My news for you this week includes two opportunities to ride in a vintage caboose, as well as a new chance to take a spin in a 1929 Oldsmobile. You’ll also find out about a new tour company in Cornwall, great food destinations in Quebec, a new accessible boardwalk in a Kars conservation area and a big bouncy castle event coming to the RA Centre.
You can ride the rails in Ottawa and Smiths Falls
On Wednesdays throughout the summer, the Bytown Railway Society is offering five-minute train rides at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Buy a ticket and you’ll step aboard a 1913 Canadian Pacific caboose, pulled by a 1946 Thurso and Nation Valley locomotive.
And if vintage trains are your jam, you won’t want to miss Trainfest at the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls on August 9 and 10. The fun will include vintage CN caboose rides, railway exhibits, live music, local food and artisan vendors, and a kids’ activity zone featuring a Thomas the Train bouncy castle.
A new tour and shuttle bus service has opened in Cornwall
Good news for Cornwall residents and visitors: A new company called See-Way More is offering shuttle services from Cornwall to nearby sites and events, including Morrisburg Beach and the Glengarry Highland Games. You can also book a private tour for up to six people.
Great food abounds in Quebec
If your travels will take you through Quebec this summer, you might want to bookmark this Matador article about great eats across la Belle Province. Tips include a walking tour for food lovers in Montreal, pick-your-own farms in Laval, a cider economusée in Montérégie and a 235-kilometre gourmet cycling route.
A new accessible boardwalk has opened in Kars
In June, the Baxter Conservation Area in Kars unveiled a new boardwalk, which makes its Fiddlehead Trail more accessible to everyone, including people who use mobility aids or strollers. The conservation area also has accessible changerooms and outhouses, and a mobility mat leading down to its beach on the Rideau River.
Biplane rides have moved to Carp
Ottawa Aviation Adventures, which until recently offered biplane rides from the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, has shifted its operations westward. You can now step into one of the vintage planes at the Carp Airport, from spring through fall. (You can also book a sightseeing flight in more modern aircraft throughout the year.) And the Carp location offers something new: the chance to take a ride in a 1929 Oldsmobile.
The Big Bounce Canada is coming to the RA Centre in Ottawa
If you like bouncy castles, you’ll probably love the Big Bounce Canada, which appears to be a bouncy castle event on steroids. With all sorts of inflatables—including a giant slide—and separate timeslots for toddlers, tweens, young teens and adults, it looks like a riot. It’s coming to the RA Centre on Riverside Drive (just west of Billings Bridge) from August 1 to 3, and tickets are available now.
Looking for more tips on things to see and do in and around Ottawa? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter or order a copy of my book, Ottawa Road Trips: Your 100-km 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.