Secrets Of The Château Laurier Hotel Tour

We loved this tour! Our guide was brilliant and told us loads of stories about the hotel. The connection with the titanic still blows my mind! What a small world. The hotel is lovely and we were lucky enough to be able to see in to some of the event rooms which were beautiful. Highly recommend this tour, especially if you’re nosy like I am and like to see the insides of hotels!

Our guide Imogen was absolutely fantastic. She was full of knowledge about the château and shared fascinating history and little-known secrets that we never would have discovered on our own. She kept the tour moving at a great pace while still making time to answer everyone's questions, no matter how many came her way. We had a wonderful time and left feeling like we truly understood this piece of history!

Emily is a great story- teller and obviously loves what she does! She extended the tour for us with some other stories to tell us and other rooms to show us at the hotel!

Our tour guide was engaging and dynamic, and was very knowledgeable about the Hotel. I felt the tour could have been longer, and could have included maybe some more of the "back rooms" and secret rooms of the Chateau (which is why I only gave it a 4!) Doesn't everyone want to see one of the luxury rooms?? (I get that sometimes a room isn't available).

Fun facts and beautiful architecture. It reminds me of visiting a chateau in Paris. Looking forward to the Haunted Tour next visit.

Although this hotel has a rich history, the guide was not as knowledgeable as she should be making for a less than stellar experience.

very informative and worth while

Very interesting & information tour

Very interesting and informative. Nat was super nice and funny. I liked learning about the history about the building, getting to see in some of the special rooms was super neat and something not everyone would see

Amazing experience, learned a lot about the history of the hotel. Nat was a very informative and amazing tour guide, easy to understand, I was hooked the entire tour. Thank you again, definitely would recommend!

Excellent knowledgeable tour guide provided great history stories as well as pointing out Tiffany Glass and 1920’s original pool area. Relaxed, easy and pleasant tour- learned a lot

It was a fantastic tour of the hotel with many hidden gems along the way. Emily was our tour guide who told wonderful stories of its history with animation! She really added to the experience and did an outstanding job!

Great guide, Paulina, shared a lot of interesting information about the Chatheau.

A nice pace tour with a knowledgeable guide that presented facts and interesting information throughout.

An interesting trip into the history of a great hotel. Nat needs to work on her projection especially when noisy but her stories were entertaining.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The tour of the Fairmont Château Laurier was a truly wonderful experience. This iconic Ottawa hotel is filled with incredible history, elegant décor, and fascinating stories that bring its past to life. It is not simply a beautiful building—it is a piece of history that has been carefully preserved through generations. A special thank-you to our guide, Emily. She was knowledgeable, engaging, and perfectly captured the atmosphere of the tour in her charming French-inspired outfit—a beautiful blue dress and beret. Her storytelling offered us a fascinating glimpse into the hotel’s behind-the-scenes life and made every historical detail feel even more memorable. I highly recommend this tour to anyone who would like to discover Ottawa from a different perspective and experience the history hidden behind the walls of this magnificent hotel.

The hotel is beautiful and gorgeous to look at, but the tour dulled in comparison. The tour guide was extremely flat and although she tried to make jokes, you never really knew if it was a joke or not due to her demeanor. The tour lacked much information and barely covered the history and beauty of the hotel. Overall, id a done better just walking around the hotel myself reading the plaques and pictures.

Fun tour, interesting facts, and a great guide with Kim. Got to see places in the hotel we would not otherwise have seen.

This was an interesting walking tour of the hotel. Emily was a great guide. I particularly enjoyed seeing large banquet rooms that are usually locked.

Our kind was friendly and spoke well. It's just a shame the information she had was rather lack luster. You'd think with a hotel this old the stories would be more interesting. You only see the main floor and basement of the hotel.

Good look into the Hotel and history of it. Emily did a great job in telling us all about the hotel.

Charging for parking, terrible!! And the supervisor tried to enter my room to verify if it was rented, why?

This was an excellent tour. The guide was very knowledgeable and presented the material in a interesting format. I highly recommend it.

This was a great tour! The guide was extremely knowledgeable. The tour size was small, so there was opportunity to ask our own questions. We are relatively local to the area, but learned things about the Chateau Laurier that we did not know. There was a nice mix of history and other fun stories shared. We apppreciated seeing rooms that some others staying at the hotel wouldn’t see. A nice way to spend an hour and a half in downtown Ottawa!

Very interesting information about the history of the hotel. Our guide Emily was excellent and you could tell she was very knowledgeable about the history.

The guide was inexperienced. She knew her core stories but had trouble answering any questions outside her memorized lines and anecdotes. This would have still been OK but she failed to manage our group of ten. One man's phone kept ringing, and one woman asked so many inane questions the tour ran over. She kept interrupting the flow of the guide's story telling. We left the tour early. I feel a more experienced guide would have handled these poor behaviors so the rest of us could enjoy the tour we paid for.

Excellent tour that allows you to go behind the scenes at the hotel, learn its history, hear stories of the people who built and ran the hotel. Very informative and our guide, Jack was amazing. He was very engaging, and answered all questions. There are stairs to negotiate as you move from floor to floor.

Great look at the Chateau Laurier. Zak was a great and animated host. So pleased to see how much is original.

The history and stories shared on this tour were absolute baseline info, with barely any interesting or "hidden" stories, and the guide knew nothing beyond her memorized speech. The only areas you see not available to the public are a conference room (zero interest) and two event/ballrooms (lovely, but not worth paying for the tour); and you only get to see those if they happen to be free at the time of the visit. We learned more about the hotel and its history by looking at the photos on the walls around the ground floor and reading the captions. In fact, there's material in those captions that would have enhanced the tour, if the company had made the effort. Example 1: Sir Wilfred Laurier didn't want the hotel named after him. Why? Uhhhh I don't know. Example 2: One of the photos on the walls is a copy of the letter to Laurier basically politely saying "tough, we're naming it after you anyway." We thought this was a fun and funny bit of the story, but the tour missed it. Example 3: "This is the ballroom." Are there other ballrooms in the hotel? "Uhhhhh I don't have that information." (Answer: There are 4 ballrooms in the hotel, according to the caption of one photo.) I could give many more examples....

Excellent tour of the hotel with some very interesting unknown facts that include the Titanic! I enjoyed learning the history of the hotel and Hannah was very informative!

Jack was so knowledgable and funny. It was definitely interesting to go inside and hear the history of this landmark.

Meet up was easy. Tour was full of information and plenty of time to take photos. Zak was great as our guide

Our engaging tour guide Zak led us through the magnificent Chateau Laurier with finesse! He shared interesting historical facts and anecdotes throughout our visit, making it a truly memorable experience. It was a highlight of our trip to Ottawa.

A very good history of the hotel and very well presented by the orator. The kids on the tour were rather bored, though.

Emily was a lovely and enthusiastic guide. Living in Ottawa we were aware it was a historic building and appreciated hearing about some of the lesser known secrets of this beautiful building. It was great to get access to areas not normally open to the public too.

Best tour!! We learned so much and enjoyed every moment! Highly recommend for young and old alike! Unique!

It was interesting and entertaining. It would have been fun to know where the other participants were from and a tour of one of the kitchens would have been fun as well

Pretty interesting tour, the guide was really nice! It was entertaining! I recommend for everyone who wants to explore the site

This was a great tour of an architectural hallmark. Fun commentary with lots of details about the building and the characters who shaped its story.

Safe your money and go for a coffee or a cocktail at the hotel bar. A five minute google of the hotel would have provided more info. Only secret inside info was a glimpse of the hotel pool and a hello to the cute hotel mascot, Labrador dog Stewart. The secret passage was a wall that used to connect to the former Ottawa train station. Obvious disconnect between the tour operator and the hotel itself. Chateau Laurier is a show stopping Ottawa institution - this tour operation is not. Very disappointing. I was hoping for much more.

A lot of great information. Tour guide Kat was amazing. Would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Ottawa.

We very much enjoyed the tour of the Chateau Laurier. Thank you to Emily for excellent guidance and engaging commentary/stories throughout the walk. Totally recommend this experience of Ottawa - a highlight for us!

Hannah did a great job with the history of Chateau Laurier Thank you! It was fun! Loved meeting Stewart the dog.

We had an outstanding tour of the Chateau Laurier with Hannah. Unfortunately we did not think ahead to have cash on hand to offer her a very well-deserved tip. Hopefully well-deserved online praise will be a very small consolation and provide advice to all taking this tour in future!

We learned a lot of the history of the Fairmont and the railway history. The guide was very informative and pleasant.

Emily was great in every respect. Very knowledgeable of the Chateau and very professional. She didn't rush the tour, arrived super early and answer all our questions. She was very sweet too. Highly recommend her. The tour was also perfect because it was like 95 degrees outside and we got to spend some time indoors. She also mentioned the hotel pool was open to the public and we returned the next day for a swim. The cost was $20, bought the tickets at the reception pool. Open from 6:30am-9pm. The pool is marvelous!

Hannah was a wonderful guide. Amazing knowledge and fun facts. She’s a true pro and presented the information in a way that was super entertaining as well as informative. We would go on another tour with her any day!

Excellent! Caleb was very knowledgeable and friendly. It was our first date in a long time since having our little one and we had a wonderful experience.

Nat lead our tour. Excellent tour for finding out all the little nuggets of info, you won't get otherwise. She did a great job: spoke clearly, answered all questions, and waited for the more leisurely members of our group. Thank you for your patience; much appreciated.