Day Trip to Gatineau, Quebec

Last month, a friend and I visited Ottawa, Ontario.  Since we were staying at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown, it was not too far from Gatineau, Quebec.  We dedicated one of our full days to visit Gatineau which is another city in another province.

Getting There

From our hotel, it was only a 15 minute walk/stroll to get to Gatineau.  We only had to cross a short bridge that separated the 2 cities.  It was so easy and convenient that we didn’t need to rent a car or take transit to go on our day trip.

a short bridge separates downtown Ottawa and Gatineau

Our first thing we wanted to do was visit the Canadian Museum of History.  We did however explored the pathway around the Ottawa River before heading inside the museum.

pathway on Ottawa River

Canadian Museum of History

there is a free companion ticket with Access 2 card

The Canadian Museum of History was established in 1856 in Montreal.  It has since moved to downtown Ottawa and then in 1989 it moved to its permanent location in Gatineau.  The museum is in a building that is 810,000 sq ft and has a collection of over 3 million artifacts and documents.

I really enjoyed the Canadian Stamp Collection

Once we entered the museum, we went to the box office to get tickets.  I previously looked online and knew they offer guests with disabilities who buy a ticket a free companion ticket with the Access 2 Card.  This card is accepted at over 500 venues across Canada and has to be registered beforehand.  So we only pay the 1 Adult ticket price of $23 plus tax.

totem poles in the Grand Hall

There are 4 floors to this massive museum and we decided to stay on floor 1 and start with the Canadian Stamp Collection.  As soon as we entered this room, I immediately recognized this gallery being on Amazing Race Canada.

painting of early Ottawa

We managed to stay at the museum over 3.5 hours as we checked out every floor.  It was easy to maneuver around as the museum was very specious and modern.  The elevators were large and they did have private accessible bathrooms and water refill stations located throughout.

history of the Canadian flag

There really was a lot to see and my favorites include the Exhibitions in the Grand Hall.  It was cool to see the giant totem poles.  Also, St. Onuphrius Church was really neat to see.  We rushed a bit at the end as we were getting hungry.

St. Onuphrius Church

St Hubert

Just a 10 minute walk/stroll from the museum was a popular chicken restaurant in Quebec called St. Hubert.  I last ate at this restaurant 12 years ago in Quebec City.  I was really excited to finally be at this place again.

love St. Hubert restaurants

I had the double leg rotisserie chicken with fries and double the St Hubert sauce.  After our meal, it was a about a half hour walk/stroll back to our hotel in downtown Ottawa.

double leg rotisserie chicken with fries and double the St Hubert sauce

Final Thoughts

Our day trip to Gatineau was fun and easy to do.  It was so close to downtown Ottawa that going back and forth between these 2 cities is not a hassle at all.  We got to see a really great huge museum and ate at a Quebec favorite restaurant.  I would definitely revisit Gatineau to explore more of this little city.