ByWard Market
Explore the city’s biggest market, which is full of life day and night. It features Canada’s oldest farmers’ market with stalls selling fresh produce, cheeses, and bread. You’ll find arts and crafts stalls, boutiques, galleries, and restaurants here too. You can also taste a favorite local treat, a deep-fried pastry covered in sweet toppings like sugar and cinnamon. Live music and street performers often appear at the market.
Parliament Hill
The imposing Parliament Hill rises above the city, topped by the Gothic Revival buildings of Canada’s government. You can take a guided visit inside, but there’s much to enjoy outside as well. Every morning in summer, you can see the changing of the guards ceremony, and then in the evening, return to see the striking Sound and Light multimedia show projected on the buildings.
National Gallery of Canada
The art starts even before you even go inside, thanks to the spectacular prism-like glass towers of this ultra-modern building. Once inside, you can browse around one of the largest art museums in North America, with galleries displaying Indigenous and Canadian art, photography, sound sculptures, as well as many temporary exhibitions throughout the year. You can enter for free every Thursday night from 5 until 8.