2025-2026 Travel Guide to Canada

PUBLISHER

Joseph P. Turkel

EXECUTIVE

EDITOR

Judi Scharf

EDITOR

Ilona Kauremszky

ART DIRECTOR

Mark Tzerelshtein

2025-2026 T R A VEL GUIDE TO

Travel Guide to Canada is published by Globelite Travel Marketing Inc.

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Table of Contents

Provinces and Territories

SO MANY CHOICES, ALL IN ONE PLACE 52 Discover Niagara Wine Country

Killarney Lodge: A room with a canoe

Hit the hi-ways of Mississauga

AT THE HEART OF IT ALL 62 Québec’s Laurentians: A vast boreal beauty of recreation and resorts 64 Nunavik: “The Great Land” delivers great adventure

waves with Rodd Hotels & Resorts: 90 years of Atlantic hospitality

Ottawa-Gatineau: A Capital Idea

BY LAURA BYRNE PAQUET

WHAT’S NEW?

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa is set to welcome high rollers and super fans at a new entertainment destination located just 15 minutes from downtown. Opening in spring, the new luxe 150-room hotel will drip with rock ‘n’ roll glam and priceless memorabilia from Canadian music legends expertly curated. Guests will be able to catch a show at the 1,800-seat Hard Rock Live theatre, and yes, try their luck at the tables and slot machines (www.casino.hardrock.com/ottawa).

Ready to have a bowl of a good time?

Splitsville Entertainment has unveiled its newest bowling flagship at the Kanata Entertainment Centrum. Redefining family fun, guests can bowl in their own shoes with 18 lanes of 10-pin bowling (www.splitsville.ca/ kanata-bowling).

This summer, the National Gallery of Canada will present two compelling solo exhibitions

Award-winning vegetarian fare? Check. A bus that turns into a boat? Ditto. Festivals, the world’s largest skating rink and wolves? You’ll find all that and much more in Ottawa—Canada’s capital—and its sister city of Gatineau, directly across the Ottawa River.

by leading Indigenous artists: Nadia Myre's Waves of Want and Skawennati's Welcome to the Dreamhouse, both running from May 30 to September 1, 2025. Myre, an Algonquin artist from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg First Nation, explores themes of resilience, language, memory, and longing through her multidisciplinary practice, while Skawennati, a Kahnawà:ke Mohawk multimedia artist, envisions Indigenous futures by blending Haudenosaunee storytelling with digital media, including avatars and machinima films (www.gallery.ca).

SIP AND DINE

Ottawa chef Briana Kim took home top honours at the Canadian Culinary Championship a couple of years ago. As a result, one of the capital’s hottest dining options is the plant- and fermentation-based tasting menu at Kim’s intimate restaurant, Alice (www.alicerestaurant.ca).

For craft cocktails, try the Apothecary

Cocktail Lounge, hidden away on the lower level of a Victorian building in the ByWard Market area (www.apothecarylounge.ca). A block south of Parliament Hill, the tiny Stolen Goods Cocktail Bar serves innovative drinks and small plates late into the night (www.stolengoodscocktailbar.com).

TAKE A TOUR

Can’t decide between a boat tour and a bus tour? You don’t have to. Partway through an excursion on the Lady Dive amphibus, the vehicle that takes you by road through the parliamentary precinct becomes a boat. It slips into the Ottawa River to give you an interprovincial view of Ottawa and Gatineau. The company also offers double-decker bus tours and winter trolley tours (www.lady dive.com).

Add a totally unique tour to your trip list. Outside Ottawa (35 km) far beneath the earth stands The Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War

Museum. Named after Prime Minister John Diefenbaker who commissioned this top secret structure in 1959, Canada’s most significant Cold War site is open for guided tours. At this National Historic Site, you can see Cold War era rooms like the War Cabinet Room and the Bank of Canada Vault and learn about the purpose of this secret underworld (www.diefenbunker.ca).

Don’t let the renovations of Canada’s Parliament Buildings delay your tour plans. While closed until the scheduled completion date in 2032, visitors can embark on a virtual tour (www.lop.parl.ca/sites/Learn/default/ en_CA/VR).

OUTDOOR FUN

To skate or paddle on a UNESCO World

Heritage Site, head to downtown Ottawa’s Rideau Canal. The 19th-century engineering wonder, and the recreational paths alongside it, attract runners, cyclists, boaters and paddlers from spring through fall. In winter, its groomed ice surface becomes the world’s largest skating rink (www.pc.gc.ca/en/ lhn-nhs/on/rideau).

For winter outdoor fun, join the winter fat bike tours craze and immerse in a total winter wonderland experience, visiting iconic landmarks (www.escapebicycletours.ca).

Seeking wilderness? Just a 15-minute drive from Parliament Hill, you’ll find an entrance to Gatineau Park, a 361-sq. km (139 sq. mi.) retreat studded with lakes, rocky outcrops, hiking trails, waterfalls and historic sites (www.ncc-ccn.gc.ca/places/ gatineau-park).

CAPTIVATING MUSEUMS

You can get a sense of Canada’s history, geography and culture in Ottawa-Gatineau’s national museums by visiting major institutions located there.

Learn about plants, animals and landscapes across this vast country and beyond at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Highlights include national dinosaur and mineral collections, mammal and bird galleries. (www.nature.ca)

At the Canadian Museum of History, don’t miss the towering totem poles and Pacific coast Indigenous dwelling facades in the museum’s Grand Hall, which offers a spectacular view of the Ottawa River and Parliament Hill (www.history museum.ca).

The Canadian War Museum illuminates the stories of conflicts in Canada from the early days of human settlement until the present day (www.warmuseum.ca).

THE SPORTING LIFE

What would a visit to Canada be without hockey? In Ottawa’s west end, you can catch home games of the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre (www.nhl.com/senators).

Close to downtown, TD Place (www.td place.ca)—the arena and stadium complex at Lansdowne Park—is home to the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa REDBLACKS (www.ottawaredblacks.com), the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67’s (www.ottawa67s.com), the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Ottawa BlackJacks (www.theblackjacks.ca) and Atlético

Ottawa, the city’s Canadian Premier League soccer team (atleticoottawa.canpl.ca). And just east of downown, the Ottawa Titans of the independent Frontier League play baseball at Ottawa Stadium (www.ottawa titans.com).

RETAIL THERAPY

A few minutes’ walk east of Parliament Hill, quirky shops, busy restaurants and brimming farmers’ stalls keep things lively in the heritage ByWard Market area (www.byward-market.com). Nearby, the CF Rideau Centre is home to leading fashion, electronics and lifestyle retailers (www.cfshops.com/rideau-centre.html).

A short drive or transit trip beyond downtown, you’ll find popular shopping neighbourhoods such as the Glebe (www.intheglebe.ca), Wellington West (www.wellingtonwest.ca) and Westboro (westborovillage.com).

FESTIVAL FUN

If you love a big celebration, Ottawa won’t let you down. The festival season starts with Winterlude in February (www.canada.ca/

en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/winter lude.html), followed by the Canadian Tulip Festival in May (www.tulipfestival.ca), the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival in June (www.ottawa jazzfestival.com), an enormous rock festival called RBC Bluesfest in July (www.ottawabluesfest.ca) and the CityFolk folk music festival in September (www.city folkfestival.com).

For more information, visit www.ottawa tourism.ca