Doors Open

One of Ottawa’s favourite rites of spring.
Every year, Doors Open Ottawa gets bigger and better. It is an opportunity to discover:
— institutions
— historically significant buildings
— museums
— government facilities
— embassies
— fascinating properties
— science labs
— places of worship
that:
a) are not usually open to the public
b) would normally charge an entrance fee.
As Doors Open Ottawa gets bigger, it seems the participants are putting more and more effort into their free offerings.
Last year, the City created a mobile guide for ‘Doors Open Ottawa’ for iphone/​ipad, Android and Blackberry.
The spring celebration grants two days of free access to over 100 of a diverse selection of the National Capital’s buildings, many of which are not normally open to the public.

Super cool experience. We were fortunate to be in town for this annual event. Free entrance to a bunch of museums and historical houses and churches! Make sure to check their website before you go out next year to check which places are involved and what their hours are (not all are from 10 – 4 Saturday and Sunday).

Doors Open is a annual event that is marked across Ontario. In Ottawa the event takes place the first weekend of June. Here is a snippet from the website
«communities throughout Ontario will once again open the doors to hundreds of fascinating heritage sites — including commercial buildings, courthouses, theatres, museums, places of worship, gardens and natural heritage sites. What makes this eagerly awaited province-​wide program so attractive is the fact that many of the participating sites are normally closed to the public and admission is free.»
This year I got to see a bunch of cool buildings and museums for free on top of getting a very nice tour of the US Embassy. If you get a chance to check out this event I suggest you check out the Ottawa web page next year to see what buildings are open to the public. This year they had 128!!!
The Château Laurier had people dressed up in late 1800s to early 1900s clothing giving tours. It was pretty awesome. I can’t wait to check out more sites next year!