June 17 news: Free VIA tickets and great summer patios
Also, Summer Solstice, hotel discounts and free Parks Canada admissions
Free VIA Rail tickets for kids and free Parks Canada admissions for everyone. Discounts at Germain Hotels and Parc Oméga. Dragon boat and jazz festivals in Ottawa. Outaouais en fête in Aylmer. Two porchfests, a book fair and a beer festival. And the chance to win a trip to Paris! It’s all in this week’s newsletter.
Calendar of events: Summer Solstice, jazz fest, garden tours
My calendar of events is once again bursting at the seams: jazz and electronic music festivals, a night market and a country fair, a faerie picnic and a classic car show, dragon boats, comedy, art and dancing classes, a super-sized Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival, two porchfests of free music, a book fair, a beer festival, two garden tours and more!
This week's featured contest
The prize in this Park’N Fly contest is a seven-night trip for two to Paris, including Air Transat flights (from Toronto or Montreal), accommodations and airport parking. Open to Canadian residents of legal age, with some restrictions. Enter by July 25, 2025.
Plan ahead to visit artists’ studios
If you’d like to spend a summer afternoon meandering from one artist’s studio to another, now is the time to plan. You could even organize a whole weekend getaway around some of the more extensive studio tours, which often feature dozens of artists.
I’ve just updated my list of more than 25 studio tours in Ontario and Quebec within four hours’ drive of Ottawa (most of them are much closer). The Rideau Lakes Studio Tour is coming up quickly, at the end of June!
Heads Up: Free park admissions, free VIA tickets, pretty restaurant patios
Big news this week if you like to save money (and who doesn’t, right?). The federal government has just announced a flurry of discounts and free admissions—including FREE admission to Parks Canada parks and FREE tickets on VIA Rail for kids 17 and under. Check this week’s Heads Up post to learn more about those discounts, as well as an up to 20 percent discount at Germain Hotels across Canada and 25 percent off a new nighttime attraction at Parc Oméga in Montebello. Plus, I have links to two useful lists of lovely Ottawa restaurant patios (including the one at Working Title Kitchen, pictured above) and a few other timely tips.
Looking for even more road trip inspiration?
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And before I sign off for this week
It’s prime time to check out some of the region’s many farmers’ markets (I recently added the Greely Good Market to the list).
Trying to find something from an earlier newsletter? You can read previous issues of on the Ottawa Road Trips Substack page.
And if you’d like to read about my recent trip to Saskatchewan, I’ve written 5 Things You Need to Know About Saskatoon for PerceptiveTravel.com.
That's it from me for now. I'll be back in your in-box next week with more road tripping ideas!
As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.