Best History Walking Tours in Ottawa (2026)

Roamer has 2 self-guided history walking tours in Ottawa. Every one is free to start, so you can preview roughly the first 30% before you pay. They run from about 90 to 95 minutes and 2 to 3.5 km on foot, with GPS-triggered narration you control at your own pace.

History walking tours in Ottawa

Tour	Length	Distance	Stops
Lower Town and ByWard: The City Beneath the Capital	90 min	2 km	8
Sandy Hill and Sussex Drive: The Empty House	95 min	3.5 km	7

What each tour covers

• Lower Town and ByWard: The City Beneath the Capital: Ottawa was built as two cities glued together. Upper Town on the bluff for the officer class. Lower Town on the riverbank for the French and Irish Catholic workers who built the canal. Two hundred years later the class line in the street grid is still legible, and this corridor walks it stop by stop.
• Sandy Hill and Sussex Drive: The Empty House: Three official residences within three kilometres of each other. One open as a museum because its owner has been dead for three quarters of a century. One empty and gutted because its institution has not decided what to do with it. One continuously occupied for one hundred and sixty-one years because the institution it represents still works. The corridor is the institutional record.

How much do these tours cost?

Every history tour in Ottawa is free to preview. A single tour is $4.99 for lifetime access, and a 30-day pass covering every Roamer tour is $19.99. There is no group, no start time, and no tip.

Related walking tour guides

History walking tours in other cities: Avignon, Banff, Belgrade, Boston, Chicago, Cusco, Florence, Guatemala City, Hiroshima, London, Lyon, Mexico City.

See all Ottawa walking tours or by theme: Architecture.

Keep exploring Ottawa

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