Where to skate in Ottawa

With all the cold weather we have been having it’s no wonder all the skating rinks around the city are filled with eager skaters young and old. To help you decide where to lace up, here’s a list of various ice skating rinks in and around Ottawa (and a little further out too). 

Rideau Canada Skateway

Weather permitting, the Rideau Canal is open to skaters daily from roughly late December (whenever it’s ready!) to late February (when it starts to thaw). And it’s free! There are many change huts, skate rental shacks and snack stations (yum - Beavertails!) all along its 7.8 km length. We recommend checking the ice conditions before you head out to avoid disappointed little skaters should it be closed.

SENS Rink of Dreams

If the Rideau Canal is closed you can almost-always count on the SENS Rink of Dreams at City Hall to be open. This refrigerated outdoor skating rink is open from December to March from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. It’s a large rink that features LED lighting, a heated change hut, picnic tables and benches. Skate rentals and skate sharpening are available on weeknights and weekends, check out the City’s website for information on hours.

Landsdowne Park Skating Court

Weather permitting, the Lansdowne Park Skating Court is open from early December to mid-March. There is on-street parking nearby. Free open skating sessions are available daily.

Ben Franklin Place Skating Rink

Ben Franklin Place’s outdoor skating rink in Ottawa’s West End (Nepean) has a heated changing facility and is open daily from 11 am to 8 pm (weather permitting).

Rideau Hall Skating Rink

The historic skating rink at the Governor General of Canada’s residence, located on Sussex Drive, was established in 1872. Rideau Hall’s refrigerated outdoor skating rink offers free public skating sessions on Saturdays and Sundays from roughly December through March, weather permitting.

RiverOak Skating Trail 

Located in Metcalfe, RiverOak offers a unique outdoor winter experience with more than three kms of skating trails through old growth apple orchards. Their on-site facilities include a heated changing area in a charming log cabin, food and drink, and a hockey rink for pickup games. They also have unique events happening all winter long! For details visit their website at: www.riveroak.ca

Patinage en Fort (Skating Through the Forest)

Located Lac des Loups, Quebec (about 45 minutes north of downtown Ottawa), this skating rink is a 3-kilometer open-air ice loop which winds through tall trees. There is a heated chalet onsite. A very limited number of skate rentals are available, so if you can – bring your own! Visit their website for more information.

Perth Outfitters Skating Trail

About one hour south of Ottawa in Perth, Ontario is Perth Outfitters. They offer a 400-metre (0.2 mile) skating trail through the woods (including lantern skate events on Friday and Saturday evenings). There’s also a shinny hockey rink, log cabin and warm treats. A fun way to spend a weekend evening!

Arrowhead Provincial Park Ice Skating Trail

Although it’s a bit of a drive (about 3.5 hours from west Ottawa), this ice skating trail is considered one of the most stunning natural skating rinks around the world! The 1.3 km ice skating trail winds through think Muskoka forest and is magical anytime of day! The park is very busy on weekends, so the ark recommends visiting during the week if you can.  Visit their website for more information.

City of Ottawa Outdoor Ice Rinks

There are many volunteer-run outdoor community ice rinks across the city – several even have huts to change in and out of your skates. Check out the City’s website for more information.

City of Ottawa Indoor Ice Skating

Ottawa is home to several indoor arenas that offer affordable public skating sessions and skate rentals. Visit the City of Ottawa website for more information or to find an arena near you.

Summer of Awesome - Paul's Boat Lines

A few weeks ago, some friends of mine from high school had a reunion here in town. One of the events was a tour of the Ottawa River on Paul's Boat Lines. At first I wasn't going to bring the kids, because I thought they'd be bored. But when they got wind of the fact that Mommy was going Boating, they were IN. I have no idea what they were picturing, but apparently the concept of a boat ride is romantic and exotic and SUPER FUN - and actually, it turned out to be pretty much just that.

The tour lasts for about an hour and a half, and leaves from the dock right at the tip of the Rideau Canal. Just getting there was half the fun - you have to take the stairs down from the bridge that's beside the Chateau Laurier, then walk all along the locks to the very tip. If it's a weekend, you're likely to see the locks in action, with dozens of pleasure boats travelling through; if you're not in a rush, you can also check out the Bytown Museum, which is along the path. We were lucky enough to be heading out on the Civic Holiday Weekend, which is the weekend of the Rideau Canal Festival, so the entire path to the boat was paved with musicians, artists, crafts, and activities - bonus!

Once you reach the dock, it's time to board, and the tour begins right away. There's an upper and lower level on the boat - the upper level is cooler (it's shaded), and a better place to sit to see the sights and hear the (charming and funny) tour guide. The lower level has booths, so it's a good place to relax with a drink (the boat is licensed) or strike up a card game with antsy children.

We sat up top and were dazzled by amazing views and fascinating trivia.

The best view of the Parliament Buildings ever. The Rideau Falls - I'm ashamed to say I did not actually know that these existed. The Prime Minister's house. SLIGHTLY bigger than mine. My daughter having a King Of The World moment.

This is just a fraction of the cool places we saw. Did you know that the statue on the peak by the Art Gallery is of Samuel de Champlain, and that he is holding his astrolabe upside down? Did you know that the Ottawa River used to be called the Mighty Kitchississippi? Did you know that SO MANY foreign ambassadors live in PALACES (OMG). Did you know that Gatineau is the prettiest little town ever?

Our kids actually enjoyed seeing the sights - my middle daughter in particular can't stop talking about the "big house with five chimneys" (that's 24 Sussex). They also just loved being out front on the boat, feeling the breeze from the river and comparing all the bridges. It was just a really pleasant, quiet way to spend a hot summer afternoon.

There's a small tuck shop on the lower level, so warning: there will be pressure to purchase chips. Chips on a boat taste better, don't you know?

Paul's isn't the only boat tour company downtown (there's a few fancier ones, and there's also Lady Dive, the bus that turns into a boat), but Paul's tour of the Ottawa River was the perfect size and duration for our kids. There were several of us on board who were actually from Ottawa, and we all learned stuff we never knew and saw stuff we'd never seen, which boggles my mind.

Paul's Boat Lines also offers a slightly shorter tour of the Rideau Canal - that one is going on our next year's Summer of Awesome list.

Tours run from June 28 through September 2; the daily schedule is here. Tickets are $23 adults, $14 for children aged 6-12 (five and under are free), and group rates are available. You can buy tickets at the kiosk downtown which is right across the street from the Chateau Laurier; unless it's a holiday weekend, you can likely just head downtown on the day-of and get tickets for the next boat.

Ahoy, mateys!

Lynn is mom to three tombliboos and blogs over at Turtlehead.

Coming Up This Weekend: Rideau Canal Festival

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED This year the Rideau Canal Festival is celebrating the 180 birthday of the canal. The celebration starts this Friday and the weekend will be fill of events for all ages.

The events take place at two sites along the canal - the Bytown Myseum and Dow's Lake.

At the Bytown Museum Site you can see stone carvers, acrobats visiting from China, dance performances and puppetry. Meanwhile, at the Dow's Lake site there are activities for older kids, including workshops on stop motion animation and robotics.

The celebration wraps up with a celebration of Colonel By Day on August 6 at the Bytown Museum, a free event starting at 11 am. The celebration will feature theatrical performances, crafts, musical performances and demonstrations.

You can find a full schedule for the two sites here and read what one parent thought of last year's festival here.

We have two family passports to give away for the Rideau Canal Festival this weekend. The passport gives a family of four access to festival VIP areas,  free entry into the Bytown Museum and the Canadian Museum of Nature, discounts on specials at participating restaurants and tons of savings on city-wide activities on festival weekend and throughout the year. Leave a comment and you're automatically entered! 

Flashback: The best skating is local skating

Another great post from early in 2011.  Do you have any local skating ponds or rinks you love?

by Thomas

When I was first presented with the question ‘where is your favorite place to skate in the city’, without any hesitation I said the Rideau Canal. We are so fortunate to live in a city that is home to the world’s longest skating rink! It is an amazing experience, taking in the scenery and sense of youthful excitement that you enjoy when skating end to end on this World Heritage site is second to none. But after a few more thoughts, the Canal is fantastic, but it’s not my favorite.

My true favorite spots to skate are the little ponds, creeks and rivers that each winter we transform into local skating surfaces. There is something very Canadian about heading to the water front and shoveling off a patch to skate or play hockey on. I am very fortunate to have a pond right behind our house, where the neighborhood children play pickup hockey and the young ones learn to skate, preparing themselves for the game next winter.

These local destinations are links to the past, to simpler times. To a time where people, maybe even you, spent full days playing with friends or by yourself. You remember the days when you’d rush to get out of bed, chug down a glass of orange juice and run out the door with your mother shouting behind you ‘Be back for dinner!’… but you’d be lucky to be home before dark. On your way home praying the whole way that your dad wouldn’t mind since you were playing hockey after all and still let you stay up for Hockey Night in Canada.

These little spots, hidden from the hustle and bustle that our lives have become, are beautiful and so much more meaningful then ‘just’ a skating rink. I love the ability to take my boys outside whenever I want and watch the joy and freedom they experience when they get their skates on; the smiles that shine out from the mask of my 3 year old when he is tip-toeing across the pond; the cheers of joy coming from my 5 year old when he scores a goal into an empty net; the pride that beams from my heart as I watch these two bundles of snowsuit glide across the ice. These local skating spots provide the next generation with the ability to get lost in the joys that your own childhood brought you.

The best part of all of this? You get to share in building these memories for your own children and in turn, are creating the events which will become their own cherished memories.

Thomas is the proud father to three sons; 5 & 3 year olds and his 5 month old. Looking to provide the father voice into the parenting blogging world, you can find his personal experiences at http://thomaslynn.wordpress.com/

Follow that boat!

by Krista

We are fortunate in Ottawa to have a great number of unique and interesting sites to visit, and my family loves to take advantage of as many as possible. We were particularly happy when we stumbled upon one that appealed to all of us recently, watching a boat travel down the locks of the Rideau Canal into the Ottawa River. It's one of those treasures that you are probably aware of, but just don't appreciate how unique it is until you experience it.

We started at the top, near the Chateau Laurier hotel. Our original intent was to just have look at the locks from the top lock, but we arrived just as a boat was pulling into the first lock. The lils were fascinated to watch the lock staff help the boat tie to the mooring cables on the side, then run to the lock to start the water draining. They thought it was hilarious to watch the boat, which was not a big boat, sink down lower and lower as the water drained, and compared it to their boats on the bath tub.

The locks are operated by hand, so as you walk down the path, the lock staff are moving at great speed to get to the next set of cranks to either open the lock, or the doors within the lock that let the water out. There are eight locks in total here, and the lift (or in this case drop) is 24m. It took a little over an hour from start to finish, and we barely noticed the time passing by!

There is no cost associated with this viewing, as you are just walking down a public pathway. The paths closest to the locks have many stairs, and as such are not accessible/stroller friendly. There is a fairly steep path nearby, which would be suitable. You won't be able to actually observe the operations as well from this path, however. You can walk across the every lock, but if you attempt to do this while a boat is moving through, you have to be well ahead of them! If you have very young children, you may want to consider wearing them in a carrier, as the sides are completely open to the canal below. I was glad both parents were present for this trip, as my monkeys are, well, monkeys who need some pretty close supervision.

You can't predict when a boat will be going up or down the locks, as there is not a set schedule. I would guess that it is fairly frequent to constant on a summer weekend, but you might want to have a backup plan if you are heading out.

There is also the Rideau Canal Museum near the top of this set of locks. We didn't visit it on this trip, but will on our next! More information about the lock system can be found on the Rideau Canal website.

Krista is married to Willy and mom to a 4 year old son, Woo, and 2.5 year old daughter, Goose. You can find her at Life in the Hutch or on Twitter @kgraydonald