Parc Omega: a family-friendly Canadian safari

I first heard of Parc Omega several years ago, as a place where you can sleep with wolves. While this is a cool bucket-list experience, Parc Omega offers so much more. It is a part safari, part zoo, part petting farm. It highlights the beautiful Canadian landscape and features native North American animals.

Parc Omega is located in Quebec, about 1 hour from Ottawa and just over 1.5 hours from Montreal. It makes the perfect day-trip if you live in the area, and the perfect add-on to an Ottawa or Montreal travel itinerary.

Parc Omega fast facts

Tickets

Adult tickets cost $46 CAD.

Children ages 2-5 cost $17 CAD, and 6-15 cost $34 CAD.

You can purchase tickets directly through the Parc Omega website. The site does offer discounts periodically (we visited on Mother’s Day and tickets were 25% off!)

Opening hours

Parc Omega is open all year round. In the summer months, the park is open from 9am – 7pm. During the winter, the park is open from 10am – 5pm.

During shoulder seasons, the park opens at either 9am or 10am (usually 10am on weekdays), and closes at 5pm or 6pm. Be sure to check the website for hours when purchasing your tickets.

Food options

Food options are limited at Parc Omega.

Omegabon is located inside the Park House at the main entrance. It is mostly counter-service serving cafe-style fare. It is open for breakfast from 8:30 – 10:30am, and lunch from 11:30am – 2:30pm. The restaurant offers table service for lunch on weekends, and sit-down dinner service from 5:15pm – 8:00pm on Wed – Sat.

La Cookerie is a small “shack” located in the Land of Pioneers (one of Parc Omega’s 2 walking areas). This will probably be your best bet if you are spending a day at the park. This spot offers fast-service local fare, such a poutine and hot dogs.

We strongly recommend that you consider packing a picnic. There are tons of picnic tables scattered throughout the walking areas at Parc Omega.

What to bring

For summer:

• picnic lunch
• water bottle
• hat
• sunscreen
• casual wear and regular walking shoes
• carrots to feed the animals (you can only feed the animals carrots) – this is slightly cheaper if you buy at a grocery store, but you can also buy carrots at the park entrance for a reasonable $2 CAD per bag

For winter:

• winter coat and snow pants
• hat and gloves
• boots (you can hike or opt to snow shoe through the trails)
• water bottle
• carrots to feed animals
• *we recommend eating at the available restaurants to warm up!

The Parc Omega experience

Parc Omega has several unique animal experiences. [Explore the map here.]

12 km car safari

The feature of Parc Omega is a self-drive safari trail that loops around the entire park. You can drive your own vehicle, or rental a park “cart” (sort of like a cage with wheels). The main attraction are the deer-family animals that come right up to your car, looking for carrot treats. There are tons of free roaming elk and deer, including white-tailed deer, fallow dear, and red deer.

You can also see other animals along this trail, including moose, caribou, bison, goats, beavers, and boars – although you are not permitted to feed them.

Predators (in enclosures) include different species of wolves, foxes, and bears.

There is a radio station FM 88.1 which will tell you more about the animals as you drive.

Hiking trails and picnic areas

Parc Omega has 2 areas where you can get our of your vehicles and explore: Trail of Nations, and the Land of Pioneers. These areas are both very accessible for strollers, wagons, and mobility aids.

Trail of Nations is an easy 1 km hike around a beautiful lake full of trout (aptly named Trout Lake). There is a small picnic area near the parking lot.

The Land of Pioneers is a mix of animal enclosures, kids play areas (including an easy tree-top trekking course), shops, and animal shows that occur throughout the day. It’s your classic “farm” experience – but with wolves. 😛 There are trails here too, up to 2km. Animals you can find here include prairie dogs and wolverines. There is a small petting farm (but it was closed for the 2025 season).

There are lots of deer on the trails, who won’t say no to a crunchy carrot.

Wolf “observatories”

Besides the wolf enclosures you can see during your safari drive, Parc Omega has a large wolf observatory in the Land of Pioneers with 6 wolves in the pack. At 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm, a park ranger hosts wolf-feeding sessions, where they introduce the wolves and teach visitors about their behaviour.

At the Park House, (where you will find the gift shop, Omegabon restaurant, and the carrot cart to stock up on carrots), there is another wolf “observatory” for arctic wolves.

Accommodations in Parc Omega

As we mentioned, Parc Omega offers several “wolf lodges” and “wolf chalets” that sleep from 4 – 8 people. The cost is around $800-$1000 CAD per night. The rooms come with massive windows where you can observe the wolves, who will sometimes come right up to the windows. You can also hear them howling at night. These accommodations book extremely early (more than 1 year out for popular dates).

Parc Omega also has regular “cabin” options, if you want to spend some time enjoying nature. These are around $200-300/night.

Parc Omega planning tips

Arrive early

We cannot stress this enough. Plan to arrive as soon as the park opens. The animals are most active early in the morning. As the first cars on the safari, the animals are *excited* to see you – they’ll come right up to your car looking for carrots. You can feed the animals and do the safari drive at your own pace.

We did the safari drive twice – the first at 9am, and the second time around 11am. Our experience was wildly different. The second time felt like sitting in rush hour. The cars just inch along the road, waiting for the cars in front to finish feeding the animals. Most animals are full by now. Many elk and deer retreat to the woods. It almost feels like you are spending your time waving and shoving carrots toward the ones that remain near the road. If we had arrived later, I don’t think we would have been as “wowed” by our experience.

How to plan your time

The most logical (and probably best) way to tackle Parc Omega is to see everything in order. Start with the safari drive, and stop at Land of Pioneers (this is sort of the halfway point in the drive anyway). Take your time with the animals and the play zones, before continuing on with the rest of your safari drive. Finish off your day with a picnic and hike at the Trail of Nations.

[Park House –> Safari drive –> Land of Pioneers –> Safari drive –> Trail of Nations]

This is the most efficient way to do things. The safari drive will be busier after you visit the Land of Pioneers, but you will be slightly ahead of the “pack” (no pun intended) the entire day. You can easily finish your day by early afternoon. The downside is many of the animal shows at Land of Pioneers don’t start until the afternoon. (Eg. the earliest wolf feeding is at 12pm), so you may have to hang out there for several hours. There is a lot to keep you occupied at Land of Pioneers, including the several short hikes where you can meet and feed deer.

As we mentioned, we ended up doing the safari drive twice. The first time we drove through non-stop, and the second time we stopped at the hiking areas. For our first safari drive, we were one of the few cars on the drive the entire way. We were able to appreciate the animals and the nature in peace and quiet – it really did feel like we were in the wild! Lil S wanted to stop at the Park House to pick up more carrots, so we did that, and then embarked on the safari trek again.

The second time around the safari drive was mayhem (would not recommend). But the Trail of Nations was still a quiet retreat, and the Land of Pioneers was large enough for everyone without feeling too crowded. We were able to catch a birds of prey show, and a wolf feeding.

Kid favourites

Big and Lil S’s absolute favourite part of the park was getting to feed carrots to the elk and deer. They particularly loved running into deer on the hikes, where they could take their time and get right up next to the animals (although this is not a guarantee as the deer are free roaming). Remember to bring your carrots everywhere with you! Again, be sure to get to the park early, as visitors who arrive later will find that the animals just aren’t really into it anymore.

The kids also really enjoyed the climbing structure at the Land of Pioneers. This is a large open climbing apparatus, which is actually pretty unusual by North American safety standards. Our kids were all over it and could have spent a good hour here.

Questions about Parc Omega? Be sure to drop us a line!