The Canadian Museum of History (Gatineau): Grand Hall Totem Poles, First Peoples & Skyline View

Directly across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill in Gatineau, Quebec (a scenic 15-to-20-minute walk across the river from ByWard Market and the Rideau Canal, or an 8-minute hop across the water on the electric Aqua-Taxi boat from the bottom of the Rideau Canal locks) stands Canada's most-visited museum (welcoming over 1.2 million visitors a year): the Canadian Museum of History (Musée canadien de l'histoire).

1. Douglas Cardinal's Glacier-Sculpted Architecture & The Waterfront Plaza View

Designed by world-celebrated Blackfoot and Métis architect Douglas Cardinal and opened in 1989, the museum does not contain a single straight external wall. Cardinal designed its sweeping, layered Manitoba Tyndall-limestone curves (embedded with 450-million-year-old marine fossils) to represent how the Canadian Shield was carved by glaciers and melting rivers. Before going inside, walk out onto the free riverside plaza behind the museum: this riverfront promenade looks straight across the water at the rear cliff of the Library of Parliament, Centre Block, the Rideau Canal Locks and the Fairmont Château Laurier, making it the undisputed top postcard photo spot in the capital.

2. Three Essential Galleries Inside (Allow 2.5 to 3 Hours, Free Thursday Evenings)

1. The Grand Hall (Level 1, World's Largest Indoor Collection of Totem Poles): step into a boat-shaped six-storey hall featuring dozens of soaring original 19th- and 20th-century cedar totem poles and six full-scale Pacific Coast Indigenous house facades, anchored by Haida artist Bill Reid's masterpiece The Spirit of Haida Gwaii and Alex Janvier's 19-metre overhead dome painting Morning Star.
2. The First Peoples Hall (Level 1): explores over 15,000 years of First Nations, Métis and Inuit history, spirituality and contemporary life across every region of Canada.
3. The Canadian History Hall (Levels 3 & 4, 40,000 Square Feet): opened for Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017, this three-gallery journey walks you chronologically through 15,000 years of Canadian history via 1,500 real national treasures, from a 1,000-year-old Norse iron pin from L'Anse aux Meadows and Samuel de Champlain's personal brass astrolabe to the Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway and Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope. Travelling with children? Your ticket also includes the Canadian Children's Museum.