Reviews of Canadian Museum of History (Tourist Attraction)

Kumar Pranav

It is full of information and knowledge. You need to have enough time to visit this museum because within an hour or two it is not possible to read and see the history and artifacts.

Alya H

I visited with a friend on Canada Day. The museum had an entire exhibit dedicated to the recent discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools. It was a good start at educating people and observing Canada Day with respect. The staff are very helpful and welcoming. They guide you on where to start your visit and general directions. The gift shop is a great way to end your visit. They have lots of local handmade crafts and souvenirs that support Indigenous people.

Hayden Chen

This building is just beautiful. It's nice to know that the Canadian Museum Of History is just over the bridge to Hull, so you can visit anytime. If you haven't seen it, make plans to visit. It's a must see. The architecture is just beautiful. God Bless the people who built the Canadian Museum Of History, and to the entire staff members. Cheers. ????????????????

Kerry Liliedahl

Really nice and safe place. There you can find a piece of history of Canada and in today also a puece of Egypt Queens history.

vivek kumar

Interesting and informative, Renee was very helpful and has great potential with kids...my daughter Nadine enjoyed learning from her.

Ted T

Amazing collection of Canadian history, absolutely worth every minute it takes to see all the exhibitions. Definitely take your time and read each description, takes about 4hrs to see everything.

Lillium Dream

We arrived late, so we visited the outside , which was magnificent in itself. There are many places to picnic, beautiful trails, ducks, a beautiful view to the magnificent Saint Lawrence river, The Parliament and other beautiful buildings. There is a zen garden, a taxi boat. The layers and structures of this immense, magnificent property is worth the visit! And we haven't even seen the inside of the museum yet!!!

Mohnish Nagpal

Beautiful museum of history. Spacious and bright. Had a short visit with a very informative and engaging guide. Can't wait to return with more time to explore. I can expect would take at least a full day to see and read the richness that is Canada.

Renaude De La Madeleine

Amazing museum with a gigantic exposition on History of Canada. Very beautiful, takes more than a day to go through ! I 100% recommend

Stephen Kendall

This is the largest museum in Canada. However, due to the epidemic, an appointment must be made every Monday. After the appointment is made, it is free to enter. You must be led by a guide and cannot walk around by yourself. The time is 2 hours. To start entering, first go to see an indigenous performance. In addition, the museum has 4 floors, and only half of the first floor is open. The tour guide said that it may be all open in September, but it depends on the changes in the epidemic.

Raulson Sequeira

Excellent architecture, all smooth building with excellent presentation of history. Simply awesome. Worth visiting for kids, Canadians & foreigners. Outer land scape, steps, everything beautiful. Kids museum fantastic. First Nations history exhibited amazingly. Entry charge 20 $ but every Thursday free entry after 4 pm

Amritpal Singh

It's amazing place to learn the Canadian history and early civilations way back 1000s years ago. The building itself is stunning and well laid-out.

David Beghin

We have visited many times over the years with our kids. I'm not sure whether the children's portion is closed because of Covid, but of course that was always a hit with the kids. Another favourite area is currently closed. My kids do enjoy this, but believe it or not, they preferred it as it was prior to the opening of Canada Hall. While my kids are definitely frequent museum visitors, as it is now, it's not quite as appealing to the younger crowd

gebiete

Only went there for a show at the theatre. The look of the theatre matches the unique architecture of the museum.

Pablo Martínez

Was a great experience, learning about the 1600's to the present. Alot about the first nation's people. Great educational experience.

John Day

We went for an event and it was amazing!

Yodaman Solo

Very nice museum, especially with the newly added first people exhibition. Learned a lot and there was even more to see

Jenn B

This museum is very great for kids. It describes a huge part of Canadian history, but in a simple way so that kids can understand it. This museum also has many hands-on activities to go along with the many lessons, so that you have a better understanding of the things that happened a long time ago.

Dave Posner

Great museum! Large exhibits showing a full breath of Canadian history. Aboriginal history us will covered and displayed. At the panoramic hall, at the back, you'll find the cafe with a patio that has a great view of the Parliament building and river/bridge. On the higher level (same area) you have a Zen garden lookout with an even better view.

Laura Rubinstein

This is a brilliant museum in all ways: a great collection of historical artifacts, a beautiful and imponent building and breathtaking views of Ottawa (the Parliament in specific) and the river. It's a fantastic atmosphere and place to be and enjoy, especially on a sunny day. Take your time to fully appreciate this great visual and sensorial experience. Go!

Hanna G

My son loved it! Our Sunday morning was a different experience! It's a must if you visit Ottawa

Paola Gonzalez

It is a very interesting museum. It is really well designed and bigger than it seems. Therefore, if you want to see it properly, safe some time and energy. The staff is friendly and we even got to see a movie included on the price. The only but is that some swctions are closed for no apparent reason. Highly Recommended

Missy Conboy

Wow what an amazing experience of learning about Canada and its evolution from thousands of years ago. I still wonder what happened to Winnipeg from how popular it was in the early 1900's.

alexandre j seguin

Lovely day out. If you take your time to read like I do, you'll most likely need two days to see the whole place.

A C

Huge museum with lots of information about the history of Canada including the First Nations. In some parts of the museum you can here different audio comments at the same time which is a little confusing, especially when you try to read some explanations. I spent here about 4h and didn't get everything. You can easily spend a day in each of the third floors. The cafe is nothing fancy but okay. Lots of restrooms.

AMELIA SINGH

The museum had many 3 levels explaining about the history of Canada. They also have a separate section for the kids called the kids museum. The outer structure of the building has no corner edges. The walls are ill n the form of waves. We get a good view of the parliament as well from the museum.

Joe C

One of my favorite museums I have visited in Ottawa - it’s really a sight to behold. Our favorite had to be the the special exhibition (the Egyptian one). It was really great and we had Ciné included with our ticket. The movie showing was “Mummies” and it was really interesting! They’ve got a huge cinema-like area and it was very cool. We also visited the permanent exhibits but didn’t get a chance to see the Canadian one. It is easy to spend more than 3 hours in here to see all the different exhibits that the museum has to offer.

Abner King

You can spend a whole day looking at Canadiana. Very eye opening

Pedro Hurtado

This is a great place to visit if you are interested in the history of Canada. Apparently Canada is a great country on lots of aspects, and the most impressive 2 are regarding to LGBTQ and disabilities. The museum objectively presents the whole history of this land from first people to the modern society.

LEONARDO BLENGINI

Great place to visit to learn more about Canada's heritage. Really enjoyed The Queens Of Egypt exhibit

Kevin Fallis

Very good collection of indigenous art and artifacts

Anna Guan

Excellent museum experience! All the employees were incredibly kind and helpful. Take your time, the full museum can take a few hours plus the special exhibition.

Sachin Manjaiah

Beautifully done. Must visit museum for someone interested to know more about Canadian history. I would say, on an average it takes good hour or hour and half to cover all the floors.

Luuk Van Der Pol

If you haven’t gone with the family, especially the kids yet, and you live in Ottawa, you need to go. The children’s museum is on of the most well done arrangements ever made to entertain and expose kids to the concept of world travel. The actual history portion of the museum tells our nations story so well and makes for a great day out. It is always so well maintained and captures all the highlights of Canada’s short history with much more to come!

John R.

Great museum. Huge space, so plan accordingly. We only visited the First people's part, and found it to be amazing. Old school displays for parents, a lit of interactive experiences for children. All day parking is only $13 ( canadian ) which seems like a bargain for us, New Yorkers .

Batool Zainab Suleman

Incredible museum of Canadian history. Very informative and educational. We spent half a day there and it wasn't enough. Definitely needs to go back again another time. A must visit museum in Ottawa.

Maryna

A good place to visit fire a relaxing tour of Canadian history. There's incredible scenic views from the bridge from Ottawa to Hull where the museum is located.

Matthew S

Excellent place. Needs full day to appreciate all galleries. The river side view is beautiful.

Nate Siregar

Wonderful exhibits! Forever Changed had experiences from different perspectives and was heavily detailed. The museum itself is safe and spacious. Was worth visiting with a small crowd.

David Hopkinson

Recommended for tourists and couples coming to Canada for the first time as this gives a good comprehensive summary of our short history. If you're looking for a romantic getaway, the Museum is close to a river side, and there is an amazing sunrise location near the walk trail. (See pictures) This place is also good for a family visit with children since there are a lot of immersive exhibits. There are a lot of fun free events here to check out as well.

A MUNOZ

Nice place, you can feel the extraordinary life of a great man, additionally, friendly to the pats.

Carlos Barrera

Been a few times over the years and is always a treat. Great exhibits and interesting information on Canada's history. Beautiful artifacts and displays.

Paul Croes

The worst museum ever! Nothing to see! The queen's exhibition was sold out and the children's museum is closed! So it's basically a huge waste of money and time! No proper or sufficient description for anything! So you learn nothing. No clear signs for directions. The staff are the most unfriendly staff I've ever seen in Canada! I regret wasting two hours in such a place.

Christian Ardito

The place lives up to its expectations. If anything, it delivers above and beyond. What a detailed portrayal of Canadian history! Seemed to me like a very unbiased depiction of actual events that happened in the course of this massive piece of land, transforming to the way it has shaped up today - everyone who has ever come and gone, everything that has ever happened, everywhere there is to explore!! The special event/exhibit of the ‘Queens of Egypt’ was mesmerizing.

Iulian Baciu

The museum is great specially for kids, there are many activities for them and some days kids go in free.

Line Levesque

The totem poles were the best part, beautiful building. Perfect place to take children. Lots of room for more exhibits. Go after 5pm and it’s FREE!!! ???? Great spot for photos down near the water

Kathryn Foss

I was told I needed 2.5 hours to see it all. We spent more 3.5 and we didn’t see it all. Very interesting, big selection and still following covid safety measures.

Dave Swinkels

Great place to learn Indigenous people culture and Canadian history.

Dionysios Gosselin

A very nice building with a great deal of content to look at. It was clean and well maintained with very pleasant people working there. We were there for about three hours although we hadn't looked at everything. Parking was easy. It cost $13 for the duration of our stay. As usual in these places the gift shop was very expensive. I hardly ever spend in this places but I would be tempted to do so if they charged less. They never seem to have a line up of people waiting to pay so maybe others think the same.

Silvia Lopez

Great museum to visit while you are in Ottawa. We have kids between the ages of 2 to 4 and they loved the children's portion inside which includes a large boat, several markets (grocery, spices, etc) a restaurant, a large bus, a car, post office, etc. Basically a little town for kids. The people working I side were all very helpful, however there was some misinformation provided when we attempted to access the lookout nearby which was sectioned off for fireworks later in the evening.

Lee Miller

A great museum. Felt very covid safe. Can easily spend most of the day here. Lots to see!

Terry Cardoso

The museum demonstrates the history of Canada's first peoples. You can see every piece of tool that they use to survive and a lot more of interesting stuffs about them. If you like history you have to vistit it.

Viri VyVO

Loved it... great displays... lots to learn about Canada

asmae aitssi

We had a great time here! Be prepared to spend at least 3 hours here :)

Vanesti Dragon

It's an amazing place. More than just one museum. We love it here. It's a good place to spend time learning and having fun with your kids. Update: still an amazing place. 3 hours were not enough

Sara Abdelkader

What a beautiful museum. I learned a ton especially from the guide on stationed on the first floor. Her knowledge of the first nation people's languages, customs and way of life was truly fascinating and totally justified the price of admission with the time she took to share her in-depth knowledge so enthusiastically. The museum is stunning (had to mention that again). I am so impressed with Canadians for putting together such an exquisite experience within a museum. You may be wondering why the 4 stars... One staff member was rather disdainful in her way of selling us tickets. It was subtle and maybe even subconscious on her part, but I could not let it pass in hopes that this will be brought to light within the organization. I may be inferring this, but perhaps there is a cultural bias against non-French speakers. Whatever it was, I was a little off putting way to start. I would hope every staff member would be eager to show off this magnificent cultural museum and share that from the moment the museum guests arrive. Bravo to the staff who did welcome us.

Apple Green

Amazing place to visit! Word of advice: look carefully at the map they pass out at the door, or else you might miss something! The ground floor, behind all those totem poles, there is a phenomenal exhibition you cannot miss! Oh, and the Children's Museum section is amazingly entertaining, vibrant with color and very educational. Don't miss this place!!

Michael Rachid

Great museum, beautiful building and exhibits are well maintained and planned. Thursday evenings are free for all, and that a good time to take advantage of seeing the museum. Saw two special exhibits, Canada through the ages and the first Nations hall.

Allan Pérez

Easy underground parking. Unfortunately due to Covid, the children's museum is closed as are the café and theatre. However, limited numbers and one way signage make it an enjoyable safe place to visit. Allow 3 hours to see everything. Great views over the river to Parliament Hill

Pablo Listingart

Love visiting this place. Always find something new I've missed and a item or picture that captures my attention. Kid friendly and super helpful staff.

Nadine Olivier

This is a great museum! Definitely worth it to find out all about Canada's history. Try and get free tickets released on Monday for Thursday admission - 5-7pm. 2 hours is tight to see it all though. You'll have to go very quickly to see all it has to offer, but a great quick taste of what's there and you can return again to areas you want to spend more time at.

Zeina Gabriel

This museum has an interesting layout, and covers a variety of Canadian history. My partner and myself were there for about 4 hours, which felt an appropriate length of time. There is a cafeteria with surprisingly good food! I took one star off because I was disappointed by the lack of information giving on the Western Canadian native American exhibition. There were some very interesting artifacts that looked significant in design, but we're just labeled "spoon" "bowl" "statue". I was disappointed by how little I learned about what clearly is a beautiful culture.

Aparna Apu

I've been to this museum so many times and yet I enjoyed it every single time. The museum is great and so is the museum grounds. Ottawa has a lot of cool museums.

Moe Fawal

The museum is really good. But my 5 stars (that I want to give 6 or 7 instead) goes for the Children's Museum. My kids and us just loooooooooved it. We spent there many hours playing. One of the best Children's Museum I went to.

Elaine W

Interesting museum with a variety of exhibits!

Davis Urdaneta

Lighting needs improvement. Lacks natural flow for the exhibits. Prices and parking are decent. Mask rules need to be made more clear. No real signage explaining what exhibits are where

ChristinaLH Photography

A mainstay of the museum circuit in the National Capital Region. This museum is on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. The grounds are beautiful with waterfalls, ponds and trails along the river. Inside there are numerous permanent exhibits including a lot on Canadian history and a kids museum. Come back every once in a while to take in the updated areas.

VortexTheOne

Excellent fireworks!

Jay Mehta

There are a few museums in Ottawa and this is my favorite. Admission fee is around $20. Double it you will be able to get a season pass. Better still, go on Thursday’s from 5 to 8, you can get in free. There are 2 eateries. The cafeteria in the bottom level serves pretty decent food with reasonable price. You can also sit in the garden to enjoy the view. I recommend Mac and Cheese for the kids. There’s a really good children area. Young kids can easily spend half a day there without getting bored. The adult area is so big I went 3 times and there are still lots of exhibits that I haven’t gone to. My favorite exhibit is the “carriages”.

H “Mrshpq”

We went to go see Queens of Egypt last week. Building is astonishing and has underground parking. The collection they had were truly valuable and picture worthy.

Rudi Erlemann

Now it is only open for 30 min guided tours. They are free and the show you just one part of the museum. It's still really nice because the groups are only 4-5 people and the museum is almost empty.

Gayle May

Definitely a jewel in the crown of Canadian heritage. Gorgeous exhibits in a gorgeous public space. Convient underground parking. Super friendly staff made our visit memorable. I only wish they would revert back to its original name: The Museum of Civilization.

Kristina Jensen

I love this museum. It is huge, diverse, warm, and welcoming. All museums in Canada are open to the public for free on Thursdays from 5pm till 8pm. I highly encourage you to visit this museum. I visited this museum towards the beginning of December for the first time where I attended a Christmas tree lightening. There was a Christmas market inside the museum that day and it was awesome!

Aptaputra Bharatanand

We were the for 3 hours so much to absorb.There no tours so very low attendance. Was able to take time and literally read and explored all exhibits. Really enjoyed the review and promoted answers to canadian myths i got explained.. Really appreciated the unbiased and raw truth of the reality with First People history... Excited to see the new echibit in progress when opens

D'Lia Müller

Great looking musium in Gatineau. Nicely it have been put together!????

Juwana A

Will always have nostalgia for this place and continue to return as an adult

Neha Majithia

Love this museum! The recently completed renovations are great. Free admission on Canada Day ????????

Mr. Honest

Great museum to understand Canadian history and how the country has evolved into what it is today. We normally do not venture into museums when traveling but being a newcomer to this country and wanting to understand it better we went for it - and I'm glad we did that. Quite spacious - even on the long weekend with tonnes of visitors, it had a good breathing space. One day might not be enough if you want to check out the entire museum since there are many details covered inside it from across the regions - especially in the NorthWest. One gets to know about various communities that have and are living in the remotest part of Canada, their lifestyle, their language and their contributions to build Canada. The exhibitions are quite amazing. There is a theatre as well which is great. We went to see "Wonders of the Arctic". While it was a great knowledge experience, it was also an amazing cinematic experience. Definitely watch one of the shows. And if you want something to munch or drink, there is a cafe right opposite the theatre entrance from where you can grab something. We were only able to see a part of the museum since we were there for only a day. However, I can't wait to explore the rest of the museum. There is a cafe on two of the floors which are very good. The view of Ottawa river from the first-floor cafe is quite amazing. There is an Aqua Taxi service as well that runs from there which takes you to the other side of the river - Ottawa Locks Jetty near Parliament Hill and then Richmond Landing. The staff was good. They used to start off in French by default but switched to English once they know that you are English-speaking. Overall, a great place to be if you are in Ottawa - and especially if you have kids.

Kelvin A

The history and the work behind the 1st nation's was incredible

Khammy Pung

Most beautiful and most interesting museum I've ever visited around the world. Museums are boring until you visit this one. The story of the building, the sweeping architecture and the changing exhibits... it's fascinating. I ended up going to the museum every week before the pandemic because I couldn't get enough of it.

elena k

This is a very interesting museum of Canadian history that covers human life in Canada over the last 10000 years. An excellent way to spend the day, particularly when it is raining.

Lea Fraser

We had a very nice visit to the museum as there are some awesome displays and information. Really enjoyed how the historical time lines were laid out as this made it much easier to understand how history evolved.

Ad_vent_ur_ist

Expansive museum showing the history of Canada from the very beginning to the modern day. We spent around 3 hours and didn’t cover everything. I would recommend starting from the exhibition on the top floor and going period by period, but then making sure you also leave some time for the huge hall with the totems. Didn’t notice any cafe that was open, but didn’t look too closely. The museum shop was okay. There is a wardrobe and it wasn’t too cold inside.

S. G.

Queens of Egypt excellent exhibit. And able to view at leisure with well managed limited numbers

Iskie Isketerol

My favourite museum in Ottawa. The best part is the children’s museum where there are recreations of buildings from many different countries that you can go into. There is also a section for rotating exhibits. Very big museum with lots to see

Dave Neugebauer

An excellent museum! Extensive collection of aboriginal art and cultural items. We loved majestic totem poles and thoughtful set up of exhibitions. Guides were knowledgeable, polite and helpful. The Canadian modern history section is very well laid out and informative. The kid section is also a masterpiece! Overall, it was an excellent experience.

Grace Bolt

Excellent visit. Informative and a must see for all Canadians. Staff was also very helpful

Gregory Saygon

Gorgeous Museum. Particularly like their special exhibition 'Queens of Egypt' they put on right now.

Paul Wong

Loved it! Worth going back multiple times to see everything and read all the displays.

Mary Speed

A good 2-3 hours walk and learn Canadian history

Sina Kashani

I like this museum! The building is modern, the exhibits are very educational and you can’t beat the location and views of the Ottawa river and the parliament building. ????☺️????????

Maeve Hazel

So much to see and remember. Amazing museum with amazing collections and review of history. A must see when you visit Ottawa.

Lars Richter

Fantastic museum, well thought out layout with great presentations. If you have time to see only one museum while you're in Ottawa, this would be a solid choice. Shout-out to Nicholas at the information counter for really going above and beyond for us and making our day special! Fantastic service and awesome content all around.

Vicki L

It's a pretty incredible museum. There are some areas showing their age though, TVs that have distorted picture, that sort of thing. It also feels like it glosses over some things although I'm sure with how residential schools have been in the public eye recently that will be rectified.

João Alves

Recently visited with my children. Even though the kids museum wasn't open, we still really enjoyed ourselves (and the Queen's of Egypt exhibit). I do wish more was done to enforce mask use given that it was indoors. Many of the patrons did not seem to take it as seriously than we did, and the custodians were not very active in correcting this behaviour -- hence the 4/5 star rating

sara flynn

All tickets for the fireworks were sold out, the staff said we can still see and hear some of the music from the front of the front of the building. However some of the fireworks were blocked by the building itself. Kids still enjoyed the show, although free, would've still preferred getting tickets.

Rob Linn

This is one of my favourite museums in the world. It's been updated and renovated since I've been here last, significantly improving the upper levels on canadian history while keeping the majestic First Nations section intact on the first level. It's easy to spend about 4 hours in there and still have to forgo an exhibit or two. It's worth going to see the special exhibits on top of the permanent collection and take a look at their special screening in their theater. If you're in Ottawa or Hull, it's well worth the trip.

David Rodrigues

Tip to begin: if you stay for three days in Ottawa, get the museum passport!! Saves your cash. The Canadian Museum of History is a very family friendly and quite affordable. The restaurant has a wide variety of healthy food. And kid bribery French fires, of course...

IntrepidRobot

Literally nothing to see there, the museum looks and feels like an office building with first nation theme decorations. Not worth the trip.