Well, I’m biased since I’ve lived in Ottawa since the mid 80’s, but I’ve always preferred it to big cities. There is a lot of historic stuff here and some great museums, and of course the Parliament buildings. Really easy to get around too. I love Toronto as far as big cities go, although driving there gives me chest pains (same with Montreal). Walking around the downtown core Ottawa, you can see the Parliament buildings, the National Art Gallery and walk over the bridge to Quebec and see the Museum of Civilization. Starting June 28th you can see the Changing of the Guard on Parliament Hill every morning at 10:00 which is pretty cool. One of the good things about Ottawa, is that you can see a lot of the touristy stuff in the downtown area. Park your car and then just walk around the rest of the day. In Toronto and Montreal, there’s a lot more driving, cabbing, subwaying, etc depending on what you want to see.
You’ll definitely find better shopping in Toronto and Montreal, and there is nothing quite like the heartbeat of a big metropolitan city.
Also, if you like military stuff, and you are coming up the 401 from Toronto, don’t overlook Old Fort Henry in Kingston. My kids love going there, and in the summer months they have students who dress up in period uniforms and live there, perform drills, etc.
Montreal Smoked Meat! :) Schwartz’s is so iconic, even Wikipedia has a photo of one of their sandwiches. I’d say it tastes like Pastrami, but with a more savoury/salty taste, not quite as sweet. I’m no connoisseur of the cured, smoked meats but I know what I like, and I liked the sandwich I ate there.
So there are a million places to go, but I’ll just name a few:
Thai:
Green Mango is a nice thai place, with good curry pumpkin soup. Used to be one on Yonge, but I think they’ve changed addresses now.
Friendly Thai on Queen near Bathurst was always a favourite of mine, good curry Phad Thai.
Indian:
Kama, King and Simcoe.
For a really hifalutin, fine-dining experience (like … waiters in black ties, $40 steak experience) you could go to Barberian’s. It’s not too hard to get a reservation there.
Not sure when you’re going, but you may want to google “summerlicious”. It’s one or two weeks at the end of July where all sorts of normally high priced restaurants throw open their doors to the unwashed masses with a very reasonable fixed-price menu of awesome food. Reservations go quick though.
I’ll second madkevin’s suggestion to check out Silver Snail, it’s geek heaven in there. You could easily do a day where you start at Queen and Yonge, let the family do some shopping at the Eaton Center, walk along Queen to check out the high fashion for the girls, check out Silver Snail, then turn north and walk up Spadina to check out Chinatown and Kensington market. That wouldn’t take all day and it would be fun.
Since no one else has mentioned it, I’d recommend the Science Center or the Zoo as awesome activities for kids (of all ages!).
Thanks for these great ideas. I’ve been in the Ottawa region for almost two years now and my family is coming up for a visit and I want to show them Ottawa & Montreal.
If you do stop in Ottawa, I’m told the guided tours (street and Ottawa River) are quite good.
I didn’t realize there were so many of us here that live in the Ottawa area. This has me thinking that we should have an Ottawa QT3 get together. Just how many of us are there here?
Rather than start yet another tourism thread, I thought I might steal the most appropriate-looking one on the forum. While there are plenty of places I could, will and have gone to to figure out things to do in Toronto, nothing beats the personal touch.
SO! QT3, I’m in Toronto for the film festival. Arrive at the airport (not the city one) next Wednesday, leave Monday the 19th late with a ton of film watching in-between and time for other things a-plenty. I’m staying at a place on College Street because it promised that it was really green, so I understand that Koreatown and Kensington Market should be on my list of things to do.
Does Qt3 have any other suggestions for me? I’m game to do anything and as a Canadian (citizen) who hasn’t been in Canada since he was two years old (hence the ‘citizen’ disclaimer) what should I do? In addition to the above, naturally. My thanks in advance.
I don’t see any tickets available for that one, sadly. I have a feeling it might clash with Tyrannosaur, too, which I wanted to see but can be moved (replacing Moneyball or From Up On Poppy Hill, neither of which I can justify being on my list right now…). Any specific reason to do that one over the other recording?
I’m going to be in Montreal for a few days next week just tourist-ing it up. It looks like there’s a handful of good recommendations in the thread already, but is there anything important that hasn’t been mentioned? Like somewhere to get poutine?
spiffy already mentioned it, but, as far as poutine goes, I’ve heard good things about La Banquise, and if you’re at all into Chinese food, the steamed dumplings at Restaurant Noodle Factory are well worth the price (which is pretty damn reasonable).
Oh, and the Star Wars exhibit is at the Montreal Science Centre through September 16th.
