Five ideas for five days of March Break family fun in Ottawa

Holy cow, did you see the weather forecast for March Break in Ottawa? Sunny and 10C to 15C! Glad we’re staying in town to enjoy it!

If you’re also staying around town and looking for ideas to keep the kids entertained, here’s a handful of ideas for you!

1. RCMP Musical Ride Stables
I wrote about the RCMP Stables earlier this week, and I said then that it shot to the number one spot for my recommendations for FREE family fun in Ottawa. Gorgeous horses, a bit of history, and completely free. You can read the blog post here!

RCMP stables tour

2. Movies and Popcorn
The Rainbow Cinema at St Laurent have some fun kids movies playing this week, and admission is only $5 per person (or $2 if you go on Tuesday!) This week, you can see The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Hugo and (yay!) The Muppets.

3. Visit a Museum
Do your kids like airplanes? Visit the Aviation Museum. Animals? Visit the Experimental Farm. Dinosaurs? They’ll love the Museum of Nature. Art? Take ’em to the National Gallery. Trains and rocketships? You’ve got to go to the Museum of Science and Technology. Really, you could spend the whole March Break museum-hopping and not double-up once!

4. It’s Maple Season!
I’m a fan of the Log Farm sugarbush off Cedarview Rd in Barrhaven, but there are tonnes of sugar shacks around Ottawa. We’ve been to Stanley’s Old Time Farm, too. It will be great weather to get out and enjoy one of Canada’s best seasonal treats!

411:1000 From tree to taffy!

5. Take a day off
It’s fun to be doing stuff, but it’s also fun to be doing nothing. Make sure you schedule some downtime with quiet activities like board games, crafty projects and other fun stuff that doesn’t require you to get dressed and leave the house!

Still looking for ideas? Check out these blog posts in my archives for more suggestions!

Five warm and frost-free indoor places to visit on Family Day

Seven days of free family fun in Ottawa!

Five crafty ideas to keep kids busy

What will YOU be doing this March Break?

Edited to add: Ha! Listen to the scheduling mom with a plan (me), a bunch of kids and a laid-back dad named Pedro are all approaching March Break from our own perspectives with this fun clip that aired on CBC radio Ottawa Morning today. Warning – funky music alert!! 🙂

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

5 thoughts on “Five ideas for five days of March Break family fun in Ottawa”

  1. I get a lot of parents asking me what they should do when their kids are off for March break that won’t break the bank. There are some really clever ideas here. I will be passing them along for sure!

  2. I hate crowds, so I have to be smart about planning our family time together. I stopped recommending Rainbow Cinemas as a March Break destination because the shows are impossibly packed. When we went last year (or was it the year before?) the lineups to get in were huge. Standing in line wearing our winter coats, along with 100s of other families with little kids… NIGHTMARE. The concession line up was awful too. In fact, we barely managed to get in and sit together.

    I feel the same about most museums too. I will happy bring the kids there… anytime but March Break!

  3. Thanks Derek!

    Funny Andrea, a couple of years ago we had family in town and they wanted to visit the Children’s Museum during March Break. I tried to convince them that there were lots of other GREAT ideas in town, but they were fixated. Ended up being a lot of fun! Busy, yes, but as long as you’re anticipating the crowds, it’s not too bad. It’s March Break, *everything* will be busy!

  4. well…this year, i have had the pleasure of having three march breaks spread out over four weeks, as every one of my kids’ schools has a different schedule.

    it has been great to have the time to do some really fun things with no crowds…but many of the coolest things have been only offered during the one official week ( this week in my ‘hood). so crowds it is!

    i appreciate the luxury i have as a stay at home parent, being able to take my kids places when the demand is low but most of my kids’ friends have working parents who have taken the time off this week to spend with their kids so the crowds are just part of the fun of being on march break and spending family time together. the kids won’t remember the lines;), only the movies and the popcorn and the time together:).

    have fun next week doing all this stuff! i will only have my 16 year old home on the last week of our month of breaks and he is going ot be busy doing his own thing:). the time goes fast, so enjoy!

  5. took me a while of link chasing to realize the Log Farm was run by LoneStar. Did they pay you for the link to your blog from their site? 🙂

    We were hoping to go as a family the week following March break (since our kids get 2 weeks), but I see it’s only open weekdays during that one week. We’ll have to try to find another place to go (like Andrea, I hate crowds!).

    My friend has signed up her kids and mine for a cooking class at the Stittsville Independent grocer. Another suggestion for people. Me, I’m hoping to get out on our bikes!

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