I have lots of time-sensitive tips in this week’s post, from a discount on Originals Christmas Craft Sale tickets to savings on VIA Rail trips. Perhaps the most time sensitive of them all is the heads up about the Billings Estate’s Christmas Tea, which usually sells out at Taylor Swift-like speed. You’ll also get the scoop on a crafters’ getaway in Montebello, shopping promotions in Perth and the Glebe, next weekend’s food and wine festival in Ottawa, and a new addition to a Quebec City museum.
Events
Billings Estate National Historic Site hosts one of Ottawa’s hottest-ticket events in December.
The Billings Estate National Historic Site in Alta Vista will once again be offering a Christmas Tea this year. On December 12, 13, 19 and 20, guests will enjoy seasonal treats served on traditional three-tiered trays. Tickets to this event sold out in 10 minutes last year, so if you want to go, be at your computer or on your phone the moment ticket sales open at 10am on Thursday, November 12. IMPORTANT NOTE: You will need a Register Ottawa account to buy a ticket. Details on setting up the account are available via the Christmas Tea link above, and the City of Ottawa strongly advises setting up the account before November 12.
In Perth, the Shop, Stamp and Win promotion begins on Thursday, November 12. Pick up a passport at local businesses and collect a stamp for every $10 you spend. Once you’ve collected 10 stamps, you are eligible for a prize draw. The promotion continues until December 20.
In a similar vein is Glebe Spree, which runs in the central Ottawa neighbourhood from November 14 until December 31. You’ll get a sticker for every $15 you spend, and once you’ve collected $150 in stickers, you can enter a draw for one of four $2,500 Glebe shopping sprees. (Tips for keeners: You’ll get double the stickers on Tuesdays, and if you enter by December 6, you’ll also be eligible for one of two early-bird $1,000 shopping sprees.)
Tickets are available now for the Crave Food and Wine Festival, coming to History Ottawa (formerly the Chapters Indigo at Rideau and Sussex) on November 20 and 21.
Want to try your hand at painting? At a paint night for adults at Russell United Church on Wednesday, December 2, you’ll paint a picture of Bessie the Highland Cow wearing her holiday best.
It’s not cheap—it’s happening at Fairmont Le Château Montebello, after all—but if you’re a keen crafter, you might be interested in the three-day, two-night Twist Spring Retreat (March 19 to 21, 2027). Sponsored by the Twist Fibre Festival, it includes all sorts of textile workshops. You’ll also get a three-day pass to the summer fibre festival.
Discounts and deals
Photo of Fallowfield VIA Rail station by David McCormack for VIA Rail.
VIA Rail’s Discount Tuesday offerings this week include a 15% discount on some trains in the Windsor–Quebec City corridor and 10% off some trips on the Canadian, the Ocean and regional trains. Book by midnight on Tuesday, November 10, with the discount code TUESDAY.
Early-bird tickets, offering 25% off the regular price, are now available for the Originals Christmas Craft Sale. It’s coming to the Cohere Centre (formerly the EY Centre) from December 9 to 13. You can also get 50% off the full price if you buy a ticket for Wednesday or Thursday evening.
This one won’t be live for a couple of weeks, but I thought I’d give you time to plan. Riverside Luxury Cruises is offering 10% off full board fares on select 2027 and 2028 sailings as part of its Black Friday promotion, for new bookings made November 23 through December 4, 2026. The discount will automatically be added to applicable sailings (no code needed). The company offers European river cruises.
Other
The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Quebec City has opened the Espace Riopelle – Michael Audain Pavilion to showcase more than 130 wors by the artist Jean Paul Riopelle. The video above (in French) chronicles the story of the new pavilion’s construction.
I’m a big fan of the architectural flourishes at Ottawa International Airport, particularly the waterfall at baggage claim. Turns out I’m not the only one. American travel writer Sheila Scarborough has a lovely post about the Ottawa airport at Perceptive Travel (a website we both write for).
Did you know that a winter shuttle bus service connects Montreal International Airport to Mont-Tremblant? It’s available from Thursday through Sunday, from December 17, 2026, through April 4, 2027. It only runs once a day in each direction but hey, it could be useful to travellers without cars. You could even connect to it from Ottawa by taking an Orléans Express bus from Ottawa or Gatineau to the Montreal airport, but that would be a 4.5-hour trip each way (compared to about two hours if you drove to Tremblant direct directly). Again, hey, it’s something.
If you’re looking for other intercity public transportation options from Ottawa to other points in Ontario and Quebec, I have a post summarizing local train and bus connections.
In other intercity transit news, a group is walking from St-Eugène (on the Ontario–Quebec border) to Ottawa to protest the Alto high-speed rail project.
Brockville, Merrickville, Smiths Falls and Perth are among the communities that get a shoutout in a Victoria Times-Colonist story about a road trip through Eastern Ontario.
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.
