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Location: Monterey Bay, California -- watching the sea lions, whales and otters! :D
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No one mentioned Niagara Falls! The Canadian side is gorgeous! When you're coming down from Toronto, take the scenic route along the Niagara River and it leads directly to the falls. You can see the mist of the falls about five miles away! There's a lot to do there. And Niagara-on-the-Lake is just about ten miles from there -- you could combine both. Cute little tea places there, too.
And...of course, you could visit your neighbor to the South, Buffalo, New York, and that whole region. There is much to explore! (And the best chicken wings and pizza around! )
Niagara-on-the-Lake is what, just over an over an hour from Toronto?
It`s small but it is a really nice historic town.
Yup, its about 75 minutes from North York. Fort George will also be open in the summer months (on the NY side is Fort Niagara). The Shaw Festival is also in the summer months (do a google). I love Niagara on the Lake; probably one of the loveliest small towns in Canada (again, IMO).
In Buffalo, NY I'd google Allen Street Art Festival. If you like Frank LLoyd Wright architecture check out the Martin House and they have a decent art museum.
The city of Niagara Falls is a tourist trap but you have to at least see the Falls from the Canadian side (best view IMO). The wineries of the region are nice as well (esp ice wines). If you want to do some shopping there is an outlet in Niagara Falls, NY (but check on what you can bring back without paying duty).
Kingston is also lovely historic city.
I'm sure someone else can comment on cottage country.
@ Wisteria, good catch! I had been to Niagara when I was in the USA, but then Niagara is such a spot that repetition won't bore one. Thanks!
Thanks to ALL others who have posted comments!
[quote=ColdCanadian;13384055]Sandbanks Provincial Park 45 min south of Belleville is pretty nice.
Huge sand dunes that are even bigger just outside the park near the town of West Lake. (up to 60 ft or 20 m)
The Grand Bend area is a popular beach area, (1 hr west of London, ON)
but unless you don't mind cold you'll probably want to wait until mid-summer.
Doesn't matter if it's forecast at 25 C in early-June (if we've had "seasonal" spring temps )
and the water is still like 10 C, it probably won't be above 16-17 C at the beach
and it will be accompanied by a 20+ km/h steady breeze off the lake!
quote]
As an Air Force brat growing up in Southern Ontario from 1957-1970, we were stationed at bases (Trenton and Centralia) just a short distance from both the Sandbanks (then, the Outlet) and Grand Bend. I certainly remember that in both places, particularly Lake Huron, the water temps didn't become pleasant until the end of June at the earliest; by about the second week of September, it was time to put the bathing suit away for another season.
In the summer of '69 (yeah, the Woodstock summer, but I was still a tad too young to partake), we rented a summer cottage at West Lake. To this day, when I hear the songs "Good Morning, Starshine" and "Jean", both by Oliver, I'm immediately taken back to that time period. My Dad would commute to his job at CFB Trenton; however, it was bittersweet for him, in that he had one-year tour of the DEW Line awaiting him at the end of our stay at West Lake.
There's a few spots within Toronto too. High Park starts getting quite nice around May with the cherry blossoms. There's also the Toronto Islands (esp if you have kids) and the Scarborough Bluffs. I like to go biking in Tommy Thompson Park too, although it might not be too exciting if you're on foot.
A bit further in Hamilton, you've got the Royal Botanical Gardens, I would recommend checking it out around May, when the Lilac festival is on, and also when the Rock Garden is at its best. A short drive from the Gardens, you have Spencer Gorge with two very nice waterfalls falling into a deep gorge. Hamilton has many other waterfalls pouring falling down the Niagara escarpment. They amount of water coming down is nowhere close to Niagara Falls of course, but the natural setting of many of them is quite nice with lots of forests and some hiking trails.
For hiking, you can check out the Bruce Trail which runs all along the Niagara Escarpment up to the Bruce Peninsula. Some specific spots closer to Toronto are Mount Nemo, which is not that much of a mountain, but you can walk at the top of a cliff and get good views. There's also Rattlesnake Point, which also has several lookout points, and has a trail that connects to Crawford Lake, which has a nice lake and a small reconstructed First Nations settlement.
Around Caledon, there's also Forks of the Credit and Mono Hills, which I find are especially nice in the fall. Around mid-late September is when there are salmon runs in Thornbury on the Georgian Bay. Craigleith Provincial Park nearby has a lot of fossils if you're into that.
Elora is another neat place. The Grand River carved a gorge into the limestone there which is part of a conservation area. There's some rapids and you can go tubing or kayaking. I think most conservation areas in Ontario only open around late April or May though. Elora is a cool little town, there's lots of stone buildings and some art galleries.
Regarding swimming, there might be a few small lakes and Lake Erie that hit 20C (68F) in late June. Lake Ontario would probably hit that temperature a couple weeks later, and Lake Huron even later, maybe late July. There are some nice beaches on Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay though, one of my favourites is Sauble Beach, it's not as crowded as Wasaga Beach.
If you go further up the Georgian Bay, you have Parry Sound with the 30,000 Island Cruise. I haven't been on it, but my family often rented cottages in the area when I was a kid and we went boating and canoeing around the islands. The whole area from Parry Sound to Killarney Provincial Park is full of exposed granite with only hardy pines, conifers, blue-berry bushes and a few grasses growing on it. There's also pretty good fishing around the French River.
If you go further to Lake Superior (around 10 hours drive, so more of a multi-day trip), the landscape is very nice, especially around Lake Superior Provincial Park. Just a warning though, North of Parry Sound can be very remote. A lot of those "towns" indicated on maps are just a few houses... You can go more than 100km without a gas station or without a restaurant, so take that into account. Lake Superior is like a great freshwater sea, and my favourite place to visit in Ontario. I'd probably go in July or August, the summers are quite a bit shorter around there. If you're interested, I can go into more details.
(btw, it is still early for winter to be over...don't count your chickens before they hatch, as they say! )
Keep in mind, this thread was from two years ago and was resurrected today. The original poster made this post at the end of March 2010.
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