Get from Ottawa to Toronto by car, bus, train, plane, bike or trail

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Updated August 28, 2022. This post contains affiliate links.

So you want to travel from Ottawa to Toronto. Great idea! Canada’s biggest city is an excellent destination for a road trip, whether you’re going for a weekend getaway or a business trip. The only hitch? It’s about 450 kilometres (280 miles) each way.

So what is the most fun, least stressful way to get to Toronto from Ottawa? The answer to that question will be different for every traveller. Maybe you like to stop and explore places along the way. Maybe your time is limited and you want to get there quickly. Maybe you’re travelling with kids and you want to make sure they don’t get cranky from sitting in one place for too long. Or perhaps sticking to a budget is your biggest priority. No matter what your focus, I’ve got some tips for you.

Drive from Ottawa to Toronto

For many people, this is the default choice. You can cram the car with stuff, you can get there on multi-lane highways and you can set your own schedule. Since I grew up in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and still have lots of family there, I have done this drive more times than I can count. Literally—I tried to estimate it a few years ago and stopped somewhere north of 100 round trips. Suffice it to say that I know Highway 401 between Prescott and Toronto like the back of my hand. So here are my hard-won tips.

• Plan to stop at least once: It will be tempting to buzz right through, and I’ve done it, but I don’t advise it. First of all, depending on your car’s gas tank, you’ll likely be getting close to empty by the time you get to Toronto. Second, the Highway 416–Highway 401 route isn’t the world’s most exciting drive. Aside from some glimpses of Lake Ontario and a few pretty farms, you won’t see much when you’re zooming along at 100 km/h. The risk of road hypnosis is real. If you have the time, it’s fun to detour into one of the cities and towns along the route. Kingston, Napanee, Belleville and Trenton are good spots to break the drive roughly in half. If you’re in a hurry, you can’t beat the soulless but handy ONroute service centres, where you’ll find gas, fast food, clean washrooms, wi-fi and convenience stores, with direct ramps on and off the 401. The link above will let you search for locations along the Ottawa-Toronto route, which include service centres near Mallorytown, Odessa, Napanee, Trenton, Port Hope and Newcastle.

• Do not let your gas gauge get under a quarter tank: Once, I was driving from Niagara Falls to Ottawa on a bitterly cold February night. Near Bowmanville, a massive accident occurred some distance ahead of me. The entire eastbound Highway 401 was closed for hours. Initially, I turned my car off, but the temperature inside soon plunged below zero. So I periodically ran the engine (with the windows cracked open) enough to get the heater going again. Doing so for four hours brought me perilously close to empty…and when we were finally moving again, the nearest gas station was closed and all the motels were full of other delayed travellers. I sat awake in the area’s only all-night coffee shop until the gas station opened the next morning. Don’t be like me. (P.S.: It’s not a bad idea to make sure you also have snacks, water and a thermal blanket in the car for just such situations.)
• Take the scenic route: Just because most people take Highway 401 doesn’t mean you have to. For a leisurely scenic route, you can take Highway 7 from its easternmost point (where it intersects with Highway 417, just west of Carp on Ottawa’s western outskirts) all the way to the suburbs north of Toronto. Along the way, you’ll drive through dozens of communities large and small. An hour from Ottawa, Perth is well worth exploring. Three hours from Ottawa, Peterborough makes a nice place to stop for lunch or a longer break. Alternatively, you can follow the old Highway 2 (now known by a variety of names, usually involving the number 2) along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. Again, you’ll drive through many pretty places, including Gananoque, Kingston, Belleville and Brighton (for most of the route, you’re just south of the 401). This route will take you into downtown Toronto, along busy roads such as Lakeshore Boulevard.

• Take the express route: In a real hurry? Money no object? Then reroute yourself around much of Highway 401’s infamous traffic by taking Highway 412 north (between Whitby and Oshawa, on the GTA’s eastern edge) to the 407 Express Toll Route (ERT). As the name implies, this route comes with tolls. Many GTA locals have a gadget called a transponder in their cars to record their trips and bill the tolls to their credit card. If you don’t have a transponder, you can still take the route; cameras at each entrance and exit ramp will snap a photo of your licence plate, and you’ll receive a bill in the mail. You can estimate the charges in advance using this toll calculator.

Take the bus to Toronto from Ottawa

Your main choice for bus trips between Ottawa and Toronto is Megabus, which offers multiple departures daily. Buses leave from the St. Laurent O-Train/bus station and drop you off at Scarborough Town Centre on Toronto’s eastern edge (you can take transit from there to other points in the city). If you’re in a hurry, look for an express route. All buses have a restroom, reclining seats and reserved seating; most also have at-seat power outlets.

Take the train between Toronto and Ottawa

VIA Rail Canada, the national passenger rail service, offers multiple departures daily between Ottawa and Toronto. All depart from the Ottawa train station at 200 Tremblay Road (near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Highway 417); most also stop at the Fallowfield train station at 3347 Fallowfield Road in Barrhaven (suburban Ottawa) and the Guildwood train station at 4105 Kingston Road in Scarborough (suburban Toronto). Food, restrooms, at-seat electrical outlets, air conditioning and free wi-fi are available on all trains; if you travel in business class, a hot meal and access to a private waiting lounge are included in your ticket price. VIA Rail has a webpage of information on Toronto–Ottawa train trips.

Fly from Ottawa to Toronto

If you fly between Canada’s Capital and T-Dot (side note: Does anyone really call it T-Dot?), you’ll probably be in a plane much smaller than the one shown here. Most airlines serve the route with small commuter planes, as the trip is short—at around an hour from gate to gate, the flight attendants barely have time to bring you a bag of chips and a Coke (or shortbread and a glass of wine, if you’re flying Porter) between takeoff and landing.

Despite that short flight time, flying may not be the most efficient way to travel this route. When you consider that you have to drive to and from each airport…and you have to get to the Ottawa airport at least 60 minutes in advance (these days, two hours isn’t unreasonable, and you might want an even longer time allowance in Toronto)….and you’ll have to wait for your bags in Toronto, if you’ve checked any, that one-hour flight can easily turn into a door-to-door trip of three hours or more. Considering that it’s fairly easy to drive the route in about four-and-a-half hours, if you avoid rush hour, you’re not saving much time by flying. And you’ll pay a lot more; unless you get an amazing seat sale or you’re flying on points, you’ll likely spend at least $300 on a round-trip flight.

If I haven’t dissuaded you, I have one key tip: If you’re going to be spending all of your trip in downtown Toronto, or you’re planning to get around town on the subway, try to fly into Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. It’s just a short free shuttle-bus ride (or 25-minute walk, if you’re keen and don’t have much luggage) from Union Station. It’s much smaller, much closer to downtown and infinitely less stressful than Toronto Pearson Airport, the behemoth on Toronto’s northwestern edge (technically, Pearson’s actually in Mississauga).

Here’s a tip that will make flying in and out of Pearson easier (thanks to reader Gertrude Wilkes for pointing out my oversight in my initial post): You can take the UP Express train between Pearson airport and Union Station. The trip along the entire route takes 25 minutes, and the train also stops along the way at the Weston and Bloor GO train stations. Currently, the one-way fare is $12.35 for adults (children 12 and under travel free), which is much cheaper than the average $50 to $60 cab fare from Pearson to downtown.

For direct flights to Billy Bishop from Ottawa, Porter Airlines is your only option. To fly from Ottawa to Pearson, you have a wide range of options, including Air Canada and WestJet.

No-carbon ways to travel between Ontario’s two largest cities

OK, I know that only a handful of people reading this post have the time, the inclination and the fitness level to either cycle or walk all the way from Ottawa to Toronto. Honestly, just writing that sentence makes me feel tired! I have never done either, but I wanted to mention here that it is entirely possible to walk or bike the Ottawa-Toronto route, largely away from traffic. As well as seeing the sites at a human pace and meeting lots of people along the way, you’ll be travelling green and minimizing your carbon footprint. You’ll just need to do some serious—and I mean serious—planning to make it happen. The nitty-gritty details are outside my area of expertise, but I can point you to sites where you can learn much more.

Important: That 450-kilometre distance I mentioned at the beginning of this article refers to the driving route along Highway 416 and Highway 401. If you walk or bike, you’ll be meandering along trails that often follow rivers and other natural features of the landscape, so your total distance will be much longer.

Cycling routes between Toronto and Ottawa

As far as I can tell, there isn’t a fully signed cycling route between Ottawa and Toronto. (If I’m wrong, please let me know in the comments and I’ll happily update this post.) You can cobble together a solution, however, by following this cycling route between Ottawa and Kingston, then picking up the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail in Kingston, which you can follow to Toronto.

A great resource, if you’re planning an extended cycling trip, is the comprehensive Ontario By Bike website. It provides maps, guides, travel tips, links to cyclist-friendly businesses and biking clubs, and more.

The video above is a fun way to get a sense of what part of the route—the section of the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail between Kingston and Toronto—is like. (Note that the cyclists rode from Toronto to Kingston, rather than the other way around, to increase their chances of having the wind at their back—definitely something to consider.) The video has lots of useful tips on hotels and restaurants along the way, although you should double check them, since the video was made in 2015.

Hiking from Ottawa to Toronto

If you want to walk the entire distance—well, first of all, WOW! A good bet would be to follow the Trans Canada Trail, the cross-Canada network of hiking trails that opened to great fanfare in 2017. You’ll see beautiful places, but you will definitely be taking the scenic route. As just one example, because there’s a gap in the trail between Perth and Sharbot Lake, to stay completely on the trail, you’ll need to take a significant detour from Perth along a route that takes you near Portland, Sydenham, Harrowsmith and Verona before you pick up the trail again in Sharbot Lake. On the bright side, that route takes you past multiple provincial parks where you can camp. And just think of the bragging rights you’ll have when you reach downtown Toronto—the trail takes you right along the Lake Ontario waterfront, to within a stone’s throw of the CN Tower.

Need more inspiration? The video above features a hiker who is crossing all of Canada on the Great Trail.

Finding accommodation in Toronto

No matter how you get there, you’re going to need a place to stay in Toronto. Why not use this handy map to find a hotel or vacation rental? Disclosure: If you book using this map, I’ll earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

And if you want more intercity travel tips…

…read my post about five ways to get to New York City from Ottawa.

Looking for more tips on things to see and do in Eastern Ontario, the Outaouais, northern New York state and beyond? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter or order a copy of my book, Ottawa Road Trips: Your Weekend Getaway Guide.

As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.