A city landmark as well as Ottawa’s best-known hotel, Fairmont Chateau Laurier has stood beside Parliament Hill since 1912. Its copper turrets now verdigris with time, the hotel continues to welcome through its portals politicians, celebrities, Canadian citizens, and visiting couples of all nations.
Part of the hotel's reputation derives from the important part it's played in the history of Canada's capital city.
For 70 years, Fairmont Chateau Laurier served as headquarters for CBC radio broadcasts. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama are among the hotel's most famous guests.
Modeled after a French chateau, the exterior of the hotel is crafted from limestone. White Italian marble and sparkling crystal chandeliers enhance the grandeur of the lobby.
An Art Deco swimming pool, first-class restaurant and tea room, photographic treasures, many event spaces, and comfortable rooms and suites make Fairmont Chateau Laurier equally appealing for a weekend visit or a wedding.
Guest Rooms at Fairmont Chateau Laurier
The traditionally furnished 429 guest rooms and suites at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier provide many of the comforts of home along with exhilarating views of Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal (a UNESCO World Heritage site as well as a winter wonderland), or ByWard market, depending on their orientation.
At the end of one long corridor, corner suite 469 opens onto a large foyer with a closet and room to stretch.
In the suite’s large living area, decorated with tasseled draperies, romantics will enjoy the push-button fireplace and semi-circular nook off a corner. This tiny space has narrow vertical windows in three directions and an upholstered banquette to sit and soak in the views.
In the bedroom, a king-size mattress with soft down pillows rests in front of a carved wooden headboard. Both rooms have flatscreen TVs. Minibar temptations are located both atop and inside a wooden cabinet in the bedroom.
The suite also has a large, deep, jetted bathtub; a lighted, magnifying makeup mirror; twin sinks; and a privacy wall separating the toilet from the rest of the room.
On the Fairmont Gold Level
Couples who appreciate truly personal service and exclusivity ought to consider upgrading to the hotel’s Fairmont Gold floor. Staffed by dedicated concierges, Fairmont Gold is both a place – a living room with an honor bar, laptops with complimentary Web access, and conversation areas – as well as an array of amenities.
Perks of Fairmont Gold include private check-in, daily Canadian newspapers and continental breakfast including smoked salmon and bagels, nightly hors d’oeuvres, a CD and DVD lending library, maps and itinerary recommendations, and other travel benefits.
Restaurants at Fairmont Chateau Laurier
A special-occasion restaurant, Wilfrid’s – named for Sir Wilfred Laurier, Canada’s seventh Prime Minister – is a treat any time you visit. Comfortable chairs, tables spaced well apart, and superior levels of both food and service make it a pleasurable place to savor a leisurely meal.
The menu offers several cuts of Alberta-raised beef, which is tender and tasty. Our six-ounce filet came with a choice of two sauces, and the garlic mashed potatoes and side dish of creamed spinach made it as satisfying as it was delectable.
Perfectly- cooked salmon was imaginatively prepared with persimmons.
Dessert presented multiple temptations, and we fixated on the moist sticky toffee cake. Canadian ice wine, produced in the Niagara region(compare prices), helped to end the meal on a sweet note.
The Fairmont Chateau Laurier is also home to Zoe’s, an elegant room where traditional afternoon tea has been expanded to include menus for both Canadian High Tea and Champagne tea. All can be accompanied by strawberry jam, freshly baked scones, and Devonshire cream.
Note: Zoe was the wife of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and the two eateries are a tribute to the couples’ own romance.
Destination Weddings at Fairmont Chateau Laurier
Fairmont Chateau Laurier is an impressive place to host a wedding of any size and it holds some 70 a year.
With its many event spaces and four ballrooms plus in-house wedding experts and catering services, the hotel is a top choice among couples who are determined to celebrate their marriage in a beautiful, historic, elegant, and memorable location.
The Ballroom, largest of the venues, can hold a maximum of 425 people for dinner.
Observant Jewish couples should make note that the hotel has two kosher kitchens.
Although most weddings that take place in Fairmont Chateau Laurier are for couples who live in the capital or province, the hotel welcomes out-of-town couples, whose marriages will be recognized as legal in the United States.
Fairmont Chateau Laurier also hosts same-sex marriages, although these are not yet recognized as legal in the majority of the United States.
See Fairmont Weddings for more information.
Fairmont’s Platinum Honeymoons
This program rewards couples who wed at a Fairmont property. They receive up to a 5 percent credit on the cost of the wedding that they can apply to a honeymoon of three nights or longer at a Fairmont resort hotel, such as Fairmont Mayakoba. The couple receive this benefit in the form of a gift card, which can be applied to the cost of honeymoon lodging, food, a couples massage, or other amenity.
A Fairmont Platinum Concierge is available to couples who marry within the family of resorts, and these staffers can also be called upon to arrange the honeymoon, from suggesting and booking a venue, to planning romantic dinners, to booking tee times and spa visits, and also arranging everything from shopping to scuba expeditions.
Honeymoons/Romance at Fairmont Chateau Laurier
Thinking of getting engaged soon? The Fairmont Chateau Laurier offers a dedicated “I Do” package to set the stage for romance. It includes:
- Overnight accommodation on Fairmont Gold floor
- Table d’Hote dinner in Wilfrid’s
- Staff assistance in planning the proposal
- Bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne on ice awaiting arrival in room
- Rose-petal turndown
- Breakfast in bed
- 3 pm late checkout
- Accommodation in a Fairmont Room
- Table d’Hote dinner in Wilfrid’s
- Bottle of Brut Imperial Champagne
- Gourmet buffet breakfast in Wilfrid’s restaurant or Canadian breakfast from room service
- 3 pm late checkout.
Inside Fairmont Chateau Laurier
A true city hotel, the Fairmont Chateau Laurier has no golf course, no tennis courts, nor a spa to call its own.
What it does have is an Art-Deco-style swimming pool on the lower level and a workout room. Nearby is a collection of framed newspaper articles that chronicle the history of the hotel, including the Queen Mother’s 1939 visit and reports on Canada’s Dionne quintuplets, once the sweethearts of the western world.
On the lobby level visitors can wander through the Vincent Art Gallery, which displays contemporary art and Inuit sculptures. There’s also a well-edited shop that sells locally made jewelry, accessories, leather bags, and crafts.
Burrowed in a corner is a sundries/souvenir stand where you can pick up the latest issue of a favorite magazine as well as a stuffed moose for a child left behind.
Nearby Fairmont Chateau Laurier
Not every great hotel can boast that it’s within shouting distance of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but the Fairmont Chateau Laurier can claim that distinction. Rideau Canal, a 126-mile-long waterway connecting Ottawa and Montreal, is across the street.
In winter the water in the canal freezes, and Ottawans and visitors alike take to the ice, skating along the 4.8-mile-long stretch that extends from the hotel.
If you don’t have skates, rent a pair at the entrance to the Canal, and be sure to pause at one of the huts selling BeaverTails – a warm pastry sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon – along the way.
Those who’d rather stay warm indoors have an abundance of excellent museums to explore. The National Gallery of Canada is a few blocks from the hotel and distinguished by a giant, 30-foot-tall spider statue in its plaza.
The Canada Museum of Civilization is akin to DC’s Smithsonian, a place where you can lose yourselves for hours. There is also a deeply affecting War Museum and a newly re-opened Aviation Museum.
And for those who appreciate the action inside a casino, Lac-Leamy Casino is a cab ride away.
Shoppers can find mall wares at the Rideau Center, a block from the hotel. Those in search of a more authentic experience ought to explore ByWard Market, a four-block-by-four-block mélange of food stalls and restaurants, boutiques, and night clubs across from the hotel.
Also see: Ottawa's Top Attractions for Couples
What Could be Improved at Fairmont Chateau Laurier
Bedrooms at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier could be brought up to date by substituting an iPod player/dock for the CD unit currently provided. And with so much space to pad around in a suite, having a pair of complimentary slippers to wear with the hotel-supplied bathrobe would keep feet warm.
What would make visitors happiest, though – especially those who plan to stay in for the evening, order room service, cuddle up, and unwind – would be a wider selection of TV channels to watch in English.
On one cold night we endlessly clicked through the selections, going from political debate (in French) to game show to local news to hockey game to shopping channel. An hour or so into this mind-numbing exercise, the discovery of a years-old episode of Law and Order brought excessive joy and relief.
We’re not xenophobes. If Canadians are convinced that inane US programs (I’m looking at you, Charlie Sheen) will rot countrymen’s brains, then import more shows from the BBC. Just give intelligent adults some choice!
The hotel does make pay-per-view movies available. But not being fans of Hollywood violence, cartoon heroes, or zhlubs-who-win-the-beautiful-girl scenarios, pickings are slim.
Note: Fairmont Gold guests have access to the free DVD library. But if you’re any kind of movie fan, you’ve already seen most films in the collection, which has few updated choices.
This castle-like structure upon a hill can be a bit foreboding when viewed from a distance. Inside, though, it’s a large, busy, efficient city hotel.
Due to Fairmont Chateau Laurier's numerous event spaces, public areas can be crowded at times with business people and conventioneers.
Yet couples who seek sanctuary will find it the moment they close the door to their room — and they’ll have the satisfaction of knowing they’re cosseted inside a genuine historic treasure focused on quality, service, and comfort.
Fairmont Chateau Laurier
1 Rideau Street
Ottawa, Canada KIN 857
Hotel Web Site
Phone: 613-241-1414
As is common in the travel industry, the writer was provided with complimentary accommodation and meals for the purpose of reviewing those services. While it has not influenced this review, About.com believes in full disclosure of all potential conflicts of cfinterest. For more information, see our ethics policy.