If you’re interested in exploring Ottawa, the Outaouais, Eastern Ontario, and Montreal and its environs—on a day trip, a weekend getaway or a longer vacation—you’ve come to the right place!
Who writes the Ottawa Road Trips Substack?
My name is Laura Byrne Paquet. I’m a journalist, author, blogger, amateur photographer, wife, mom, tea drinker, trivia fan, language learner, keen walker, lazy cyclist, beginner birder, Britbox binger and laid-back knitter. Plus, I almost always brake for bakeries.
I live in Ottawa, and for more than 30 years, I’ve been writing extensively about Ottawa and its surroundings—three guidebooks, a comprehensive website, and more magazine, newspaper and online articles than I can count.
In the process, I’ve logged tens of thousands of kilometres by car, bus, train and bike, as well as on foot. Along the way, I’ve hiked the trails, slept in the beds, enjoyed the festivals, snuggled the alpacas and eaten the ice cream. (Hey, it’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.)
Along the way, I’ve also developed a deep understanding of what local travellers want. Most importantly, I know that your free time and your budget have limits. My job is to help you make the most of both.
My Substack points you to cool bistros, quiet beaches, quirky shops, exhilarating skate trails, gorgeous inns, sorta-secret ruins and So. Much. More.
What region does Ottawa Road Trips cover?
The region I cover is huge, so there’s never any shortage of material. The shaded area below will help you visualize the places I write about most often.
However, this map doesn’t tell the whole story!
My main focus is places within a two-hour drive of Ottawa—as far as Kingston to the southwest, Deep River to the northwest, Maniwaki to the north, Mont-Tremblant to the northeast and Montreal to the east.
As the shaded area of the map shows, I do occasionally range a bit further than that, to places such as Prince Edward County, Peterborough and Granby.
To put that into context: The shaded area of the map is roughly the size of Portugal.
BUT I sometimes write about places outside the shaded area, too—Trois-Rivières, Quebec City, Toronto, Niagara Falls and beyond. Basically, if it’s somewhere that Ottawans are likely to travel by car, bus or train, I try to cover it at least once in a while.
“I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your e-mails. I may not get to all the fabulous suggestions you make, but your sense of humour and light-hearted nature shines through the words and makes even the reading of them fun!
“I look forward to every missive.”
—Lisa S., subscriber
What do you get by subscribing?
Free subscription
If you take out a free subscription, you’ll receive a weekly newsletter. Each week, it’s packed with tips on upcoming events, travel discounts, scenic drives and more.
You’ll also get access to occasional public posts.
The newsletter and the public posts are generally free for a month after publication; then, they go into an archive. Once that happens, they’re only available to paid subscribers.
Paid subscription
A paid subscription—available for as little as $5 a month—gives you the newsletter and the public posts, of course.
It also gives you access to the full archive of everything I’ve published on the Ottawa Road Trips Substack.
You’ll also receive deep dive posts, where I cover a destination or topic in much more detail than in my public posts. If you’re looking for inspiration for a multi-day trip, you won’t want to miss those.
I also offer group video chats for paid subscribers, where you can ask me all your burning road trip questions. 😊
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