Hopefully, someone who knows Ottawa can help me with the question below. We have a possible home exchange in Ottawa for a month. Are we going to be too far away to enjoy the city? The exchangers' home is in postal code ON K2E 7B1. They tell us that it would take about 30 minutes (2 buses) to get to downtown. I just read in Rough Guide that buses are few and far between, but colduphere presents the transit situation differently. I don't mind a 30 minute bus ride, but wonder if there are places in between worth investigating and would hope that we would not always need to spend that much time on a bus. I know this is somewhat vague, but I don't know the exact neighborhood and I certainly cannot post their address. The exchangers tell us that they are about 10 minutes by bus from a shopping center where they do their food shopping. Does this provide any clues? Any help would be appreciated. If no one is still reading this thread, I will post again with a new title. Thanks everyone.

That postal code puts you about 13 km south of the city centre, in the area of the Prescott highway and Hunt Club Road. The likely bus routes are 116 to the Greensboro transitway station and 97 from there to downtown. You can get schedules at www.octranspo.com. The 116 runs about every 20 minutes during the morning and afternoon commutes and every 30 minutes in off-peak times. The 97 runs every 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the time of day. With good connections, the estimate of 30 minute travel time is about right. With a car, driving time would be about 15 minutes at off-peak times.

Unlike zip codes in the USA, postal codes in Canada tend to be very specific, usually pointing you to the exact block of the house. By plugging that postal code into Google maps, I see that the area is immediately across the river from Ottawa airport's main runway! I am really not *that* familiar with Ottawa, but I'd probably want to be a little bit closer to downtown.

Thank you, Ron and Robyn. Ron, the bus schedule does not sound terrible. I think we could handle this, but can you tell us if there are things to do close by, places to walk around, cafes to sit in or do we always need to go downtown? Neither of us like enclosed shopping malls, so the attraction of having one 10 minutes away is no big deal. I can do two shopping malls within 10 minutes of my home here in Southern California. Robyn, your advice is probably good and we may end up taking it, but when you are doing a home exchange, you don't get the same choices you do when you pick a hotel. Nevertheless, thank you both for doing some research for us. It is much appreciated!

Robyn, You are correct. The home is too close to the airport. Thanks very much for pointing this out to us!! When I reread your answer to my husband, it became clearer to both of us.We have decided to decline. Thank you again.

Annetti:

I've just read your thread and may be of some help. I live one hour outside of Ottawa near a small town called Perth. I grew up in Ottawa, my partner works in downtown Ottawa, I travel there for work and pleasure all the time and we have a bachelor apartment in the downtown area.
My partner doesn't have a car in Ottawa since he works very close to the apartment and takes the bus everywhere. He finds it no problem moving around the city on public transport but Ottawa also has a short time car sharing system called Virtu Car. It is like an hourly car rental where you pay by the hour/distance and there is a membership fee deposit that is returned when you quit. You may look into this on line to see if it is appropriate for your situation http://www.vrtucar.com/location.html and to see if there are pick up/drop off sites near wherever you end up staying.
BTW, Autumn is absolutely beautiful in my area close to Ottawa called Lanark County. It is the maple tree capital of Ontario so the colours are out of this world. The last week of September is usually the best so if you are coming for a month or so August and September would be good. September is still a nice weather month, often still in the low 20's or mid to high 10's Centigrade. Be sure to rent a car and take side trips to the Gatinteau Hills that also have breathtaking views. Small towns of interest are Wakefield, Old Chelsea, Merrickville and Perth. Thousand Islands is devinetly worth a day trip.
In Ottawa there are many Galleries, Museums, National Arts Centre. In the downtown, there are wonderful shopping areas. My favourite is The Byward Market, full of restaurants and shops as well as an open market with wonderful fresh food.

Please let me know if you have other questions.

I have never done a home exchange but am very tempted to try it. Since my home is in the country near a very pretty town and we have a small studio apt in the city do you think this is someplace that would be attractive to others trying to exchange to this area. Others please also give me your opinion.

MsLizzy, Thank you very much for your information. I hope we will be able to arrange yet an exchange to Ottawa, we seem to get so close to making an exchange and then something just doesn't work on one end or the other. Your description of the autumn colors energize me more in trying for that Ottawa home exchange.

To answer your question, the answer is a resounding, YES! You will have no difficulty arranging an exchange, especially when you describe Ottawa's pleasures so eloqently as you did above.

You and others as well, might like to visit some of the web sites that cater to home exchangers such as Homelink.org or Intervac.net, both which I have used, though there are other exchange sites out there, but these I believe have been around since the 1950s and both have visitor's guides where you can look at exchanges that are offered and get an idea of how they are done. (You, of course will not get addresses or tel nos or e-mails, but you will see pictures and get a genral idea of locations.)You might want to look at the Ottawa offers, too. Between these two sites, there are quite a lot of Ottawa home exchangers out there. Homelink if you decide to join has a discussion forum on home exchanging which I find useful and also amusing to read. Good luck.

Annetti, you're getting some wonderful advice here and I don't have too much to add. I would say that I've lived in Ottawa for 10 years and as much as I think autumn is very beautiful, with the wonderful colours as leaves turn, you might enjoy summer more.

Ottawa has some great festivals during the summer that might enhance your stay -- the Tulip Festival in early May has some interesting elements, there are several summer music festivals(blues, jazz, chamber music) and a fringe theatre festival.

I think you would want to have a car much of the time. Ottawa isn't quite busy enough to capitvate you for a month -- as others have suggested, you'll likely want to make a few visits up to Montreal (it's only a 90-minute drive or bus ride; )Kingston is lovely; you might even enjoy driving back across the border to the Adirondacks in upstate New York. Lake Placid is perhaps a two- or at most, three-hour drive from Ottawa.

I'm not sure you'll get as much use out of the transit system in Ottawa as in other cities -- it seems mostly oriented to getting downtown worker back and forth to the suburbs and for a visitor, that's not very helpful.

Best of luck planning!

Thank you, Sac. The difficult part is doing the arranging. I'm trying for that Ottawa exchange, but so far, I'm waiting for it to happen. Probably should have grabbed the two offers for 2010. Although summer is attractive and I certainly would not say, no to a summer exchange, I was hoping for autumn; my eyes and soul are starved for the autumn colors. Thanks, again. Annetti

annetti: What accommodation are you looking for in Ottawa, for autumn 2009? and what are you offering in southern CA?

By the way, sac and mslizzy: You might want to add your names to a Lounge thread I started about Ottawa-based Fodorites. Click on my name and you'll find it.

We found about a half dozen names and I was even floating the idea of a Get-together (GTG), perhaps sometime in the next little while...

Hi Tedgate: We're not fussy, or at least I don't think we are! We'd be happy with a one bedroom apt. relatively close to downtown or local sights. We only need accommodations for the two of us. We can offer a small home in Southern California.

I can ask around. If I have a lead I can post it here.

Wd be useful to have photos of your place -- You could post a link here, if you care to, or email me at:
[email protected]

Tedgale, this is incredibly generous and kind of you, but I will continue to try my luck with the internet home exchange sites. Thanks very much!

annetti: Just for fun and as an additional enticement to visit, here are some shots of Autumn colours in the Ottawa Valley -- at and around our lakeside property, on little-known Lake Constan, near Eganville:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...;id=1126123095

And some striking weather over a single late-September weekend at the lake:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...;id=1126123095

Tedgale: Those pictures are absolutely beautiful. That's not fair, showing me all these lovely photos when I don't have an exchange to Ottawa! Seriously, I enjoyed them very much; the colors are wonderful.

Coincidentally, I received a Christmas card last week from a couple we exchanged with in Scotland several years back
and they have arranged an exchange to Ottawa and Kansas. An odd juxtaposition. Perhaps, I did not have enough foresight and I should have jumped on those 2010 Ottawa exchanges I was offered, but I keep hoping something will pop up for this year.

Enjoy the holiday season and thank you for those wonderful pictures!

If you are up to a home exchange, I would not recommend Ottawa. Choose a more exciting destination! Ottawa is boring, boring and boring one more time! You can see the town in one day, couple of museums in town are very provincial and don't have good exhibitions (except for the Museum of Civilization, where you can spend that one day).

Shopping in Ottawa is not really good, compared to Montreal or United States. Prices are high, because Ottawa is a small town.

There is downtown area with an old looking Parliament Hill, but it's just a fake old look, it was not build that long ago. If you go further from downtown in Ontario, there are regular residential areas like everywhere else in North America, just houses, that's all. Anyone who is interestd in history, would not even think of going to ottawa. On Quebec side though the nature is quite nice. But taking a home exachange just for some hills?

Why don't you find some home exchange in Montreal area? It'sore history and for sure more culture.

annetti, I already have someone from Belgium interested in a swap for 2010 but I told them we need to reconfirm next September. I just do one year at a time because, as I said, planning more than a year in advance for me just has not worked. This year it is just Finland. I was thinking of stopping in St. Petersburg before going home, but I am leaning toward going to Stockholm. I haven't been to Stockholm and I have been to St. Petersburg before.

Lauren, Enjoy your trip to Finland. We are concentrating on North America for home exchanges this year. Just tired of the long flights from California to Europe. We have a couple trips to Victoria and SF planned, but are hoping for the impossible, NYC! We have a 2010 European home exchange arranged; we will see how that works out next year when we begin e-mailing again our German counterparts. Annetti

The link to intervac.net comes up with a company selling vacuum cleaners. Any possibility of a spelling error?

And thanks for the links, annetti