotels for July 1 (don't try either the Chateau Laurier or the Westin--way too expensive, but a lot of other hotels in the city core aren't bad--there's a Novotel, a Hotel Indigo, a Delta and so on).

 

[casper_jj11]

We take the kids every year and have a blast. We arrive before 9am and park between the Supreme Court building and the archives. Plenty of parking and easy to get to if you take the Ottawa River Parkway to get there (coming from the west). Better yet, get a hotel in the downtown core and walk. We used to head to the Hill to see the musical ride but its really crowded. Instead, we watch them practice and warm up on the lawn in front of the Supreme Court building and then head up to the hill. We watch the beginning of the noontime show with the snow birds and once the speeches start, we walk along Wellington to Sussex and head to Majors Hill Park for the chicken tent (chicken sandwiches, chicken caesar salads etc) we hang out, visit the tents and entertainment, head back along wellington and get an icecream and stay on the lawn in front of Parliament for awhile once the dignitaries leave. We listen to music, watch the stilt walkers, etc. The kids just love it. We visit the SCC building which is open that day if we want to get cool. We leave around 3-4pm becuase staying later is just hard on th ekids. We take in the fireworks at th epark near our house instead. We do it every year and enjoy it every time. Lots of fun!

 

[CdnDisneyLover]

This is our 3rd year going to Ottawa for Canada Day and there is no other place to be. We didn't go last year and my kids and husband said they felt lost. This is what we have learned from going:

1. Get a hotel downtown. 1st year we stayed our near the mall and didn't get back to the hotel till 2 am! Also our van got broken into as well and hotel didn't do a thing about it.

2. Best place to watch the fireworks is on Major Hill Park. If you stay at the Parliament Hill, the Peace Tower is in the way of a lot of the fireworks. Fireworks on Canada Day in Ottawa are just like being in disney!!!

3. We go to the noon hour show but only stay for about 1/2 an hour or so and then we are off to all of the museums and also back to the hotel for a nap!

Everyone who is a proud Canadian needs to do Ottawa at least once in their life on Canada Day. Its like how people were at the Olympics...everywhere is red and white and flags and singing Oh Canada. It truly is amazing!!

 

[Cdn Gal]

It's fantastic! My DH used to sell flags up there every year. We have gone and it's really not that bad, just hold hands and stick together! Oh yeah, and bring water bottles!

 

[2canadianfans]

Go ! Go ! Go! Wear red and white..Enjoy the Hill..amazing site ! Go early in the morning and enjoy the excitement of the crowd.Rideau Center Shopping center is open for washroom/food/and rain or heat shelter.Bring your camera !