Ottawa bursting with deals
A limited budget doesn’t mean limited enjoyment in capital
In the previous instalment of our 24 Hours feature, we gave Star Sports reporter Brendan Kennedy $240 and told him to squeeze out a day’s entertainment and food and a night in a hotel, in Boston. It was all he could do to bring it home under budget.
This time, we asked freelance travel writer Josephine Matyas to do the same in Ottawa. She managed just fine and ended up distributing some pretty tidy tips to the hired help.
Here’s her story of the 24 hours she spent in Ottawa on a budget of $240. OTTAWA— Whatever you’ve heard about them rolling up the sidewalks at the end of an Ottawa workday, forget it. There’s a lot happening in the nation’s capital, whether you’re a museum junkie (hear, hear), looking for a live music fix or angling for a good meal.
The challenge isn’t finding something to do; the challenge is whittling the list down.
Ottawa’s creds are impressive. Starting point of the Rideau Canal UNESCO World Heritage Site, 180 kilometres of recreational pathways, a dozen-plus museums, and one of Canada’s oldest and largest farmers’ markets. For these 24 hours, I was staying close to the city core.
The first decision was finding an affordable place to sleep close to downtown sights.
This turned out to be easy with Hotwire, a discount travel website for last minute, non-refundable deals on rooms, car rentals and flights.
I booked a suite (with full kitchen) at the Extended Stay Deluxe on Cooper St., a 10-minute walk from the Parliament buildings and the ByWard Market neighbourhood.
It’s a great location and the downtown street parking is free during weekends (excluding the market).
Nearby is Dunn’s Famous deli for breakfast, serving up a Bagel Benedict with poached eggs, hand-cut smoked meat and Hollandaise sauce.
The deli is a 20-minute walk along Elgin St. to the Canadian Museum of Nature. Elgin has a mix of interesting bistros, pubs and quirky shops, so the stroll involved a little window browsing along the way.
Housed in an imposing Victorian-era stone building, the family-friendly Canadian Museum of Nature was the country’s first national museum. The recent renovation includes the addition of the “Queen’s Lantern,” a multistorey glass foyer evoking the building’s original stone tower. Step into the new Water Gallery and come face-to-face with the skeleton of an endangered blue whale, stretching the entire length of the main gallery (specs: 2.5 tonnes, 19-metres long, 190 bones). Other museum highlights are the fossil gallery — you enter under the gaze of the Daspletosaurus (the “Top of the Food Chain”) — and then wander through a large gallery of dinosaur models and skeletons.
Lunch was an exercise in culinary wavering. The decision was to nosh through the foodrich By Ward Market, with a rule of just one item per stop. Locals suggested the back corner deli counter at La Bottega Nicastro where $6 buys a large design-a-wich. I chose my bread, cheese, meats and toppings and then sat outside at a patio table.
Also in the market, I picked up an overpriced pastry at Beaver Tails ($3.75 for flour, sugar and cinnamon), something I would pass on the next time. Just two blocks north is The French Baker — another local tipster pointed me there for authentic chocolate croissants ($2.63 each and worth every bite). By this time I’d ingested too many carbs and was pining for some fruits and veggies. A small basket of raspberries from a market vendor did the trick.
Steps away from the market sits the Fairmont Château Laurier, the grandest hotel in Ottawa. I never pass up the opportunity to soak up the classy vibe in Zoe’s Lounge on the main floor, where I ordered a sampler tray of Canadian cheeses and a couple of drinks to toast the 100th anniversary of the historic property. Afterwards, I got my free Yousuf Karsh fix, gazing at the display of signed portrait photographs in the hotel’s Reading Lounge (including those of Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso and Winston Churchill).
It’s a short walk from the hotel to Parliament Hill, but by the time I got there the free 45-minute tours were booked up. I took another free alternative — a visit to the top of the Peace Tower — two flights of stairs and an elevator ride takes visitors to the best view of Ottawa, the observation level immediately underneath the clock face. Back at ground level, around the back of the Centre Block, is a curved wall topped by bronze statues of Canadian statesmen Robert Baldwin and LouisHippolyte La Fontaine. Known as the Whispering Wall, two people can sit at opposite ends, whisper and be heard loud and clear.
As the sun set, I walked through the doors of the Old Jail on Nicholas St., built 110 years ago as a model institution. In 1972, the jail was shuttered due to “inhumane living conditions” and has since been renovated into a popular hostel. It’s also the site for the Haunted Walk’s Crime and Punishment Tour, where I passed an hour learning about cell life, the harsh punishments of the time, death row and the public gallows.
How likely is it that I would get the same restaurant recommended for dinner by the people at the hostel and the concierge at the swank Château Laurier? They both suggested Chez Lucien, a local pub on the fringes of the ByWard Market area. This spot is popular with locals and students and is known for the selection of beers (and the generous bar staff who insist on several samplings before deciding on one), house-made burgers, and a free jukebox stocked with classics like Good Golly Miss Molly and Take Five. It took about three seconds to engage in conversation with the fellow at the next bar stool who observed: “Hank Williams to Thelonious Monk. It doesn’t get more varied than that.”
I bought him a beer. Josephine Matyas is a freelance writer based in Kingston, Ont. She can be found online at www.writerwithoutborders.com.