Ottawa-Rideau

Ottawa and the Rideau Lakes are located around the Rideau Canal and Rideau River in Eastern Ontario, Canada. This subregion includes much of Lanark County, the northern portion of Leeds-Grenville and Ontario's portion of the National Capital Region.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC0.

Essential Destinations

Top destinations include Ottawa and Perth.

Ottawa

Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ottawa is Canada's capital. With over a million citizens, it is Canada's fourth-largest city, and Ontario's second-largest city. Across the Ottawa River is Gatineau, Quebec.

Perth

Photo: Kenn Chaplin, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Perth is a small, historic town in eastern Ontario, Canada, home to around 6,500 people.

Carleton Place

Photo: Shawn Kent, CC BY 2.0.

Carleton Place is a town of about 13,000 people in Lanark County, midway between Smiths Falls and Ottawa. It is just outside of the Ottawa municipal boundary, and has become a suburb of that city.

Destinations to Discover

Explore places such as Smiths Falls and Merrickville.

Smiths Falls

Photo: P199, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Smiths Falls is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada, 78 kilometres southwest of Ottawa. As of the 2021 census it has a population of 9,254. It is in the Census division for Lanark County, but is administratively separated from the county.

Merrickville

Photo: Kenn Chaplin, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Merrickville is a village of 1200 people on the Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario. It is a village of picturesque Victorian-era stone houses and modestly claims to be Canada’s prettiest village, a claim not without merit.

Westport

Photo: P199, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Westport is a tranquil village of 700 people in the Rideau Lakes at the west end of Upper Rideau Lake, the head of navigation for the Rideau Canal system.

Kanata

Kanata is a non-descript suburb of Ottawa with a population of about 137,000 that is separated from the rest of the city by a greenbelt. It is the home of Ottawa's National Hockey League team, the Senators.