Taxi should be between $20 and $25. City bus is $2.50 cash or $1.70 using tickets and takes 25 minutes.

Will you be in Ottawa December 12-22 ?

If so visit the excellent Ottawa Christmas Craft Fair at Lansdowne Park. The work of the craftsmen and craftswomen chosen to participate is very high quality.

Landsdowne Park is about 15 minutes bus ride South of Parliament Hill on Bank Street. Don't worry, the Fair is indoors !

Exiting Landsdowne Park onto Bank, turn North and walk about a block or two.

Stop at Mexicali Rosa's for lunch if you have any room after sampling the home-made goodies at the Craft Fair !

For the next 6 blocks, both sides of the street are crammed with small, non-mall, shops of all kinds (clothes, curios, kitchenware, gardening, books, toys). This area of Ottawa is called 'the Glebe'.

Alternately, go to the Byward Market about 5 minutes walk east of Parliament Hill and North of Rideau Street.

There you will find an array of fine food stores, outdoor market stalls, neat kitsch (at Zone, Folio), avant garde and couturier clothing, high end bookstores (Nicolas Hoare), furniture and decoration items (e.g. Bali), shops specializing in goods from countries around the world and much much more.

One of my favourites is the Afghan store on Dalhousie St. They have camel saddle bags (they make excellent large cushion covers) and good deals on lapis lazuli.

Have lunch at Domus, Clair de lune, or any of the other good restaurants in the area.

Hope this helps !

Laurel, Not sure when ur planning on coming but there's a cab strike on in Ottawa.

I'm not sure when it will end..