Ottawa

The Parliament buildings sit on a bluff above the river in high Gothic Revival, and the complex is worth seeing from the outside regardless of what is accessible inside. Centre Block, with the Peace Tower, is in the middle of a rehabilitation programme measured in years rather than months, so the House and Senate have moved to neighbouring buildings and guided tours run there instead — check what is currently offered and whether it needs booking before you build a day around it. The lawns remain open and are the best vantage. Below the Hill, the locks of the Rideau Canal step down to the Ottawa River in a flight you can walk beside, which is the more interesting piece of engineering anyway.

The canal is a UNESCO World Heritage site and an unusual one, because it is not a ruin: it is a working nineteenth-century waterway, still operated with hand-cranked locks in places, running from the Ottawa River through the city and on towards Kingston. In summer it carries pleasure boats, and the paths along both banks are the city's best walking and cycling. In winter a long central stretch is cleared and maintained as the Skateway, one of the largest skating surfaces anywhere, with people commuting on skates and stalls selling hot drinks. It only opens when the ice is thick enough, and recent seasons have been short and in some years did not open at all — treat it as a bonus, not a booking.

This is Ottawa's strongest hand. The National Gallery of Canada holds the country's most important art collection, with a substantial body of Indigenous art, and Louise Bourgeois's giant bronze spider Maman stands outside it. The Canadian Museum of Nature occupies a castle-like building and does dinosaurs and Arctic ecology properly. The Canada Aviation and Space Museum and the Canada Science and Technology Museum are both better than their modest reputations. And across the river in Gatineau, the Canadian Museum of History faces Parliament from the Québec bank — its curved architecture and Grand Hall alone justify the crossing. Two full days of museums here would not be excessive.

Ottawa's defining oddity is that it is a border city inside a country. The Ottawa River is the Ontario–Québec provincial line, so Gatineau on the north bank is a francophone Québec city, reachable by several bridges and a pleasant walk or short bus ride. Practical consequences worth knowing: the provinces observe some different statutory holidays, so a long weekend can be busy on one side and ordinary on the other, and provincial rules differ on everything from alcohol retail to sales tax. Culturally the capital region is genuinely bilingual — federal signage and services are in both languages, and switching mid-conversation is normal rather than remarkable.

ByWard Market is the oldest part of the city still doing its original job: a market building and surrounding blocks with produce stalls, food shops, restaurants and, in the evenings, most of the city's drinking. The thing to eat while walking is a BeaverTail, a flat fried pastry served hot with sugar and lemon or with chocolate spread, invented in the region and best from the stand in the market. Beyond that, Ottawa eats well and unpretentiously — strong Lebanese and Vietnamese communities show up on the everyday menus, and the Preston Street stretch is the traditional Italian quarter. Cross to Gatineau and Québécois cooking, including a proper poutine, is a short walk away.

A twenty-minute drive from Parliament puts you in Gatineau Park, a large protected area of hills, lakes and hardwood forest on the Québec side. In autumn it is the reason many Canadians come to the region at all: the maple and beech turn in late September and early October, and the parkways and lookouts along the escarpment are the classic drive. In summer there is swimming in the lakes and a well-marked trail network; in winter, extensive groomed cross-country skiing and snowshoe routes. Closer in, the city has an unusually good network of riverside paths, and the Ottawa River itself has genuine whitewater upstream that supports commercial rafting.

Ottawa's airport is close to the centre and mostly serves domestic and US routes, so long-haul visitors usually connect through Toronto or Montréal. Both cities are also easy by train — Montréal in around two hours, Toronto in four or five — and the train is far more pleasant than the drive. In the city, the O-Train light rail plus buses cover the centre, and the core is small enough to walk. The seasons are extreme and worth choosing between: summers are hot and humid, autumn brings the colours and the best walking weather, and winters are genuinely severe, with the city organised around them rather than defeated by them.