Ottawa
From the CouchSurfing Wiki, an informal workspace which anyone can edit.
Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It is approximately 5 hours driving from Toronto and 2 hours driving from Montreal. It is a very beautiful and picturesque town with lots of bars, restaurants, museums, art galleries, food markets and, some shopping. There is an international airport with flights from US, London and connections that can be made through either Toronto or Montreal to the rest of the world. There are a lot of CouchSurfers.
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Meetings
On Wednesday night, the Ottawa group has regular meetings. These meetings are organized by one of the members of the group, who was pulled from a 'hat' the previous week. Activities include: movies nights, games nights, chatting a a pub, etc.
Check out the Ottawa people group for current activities.
Mailing List
We don't have a mailing list, but we do have a group which has lots of interaction.
Emergency Couch
Stranded or in an Emergency in Ottawa or any other city in the region?
Send a mail to ottawa.CS@gmail.com with the message title Stranded Couchsurfer in "location" .
In the mail please include these points!
This will help us to faster help YOU!
1. Your name and username and the town you have a problem in the region.
2. Date, Time, and Timezone of post
3. The name or username of your host
4. How you can be reached: mail address and/or telephone number where you will be reachable asap. Please remember to include your areacode if you include a telephone number.
(example 1. Andrew, Gatineau 2. January 12 1845, 21.00 CET. 3. afmcdnl 4. 555 555 555 or happy_scappy_puppy@woofwoof.com)
All E-mail are immediately forwarded to our private mails and will be checked as soon as possible! (thank to Czech Republic for the idea...)
Tips
Thursday night has FREE entrance in to some of the main Museums: the Canadian War Museum, National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Museum of Civilization
Canadian Museum of Nature is FREE on Saturdays 9am to 12 pm
Canada Aviation Museum and the Museum of Science and Technology is FREE everyday from 4pm to 5 pm.
Everyday has FREE entrance into Parliament Hill with a tour, you pass through security like an airport.
Currency Museum is FREE everyday.
Here is a link to a lot more things which are free, which I can't think of right now...
Free or nearly Free Ottawa
The Library can also give you a chance to see some of these great spots using a membership card, but you first need a library membership. If you are surfing with someone ask if they are a member of the library.
CouchSurfers
Ottawa is a large city, so one thing I would recommend is to check out the areas which you might want to visit and see where some of the Ottawa region surfers live. Most people on their profiles have the area in which they live on profile so you can check out where they live vs places you want to see.
Meeting Organisers
Whoever gets pulled from the hat!! (or who ever wants to plan something!!)
Coffee or a drink
Lots of surfers would be willing to meet up for a chat, and they maybe take you to a place which they enjoy in Ottawa.
Media Mentions
Climate
Winters here can be cold. Snow (white stuff like on ski hills) and, a biting cold wind usually out of the north, can make temperatures range from -3C to as much as -40C with windchill. Not to discourage you though, as there are festivities like Winterlude (celebration of Winter) in February; ski hills nearby and; the largest skating rink, the canal (when frozen), to skate on.
Summer is warm, and a bit humid. We have lots of music festivals (Jazz Festival, Bluesfest, Franophone Festival, Folkfest, Wesfest.) The best thing to see is July 1st (Canada's National Day) in the Capital. The streets downtown are closed to traffic and many of the parks have concerts and events; and of course fireworks that light up the sky over the Ottawa River. I cannot forget to mention the Intl Fireworks competitions at the Casino Lac Leamy that happen throughout most of July to the first weekend in August. South Africa has been a big winner along with Italy.
Food
We have ethnic foods such as Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Caribbean, French, Quebecoise, etc. Many different restaurants at all levels whether a few bucks for a meal or you want haute cuisine. Get the Ottawa Today magazine from any hotel or tourist shop.
Transport
To get here: Ottawa has a bus station, train station, and an international airport. You can get here from anywhere in the world... you can even sail here on the Ottawa River or the Rideau Canal
In the area:
Ottawa buses cost $3.00 if paid in cash. You are better off to get a booklet of tickets at any magazine store that displays the tickets sold here sign. We have two types of bus systems-Ottawa (red, and silver and white) and, STO (Hull/Gatineau,Quebec-white and blue with magenta stripe). Tickets are not the same for both systems but make sure to get a transfer as you can use these on either system. There are day passes which can be used all day and if you intend to ride the bus more than 3x buy one from the driver on the bus but be sure to tell him/her.
The bus system in Ottawa is good, there is a transit way (for rapid bus ride, it's a bus only lane which is like a T (east, west and south)), there is also an O-train (useful to by pass the downtown core). The transit way runs from about 3:30 am to about 2:30 am, other buses in the system run at select times, so it's best to check out the schedule online. OC Transpo OC transpo serves the train station (on the transit way), the airport (#97) and the bus station (#4, #101). On the OC Transpo website there is also a traveller planner, to provide you with the best option for traveling from point A to point B.
The STO buses, also have some rapid transit buses, these are denoted by the 'Express' on the front. These only run until from 6 am to 12 midnight.
Other
If you are looking for people who might be interested in specific activities, like hiking, kayaking, biking, camping, museums, plays, movies, geocaching... the list goes on. JUST ASK in the group!!
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