National Capital Region (Canada)

It has two parts:

• the area around Ottawa in Eastern Ontario
• the area around Gatineau in the Outaouais region of Quebec

The two cities are on mostly flat land along the river. Many of the region's recreational areas — ski resorts, lakes, hiking or biking trails in summer and cross-country ski trails in winter — are in the Gatineau Hills on the Quebec side.

• Gatineau Park
• Wakefield is a charming village with many restaurants and other tourist facilities.

On the Ontario side are the Rideau Canal and the resort village (skiing in winter, a lake for the summer) of Calabogie.

This is not a separately administered capital region like the US District of Columbia or the Australian Capital Territory. There has been some discussion of giving it that status, but it has not gone anywhere yet and seems unlikely to do so. The two parts are administered separately by their respective municipal and provincial governments.
Federal government buildings pay no municipal taxes, but the federally-funded National Capital Commission (NCC) maintains some of the roads, parks and buildings.

Most people will arrive via Ottawa but there is also a good highway (A50) to Montreal running along the Quebec side of the river. There is a bridge across the Ottawa between Hawkesbury and Grenville, so it is possible to switch between Quebec A 50 and Ontario 417 about halfway between Ottawa and Montreal.

The municipal bus systems of both Ottawa and Gatineau have a few bus routes which go into the other city. All the Gatineau buses that cross the river run along Rideau Street on the Ottawa side and can be caught near the Rideau Centre shopping mall.
For drivers, there are three bridges connecting the two cities, though as of May 2019 one has been shut down due the spring flooding and is expected to remain closed all summer. Traffic on the bridges can be dreadful, especially at rush hours since many people live on one side of the river and work on the other.

As the capital, the region has many museums. Most are in Ottawa but the most popular, the Museum of History, is on the Quebec side opposite the Parliament buildings.