Vaughan to Gatineau Park: the Ottawa weekend's other side of the river

Across the river from the capital

Gatineau Park is the National Capital Commission's park on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River — three hundred and sixty square kilometres of the Gatineau Hills' lakes, forest and escarpment beginning fifteen minutes from Parliament Hill, with parkways to its lookouts, Pink Lake's green water in a bowl of trees, the Champlain Lookout over the Ottawa Valley's farms, the Mackenzie King Estate where the prime minister built his cottages and his gardens of ruins, and the trails and beaches of Meech and Philippe lakes. Below it, the city of Gatineau on the river's shore has the Canadian Museum of History — the museum families rate first in the capital — and the Casino du Lac-Leamy. It is the half of an Ottawa weekend that a family without a vehicle does not see, which is why this post exists beside the Ottawa one: the chauffeured Sprinter that stayed for the museums crosses the Alexandra Bridge on Saturday afternoon and the park is an hour away.

The parkways and the lookouts

The Gatineau Parkway climbs from the park's Old Chelsea gate into the hills and runs to the escarpment's edge, where the Champlain Lookout looks west over the Ottawa Valley from the top of the Eardley Escarpment — the park's photograph — with the Huron and Étienne-Brûlé lookouts along the same ridge; Pink Lake, off the parkway's first stretch, is a meromictic lake whose green water and boardwalk trail are the park's most-visited stop; the parkways close to vehicles on summer Sunday mornings for cyclists and in winter for skiers. A chauffeured family does the loop in an afternoon: Pink Lake's trail, the Champlain Lookout, the Mackenzie King Estate, and the return through Old Chelsea's village for dinner — the NCC's site has the parkways' hours and the Fall Rhapsody's shuttle days in October, when the park runs a bus from the city because the lookouts' lots close.

The Mackenzie King Estate

William Lyon Mackenzie King, prime minister for twenty-two years, bought land at Kingsmere in the hills from 1903 and built the estate he left to the country: two cottages, Moorside and Kingswood, the gardens, and the ruins — arches and columns he collected from demolished buildings in Ottawa and London and arranged in his meadows as follies. The Moorside tea room serves lunch on the verandah in summer; the estate's trails and the ruins are an hour with children who find a prime minister's ruins in a field exactly as odd as they are. The chauffeur drops at the estate's lot and the tea room is the reservation.

The Museum of History and the casino

The Canadian Museum of History on Gatineau's shore facing Parliament is the capital's best museum for a family: the Grand Hall's totem poles and Haida houses, the Canadian History Hall's three floors, the Children's Museum's world of shops and a bus to climb in, the IMAX. It is a full morning and the drop at its entrance is a chauffeured family's start to the Gatineau day. The Casino du Lac-Leamy, five minutes north on the lake, is the adults' evening — a hotel, a theatre and the gaming floor — and the reason a group's Ottawa weekend books the vehicle to stay.

Meech Lake and the beaches

Meech Lake, the long lake in the park's south with the O'Brien and Blanchet beaches, and Philippe Lake further north with its beaches and campground are the park's summer water — a swim after the lookouts on a July afternoon with the Luxury SUV at the beach's lot and the towels in the cargo area. The park's day-use fees apply and the beaches' lots fill on July Saturdays; the chauffeur arrives early.

Fall Rhapsody

The park's fall colour in the last week of September and the first two of October is the capital's — the parkways' maples over the lookouts, the Kingsmere estate's ruins in leaves, the escarpment from the Champlain Lookout in every colour — and the NCC's Fall Rhapsody programme runs shuttles from the city on the peak weekends when the parkways' lots are closed; a chauffeured family holds the day's plan against the shuttle schedule, or does the park on the Friday when the lots are open. The Ottawa weekend of the Tulip Festival in May is the spring version, with the park's lakes just thawed.

The route

From Vaughan the road is the Ottawa road — the 407 and 401 east, the 416 north, the 417 into the city — four and three-quarter hours with the 407 and a Kingston stop, then the Alexandra or Portage bridge across the river and Autoroute 5 north to Old Chelsea for the park, or Boulevard Laurier along the shore for the museum. The routing estimate's five hours forty is the no-toll, no-stop version; the Ottawa post covers the road and the city.

Which vehicle

A Sprinter for a family of five or more or two families on the Ottawa weekend; an SUV for a family of four with boosters at $25 each; a Premium Sedan for a couple whose Ottawa weekend includes the casino's evening and the park's lookouts. The vehicle staying is the booking; a return pair does not reach Gatineau.

What the chauffeur replaces

The bridge crossing, the parkways and the estate's lot — none of which an Ottawa bus does — and the casino's drive home at midnight. For a family the daily hire's Saturday is a comfort purchase against a weekend that would otherwise stay on the Ontario side, and the site says so; for a Sprinter of eight it undercuts two rental cars in a city where the hotels' parking is the second bill.

Seasons

October for the colour and the shuttle logistics; May for the tulips and the lakes; July and August for the beaches and the tea room; winter for the park's cross-country ski trails — two hundred kilometres, the capital's — and the Nordik Spa in Old Chelsea, the largest outdoor spa in the country, which is a couple's February afternoon from an Ottawa hotel with the SUV.

Pairing it

Gatineau pairs with Ottawa as its other half, with Montebello and Parc Omega an hour east along the river for a family that continues to Montreal, and with the Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec loop as its first Quebec afternoon.

The Gatineau Saturday, in order

A family of five from Woodbridge on an Ottawa weekend with the Sprinter staying: 9 a.m. from the Ottawa hotel, the Alexandra Bridge with Parliament behind, the Museum of History's door at 9:15 — the Grand Hall's totem poles, the Children's Museum's bus and market, the Canadian History Hall's third floor until 12:30; lunch at the museum's café on the river with the Hill across it; Autoroute 5 north to Old Chelsea at 1:15 and the Gatineau Parkway's gate; Pink Lake's boardwalk loop at 1:30 for an hour; the Champlain Lookout at 2:45 with the valley's farms below; the Mackenzie King Estate at 3:15 — the ruins in the meadow, the Moorside tea room's scones on the verandah; Old Chelsea's village at five for dinner; the hotel by 6:30. Ten hours of the daily hire's Saturday, and a province the family would not otherwise have entered.

Old Chelsea and the Nordik Spa

Old Chelsea is the village at the park's gate — the general store, the bakery, the restaurants on the Chemin Old Chelsea that a Gatineau day ends at — and the Nordik Spa-Nature on its edge is the largest outdoor spa in North America: hot pools, cold plunges, saunas and a silence rule in the hills, adults only, reservations ahead. A Vaughan couple on an Ottawa winter weekend books the spa's afternoon as the Saturday with the Luxury SUV at the door and the Château Laurier's dinner after; a family's parents split the afternoon with the children at the museum.

The winter park

Gatineau Park's two hundred kilometres of groomed cross-country ski trails are the capital's winter, with the parkways closed to cars and open to skis, the day lodges at Camp Fortune and the park's cabins on the trails; the Camp Fortune ski hill is the downhill for a family, and the Mackenzie King Estate's trails are the snowshoe. A February Ottawa weekend with an SUV does Winterlude's canal on Saturday and the park's skis on Sunday, with the NCC's site selling the trail passes and the chauffeur driving Autoroute 5 in snow.

The Fall Rhapsody logistics, plainly

On the October peak weekends the NCC closes the Champlain and Gatineau Parkways' lots and the estate's to private vehicles and runs free shuttles from the park's visitor centre in Old Chelsea and from Gatineau's city lots; a chauffeured family is dropped at the visitor centre for the shuttle and collected there, with Old Chelsea's village for the wait, or does the park on the Friday when the lots are open. The chauffeur's confirmation the evening before restates which; the parkways' cycling Sunday mornings in summer close them to vehicles until eleven and the plan works around that too.

Pickup notes

The 407 east and the 401 from every Vaughan community, the 416 and 417 into Ottawa; a Woodbridge or Kleinburg pickup joins the 407 at Weston Road, a Thornhill one at Bathurst. Give us the Ottawa hotel and the nights, the museum's morning, the park's loop, the estate's tea room, the spa's reservation or the ski day, the seats and the swim kit; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the parkways' hours on it.

Costs, plainly

The Gatineau day is inside an Ottawa weekend's daily hire — the vehicle that stayed for the museums crosses the bridge at no separate fare — and for a family of five it is the reason the daily hire beats a return pair: a return pair sees Ontario, the daily hire sees two provinces, and the booking engine shows both numbers before the weekend is booked. For two families in a Sprinter the daily hire divides two ways and undercuts two rental cars and two hotel-garage bills; for a couple the Nordik afternoon is a comfort purchase, and the site says so.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the Ottawa weekend with the Gatineau day in the plan — the museum, the park's loop, the estate's tea room, the casino — and tell us the seats and the swim kit; the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the parkways' hours on it.

Book the Ottawa–Gatineau weekend