self-guided audio walks · ottawa
Turn an ordinary walk into the best part of your trip.
Hand-written walking tours that play as you move — real stories with a beginning, a middle and an end, at your pace.
free listen on every walk · no account needed to try it
hear twenty seconds of a real walk
“You're standing where the city started — back to the river, a hundred and sixty years of argument straight ahead.”
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 stop is walked and researched before it's written in. 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
Three walks. Weeks 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-SAThe hill that runs the country
Gothic spires, a catastrophic fire, and the lawn where a nation gathers to argue.
5.0 km · 135 min · 8 stopsphoto: Robert Linsdell · CC BYLocks, boats and a slow canal
Follow the hand-cut shortcut that made Ottawa possible — one lock at a time.
1.2 km · 45 min · 5 stopsphoto: Jcart1534 · CC BY-SAMarket mornings
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 4 of “the hill that runs the country”
Stand here a moment. In February 1916, with the cold sitting at minus twenty, this whole block burned through the night — and by morning, parliament had already voted to rebuild it. The tower you’re looking at is the apology.
photo: Tony Webster · CC BY-SAYour walk is waiting.
Download Roava, try the free listen on any Ottawa walk, and see how far twenty seconds takes you.