Toronto:
Toronto is one of our favourite cities: cosmopolitan, cool and culture packed. It’s also home to amazing food (of all cuisines) and modern architecture (from Mies van der Rohe to Gehry). We spent a week there and could have stayed longer.
Our highlights were:
The CN Tower – even if you don’t go up, it’s an iconic landmark
The Distillery District for boutiques, art, bars and restaurants – we had our best Mexican meal ever at El Catrin.
The Art Gallery of Toronto or the AGO – a world class art gallery in a phenomenal building designed by Frank Gehry. We loved the building, the Monet, the Indigenous Canadian art, Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room and the Henry Moores (the world’s largest public collection).
City Hall – a vast plaza with stunning, modernist architecture and one of Toronto’s best known landmarks. Fans of The Handmaid’s Tale will instantly recognise it as a key location.
The Royal Ontario Museum – the ROM is massive with significant collections from dinosaurs to mummies and from Rome to China. Plus, the modern extension by Libeskind is stunning.
Tips:
The best view of the city is from the islands, a short boat ride away, and if you’re into instagram don’t miss Graffiti Alley.
The Bruce Peninsula:
The 100 kilometre long Bruce Peninsula is the end of the Niagara Escarpment. It juts into Lake Huron separating the cooler, crystalline waters of Georgian Bay from the warmer, sandy shored Lake Huron. The clarity and colour of the water is exceptional. We visited in July. It was icy cold, but irresistible, we swam, kayaked and hiked. The peninsula is home to 2 National Parks: The Bruce Peninsula National Park home of the aquamarine Grotto – you need to book car parking slots ahead for this must see attraction; and the Fathom Five National Marine Park with 20 islands and 22 historic shipwrecks to snorkel over.
Tip:
Don’t miss a trip to nearby Flower Pot Island with its unique rock formations from Tobermory at the tip.
Niagara Falls:
Niagara Falls is rammed with tourists, mega commercialised and phenomenal. The roar of the falls, the mist in the air and the power of the water are mesmerising. Don’t miss the obligatory Hornblower Niagara Cruises for an up-close and kagoul clad classic view. There’s also a zipline, Journey Behind the Falls, and helicopter trips. If you’re staying over, check out the whirlpool downstream and the historic 1918 Aero Car.
Tip:
If you’re there at night, make sure you see the falls lit up.
Prince Edward County:
Prince Edward County is a naturally beautiful island on Lake Ontario. Think lavender fields, rolling hills, wineries and lakeside views. It’s low key, but laid back and, despite the abundance of antique shops and retro boutiques, it’s now the cool place to chill for Toronto hipsters. There are a few hubs. Picton is the main town and home to an Art Deco cinema, an old fashioned, browsable book store – Books and Company – with an in house coffee shop, and several retro and vintage clothing stores. We stayed in the culinary hotspot of Wellington – lake swimming, wineries and cool cafes – check out local legend Enid Grace’s for breakfast bakes.
Tip:
Spend a day at Sandbanks Provincial Park – the world’s largest fresh water, sand bar and dune system. It has miles of unbroken white sand beaches for dune exploring and lake swimming.
Algonquin Park:
Algonquin Park is impressively large with over 1,500 lakes, 1,200 kilometres of streams, 1,200 campsites and moose. Year round activities are virtually limitless with Summer camping, biking, hiking, boating, fishing, swimming, whitewater canoeing; and Winter cross country skiing, snowmobiling and dog sledding. And then there’s the wildlife…with 55 mammal species, 32 kinds of reptiles and amphibians and over 140 species of birds.
Tip:
One of the easiest places to spot one of the 3500 Moose is along Highway 60.