To celebrate my birthday, I got to scratch one thing off my bucket list, flying in a helicopter. For my birthday, I was given a helicopter tour with Breakaway Experiences around downtown Ottawa where I got to see the Parliament buildings and Gatineau Hills in the distance.
The tour package I did was for 10 minutes, but there are also longer tours lasting up to 30 minutes for those who want to see more of Ottawa and Gatineau. One of the amazing things about the package was it is for up to 3 people, so I was able to celebrate the afternoon of my birthday with friends flying around my beautiful city.
The tour package departs from the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, so with my gift voucher in hand, I headed inside of the Museum where there is the Heli Tremblant Helicopters Tour desk near the middle of the right wall.
After boarding the helicopter, and learning how to use the headsets and some basic safety requirements we were ready to fly. As the aircraft took off, I was stunned by how smoothly it flew up on a windy day.
Related: Fly Over Ottawa In A WW-II Era Biplane
Throughout the flight, our amazing, charismatic pilot was keeping us all entertaining by answering our questions and pointing out local sights, and his expert flying skills inspired all 3 of us to want to try taking helicopter flying lessons with him which are also available at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.
The photo above, taken by my friend, perfectly summarizes how much I loved the experience as you can see how joyful I was from the tour. In the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough throughout my travels to try a variety of amazing things, but this helicopter tour over Ottawa was by far my favourite travel experience as it was just so thrilling to fly over the city and watch the landscape from above. Without question from 10 minutes in the air, I have developed an immense love of flying in helicopters, so I’m certain I’m going to sign up for a longer tour as it was incredible!
If you are looking for a great gift idea for a friend or family member, I highly recommend sending them a gift voucher with Breakaway Experiences as it will be a gift they never forget!