From tours of Akwesasne and scenic drives beside Outaouais waterways to the new speed limits on some Ontario highways and the chance to ride on a vintage train, this week’s Heads Up post has lots of news you can use. You’ll even learn about a woman who walked across Canada!
Events and tours
Antique boats on display in Portland Harbour.
Portland is hosting a brand-new festival this summer to mark the 200th anniversary of the groundbreaking for the Rideau Canal. The Rideau Canal Nautical Heritage Festival (July 18 and 19) will feature guided tours via pontoon boat and voyageur canoe, a flotilla, book signings, an antique small boat display, a vendors’ market, a film screening, and lots more.
Want to watch Canada’s FIFA World Cup match against Morocco on Saturday, July 4, with up to 20,000 other fans? You can head to a free watch party on LeBreton Flats. Gates open at 11am.
Cornwall-based See-Way More Tours is offering a day trip called Land and Water: Discover Akwesasne. The tour, which is available on July 3, July 6 and July 27, starts with a visit to the Native North American Travelling College, then continues with a guided boat tour. The same company is also offering a tour called Through the Lands of the Lost Villages, focusing on the villages intentionally flooded during the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The July tour is sold out and the August one is close to sold out, but tickets remain for the September tour.
Registration is open now for the Children’s Aid Foundation of Ottawa’s charity golf tournament, taking place on Wednesday, September 9, at the Canadian Golf and Country Club in Ashton.
Tickets are available now for Puppets Up!, the popular international puppet festival in Almonte (August 8 and 9).
Discounts and deals
Destination Ontario, the province’s tourism agency, has rounded up a big collection of budget-friendly Ontario travel tips. And while I would quibble with their definition of “budget friendly” in some cases—Michelin’s Bib Gourmand restaurants may offer good value, but they’re usually not “cheap”—the list is a handy roundup of frugal travel options, such as the Canada Strong Pass, bike-sharing programs, local public transit and city coupon books.
Other news
CTV News Ottawa has been running a series called “One Tank Trips,” profiling destinations close to Ottawa. The video above shines the spotlight on Bonnechere Caves near Eganville. Other pieces in the series so far have focused on Merrickville and Philippe Lake.
CTV News also brings us a story about a short series on Bell Fibe TV1 about Cornwall-style pizza. (And here I thought “cheese on top” was known as “Colonnade-style pizza.”)
Even though their name literally translates to “waterways,” the Chemins d’eau in the Outaouais are actually driving routes along the shores of the region’s many rivers. Tourisme Outaouais has a great online guide to the Chemins d’eau, which stretch from Montebello to the Pontiac, and up into the Gatineau Hills.
The Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario, pictured at the top of this post, is once again offering rides on vintage trains in July and August. The rides are available on Sundays in July and August, between 11:30am and 2pm, and tickets are first come, first served. (P.S.: Did you know that you can stay overnight in one of the museum’s vintage cabooses?)
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post for Perceptive Travelabout the showy lady’s slipper orchids at Purdon Conservation Area in Lanark County. An alert reader let me know that there are also more than 100 showy lady’s slipper orchids along a boardwalk on the Macnamara Nature Trail in Arnprior.
Now this is a road trip: Sonya Richmond and her partner spent four years walking across Canada in stages. Here’s a moving story she wrote for the CBC about the 14,000km journey.
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.
