Flying to Ottawa

bingham67

bingham67

bingham67

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I plan to go to Canada next year around June or July time 7 days in Ottawa and catch a train to Montreal and do 7 days there.

Problem I have is looking at the flight costs Air Canada although direct flight is nearly £1,300 one way. :eek:

The other option I could see was Westjet which is only £300 but longer journey as I would have a stop over before I reach Ottawa main airport. Flying with Westjet it appears you stop over for an hour and 53 minutes before a flight takes you direct to Ottawa International.

I have never been on a holiday outside of Europe so not sure what to do really.
 
Sounds like a no brainer for me.

Stopover for a couple of hours.

Edit: Is it one ticket with Westjet all the way, or two tickets?
 
iamtheoneneo said:
7 days in Ottawa? I barely lasted a day...

why are you spending so long there?
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Is it that bad then :o

Jokester said:
Sounds like a no brainer for me.

Stopover for a couple of hours.
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I have to clear immigration with Visa or looking at the Government website appears I have to apply for eTA now for beyond March 2016. Just wondering if that stopover time gives me enough time to clear security and this seems abit tight if there queues or does it all happen at final stop?

Edit: Ticket about £300 one way with 2 hour stop over
 
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In 2014 the wife and I did 2 Days Toronto, 2 days Montreal, 2 days Quebec before travelling back down into the US via Maine.

I would say we could have had a little longer in these places, but they are city break destinations. 7 days in each if you have no friends or family there could be a bit of a waste. All I can say if you could make it to Quebec then do it, it was the highlight for us.
 
bingham67 said:
Is it that bad then :o
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There's just not a lot there, its nothing like other capitals as its super small and Parliament Hill is really going to be your main source of entertainment and that doesn't last long even if you do all the tours.

I honestly wouldn't spend longer than two days there.
Why are you not flying into somewhere like Toronto?

Montreal is awesome by the way!
If you are able to hire a car I would even start somewhere like Boston and drive into Canada via Niagara falls
 
iamtheoneneo said:
If you are able to hire a car I would even start somewhere like Boston and drive into Canada via Niagara falls
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I would also suggest something like this.

We did Michigan to Chicago in October, not Canada I know, but both great places and close enough to start from there.

Also, worth shopping around for flights. Main reason I went was my girlfriend was working at Michigan Uni for a few weeks, I joined her to travel a bit when she finished. She and I both flew to Chicago and travelled to Ann Arbor as it was 1/3 of the price of flying to Detroit which was 40 miles from where we needed to be. Added 5/6 hours travel but saved £100s
 
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iamtheoneneo said:
There's just not a lot there, its nothing like other capitals as its super small and Parliament Hill is really going to be your main source of entertainment and that doesn't last long even if you do all the tours.

I honestly wouldn't spend longer than two days there.
Why are you not flying into somewhere like Toronto?

Montreal is awesome by the way!
If you are able to hire a car I would even start somewhere like Boston and drive into Canada via Niagara falls
Click to expand...

Well I was chatting to a Canadian and she said that a lot of people hate Toronto and it one of the least Canadian cities so put me off.

I am going with friends though so its not a solo travel.
 
bingham67 said:
Well I was chatting to a Canadian and she said that a lot of people hate Toronto and it one of the least Canadian cities so put me off.

I am going with friends though so its not a solo travel.
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Yeh but your not Canadian, so you will like it. There's actually stuff to do there that's interesting and fun.
anyhow its all up to you, but if your Canadian friend told you to spend 7 days in Ottawa I really wouldnt get anymore advice from them.
 
£1,300? That's bonkers. I paid around £500 return the last time I flew there with Air Canada. Have you tried looking at alternte dates?

I agree with other people in this thread - there's no much to do as a tourist in Ottawa beyond a couple museums and galleries. There's plenty of nice restaurants though. Montreal is way more interesting (Toronto I found almost as dull as Ottawa though).

If you're dead set on spending a week there, hire a car. At least then you can do some exploring in the countryside outside of the city.
 
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bingham67 said:
Well I was chatting to a Canadian and she said that a lot of people hate Toronto and it one of the least Canadian cities so put me off.

I am going with friends though so its not a solo travel.
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Yep Toronto is pretty generic and not very Canadian because it is so close to the US border. You need to get up North into the French speaking area to experience Canada at it's best on the East coast. Quebec is amazing and Montmorency Falls are nearby and totally worth a visit.
 
You need to rethink your plans.

Ottawa is a wonderful city, but it's a day tops. It's compact and lovely. It's well worth seeing, but not for 7 days.

Toronto is also excellent and well worth a visit, as is Montreal. Visit all 3 - you've got time.

Don't buy one-way flights, they are more expensive than return flights. If you want to return from a different airport you don't buy two one way tickets you buy an open-jaw return.

iamtheoneneo said:
If you are able to hire a car I would even start somewhere like Boston and drive into Canada via Niagara falls
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Exactly what we did. Flew into Boston, some time there, up through New Hampshire and the White Mountains, up to Montreal, across to Toronto via Ottawa, then Niagara Falls, into New York City and back to Boston. Took 16 days. Was great.

Car rental is cheaper in the US than in Canada, generally, and you'll probably get flights to Boston for less, too.
 
Tunney said:
£1,300? That's bonkers. I paid around £500 return the last time I flew there with Air Canada. Have you tried looking at alternte dates?

I agree with other people in this thread - there's no much to do as a tourist in Ottawa beyond a couple museums and galleries. There's plenty of nice restaurants though. Montreal is way more interesting (Toronto I found almost as dull as Ottawa though).

If you're dead set on spending a week there, hire a car. At least then you can do some exploring in the countryside outside of the city.
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For some reason with AC and the standard carriers (BA etc) if your trip is less than a week you'll pay dearly for it. Same price as the one way listed above. If you add one day onto a 6 day trip the prices halve.

A return with AC and not using the return part will definitely be cheaper (make sure it covers more than one week) or just do the stopover as that will be the cheapest by far at that price.

Depending on what you are looking to do Ottawa its either a couple of days max in the city or 1 week trip if you include spending time in the nearby national/provincial parks. The city itself is the capital, public service and military headquarters, thats basically it. However it is near a couple of very nice national parks if you're hiring a car and want to do some hiking.
 
Thanks for all the information I think i will include Toronto will fly to Montreal and stay there for a week and split Toronto and Ottawa visit between rest of the 7 days.

Going to travel by VIA rail only problem is the trains are not so frequent as UK services by the looks of things. What would people recommend in terms of things to see and do and how much to take spending money?

Edit: For return with Air Canada worked out at £800 for dates selected which is not to bad.
 
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