Vaughan to Montebello and Parc Omega: the log castle and the animals that come to the window

Montebello, between the two capitals

Montebello is a village on the Quebec shore of the Ottawa River, an hour east of Ottawa and an hour and a half west of Montreal, with two things that bring Vaughan families to it: the Fairmont Le Château Montebello, the log hotel built in 1930 in four months from ten thousand red cedar logs — the largest log building in the world, with a six-sided fireplace in a lobby the height of a church, a pool, a spa, a golf course and grounds on the river — and Parc Omega, the drive-through wildlife park of Canadian animals on a twelve-kilometre road through forest and meadow, where the elk, the deer, the wild boar and the bison come to the vehicle for the carrots the park sells at the gate, and the wolves, the bears, the moose and the arctic foxes are in enclosures along the walk. It is the Canadian version of the African Lion Safari with a log castle attached, and the chauffeured version is the Sprinter with the windows down and the children handing carrots to an elk.

Parc Omega, from the vehicle

The park's road is driven at a walking pace with the windows down: the first section's deer and elk that walk to the windows and take the carrots — the park's own carrots, from the gate, nothing else — the wild boar and the bison in their meadows behind the fences, the wolves' and the bears' enclosures on the walking trails at the park's middle with the platforms, the moose and the caribou further on, the arctic foxes and the birds of prey at the farm, and the First Nations' trail with its longhouse and its stories. Two to three hours with the stops; the chauffeur drives the road at the park's pace and the Luxury SUV's or the Sprinter's windows are the children's. In winter the park runs the same road through snow with the wolves at their most visible; the park's site has the seasons, the feeding rules and the winter's sled-dog and snowshoe additions.

The Château

The Château Montebello's lobby — the six-sided stone fireplace, the log galleries above it, the leather chairs — is the reason a couple books the weekend; the pool, the tennis, the curling in winter, the marina and the grounds on the river are the family's; the dining room's breakfast is the log castle's own. A Vaughan family from Thornhill books two nights: the drive on Friday with a Kingston lunch, the Château by four, the pool; Saturday's Parc Omega morning and the Manoir-Papineau afternoon; Sunday's grounds and the drive home — or on to Montreal, ninety minutes east, for the loop. The travel desk holds the room; the hotel's forecourt is a chauffeured drop that suits the building.

The Manoir-Papineau

Beside the Château's grounds, the Manoir-Papineau National Historic Site is the 1850s seigneurial manor of Louis-Joseph Papineau, the leader of the 1837 rebellion, on the river with its towers, its library and its grounds — an hour for a family with older children, and a Parks Canada site with the story of the seigneury that the village grew from. The village of Montebello itself is a main street of Quebec's small-town kind with the chocolatier and the fromagerie the family stops at on the way to the park.

The Ottawa River road

Route 148 runs along the river's Quebec shore from Gatineau to Montebello and on toward Montreal — the old road, through the villages of Thurso, Papineauville and Fassett, with the river beside it and Ontario's shore across — and it is the drive the chauffeur takes rather than Autoroute 50 on the hill above when the family has the time; the Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec loop uses it for its second day, and the Gatineau Park post covers the park at the road's western end.

The route from Vaughan

The 407 and 401 east, the 416 north, the 417 through Ottawa's south to the Quebec bridges, and Route 148 or Autoroute 50 east to Montebello — five and a half hours from Woodbridge with the 407 and a Kingston stop, six from Thornhill; or the 401 to Montreal's west end and Autoroute 50 west from Lachute, the same time from the other direction. The routing estimate's six and a half is the no-toll, no-stop version.

Which vehicle

An SUV for a family of four with boosters at $25 each and the windows for the park; a Sprinter for a family of five or more, two families or the grandparents, with the higher windows that the elk reach and the tables for five hours of highway; a Premium Sedan for a couple's Château weekend with the park's road driven at a pace and the carrots handed from the front. The park's road is gravel and slow; nothing about it needs anything special.

What the chauffeur replaces

Eleven hours of the 401 and the river road in a weekend; the park's road driven by a parent who would rather hand carrots than watch the vehicle ahead; and the Château's forecourt after five hours on the 401. For a family of four the daily hire is a comfort purchase, and the site says so; for two families in a Sprinter it undercuts two cars and two park admissions' vehicle fees, and for the loop it is the second day's drive that nobody in the family made.

Seasons

Winter for the wolves in the snow, the Château's curling and its fireplace, and a February weekend that Vaughan families book for the reason the lobby exists; summer for the pool, the marina and the park's fawns; October for the river road's colour and the elk's rutting season, when the park's bulls bugle; May for the park's births. The park is open year-round and the Château's seasons are its own.

The weekend, in order, for a family of five

Friday: the Sprinter from Thornhill at 9 a.m., the 407 and 401, Kingston's harbour for lunch at 12:15, the 416 and 417 through Ottawa's south at 2:45, the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge and Route 148 east along the river through Thurso and Papineauville with the water beside the road, the Château's forecourt at 4:30; the lobby's fireplace, the pool, dinner in the dining room, the grounds' walk to the river at dusk. Saturday: Parc Omega's gate at 9:30 with the carrots bought; the park's road driven at a walk — the deer at the first windows, the elk in the meadow with their heads in the Sprinter, the boar, the bison — until eleven; the walking trails' wolves and bears from the platforms until 12:30; lunch at the park; the Manoir-Papineau's tour at 2:30 and the village's chocolatier; the Château's curling if it is winter or the marina if it is summer; dinner. Sunday: the grounds, checkout, and either the 417 home with a Kingston dinner — Thornhill by seven — or Autoroute 50 east to Montreal for the loop. Two days of daily hire plus the drives, one number in the booking engine.

Parc Omega, practically

The park sells admission by vehicle and by person at the gate, the carrots in bags beside the ticket window — the only food the animals may be given — and the road's rules are windows down for the carrots but nothing else out of the vehicle, no stopping beside the bison, the speed of a walk, and the walking trails' platforms for the wolves and bears, which are never at the road. The road is gravel and a loop; a second lap is included and families do it for the elk that were asleep the first time. The park's site has the seasons' hours and the winter's sled-dog and snowshoe programmes; the chauffeur has driven the road in every season.

The Château's seasons

Summer is the marina's canoes and the pool, the tennis, the golf course across the road, the grounds' cycling; winter is the fireplace, the curling rink under the hotel's wing, the cross-country ski trails on the grounds, the outdoor skating; the shoulder seasons are the quiet lobby and the river's colour in October. The hotel's site has the packages; the travel desk holds the room, which for the February and October weekends is booked early.

Costs, plainly

Two families of four in a Sprinter divide the weekend's daily hire into a per-family figure that two cars' eleven hours of fuel and tolls and two parents' driving weekends do not beat by enough to argue; a single family's SUV weekend is a comfort purchase, and the site says so; the park's vehicle admission is one vehicle rather than two.

Pickup notes

The 407 east and the 401 from every Vaughan community, the 416 and 417 through Ottawa and Route 148 or Autoroute 50 east; a Thornhill or Concord pickup joins the 407 at Bathurst or Dufferin, Woodbridge and Kleinburg at Weston Road. Give us the Château's nights, the park's morning, the Manoir, the seats and whether the trip continues to Montreal, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

The wolves, from the platform

Parc Omega's wolves — grey wolves and arctic wolves in large forested enclosures along the walking trail at the park's middle — are seen from raised platforms and, in winter, from the trail's viewing windows at their most active in the snow; the black bears in their own enclosure and the moose beyond are the other walking-trail stops, and a family that has driven the road does the trail in an hour. The park's seasonal Parc Omega Land of the Wolves cabins let a family sleep beside the enclosure with the wolves at the window, the booking that a Vaughan family with a nine-year-old makes once and talks about for years; the park's site sells them by the night.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the weekend with the Château's nights and the park's morning, or with Montebello as the stop on the loop; tell us the seats and whether the Manoir is wanted, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before with the park's feeding hours on it.

Book the Montebello weekend