self-guided audio walks · ottawa
Turn an ordinary walk into the best part of your trip.
Original walking tours that play as you move — real stories with a beginning, a middle and an end, at your pace.
your first listen is free · one-time city pass, no subscription
follow twenty seconds of a real walk
“Here's the thing most people don't know: the Centre Block you're looking at is not the original.”
why roava
Not a database of pins. A story with a route.
Most audio guides read you the plaque. Every Roava walk is researched, written and produced the way a great guide tells it — because that's what it is.
Every route has an arc — a beginning on a street corner, a middle you'll want to linger in, an ending worth the walk.
Every place is researched and scored before it earns a stop on a walk. It earns its minutes or it's cut.
Linger, detour, stop for coffee. The story waits — no group, no schedule, no umbrella to follow.
photo: Topley Studio · public domainwalks in ottawa
Five walks. Hours of stories.
Launching deep in one city, on purpose. Each walk is a season of a very local podcast — one that knows where you're standing.
1.4 km · 45 min · 5 stopsphoto: Saffron Blaze · CC BY-SARideau Canal & the Building of the Capital
Gothic spires, a catastrophic fire, and the lawn where a nation gathers to argue.
5.0 km · 135 min · 8 stopsphoto: Robert Linsdell · CC BYThe Rideau Canal & the City's Living Room
Follow the hand-cut shortcut that made Ottawa possible — one lock at a time.
1.2 km · 45 min · 5 stopsphoto: Jcart1534 · CC BY-SAByWard Market & the Heart of Bytown
Maple syrup, stubborn barrow sellers, and two hundred years of breakfast.
how it works
Eyes up. Earbuds in. Just walk.
Pick a walk and start anywhere on the route — the story finds where you are.
Narration begins as you reach each stop. Nothing to tap, nothing to read — your eyes stay on the city, not the screen.
Pause for lunch, chase a side street, come back tomorrow. The thread picks up where you left it.
from stop 8 of “The Rideau Canal & the City's Living Room”
Everything you’re looking at — the wide calm lake, the far green shore — is a flooded marsh, held in place by a dam you can’t even see. The most natural-looking spot on the whole walk is the most artificial.
photo: Tony Webster · CC BY-SAYour walk is waiting.
Download Roava, spend your free listen on any story in Ottawa, and see where it takes you.