You Can Even Stay in Jail in Ottawa

Canada’s capital city offers young visitors inexpensive accommodations in a variety of settings--in school, in jail or on a campsite in the center of the city.

(Keep in mind that the prices quoted are in Canadian funds and when you exchange your money, each U.S. dollar will likely bring you at least $1.30 Canadian.)

This summer, anyone can stay a 10-minute walk from Parliament Hill at the Tour and Conference Center of Carleton University. A single room is $21.95, a double $16.95 per person. An “all-you-can-eat” breakfast is included. For details and reservations, contact the residence at (613) 564-3610.

Campers can pitch tents at a special site that’s only a 10-minute walk from Parliament Hill. Camp Lebreton is open from mid-June to September. Only tent campers are accepted, and cyclists and hikers are given preference. The fee is $4 per person a night.

The campsite has washrooms, showers, campfire areas and 24-hour security. Visitors are limited to stays of five consecutive nights.

Camp Lebreton is at Fleet and Booth streets. For additional information, contact Canada’s Capital Information Center, 14 Metcalfe St., Ottawa, or phone (613) 239-5000; from outside Ottawa, call (800) 267-0450.

Young travelers also can spend the night in a jail cell--in a unique youth hostel.

The Nicholas Gaol Hostel was Ottawa’s jail for more than 100 years. It became a youth hostel in 1973.

The cells have been renovated into four-bedrooms but still have the original iron-barred doors. The cell for solitary confinement is now the laundry. What was the debtors’ prison is the visitors’ kitchen and the infirmary is now the TV lounge. The gallows can still be seen behind a glass doorway on the jail’s top level.

The Nicholas Gaol Hostel is in the city center at 75 Nicholas St. Telephone (613) 235-2595. Members of the International Youth Hostel Federation are charged $9 per night. The non-member rate is $12.50.

The Canadian Hostel Assn. offers a special budget package to visit Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara Falls and Quebec this summer. YHA Travel offers members of the International Youth Hostel Federation a program called the Central Canada Ramble.

For $235 (about $180 U.S.), members under the age of 25 get a 15-day VIA Rail train pass valid for unlimited travel between Toronto, Niagara, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec. You also get vouchers for five nights of hostel accommodation (with breakfast) and your choice of a trip on the Maid of the Mist or entrance to the Scenic Tunnels in Niagara Falls and admission to the CN Tower in Toronto. Price to members more than 25 years is $285. Contact YHA Travel, 217 Church St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B 1Z1. Telephone (416) 862-0226.

VIA Rail is offering five versions of the Youth Canrailpass this summer. These tickets for unlimited travel are available to travelers aged 12 to 24. These high season rates apply between June 15 and Sept. 15.

Unlimited travel across Canada for 22 days is $383 (about $29 U.S.), for 30 days $420. Unlimited travel west of Winnipeg for 15 days costs $233, for 22 days $259. Unlimited travel east of Winnipeg for 15 days costs $227, for 22 days $263.