Ottawa is a fantastic place to visit for a family holiday. The bilingual city sits on the Ottawa river in Ontario and is the capital city of Canada. As with many capital cities this does mean that accommodation can be expensive, but you can enjoy the sights and sounds of Canada's fourth largest city by investigating the money saving potential of rental homes, with a wide range of cabins, cottages, apartments and condominiums to suit any budget.

Ottawa provides a huge number of opportunities for sight seeing. As the country's capital, you must take a walk to see Parliament Hill in the heart of downtown Ottawa, overlooking the river. It's a striking building in Gothic Revival style, and various parts of it can be toured. There are also many museums and galleries to visit, including the Museum of Civilisation, Canadian War Museum, Canadian Museum of Nature and Canada Aviation Museum. For the more active members of the family, you can rent bikes and explore areas like the spectacular Gatineau Park over the river in Québec. In winter, the Rideau Canal is transformed into a massive outdoor ice rink, and skates can also be rented from various outlets to take advantage of the opportunity for a bit of skating. It goes without saying in a major capital city that keen shoppers will have plenty of choice, with pedestrianised Sparks Street close to Parliament Hotel being a particularly popular choice.

There are a wide range of rental homes in and around Ottawa - from rural cabins to luxury condos in downtown Ottawa. Prices vary but if you look around for deals then you can spend as little as £700 for a week in a rental cottage or apartment big enough for a family of four, which is a low cost option compared to the high prices charged by many hotels. You can also stretch the holiday budget further by taking advantage of the self-catering facilities to make breakfasts and packed lunches rather than having to eat out all the time. And the extra space in rental homes is always useful as the kids can run around and let off steam without disturbing other guests.