Published on Jun, 2024
Very interesting and informative tour. The tour narrator, Andie, was a ray of bilingual sunshine on a bleak and rainy day. All the narration was in English and French. Luckily the weather was fairly calm and warm, though passing showers forced us away from the more open parts of the deck seats at times. There were still good views and dry, covered, seating on both decks.
Get tickets online if possible. There’s a kiosk for both the river tour and the Rideau Canal tour at street level by the war memorial, but it might be closed if you arrive too close to a tour time. The attendant doubles as the ticket taker at the river boat. Tickets could not be purchased on the boat by latecomers, like ourselves.
Though maps may indicate a road going down to the boat dock, it’s closed to traffic for various reasons. It’s a pretty good walk down to the river level from the kiosk, with a drop of close to a hundred feet as it passes alongside the Rideau locks. Kids will enjoy sprinting downhill to the boat, but the parents might find themselves puffing on the way back uphill to the road level after the tour. It was interesting watching pleasure craft being locked up and down to and from the Rideau Canal during the walk to the river level.
The tour itself lasts about an hour and a half and goes past embassies, government buildings, various sights across the confluence of several rivers and close to the Rideau Falls. Even during showers the cruise was calm and smooth. One can take both tours, time, weather and energy permitting. We just did the river tour and had a good time.