Vaughan to Ottawa: the capital weekend by chauffeured car

The capital, without the 401 fatigue

Ottawa is the trip Vaughan families make when the children reach the age where Parliament, the War Museum and the Rideau Canal become a school project rather than a car ride. It is also the trip parents dread driving: the 401 east of Toronto is a truck corridor, the stretch from Port Hope to Kingston is four hundred kilometres of the same view, and arriving in a strange city at dinnertime with the driver exhausted is how family weekends go wrong. A chauffeured Executive Sprinter changes the shape of the trip: the family boards at the door in Woodbridge, the children have tables and screens, the parents have a conversation, and the vehicle arrives at the hotel with everyone rested.

The road: 401, 416, and where to stop

The chauffeur takes Highway 407 east from Vaughan to the 404 or straight to the 401 at Pickering, depending on the hour, then the 401 to the Highway 416 junction near Prescott and the 416 north into the city — the last stretch is a quiet four-lane through farmland that arrives at the 417 on the city's edge. The routing estimate above does not use the 407; a fixed fare includes it, and the chauffeur uses it when the 401 through Scarborough is slow.

Where to stop is the family question. Kingston, three hours in, is the natural break — the waterfront, a proper lunch, the Kingston post covers it — and a family with small children stops twice, at the Port Hope or Trenton service centres and again at Kingston. A group that leaves Vaughan at 8 a.m. with a Kingston lunch is at the Ottawa hotel by three.

Vehicle for the trip

A family of four with luggage for two nights books a Luxury SUV; six to twelve with luggage is the Executive Sprinter, whose luggage bay takes the overnight bags and whose seats are the difference between a five-hour drive and a five-hour ordeal. Two families travelling together book a Sprinter rather than two SUVs and split a single fixed fare — the arithmetic that makes chauffeured road trips work for groups.

The Sprinter is also the vehicle for the corporate version of this trip: a Vaughan company sending a delegation to a federal meeting or a trade show at the Shaw Centre books the vehicle for the whole trip so the team moves between hotel, Parliament, dinner and the return in one unit.

Three ways to book it

1. Return transfer. The vehicle drops the family at the hotel on Friday and returns on Sunday for the drive home. The fare is two one-ways; the vehicle does not stay in Ottawa. This is the economical version for a family that will walk the city — Parliament Hill, the ByWard Market, the canal and the National Gallery are all within a kilometre of each other.
2. Vehicle stays. The chauffeur and vehicle remain in Ottawa for the weekend, priced as daily hire. This suits a group visiting the museums that are spread out — the War Museum at LeBreton Flats, the Aviation and Space Museum in the east end, the Museum of History across the river in Gatineau — and it is the corporate standard.
3. Loop. Ottawa as the first stop on the Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City loop, the four-day drive Vaughan families make once.

What the city gives a family

Parliament Hill and its tours (free, reserved through the Parliament of Canada visitor programme), the Rideau Canal — a skating rink in February, a boat ride in July — the Byward Market for the beavertail the children have heard about, the Canadian Museum of Nature and its dinosaurs, the Museum of History with the Grand Hall of totem poles, and the War Museum, which older children take seriously. The Ottawa Tourism site keeps the calendar; two events drive Vaughan bookings — Winterlude in February, when the canal is open and the ice sculptures are up, and the Canadian Tulip Festival in May, when Commissioners Park by Dow's Lake is the photograph everyone takes.

Winterlude and the Tulip Festival

Winterlude is the winter road trip: the 401 in February is a professional's road, and the reason to book a chauffeur is not comfort but competence — the Sprinter is on winter tires, the chauffeur watches the Environment Canada forecast for the Kingston-to-Brockville stretch, and a squall that would send a family car to a motel is a slower hour in a vehicle built for it. The Tulip Festival is the opposite: a May weekend, the city at its best, the hotels booked early; Vaughan families reserve the vehicle when they reserve the hotel.

Where the chauffeur drops in Ottawa

Hotel porte-cochères downtown — the Château Laurier, the Westin, the Marriott on Kent, the Lord Elgin — are straightforward. Parliament Hill has no vehicle access; the drop is on Wellington Street or at the Rideau Centre, a five-minute walk. The museums have proper drop loops. Ottawa's downtown is compact and its one-way system is unfriendly to visitors; a chauffeur who knows it takes the drop out of the family's hands.

Ottawa against the train and the plane

The train from Toronto to Ottawa is a good product for one or two people; for a family of six the fares, the drive to Union Station and the taxi at the other end add up to more than a Sprinter, and the Sprinter leaves from your driveway with your luggage in the back. The plane is faster but the airport time on both ends erases the gain for a weekend, and it does not get the family to the hotel. The chauffeured drive is the version where the trip is part of the weekend rather than the price of it.

A family itinerary that works

Vaughan families ask for a plan, so this is the two-night version the chauffeur will suggest for a family of four or five with children between six and fourteen.

Friday. Pickup at 8 a.m.; the 407 east and the 401. A twenty-minute stop at the Port Hope service centre for the youngest; Kingston at eleven thirty for an early lunch on the waterfront and a walk to City Hall — ninety minutes. The 401 to the 416 and the 417 into the city; hotel by three thirty. The afternoon is Parliament Hill's grounds and the Rideau Canal locks beside the Château Laurier, which need no tickets; dinner in the ByWard Market.

Saturday. The Parliament tour if reserved (book weeks ahead through the visitor programme), then the Canadian Museum of History across the Alexandra Bridge in Gatineau — the vehicle, if it has stayed, does the crossing in ten minutes; otherwise it is a walk of twenty-five. The afternoon is the War Museum or the Museum of Nature, depending on the children; the evening is the canal — skating in February, a boat in July.

Sunday. A late breakfast, the Rideau Centre or the National Gallery for the adults, and departure by noon for a five o'clock arrival in Vaughan with a Kingston or Gananoque stop.

If the vehicle stays, the fare is two days of daily hire plus the drive each way; if it does not, it is a return pair and Saturday is on foot and by the city's buses, which serve the museums well enough.

The 401 in winter, and why the chauffeur matters

Ottawa is a winter destination — Winterlude, the canal, the light displays — and the 401 between Cobourg and Kingston is the road that Environment Canada closes in a squall. A chauffeured Sprinter or SUV is on winter tires from November, the chauffeur is watching the road reports from the pickup, and the plan has slack in it: an earlier departure, a Kingston stop that can stretch, a hotel that will hold the room. Families who have driven that road themselves in February in a minivan with children understand the case without being told; families who have not should take it on trust.

Gatineau, across the river

Gatineau is the Quebec city facing Ottawa across the Ottawa River, and the reason to have the vehicle stay: the Museum of History on its shore is the museum families rate highest, the Casino du Lac-Leamy is the adults' evening, and Gatineau Park — the Pink Lake lookout, the Champlain Lookout, the Mackenzie King estate — is a half-day drive on the parkways that no bus serves. With the Sprinter in the city, Saturday afternoon is the park; without it, the park is a separate trip.

Ottawa for the corporate traveller from Vaughan

Vaughan companies send people to Ottawa for federal procurement meetings, associations' annual conferences at the Shaw Centre and the Westin, and the trade shows at the EY Centre by the airport. The corporate account version of this trip is a Sprinter or a Luxury SUV for the delegation with the vehicle staying: hotel to Parliament to the client's office on Sparks Street to dinner in the Market to the hotel, and the drive back the next afternoon with the team working at the tables. It is priced as daily hire and invoiced as one line, and it replaces four train tickets, four taxis and a rental car.

The Vaughan side of the booking

The Ottawa run is booked most from Thornhill and Woodbridge, where the 407 is minutes away. A Maple or Kleinburg pickup adds a few minutes to the 407 at Jane or Weston Road; a VMC condo pickup is from the tower's loop. Luggage for a family of five in a Luxury SUV is a full cargo area; for a Sprinter it is the rear bay with the seats untouched. Tell us the hotel, the Parliament tour time if you have one, the number of child seats and whether the vehicle should stay, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Booking it

Book a one-way or return in the booking engine with your Vaughan address and the Ottawa hotel; ask in the notes for the Kingston stop and any child seats. For the vehicle to stay through the weekend, book daily hire and tell us the museum plan; the travel desk can hold the Ottawa hotel and the Winterlude or Tulip Festival dates.

Book the Ottawa weekend