Can You Do A Day Tour To Ottawa From Montreal?
Yes, a guided Ottawa day tour from Montreal exists. Here is what the 12-hour trip costs, includes and leaves out, and how it compares with other day trips.
Yes. One guided coach tour from Montreal covers Ottawa in a single day: the Ottawa City One Day Tour, run by Concord Tours and Travel, which lasts 12 hours, costs from $71.66 per person, and runs roundtrip from 99 Avenue Viger Ouest in Montreal from about 7:00 am to about 7:00 pm. It has only 12 reviews so far, so the review pool is still small.
That is the short version. Ottawa sits across the provincial border in Ontario, and it is a long day by any measure: the tour runs roughly twelve hours door to door, from an early morning departure to an evening return. What you get for the price is roundtrip transportation, an English or French speaking guide, and gratuities already covered. What you do not get is equally worth knowing before you book: meals are not included, and admission to Parliament Hill attractions and ByWard Market is not included either, so budget and plan for those separately.
The tour is one of four guided day trips from Montreal in the more day trips category covered on this site, alongside Quebec City, Mont-Tremblant and the Eastern Townships. Each of those four answers a different question about what a day out of the city should feel like, and Ottawa answers the capital question: government buildings, a national institution or two, and ByWard Market. If you are still weighing which long day out suits you, the day tours from Montreal compared guide puts all four side by side.
A word on who this suits. The format works best for a traveller with limited time in Montreal who wants to add Ottawa without a hotel change, an overnight booking or a rental car. It works less well for anyone who dislikes coaches, early alarms or fixed schedules, and the honest version of this page acknowledges both.
What Does The Ottawa Day Tour From Montreal Include?
The included list is short and clear: roundtrip transportation from Montreal to Ottawa running about 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, an English or French speaking guide, and gratuities. Meals, travel insurance and optional activity tickets are not included, and Parliament Hill and ByWard Market admission are not included. Free cancellation for a full refund up to 24 hours before the start is stated.
The price is a transport-and-guide price. You are buying the coach seat, the driver, the commentary and the reassurance of a fixed plan in a city most Montreal visitors have never navigated. Food is on you: the tour does not include meals, so plan for lunch in Ottawa, and ByWard Market is the obvious place to find it once you are there.
- Old Montreal And City Walks$25.33
- Sightseeing And Night Tours$25.33
- River Cruises And Rapids$28.95
- Quebec City Day Trips$45
- Bike Tours$64.02
- More Day Trips From Montreal$71.66
- Food Tours$86.86
Optional tickets are excluded too. Parliament Hill and ByWard Market admission are not included, along with optional activities generally. That matters more for Parliament than for the market, and the next section explains why.
Gratuities being included is a small but real convenience. On many Montreal tours tipping the guide is customary and optional, which leaves a small decision at the end of the day; here the operator states it is already in the price, so the arithmetic you do at booking is closer to the arithmetic you do on the day.
One policy is worth holding onto: if the operator cancels for poor weather, the operator says you are offered another date or a full refund. Combined with the stated free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start, you are not locked in if plans shift. Read both together and the booking risk sits mostly on things outside the operator's control, such as your own schedule changing inside that final 24-hour window.
How Much Does The Ottawa Day Tour Cost?
The Ottawa City One Day Tour costs from $71.66 per person. For that you get 12 hours of roundtrip transport and a guide, with gratuities included, while meals and admission tickets are extra. By comparison, the Mont-Tremblant day trip is also from $71.66 and the Eastern Townships day trip from $180.96, so Ottawa sits at the accessible end of the day trip range from Montreal.
Twelve hours sounds like a lot, and it is, but the format is standard for this category: the Quebec City day trips from Montreal run 13 to 14 hours, the Tremblant trip 8 hours 30 minutes, and the Eastern Townships trip 9 hours. Ottawa is a long day because the distance is a long day, not because the operator pads the schedule. Treat it as a full commitment: leave the evening free and do not plan an early start the next morning.
A word on the rating. The tour has 12 reviews, which is a small pool. Treat the review count as an early signal rather than a verdict. Other Montreal day trips on this site carry hundreds or thousands of reviews, and this one simply has not been running long enough in front of that audience to build one.
Where Does The Ottawa Tour Start In Montreal?
The tour meets at 99 Avenue Viger Ouest in Montreal, with a 7:00 am start and a return around 7:00 pm. Hotel pickup is not stated for this tour, so the practical plan is to make your own way to the meeting point before seven in the morning. The full roundtrip runs roughly twelve hours from that start.
An early start in downtown Montreal is easy to reach by metro or a short taxi, but it is still an early start. Set an alarm with margin: the departure window is tight and the coach will not wait. Viger Ouest sits at the eastern edge of downtown, close to the convention centre and the Old Montreal boundary, so most central hotels are a modest fare away.
The same address serves the other Concord day trips from Montreal, including the Quebec City and Mont-Tremblant tours, which is handy if you are stacking more than one long day out on the same trip. Learn the meeting point once and you have learned it for three tours. The guide to the Quebec City day trip covers that route in detail if you want to compare the two itineraries.
What Do You See In Ottawa On The Tour?
The headline sights on the itinerary are Parliament Hill and ByWard Market, both listed with admission not included. Parliament itself offers guided tours of the Senate of Canada Building and the House of Commons at West Block, booked through the Parliament of Canada site, and government photo ID is required for the House of Commons at West Block. Book ahead rather than counting on the day.
This is the one part of the trip where a small amount of homework pays for itself many times over. The Parliament of Canada runs guided tours of the Senate of Canada Building and the House of Commons at West Block, and you book those through the official Parliament site at visit.parl.ca. Bring government photo ID, because it is required for the House of Commons at West Block. None of that is arranged by the Montreal tour operator, and Parliament Hill admission is not included, so a traveller who arrives without a booking may see the buildings from the outside only.
ByWard Market needs no ticket at all. It is a market district, and the cost is whatever you choose to spend on lunch or souvenirs, which works well given that meals are not included on the tour. Between Parliament Hill and the market you cover the two anchors of central Ottawa on foot.
The rest of the day is shaped by the guide. With an English or French speaking guide on board, you get commentary on the way out and back, which on a route of this length is a genuine part of the product rather than a bonus. Hours in a coach seat pass differently when someone is explaining what you are driving past.
How Does Ottawa Compare With Other Day Trips From Montreal?
Ottawa is one of four guided day trips from Montreal covered here: Quebec City at 13 to 14 hours from $45, Mont-Tremblant at 8 hours 30 minutes from $71.66, the Eastern Townships at 9 hours from $180.96, and Ottawa itself at 12 hours from $71.66. Ottawa is the longest after Quebec City and matches Tremblant on price, while the Eastern Townships trip is the only one of the three alternatives with hotel pickup stated.
The comparison comes down to what kind of day you want. Quebec City delivers a UNESCO-listed historic district and a waterfall; the Mont-Tremblant day trip delivers a mountain resort village in a shorter day; the Eastern Townships delivers countryside and small towns in a small group of at most 12; Ottawa delivers the national capital, Parliament Hill and a market in a day built around the buildings of state.
| Day trip | Duration | From price per person | Rating and reviews | Hotel pickup | Group max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa City One Day Tour | 12 hours | $71.66 | 12 reviews | Not stated | 50 |
| Mont Tremblant one day trip | 8 hours 30 minutes | $71.66 | 4.2 from 21 reviews | Not stated | 55 |
| Day trip to Eastern Townships | 9 hours | $180.96 | 4.8 from 31 reviews | Stated yes | 12 |
| Quebec City & Montmorency Falls Full Day Trip | 13 hours | $83.24 | 4.5 from 355 reviews | Not stated | 50 |
Two of these tours, Tremblant and the Eastern Townships trip, appear in the selection at the end of this page alongside the Ottawa tour itself. The Eastern Townships trip visits a region that calls itself the first wine region of Quebec, with the Route des vins de Brome-Missisquoi and the Route des vins de l'Estrie mapped on the region's own tourism site, though the tour itself is a general sightseeing day trip rather than a wine-tasting tour.
Group size is another quiet differentiator. The Ottawa coach caps at 50 guests and the Tremblant coach at 55, while the Eastern Townships trip caps at 12 in a comfortable air-conditioned vehicle. If a small-group day matters to you, that column alone may decide the question before price does.
Should You Book The Guided Tour Or Go Independently?
The guided tour makes sense if you want Ottawa handled for you: one booking, one departure point, a guide and gratuities included, from $71.66 per person. Going independently gives you control of the clock and the itinerary, but you arrange your own transport, your own navigation and your own timing in a 12-hour day, and you still need to book Parliament tours yourself either way.
The strongest argument for the coach is the shape of the day. Ottawa from Montreal is a roundtrip built around fixed departure times, and the tour absorbs that logistics burden. The strongest argument against is flexibility: independent travel lets you linger at the National Gallery, skip the market or leave later, none of which a fixed coach day allows.
Note what the comparison does not change. Parliament tours are booked through the Parliament site whether you ride the coach or drive yourself, and the market costs nothing to enter either way. What the tour price buys is the travel and the guidance, nothing more, and the operator is explicit that meals and admission are extra.
For travellers who prefer their day trips smaller and quieter, the Eastern Townships trip runs with a maximum of 12 guests, against a cap of 50 on the Ottawa coach. For travellers who want the shortest possible day, Tremblant at 8 hours 30 minutes is the quickest return to Montreal of the four. And for anyone who wants the deepest historical payoff, the Quebec City options carry Old Quebec's UNESCO listing, held since 1985, on the far side of the longest coach day in the set.
What Should You Bring And Budget For The Day?
Bring photo ID if you plan to tour Parliament, money for lunch at ByWard Market, and whatever you need for a 12-hour day out of Montreal. The tour includes transport, guide and gratuities from $71.66 per person; add meals, any optional tickets, and travel insurance, none of which is included. Dress for the season in general terms: cold snowy winters, warm humid summers.
The ID point deserves repeating because it is the one thing that can quietly sink the best part of the day. Government photo ID is required for the House of Commons at West Block, and without it that portion of the Parliament visit is off the table. Everything else on the day is ordinary day-trip kit: comfortable shoes, a layer for the coach, and cash or card for lunch.
Budget-wise, keep the additions concrete. Lunch at ByWard Market, any optional activity tickets you choose in Ottawa, and travel insurance if you carry it. The tour price already covers gratuities, which is one line item you can cross off; tipping guides on other Montreal tours is customary and optional, but here it is stated as included.
Weather policy is fair: if the operator cancels for poor weather, you are offered another date or a full refund, and free cancellation for a full refund up to 24 hours before the start is shown at checkout. Check the dates and availability on the Ottawa City One Day Tour page before locking in the rest of your Montreal plans.
Is The Ottawa Day Tour Worth It From Montreal?
For a first visit to Canada's capital squeezed into one day, the tour is a reasonable buy at from $71.66 with transport, guide and gratuities included. With only 12 reviews, weigh the feedback lightly. It suits travellers who value a fixed plan over flexibility, and who accept a 12-hour day as the price of seeing Ottawa without an overnight stay.
Honest framing matters with a review pool this small. Twelve reviews can flag a strong start, but they cannot tell you much about consistency over a season. The structural facts carry more weight here: a 12-hour roundtrip from a single downtown Montreal address, an included guide in English or French, and clear exclusions that let you budget properly before you leave.
If Ottawa is your priority, book it and book Parliament ahead. If a long coach day feels heavy, the Tremblant trip is a shorter day, 8 hours 30 minutes against 12, at the same from-price, and Mont-Tremblant itself is adding a Versant Soleil expansion from winter 2026/27 according to the resort's own site. Either way, decide early: these coach tours run from one departure point at one morning hour, and late planning is how the day gets away from you.
Planning several days out of the city in one trip rewards a little sequencing, and Montreal Canada Tours keeps the full set of guided options in one place, from Old Montreal walks to the long coach days. Whichever you pick, the pattern is the same: know the meeting point, know what is excluded, and book the things that need booking before the coach pulls out.
Common Questions About Ottawa Day Tours From Montreal
Can You Do A Day Tour To Ottawa From Montreal?
Yes. The Ottawa City One Day Tour is a guided 12-hour roundtrip from Montreal, departing 99 Avenue Viger Ouest at about 7:00 am and returning about 7:00 pm, from $71.66 per person with a guide and gratuities included.
How Much Does The Ottawa Day Tour From Montreal Cost?
From $71.66 per person. That covers roundtrip transport, an English or French speaking guide and gratuities. Meals, travel insurance and admission to Parliament Hill attractions and ByWard Market are not included.
Where Does The Ottawa Tour Leave From In Montreal?
It meets at 99 Avenue Viger Ouest, with a 7:00 am start. Hotel pickup is not stated for this tour, so plan to make your own way to the meeting point before departure.
Is Parliament Hill Included In The Ottawa Day Tour?
No. Parliament Hill and ByWard Market admission are not included. The Parliament of Canada runs guided tours of the Senate of Canada Building and the House of Commons at West Block, booked through the Parliament site, and government photo ID is required for West Block.
Can I Cancel The Ottawa Day Tour If My Plans Change?
The operator states free cancellation for a full refund up to 24 hours before the start, and if the operator cancels for poor weather you are offered another date or a full refund.
Is The Ottawa Day Tour Well Reviewed?
Too early to say. It has only 12 reviews, so the pool is too small to treat as a settled verdict. The tour's structure, price and inclusions are the more reliable basis for deciding.
