Tips on Visiting Ottawa and Winterlude With Your Family
When a close friend moved to Ottawa, it presented the perfect excuse to take the family up to visit Canada’s Capital in the wintertime.
One of the main Ottawa attractions during winter is Winterlude (or Bal De Neige in French), dubbed as “Canada’s Winter Celebration” by its organizers. It was our first time going to Ottawa so here’s a summary of our trip, with all its high (and low) lights, and a plethora of time and money-saving tips embedded in the story! We hope you get some great ideas to make your next trip to Ottawa … Incredible!
General Points
-It takes approximately 4 hours to drive from Toronto to Ottawa, give or take 30 minutes depending on the traffic, driving conditions and how fast you drive.
-To find out what attractions are happening in Ottawa during your stay, check out the NCC’s home page. To fully enjoy all the Winterlude attractions, make sure you bring your skates (for the canal) and ski-pants (for the ice-slides).
-Before any long drive, we always stop at our local library to borrow a couple of books and childrens DVD’s for the kids to enjoy. They get to choose what they want (extra points) and you don’t have to worry about taking care of the items (to a point)!
Day 1 – Friday
After work on Friday afternoon, I picked up the family and we drove to Ottawa. Given the long weekend in Ontario, driving was a bit slow so it took us 4.5 hours to get there. By leaving our house at 7:00pm, the kids were able to fall asleep at 8:30 and not have to endure the long ride awake. We arrived at our friend’s house at 11:30, took a tour of her new house, then flipped through her Entertainment Coupon Book that she previously received as a gift. We were able to use some of the coupons (2 for 1 BeaverTails, Royal Canadian Mint admission savings) but weren’t organized enough to anticipate all the ones we’d need (missed out on a couple of restaurant coupons). If you can , just bring the book with you on your travels. After clipping our coupons, we went to sleep.
Day 2 – Saturday
Our friend cooked us a great breakfast (where I discovered that cooking french toast with Canola oil makes them deliciously crispy!). We packed up and drove to our hotel, the Westin Ottawa. We stayed on Starwood points but if you’re going during Winterlude, make sure you check out their Winterlude special promotions to save some coin. With indoor access to the Rideau Centre shopping mall and steps from the Rideau Canal, Parliament and Confederation Park, it was perfectly located.
We dropped off our stuff and walked over to the Byward Market to visit the shops and go for lunch at Zak’s Diner. We were excited to see what all the commotion was about as it was packed with a 20 minute wait (with many empty restaurants surrounding Zak’s). However, with the exception of their HUGE milk shakes, the food (burgers, meat loaf) was nothing to write home (or in the blog) about … disappointing.
After lunch, we walked over to the Parliament Buildings but found out that you had to reserve your Tour tickets at 9:00am the day of your visit. We took our requisite tourist photos in front of the main Parliament building then headed over to Confederation Park where many of the Winterlude events were happening. We saw some very cool ice sculptures, enjoyed some maple taffy and took lots of pictures.
After that much walking, we headed back to the hotel room to take a break. While Incredible Dad watched a movie on TV, the kids napped and Clean Mom did some shopping at the Rideau Centre with our friend. For dinner, given the ridiculous amount of events happening that weekend (Family Day, Long Weekend, Valentine’s Weekend, Winterlude, Olympics), all of our first choice restaurants were booked so we ate at a nearby establishment called Santé Restaurant. While the prices weren’t cheap, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of food, their welcoming attitude towards our kids and the little touches that made our visit memorable (i.e. serving us a small cup of African tea before our appetizer came, to warm us up from the cold, art gallery decor). This was one of the restaurants that we could have used a coupon from our friend’s Entertainment Book… ah well. After watching some Olympics back at the hotel, we went to bed.
Day 3 – Sunday
We knew we had a full day planned so, as Clean Mom slept in, the rest of the family grabbed a quick breakfast (some pastries, fruit and yogurt) at the Richtree Restaurant inside the Rideau Centre and brought it back to the room. It was hilarious having the kids walk through the shopping mall in their pajamas!
After breakfast, we got dressed and walked over to the Rideau Canal Skateway in 3 minutes flat! We were extremely lucky to get the last sleigh to push Ballet Girl in at 10:00am so make sure you get there early if you want one. Having the sleigh made the Rideau Canal infinitely more enjoyable than it would have been because Ballet Girl can’t skate for long periods… yet. We skated for almost 2 hours along the “World’s Largest Skating Rink” and didn’t even come close to reaching the end! We took a break where our kids had their first taste of BeaverTails, delicious!
After skating, we rushed over for Sunday Mass to the beautiful Notre-Dame Cathedral. It sure looked closer than it was so make sure you budget enough time for the walk over. The Church was absolutely gorgeous, the choir’s singing was good and the organ playing was great.
We met up with our friend at the Church and, after mass, walked over for lunch to the Byward Market where we ate at Le Moulin de Provence, a bakery/café famous for Obama’s impromptu visit where he purchased cookies. Here’s a video of his visit at the restaurant. And yes, we did purchase and taste the “Obama Cookies”… they were very tasty! For dessert, we walked over to Oh So Good Desserts for some cake … huge selection!
With full bellies, we headed over to one of the other main Winterlude sites at Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau, Quebec via Sno-Bus, Winterlude’s own public transit where you pay one fee and can ride all day to all of the festival’s locations. At this Park, the highlight had to be the ice slides at the Snowflake Kingdom. There were individual and family slides to enjoy, more ice sculptures, trampoline shows, snow-tube slides and more! Definitely worth the 10 minute bus-ride!
Once we arrived back in Ottawa, it was time for dinner but all the restaurants we had wanted to visit had already been booked for a week (due to Valentine’s Day) so, at the suggestion of our concierge, we visited a small Italian restaurant called Chianti Ristorante … and we’re glad we did! From the moment we stepped in, the owners made our family feel welcome. They doted on the kids, made sure we were well taken care of and the food was excellent! A restaurant to experience if you’re in Ottawa!
Walking back to the hotel, we passed through Confederation Park again where the ice sculptures were even more impressive at night with coloured lights shining behind them. Once we arrived at our room, we were able to watch Canada capture it’s first gold medal on home soil, live! Then we collapsed from exhaustion!
Day 4
We started the day with a swim at the Weston’s swimming pool. Once we finished and were dressed for the day, we had a big breakfast at Richtree; it was just so convenient being connected to our hotel.
After some crépe’s, waffles, eggs and sausages, we were ready for our visit to the Royal Canadian Mint. From funny pictures of our kids’ faces in huge coins, to pictures of Olympic medals; from a tour of their operations to actually holding a gold bar worth over $400,000, our family had a great time! (Even if we did spend a mint in their souvenir shop… ouch!). If you want some quick tips on what to buy from a collector’s perspective, just ask one of the staff what the best investment is for your price range!
Before we drove home, we finally had a chance to eat at one of the restaurant’s we had heard about, Mamma Grazzi’s Kitchen. The decor was rustic (tired?) and the food was ok. The waitress suggested a spinach spaghetti for the kids… they weren’t impressed. Overall, an average visit with average food quality.
The drive home was uneventful with the whole family (excluding myself) falling asleep in the van. Another successful, memorable trip in the memory bank and already looking forward to the next one.
If you have other tips on experiencing Ottawa with kids, please share via the comments section below! Thanks!
Other Posts That Might Interest You:
We provide Busy Dads like you with the best tips in order to help you have more fun and be more successful as a father!
Wow! Sounds like a fantastic trip! You make it sound so easy. You should think about starting a travel company specializing on local trips for families!
The Canadian Children’s Museum in the Canadian Museum of Civilization just over the river has lots of great fun things for kids, as does the rest of the Museum of Civilization too.
Thanks! I checked out your site as well and you’ve given me some additional vacation ideas to take the family to!
Hi…
That must be a great vacation. I’m from Indonesia, hope someday I can go to some place you’ve mentioned, also, I hope someday you can write about Indonesia too. This a nice site.
Anyway, I found your link on goodtheme.org. You said there, you can do a specific help about the theme. I need your help about the theme. Especially about the footer. How can I change it like yours? Sorry, I hope I do not bothering you. Please send me e-mail.
Hi Ferdian,
Thanks for your comments and we’d love to travel to Indonesia one day!
Send me an email using the ‘Contact Us’ menu item above with your site’s url and some details about what you want to do.