Canadian Museum of History (Canadian Children's Museum included)

Fascinating museum about the first inhabitants and the history of Canada. Remarkable scenography.

We walked over the bridge to visit this site- worth a stop for the setting and architecture alone! We spent about 3 hours exploring the collections in this comprehensive museum, spending more time on topics that interested us and moving through others. Ended with some seltzers from the panorama cafe - great views but I would eat elsewhere. Uncrowded, well curated and well worth a visit.

Then this museum is for you…explains Canadian history from Indigenous People through today. Does it present the complete, unedited history? Probably not but it was refreshing to see a museum that doesn’t hide all the warts of a country’s history. One suggestion: Allow a lot of time. It’s a big museum with lots to see and read.

Enormous. You definitely need more than one day to do it properly. We parked at the museum and did the bottom floor (the First Nations floor). It is very well done...though overrun with school groups. The totem poles are amazing, I love the fake house fronts. Very well done. We then took a break, walked across the river to check out Rideau Canal + Parliament Hill and get lunch. Then walked back and did the 2nd floor. Kind of weird that the 2nd floor starts again with pre-European cultures. I thought that was pretty well-covered on the 1st floor. So it felt repetitive and the information was related in a more boring way. We never made it to the 3rd or 4th floors because our brains were full. Parking is very easy. So convenient that we could also walk across the bridge to see some of Ottawa.

We arrived just after 10 am and found out there was a special virtual reality event about Napoleon. You put on your headset and for approximately 30 minutes you are imbedded into his world! It was fantastic. After that we started to explore all the floors and at 4:30pm we were done - 6.5 hours and we enjoyed every minute. The Panorama Cafe was okay but I believe it could have been better.

We had what turned out to be a personal guided tour with Ralph after some confusion about our booking that we had made in January from UK. It turned out to be a very full and frank overview of the museum. We then went around on our own. The Residential Schools section on the third floor was extremely harrowing but important to remember and learn from. We needed a break so went for a coffee in the cafe, a mistake! Big queues, noisy with school parties and the coffee was awful. There’s a bagel place across the road, we should have gone there instead. Overall an excellent museum, beautifully designed and a very thought provoking experience.

It really was an amazing place. We spent 4 hours but if you wanted to take your time and add in movies shown there, You could have stayed longer easily. As many have said it is well laid out. Impressive displays and building. Very quiet when we went mid- April in the morning. Only small issue was cafeteria, though it has great views the food is average. Highly recommended to visit the Canadian Museum of History.

I enjoyed the visit, the First Nations part highlights the identity of each of these peoples. The French and English periods laid the foundations for the new nation. Very interesting.

Note to self…,. I’ve been to this Museum more than 20 times over the years with my children, now with grandchildren. On Sunday March 15/26 there was an unbelievable amount of people at the kids museum. Mostly kids 2 and under, I asked a staff member what’s the limit of people he said 300. I told him no way is there 300 people here, maybe 300 kids + their family does not equal 300! The amount of babies toddlers was incredible. Daycare’s separate the under 2’s for good reason, it’s a disaster waiting to happen, they can easily get injured. You can’t rely on parents constantly supervising, they want their kids to explore and runaround. And believe me the amount of under 2 year olds having to doge out of their as they were unstable. The older kids 5-6 year olds you had to be in their backs constantly to watch out for the little ones. Never ever again will I go in a Sunday morning at $89 for 4 it was a stressful time and not worth the money. Every room with activities were extremely packed. You need separate times for the under 2’s, otherwise it’s an accident waiting to happen.

Visited twice before but this but the first time in 20 years. Things have noticeably changed. Great First Nations representation but it is excessive. One of the past highlights was the hockey display eg Canada - Russia series it was gone! Little or nothing on the industry and the people who work in them in different regions of our fabulous country eg grain farming in the West and fisheries in the East. Big emphasis on Ontario and Quebec but even then it didn't hit points it could have . No doubt determining the content of the museum is a challenging task but look at how much space is used for what purpose and I think you will see what I mean. The fact that this institution is buried well under other Ottawa attractions in Trip Advisor helps to prove my point .