Where to find activities to do in Ottawa?

Ottawa is the capital of Canada. Some people say Ottawa is boring, but yet there’s plenty to do. Culture, sport, visual arts, sightseeing, culinary delights – there’s a lot to keep you busy during the week and on weekends in Canada’s capital.

Depending on what you want to do, there are several sites where you can easily find a variety of activities, at different prices, during the week or at weekends, in Ottawa and the surrounding area.

1/ Meet new people and discover activities close to home with Meetup

Meetup was created in 2002. It’s an online platform for finding cultural, professional and tourist activities. Meetup believes in creating local communities and meeting new people through collective activities. Meetup offers the possibility to meeting strangers for social, professional or leisure.

Among the activities offered by the Meetup platform, you can find: a bike ride along the Rideau Canal, a jog in Gatineau Park, a meditation class, a games and business evening, a pottery workshop and of course, the activities of the Alliance Française Ottawa. We publish our cultural activities such as conferences, film clubs, Zumba classes in French and Pub Nights in French in Ottawa.

With Meetup, you can find events for the same day, the weekend, or the month. Each event listing gives you details of the event, including the organiser’s contact details, the venue and the number of people already interested. You can also be notified when events from a structure you like are posted online and reserve your place at the event. Discover Meetup now.

2/ Enjoy a unique experience and get together with Evenbrite

To find activities near you, for an evening, morning, or half-day, you can also visit the Eventbrite platform. Their mission is « to bring the world together through experiences ». On this online ticketing platform, you’ll find community, national and international events. From a neighbourhood birthday party to the festival of the year, it’s all there. Eventbrite offers city-specific experiences, and Ottawa is full of them. Each event has a detailed description, visual, date, time slot, location, and price. Some events are free. You can also find other events offered by the same organiser. With an Eventbrite account, you can follow your favourite organisers and make sure you don’t miss any of their events.

Likewise, the Alliance Française Ottawa is on Eventbrite. We offer unique cultural events such as conferences and themed workshops. Subscribe to our account to discover our cultural programming throughout the year. And for all the other events available in Ottawa, check out what Eventbrite has to offer.

3/ Participate in Alliance Française Ottawa cultural events

To find our 2023-2024 cultural agenda, you can go directly to the « Agenda » section of our website. We update this section regularly. As an Alliance Française, we are a cultural centre and offer a wide range of events in French. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced learner, we welcome you. We offer both free and paid events, with special rates for our members. These include online talk-session, pub nights in French, book clubs, « Les petits penseurs » workshops for children, and other activities such as Zumba classes in French.

The Alliance Française Ottawa events are held in Ottawa, at or near the Alliance Française. For each event, you can book your place directly on our website. You can also find each of our events on Meetup, Eventbrite and Facebook.

Every year, the Alliance Française Ottawa organises unique events such as a clean walk, a Francophonie day, and a bike ride. All our events are open to the public and our members.

4/ Discover the surrounding area thanks to Vaolo’s responsible experiences

Like the annual events offered by the Alliance Française Ottawa, another platform offers unique and responsible experiences in Ontario and Canada. This is Vaolo. Vaolo is a collaborative platform for impact-conscious travellers. Its aim is to become a global benchmark for human experience tourism with a local impact. It offers experiences that inspire change. These are collaborative experiences because they are recommended and enhanced by travellers from all over the world. Around Ottawa, you can, for example:

1️⃣   Visit the Agricola farm (Namur – 1h20)

2️⃣    Explore Lusk Cave (Wakefield – 30 min)

3️⃣    Enjoy the beaches of Petrie Island (Plantagenet – 50 min)

4️⃣    Horse riding with wood bison (Val des Lacs – 2h20)

5️⃣    Discover the Carbide-Wilson ruins (Luskvill – 37 min)

Each experience is complemented by responsible, local, and committed accommodation. You can organise your activities during the week or at the weekend, for a holiday or for the end of the day. For a responsible experience close to Ottawa, discover the activities offered by Vaolo.

5/ Take a sightseeing tour and discover Musement

Thinking about holidays often means doing some sightseeing in Ottawa. This is the last platform we’d like to introduce to you today. It’s Musement, a booking site for tourist activities such as museums and attractions. The platform is available all over the world, including in the Canadian capital. In Ottawa, you can take a guided tour of street art, hop on an amphibus to explore the capital, or enjoy a boat ride to watch the sunset over Parliament.

Each event description gives you the times available, what’s included or not in the price, the reasons for taking part in the tour and access to photos. To find out about tourist activities in Ottawa, go to musement.

With all these resources, we hope that your visit to Ottawa or your move to the capital will be festive and exciting. At the Alliance Française Ottawa, we’d be delighted to welcome you for once or all year round!