BSDCan 2026

June 17 - 20, 2026

Travel

Getting There

By Plane

Ottawa is served by Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport (IATA:YOW), with connections from most major Canadian and American hubs.

If you are arriving from outside Canada or the USA, you may be flying into Toronto Pearson International Airport (IATA:YYZ) or Montreal Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport (IATA:YUL). In addition to connecting flights, you may take also a train or bus/coach from those two airports to Ottawa - see below for details. (Most other ports of entry into Canada are too far away for train or bus to be a realistic option unless you have a very relaxed schedule.)

From the Ottawa Airport, the UOttawa Campus is easily reached by private automobile, taxi/Uber, hotel shuttle, or public transit (see below).

Taxis from the airport to UOttawa cost cost C$40-50, and the privately-run hotel shuttle - which does service UOttawa Campus, despite the lack of signage saying so - was last reported to cost around C$35. Public transit is the cheapest option by far, see Public Transit, below.

If you are flying Air France-KLM, see the note about their shuttle bus under “By Train”, below.

By Train

(For OCTranspo’s Light Rail service, see Public Transit, below.)

Ottawa is served by Via Rail, Canada’s national passenger train service, at the Ottawa Train Station (OTTW/XDS).

VIA Rail interconnects with the AMTRAK’s Maple Leaf train in Toronto (TWO/TRTO/YBZ), and the Adirondack train in Montreal (MTR/MTRL/YMY), both originating from New York Penn Station (NYP). If arriving from the USA, you’ll have to disembark at the end of the line and transfer to something else - either a VIA train or some other mode of transport.

If you’re transferring from airplane to train, please ensure you know how to get from the airport to the train station. VIA maintains a list of partners that you may find helpful.

If you are flying Air France-KLM, you can theoretically purchase a multi-modal itinerary that includes a shuttle bus from from Montréal to the Ottawa Train Station (service runs 3x daily, according to Wikipedia). Your itinerary might end at “XDS” instead of “YOW” in this case.

Once arrived at the Ottawa Train Station, the UOttawa Campus is reachable by private automobile/taxi (see Automobile, below), public transit (see Public Transit, below) or afoot, i.e. walking (again, see below).

By Long-distance Bus (Coach)

Greyhound Bus Lines no longer operates in Canada. Ottawa currently has scheduled (i.e. public) service from, in alphabetical order:

If you are transferring from one mode of transport (e.g. air) to another (bus), please ensure you know how to successfully transfer from one to the other - the respective terminals are often a great distance away from each other, sometimes even requiring a lengthy taxi ride.

If you are flying KLM or Air France (and possibly others), you may be able to purchase a bus or train ticket (typically from Montréal) as part of your airfare. If you do this, please let us know more about how that works!

In addition to the scheduled services mentioned above, private bus or coach operators may also provide service to the Ottawa area at any given time.

By Automobile

Please see your favourite navigation app, a GPS device, an actual printed map on paper, or some other source, for driving directions. The UOttawa Residence building address is “90 University Private, Ottawa, ON, K1N 1H3”. If your source for directions can’t parse that address, try the Desmarais building at “55 Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa ON K1N 6N5” instead.

Public Transit (City Bus & Light Rail)

OCTranspo’s combined fleet of city buses and light rail transit serves the Ottawa area. There have been substantial changes made in recent years, so please check your route. The cost is $4.00 with a card or $4.05 in cash.

From the airport, the #97 route no longer exists. You should take the train from the departures (top) level of the airport, which is well-signposted. It is at the far left end of the airport when coming from the planes. If you have checked bags, you need to descend to the ground level to collect them, then ascend to the top level.

The train takes you to the South Keys stop where you can either transfer to train line #2 or bus #98, depending where you’re going next.

OCTranspo provides accessible transport, including Para Transpo for disabled riders; please see the Accessible Transit page and contact OCTranspo directly for further details.

If you expect to use OCTranspo during your stay in Ottawa, make sure you’re paying in the most effective way: How to Pay.

Walking

Downtown Ottawa is extremely walkable, but walkability between the different neighbourhoods in the city may challenge the casual pedestrian.

If you’re walking from the train station, Google often suggests sub-optimal paths and/or shows walking/cycling trails that may or may not exist at any given time due to construction. Caveat emptor.

While it is possible to walk from the airport to downtown, it’s almost 3hrs’ journey, and some of the routes are quite pedestrian-unfriendly.

Bicycling

Ottawa is generally a very bicycle-friendly city, with dedicated bike paths and bike lanes. There are several bicycle rental shops, including one near campus (RentABike/Vélocation) if you aren’t traveling with your own bicycle. A quick internet search will turn up quite a lot of information about biking in and around Ottawa - more than we can reasonably link to here!

Staying in Ottawa

See Accommodations.

General Information

See General Travel Information.

Entering Canada

See Entering Canada.

Travel Grants

BSDCan Travel Grant Application Guidelines

To encourage and enable more first-time and returning attendees at BSDCan 2026, this year’s travel grant is a free room for up to five nights in a shared-bathroom private suite at the 90U residences.

Anyone can apply but we specifically encourage members of any under-represented groups to apply and we will pair women in shared suites.

To qualify you must:

To apply, email grants@bsdcan.org with:

2026 Travel Grant Application Deadline: May 19th

Approval date: May 21st