BSDCan 2025

Travel

Getting There

By Plane

Ottawa is served by Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport (IATA:YOW), with connections from most major Canadian and American hubs.

If you are arriving from outside Canada or the USA, you may be flying into Toronto Pearson International Airport (IATA:YYZ) or Montreal Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport (IATA:YUL). In addition to connecting flights, you may take also a train or bus/coach from those two airports to Ottawa - see below for details. (Most other ports of entry into Canada are too far away for train or bus to be a realistic option unless you have a very relaxed schedule.)

From the Ottawa Airport, the UOttawa Campus is easily reached by private automobile, taxi/Uber, hotel shuttle, or public transit (see below).

Taxis from the airport to UOttawa cost cost C$40-50, and the privately-run hotel shuttle - which does service UOttawa Campus, despite the lack of signage saying so - was last reported to cost around C$35. Public transit is the cheapest option by far, see Public Transit, below.

If you are flying Air France-KLM, see the note about their shuttle bus under “By Train”, below.

By Train

(For OCTranspo’s Light Rail service, see Public Transit, below.)

Ottawa is served by Via Rail, Canada’s national passenger train service, at the Ottawa Train Station (OTTW/XDS).

VIA Rail interconnects with the AMTRAK’s Maple Leaf train in Toronto (TWO/TRTO/YBZ), and the Adirondack train in Montreal (MTR/MTRL/YMY), both originating from New York Penn Station (NYP). If arriving from the USA, you’ll have to disembark at the end of the line and transfer to something else - either a VIA train or some other mode of transport.

If you’re transferring from airplane to train, please ensure you know how to get from the airport to the train station. VIA maintains a list of partners that you may find helpful.

If you are flying Air France-KLM, you can theoretically purchase a multi-modal itinerary that includes a shuttle bus from from Montréal to the Ottawa Train Station (service runs 3x daily, according to Wikipedia). Your itinerary might end at “XDS” instead of “YOW” in this case.

Once arrived at the Ottawa Train Station, the UOttawa Campus is reachable by private automobile/taxi (see Automobile, below), public transit (see Public Transit, below) or afoot, i.e. walking (again, see below).

By Long-distance Bus (Coach)

Greyhound Bus Lines no longer operates in Canada. Ottawa currently has scheduled (i.e. public) service from, in alphabetical order:

If you are transferring from one mode of transport (e.g. air) to another (bus), please ensure you know how to successfully transfer from one to the other - the respective terminals are often a great distance away from each other, sometimes even requiring a lengthy taxi ride.

If you are flying KLM or Air France (and possibly others), you may be able to purchase a bus or train ticket (typically from Montréal) as part of your airfare. If you do this, please let us know more about how that works!

In addition to the scheduled services mentioned above, private bus or coach operators may also provide service to the Ottawa area at any given time.

By Automobile

Please see your favourite navigation app, a GPS device, an actual printed map on paper, or some other source, for driving directions. The UOttawa Residence building address is “90 University Private, Ottawa, ON, K1N 1H3”. If your source for directions can’t parse that address, try the Desmarais building at “55 Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa ON K1N 6N5” instead.

Public Transit (City Bus & Light Rail)

OCTranspo’s combined fleet of city buses and light rail transit serves the Ottawa area.

If you’ve used OCTranspo in the past, please double-check your favourite routes and stops, as the O-Train Line 1 has altered routes and stops and stations throughout the network.

As of this writing, regular fare to get from the airport to campus costs C$3.85. Buses take exact change only, or you can use credit/debit (EMV) cards at ticket machines - one is near Customer Service at the airport.

The bus stop is just outside the Arrivals level of the terminal: exit the right-most doors, cross the lanes of traffic to the first walkway, turn right and walk approximately 15m (50’). Get on the #97 bus, and take it to the end of the route at Hurdman Station. Transfer there to either the O-Line 1 (if it’s operating) or the R-1 Bus Replacement Service, and get off at uOttawa station. If you miss your stop, just get off and take another O-Train in the other direction back to uOttawa station.

OCTranspo provides accessible transport, including Para Transpo for disabled riders; please see the Accessible Transit page and contact OCTranspo directly for further details.

If you expect to use OCTranspo during your stay in Ottawa, make sure you’re paying in the most effective way: How to Pay.

Walking

Downtown Ottawa is extremely walkable, but walkability between the different neighbourhoods in the city may challenge the casual pedestrian.

If you’re walking from the train station, Google often suggests sub-optimal paths and/or shows walking/cycling trails that may or may not exist at any given time due to construction. Caveat emptor.

While it is possible to walk from the airport to downtown, it’s almost 3hrs’ journey, and some of the routes are quite pedestrian-unfriendly.

Bicycling

Ottawa is generally a very bicycle-friendly city, with dedicated bike paths and bike lanes. There are several bicycle rental shops, including one near campus (RentABike/Vélocation) if you aren’t traveling with your own bicycle. A quick internet search will turn up quite a lot of information about biking in and around Ottawa - more than we can reasonably link to here!

Staying in Ottawa

See Accommodations.

General Information

See General Travel Information.

Entering Canada

See Entering Canada.

Travel Grants

BSDCan Travel Grant Application Guidelines

We sincerely want to see you at BSDCan and understand that travel costs are often the greatest barrier to attending. To lower this barrier, we have been growing a Travel Grant Fund that aims to provide grants to individuals for whom a little help will make the difference between attending and not attending. The 2025 grant amount is $500 CAD per individual under the following terms:

To apply, write grants@bsdcan.org with:

2025 Application Deadline: May 17th

Response deadline: May 20th