Human-made ice rinks are cool, but you know what’s even cooler? Naturally frozen ice rinks — particularly when they’re unreasonably large. If you seek superlatives on your travels and have an affinity for winter sports, move Ottawa to the top of your list. Canada’s capital and fourth-largest city is home to the world’s largest natural ice rink. Discover its fascinating history and details on how to visit below.
History of the Rideau Canal
Just how big is the Rideau Canal Skateway? It has a total surface area of 1.782 million square feet, which could fit 90 Olympic skating rinks. As impressive as this natural ice rink is, the reason it exists is thanks to a remarkable feat of engineering. In 1832, the Rideau Canal opened, providing a military defense and a crucial commercial shipping connection from the Ottawa River to Lake Ontario.
The entire canal stretches 125 miles and is the oldest continuously operating canal system in North America — and the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Ontario. According to UNESCO, it was one of the earliest canals in the world designed for steam-powered vessels. Today, it is mostly used for recreation, including the 4.8-mile section that transforms each winter into the Rideau Canal Skateway, which first opened to the public in 1971.
Guinness World Records calls this the world’s “largest natural frozen ice rink,” which differs from other frozen bodies of water because “its entire length received daily maintenance such as sweeping [and] ice thickness checks, and there are toilet and recreational facilities along its entire length.”
How To Visit
The canal freezes each January and February, drawing as many as 19,000 ice-skating visitors to its frosty embrace per day. Beginning downtown and ending in Dow’s Lake, it’s free to visit and open seven days a week — except when it’s closed due to warm temperatures and lack of ice, as it was from early 2023 to 2024.
The rink is operated by the National Capital Commission (NCC), which has strict standards for when it can safely open. The ice must be at least 12 inches thick in order to be safely skated upon, which requires 10 to 14 consecutive days at temperatures between -4 and -14 degrees Fahrenheit.
2023 was simply too mild a winter for visitors to safely enjoy the Rideau Canal Skateway, but the NCC did gain valuable insights from the experience. “Our team learned a lot from the challenges we faced last year and were able to put measures in place, helped by more seasonal temperatures, to make it happen this year,” said CEO Tobi Nussbaum.
That said, future skating seasons might be shorter than they used to be. The NCC commissioned a climate change risk assessment alongside the Standards Council of Canada, which found that moderate emissions could result in “seasons with less than 40 days of skating approximately 50% of the time.”
In Good Company
The rest of the world’s largest natural ice rinks can be found across the pond. Most prodigious of them all is Lake Weissensee in Weissensee, Austria, which is geared toward both advanced and casual skaters. It has a 1,300-foot speed-skating track and nearly 16 inches of frozen ice, not to mention striking views — a veritable winter wonderland.
Also popular are Slovenia’s Lake Bled, Lake St. Moritz in Switzerland, Munich’s Nymphenburg Palace Canal, and Lake Mälaren in Stockholm. All of them are scenic enough to be enjoyed even if you’ve never put on a pair of skates, but those who’ve been would say that getting on the ice is the best way to experience them.
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