Do Cleveland-area residents ever take advantage of your close geographic proximity to Canada? (Columbus: rental car, 2014)

[UsAll]

Just a curiosity: For Cleveland Metro Area residents, do you ever take trips across Lake Erie to your northern neighbor Canada (for whatever reasons, be it recreation, touristing/sightseeing, outdooring, on business or for education, visiting others whom you know there)? if so:

1. How often do you do so and for what reason(s)?
2. How do you get there? (e.g., are there public ferries or boats that make the trip from the Cleveland-area shoreline of Lake Erie to some point[s] in Ontario or elsewhere in Canada and, if so, how log does the trip take and how much does it cost? Or do your trips to Canada involve driving westward to Detroit,MI and then going across the bridge from Detroit, MI to Windsor, Ontario, Canada? or some other method[s] of getting to & from Canada?)

It would seem nice to live so close to Canada as you are (relatively speaking). Do you actually take advantage of this geographic closeness with any degree of periodicity?

[Minervah]

I certainly do. I have family in Toronto. Once or twice a year I fly there for a visit. They drive here to visit me at Christ time.

Flying is around $500 RT. It takes an hour. That's nonstop. It's cheaper if you do a layover. Driving takes about five hours. They go through Buffalo.

[UsAll]

Originally Posted by Minervah

I certainly do. I have family in Toronto. Once or twice a year I fly there for a visit. They drive here to visit me at Christ time.


Flying is around $500 RT. It takes an hour. That's nonstop. It's cheaper if you do a layover. Driving takes about five hours. They go through Buffalo.

$500 round-trip might be deemed by some as a rather steep price to pay (though it pays for a fast flight of approximately one hour to & from Toronto).

I was going to ask you "Are there any trains that one can take from Cleveland, Ohio or northern Ohio in general to any part(s) of Canada?" and "Are there are ferry services going across Lake Erie to any part(s) of Canada?" but first decided to search myself via a search engine. I came up with some links:

Toronto - Cleveland by train?? - Toronto Forum - TripAdvisor (https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...o_Ontario.html)

Cleveland to Montreal - 7 ways to travel via train, plane, bus, and car (https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Cleveland/Montreal)

Toronto to Cleveland Train - $79 Cheap Tickets from ON to OH | WANDERU (https://www.wanderu.com/en-us/train/...-oh/cleveland/)

Ferry to Cleveland - Cleveland Forum - TripAdvisor (https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...land_Ohio.html)

High Speed Ferry Service to Canada from Cleveland | ColumbusUnderground.com (https://www.columbusunderground.com/...from-cleveland)

Cleveland to Canada Ferry (https://www.urbanohio.com/forum/index.php?topic=1205.0)

Canada Ferry Map (https://www.howderfamily.com/travel/...ferry_map.html)

Passenger ferry route between Cleveland and Ontario likely (https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dail...205806289.html)

is there a ferry from cleveland to ont canada? | Yahoo Answers (https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...3160539AACEg0R)

Cleveland studies Lake Erie ferry to Canada - Lifestyle - The Columbus Dispatch - Columbus, OH (Cleveland studies Lake Erie ferry to Canada - Lifestyle - The Columbus Dispatch - Columbus, OH)

Ferry services (Ferry services)

Bluewater Ferry - Over 50 years of waterway transportation between the United States and Canada (Bluewater Ferry - Over 50 years of waterway transportation between the United States and Canada)

Change of attitude in Canada revives hopes for cross-lake ferry service | cleveland.com (Change of attitude in Canada revives hopes for cross-lake ferry service | cleveland.com)

Cleveland, Ontario discuss Lake Erie ferry service | CTV Toronto News (https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/cleveland...rvice-1.758108)

Auto ferry in Sandusky, OH (https://www.vacationsmadeeasy.com/Sa...SanduskyOH.cfm)

Project to run a ferry between Cleveland and Port Stanley, Ontario, looks dead in the water | cleveland.com (https://www.cleveland.com/business/i...y_between.html)

is there a ferry from cleveland oh to canada (ontorio)? | Yahoo Answers (https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...4221308AAvpWxP)

Cleveland and Port Stanley discuss possible Lake Erie ferry service | The Star (https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...y_service.html)

So has anyone here ever taken either TRAIN SERVICE or BOAT/FERRY SERVICE between Cleveland or northern Ohio and any destination(s) in Canada?

[andrew61]

I've been to Toronto twice and Niagara Falls (the Canadian side) once. Drove both times, taking the Peace Bridge from Buffalo. This was back in the days when an American didn't need a passport to go there.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by UsAll

Just a curiosity: For Cleveland Metro Area residents, do you ever take trips across Lake Erie to your northern neighbor Canada (for whatever reasons, be it recreation, touristing/sightseeing, outdooring, on business or for education, visiting others whom you know there)? if so:

1. How often do you do so and for what reason(s)?
2. How do you get there? (e.g., are there public ferries or boats that make the trip from the Cleveland-area shoreline of Lake Erie to some point[s] in Ontario or elsewhere in Canada and, if so, how log does the trip take and how much does it cost? Or do your trips to Canada involve driving westward to Detroit,MI and then going across the bridge from Detroit, MI to Windsor, Ontario, Canada? or some other method[s] of getting to & from Canada?)

It would seem nice to live so close to Canada as you are (relatively speaking). Do you actually take advantage of this geographic closeness with any degree of periodicity?

For the record, my extended family has had a cottage in Eastern Ontario from 1950-2014. In the past, I had a motivation to head to Canada at least once a year.

When I lived in Cleveland, I would be more likely to go to Detroit than Toronto. First, Iit was a lot closer, easy to get to and the accommodations were much less expensive. I really do NOT like the drive to Buffalo as the weather is rough parts of the year and the traffic seems to be a lot worse. While I was in Detroit, we generally crossed the border into Windsor. While Windsor is not really a "happening city" until you are into strip clubs and the like, there are some opportunities to purchase items I could not get in Cleveland (basically British and Australian imports).

There are no public ferries although I know of a few people who would shuttle you across the lake for a hefty fee. Do remember that a boat between Cleveland and Toronto would need to go through/around Niagara Falls (g).

As for flying, for business, we used to fly Cleveland - Brussels through Toronto on Air Canada.

Despite their proximity, Cleveland (CLE) to Toronto (YYZ) is NOT a cheap flight. The last time I looked, the most heavily discounted flights were on Wednesdays and were $249RT. For us, we always found it cheaper to rent a car in the Cleveland area and make the drive as rental cars are also much higher in Canada.

When we lived in Detroit, we went to Toronto 2-4 times a year and Windsor once a week.

[WRnative]

I've been to Niagara Falls, Canada, many times, as I suspect have been a large percentage of Greater Clevelanders (from memory, all of my Cleveland friends have been there). It's only a four-hour drive, with some good stops, such as Presque Isle, Chautauqua, and Letchworth state parks, possible along the way. NF is a great destination for a weekend or a short vacation.

Greyhound is a good option to get to Niagara Falls from Cleveland. I've known persons who have taken the train to Montreal, with mixed reviews.

I've been to Toronto several times, as have many Clevelanders. With the revitalization of Cleveland, especially PlayhouseSquare and the opening of casinos in Ohio, PA, and NY, Toronto isn't as popular as in the past, but when the Canadian dollar is cheap (somewhat so now), it's a very cheap foreign vacation.

The ferry to Canada really isn't that convenient and mostly is targeted at visitors to Pelee Island in Ontario from Sandusky, OH. I'm not familiar with anyone who has taken that trip, but the service is offered daily during the season, so somebody is taking the trip, perhaps Canadians visiting Cedar Point!

Schedules for Owen Sound Waterway Transportation scenic cruises Line tours.

[Minervah]

When I looked into taking the train to Toronto there was a 13 hour layover in Buffalo beginning, if I remember correctly at 3 am. No thank you. I could go with layovers with flying but I don't want to do hours and hours in airports for what is a one hour trip.

Getting through the Pearson Airport is a longer trip almost than the flight. Don't need it.

My family doesn't live in Toronto, they live in t he city of Vaughn, ten miles from Toronto, eighteen miles from Pearson. There really is no easy way of travel other than driving which I don't.

[UsAll]

Having read all the responses above thus far:

The only time, thus far in life, that I've been to Canada in when I was visiting Detroit, MI in April or May 1989. I learned that it is so easy to just take a bus across the bridge over the Detroit River into Windsor, Ontario, Canada and just say to the Canadian border personnel when you entered Canada that you are there for whatever legitimate purpose (e.g., touristing/sightseeing). I walked around Windsor for some hours and ate at a Chinese restaurant in downtown Windsor and came back to Detroit the same day (while it was still light outside). I've been in Buffalo, NY but just passing through for part of a day (on the way to Pittsburgh, PA) and didn't take the time to cross over the Peace Bridge into Canada nor to go to Niagara Falls (whether the New York State side or the Ontario, Canada side).

Looking at a map, it seemed as though it would be a relatively short boat trip (distance-wise) from the Cleveland Metro Area's Lake Erie waterfront or from elsewhere on the north shore of Ohio (e.g, Sandusky) to go northbound and reach the Canadian shore. I'd surmised that, in all these many decades (or centuries), ferries may well have been established to offer this back-and-forth travel to & from Canada and hence that Clevelanders/northern Ohio residents would, on occasion, make this trip just because they easily can and hence to partake of what our northern neighbor Canada has to offer. Just like, from the north shore of Long Island, NY (Nassau and Suffolk Counties, immediately east of New York City), one can take ferries across Long Island Sound to Connecticut for a rather reasonable cost (either from Port Jefferson, NY to Bridgeport, CT or from Orient Point, NY to New London, CT) and it looks like a distance comparable to the distance from Cleveland, OH to the Canadian side of Lake Erie to the north. Alas, various of you have said that such boat service doesn't exist yet . . . though some of the web links that I pasted into my posting # 3 (seen above) seem to suggest that there is (though I haven't yet read all the contents of all those web links yet to see exactly what they do say about the matter . . . so I can't assume yet that there is, in fact, such boat service offered yet per this writing).

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by UsAll

Having read all the responses above thus far:

The only time, thus far in life, that I've been to Canada in when I was visiting Detroit, MI in April or May 1989. I learned that it is so easy to just take a bus across the bridge over the Detroit River into Windsor, Ontario, Canada and just say to the Canadian border personnel when you entered Canada that you are there for whatever legitimate purpose (e.g., touristing/sightseeing). I walked around Windsor for some hours and ate at a Chinese restaurant in downtown Windsor and came back to Detroit the same day (while it was still light outside). I've been in Buffalo, NY but just passing through for part of a day (on the way to Pittsburgh, PA) and didn't take the time to cross over the Peace Bridge into Canada nor to go to Niagara Falls (whether the New York State side or the Ontario, Canada side).

Looking at a map, it seemed as though it would be a relatively short boat trip (distance-wise) from the Cleveland Metro Area's Lake Erie waterfront or from elsewhere on the north shore of Ohio (e.g, Sandusky) to go northbound and reach the Canadian shore. I'd surmised that, in all these many decades (or centuries), ferries may well have been established to offer this back-and-forth travel to & from Canada and hence that Clevelanders/northern Ohio residents would, on occasion, make this trip just because they easily can and hence to partake of what our northern neighbor Canada has to offer. Just like, from the north shore of Long Island, NY (Nassau and Suffolk Counties, immediately east of New York City), one can take ferries across Long Island Sound to Connecticut for a rather reasonable cost (either from Port Jefferson, NY to Bridgeport, CT or from Orient Point, NY to New London, CT) and it looks like a distance comparable to the distance from Cleveland, OH to the Canadian side of Lake Erie to the north. Alas, various of you have said that such boat service doesn't exist yet . . . though some of the web links that I pasted into my posting # 3 (seen above) seem to suggest that there is (though I haven't yet read all the contents of all those web links yet to see exactly what they do say about the matter . . . so I can't assume yet that there is, in fact, such boat service offered yet per this writing).

There is nothing on the other side of Lake Erie in Canada that Clevelanders particularly want to visit. Keep in mind that Lake Erie still freezes in winter, and there is even less reason to go directly north of Cleveland in winter.

Given the slope of Lake Erie, it's actually a pretty direct drive from Cleveland to Niagara Falls.

Cleveland infrastructure has many priorities more important than a ferry or bridge to the London, Ontario, vicinity.

[UsAll]

Originally Posted by WRnative

There is nothing on the other side of Lake Erie in Canada that Clevelanders particularly want to visit. Keep in mind that Lake Erie still freezes in winter, and there is even less reason to go directly north of Cleveland in winter.

Given the slope of Lake Erie, it's actually a pretty direct drive from Cleveland to Niagara Falls.

Cleveland infrastructure has many priorities more important than a ferry or bridge to the London, Ontario, vicinity.

I can see your point. Other than Windsor, Ontario on one end and London, Ontario in a somewhat different direction, it does appears (on a map) that Canada is rather barren of anything consequential to partake of going north across Lake Erie from Cleveland, Ohio to Ontario, Canada . . . other than just simply to visit another nation that is so relatively close by.

In contrast: If situated in or near Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and other places near the northern edges of New York State, one can cross over into Canada and much more readily partake of places-of-interest worth taking a trip for such as Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Thousand Islands, Niagara Falls, etc. etc. etc.