Ottawa Hop-On Hop-Off Double-Decker Bus Tour

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill is the reason most people visit Ottawa, and it is the first landmark on the loop. The Gothic Revival Parliament Buildings rise on a limestone bluff above the Ottawa River, with the Peace Tower, completed in 1927 and about 92 metres tall, at the centre. The Centennial Flame burns at the gates, the lawns are open to everyone, and the path behind the buildings leads to viewpoints over the river. A Parliament Hill tour on foot takes about an hour, more if you join a guided visit of the chambers.

The Centre Block is in the middle of a long restoration, so the chambers have moved to nearby buildings; guided tours are free but need separate timed tickets. In July and August the Changing of the Guard takes place on the lawn in the morning, and summer evenings bring a sound and light show on the façade. Hop off at the Sparks Street stop, two minutes from the gates, and rejoin the bus when you are ready.

Rideau Canal and the Ottawa Locks

The Rideau Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that runs 202 kilometres from Ottawa to Kingston on Lake Ontario. It was built between 1826 and 1832 as a military supply route, and the original settlement, Bytown, was named after the colonel who oversaw the work. Where the canal meets the Ottawa River, a staircase of eight stone locks descends the slope between Parliament Hill and the castle-like railway hotel, and watching boats work their way through in summer is one of the pleasures of the city.

The bus passes the locks on its way to ByWard Market, and the stop beside them puts you next to the Bytown Museum, housed in the oldest stone building in Ottawa, and the start of the canal-side paths. In winter the same canal freezes into the world's largest naturally frozen skating rink, but the bus tour runs in the warm season, when the paths are lined with cyclists and the water with pleasure boats.

ByWard Market

ByWard Market was founded in 1826 and remains the social heart of Ottawa: a grid of streets around a central market building where farmers sell produce and maple syrup, artisans sell crafts, and cafés and restaurants spill onto the pavements. It is the best place on the route for lunch. Ottawa is known for shawarma, and the market district has many Middle Eastern restaurants, so halal food is easy to find; the deep-fried pastry topped with cinnamon sugar that Ottawa is famous for is sold from a stand on the market's edge.

Plan about an hour and a half here if you combine lunch with a look at the stalls and the murals in the surrounding courtyards. The market stop is also within a short walk of the National Gallery, the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica with its twin silver spires, and the Rideau Centre shopping mall, which makes it a convenient place to leave the bus for the longest stretch of the day.

National Gallery of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mint

The National Gallery of Canada stands on Sussex Drive in a glass-and-granite building opened in 1988, its great hall echoing the pointed outline of the Parliament Library across the river. The collection covers Canadian, Indigenous, European and contemporary art, and the giant bronze spider on the forecourt has become one of the most photographed objects in Ottawa. Admission is separate; a focused visit takes about two hours, and National Gallery of Canada opening hours are longest in summer, when it is open daily.

A few hundred metres further along Sussex Drive, the Royal Canadian Mint has struck Canada's collector and bullion coins in its stone building since 1908. Guided tours of the production floor can be booked on site and let you lift a solid gold ingot. Both buildings are at the same bus stop, so one hop-off covers the gallery, the mint and the Sussex Drive views over the Ottawa River.

Canadian Museum of History, Rideau Falls and Rideau Hall

The bus crosses the Ottawa River into Gatineau, Quebec, to the Canadian Museum of History, whose curving sandstone building faces Parliament Hill across the water. Inside, the Grand Hall holds the world's largest indoor collection of totem poles, the Canadian History Hall tells the country's story from the first peoples to today, and the Children's Museum is a favourite with families. The lawn outside is the single best viewpoint of Parliament Hill, which makes this stop worth it even without going in.

Back on the Ontario side, the loop follows Sussex Drive to Rideau Falls, where the Rideau River drops in two curtains over a cliff straight into the Ottawa River, and to Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor General since 1867. The grounds of Rideau Hall are open free of charge, with gardens, a totem pole and trees planted by visiting heads of state; guided tours of the house are free in summer.

Canadian War Museum, Museum of Nature and Dow's Lake

On the western side of the loop, the Canadian War Museum occupies a low, angular building on LeBreton Flats, opened in 2005, with galleries from the earliest conflicts on Canadian soil to modern peacekeeping and a memorial hall aligned to the sun on Remembrance Day. The bus then passes the Canadian Museum of Nature, housed in a turreted stone building from 1912 that briefly served as Parliament after a fire; its dinosaur gallery and blue whale skeleton are the draws for children.

The loop finishes along the Rideau Canal to Dow's Lake, a widening of the canal fringed by Commissioners Park, where the Canadian Tulip Festival fills the beds with hundreds of thousands of tulips each May. In summer pedal boats and kayaks are hired at the pavilion. From here the bus returns to Sparks Street; the complete circuit takes roughly an hour and a half without getting off, and the pass lets you ride it as many times as you like during the day.