Toronto-London Loop

This Drive Comes From...

National Geographic Driving Guide: Canada

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This extremely varied tour takes you through some of Canada’s superlatives—beginning with Toronto, its biggest, richest, most artistically vibrant city, and passing through the prosperous farmland of southwestern Ontario, including the Mennonite areas in Waterloo County and the wine-growing region around Niagara. Along the way, there are two Great Lakes (Ontario and Erie) as well as enough smaller geographical, historical, and cultural diversions to suit the whole family.

CONTINUED

- Toronto
- Kleinburg
- Stratford
- Ska-Nah-Doht Iroquoian Village
- Long Point Provincial Park
- Niagara Falls

(Continued From Top)

Toronto

CN Tower and Skydome, Toronto

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Some of Toronto’s (Tourism Toronto +1 416 203 2600 or 800 362 1990) sharpest visitors have made it sound admirable but bland—“New York run by the Swiss,” according to Peter Ustinov, or “the city that works,” in the words of Jane Jacobs. Be forewarned: Toronto’s efficiency can make it seem deceptively easy to see and do all that the city offers.
One Toronto attraction appeals to everybody but real museum-phobes—the vast and venerable Royal Ontario Museum (100 Queen’s Park. +1 416 586 8000. Adm. fee). Whether your taste is for dinosaurs, bat caves, Chinese antiquities, European period rooms, Canadiana, or the spoils of ancient Egypt, it’s all here.
Art lovers will repair to the Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas St. W. +1 416 979 6648. Mid-May–mid-Oct. Tues.-Sun., Wed.-Sun. rest of year; Adm. fee) for its Inuit sculptures and European, American, and Canadian masterworks, and The Grange, the 19th-century Georgian house on the grounds. Then visit three outstanding boutique museums: the George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art (111 Queen’s Park. +1 416 586 8080. Adm. fee includes Royal Ontario Museum); the Museum for Textiles (55 Centre Ave. +1 416 599 5321. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee); and the newest of Toronto’s museums, the Bata Shoe Museum (327 Bloor St. W. +1 416 979 7799. Closed Sun.-Mon.; Adm. fee).
Toronto’s premier historical attraction, Fort York (100 Garrison Rd. +1 416 392 6907. Adm. fee) is the city’s 1793 birthplace and the location of the Battle of York in 1813; in summer costumed staff demonstrate the various arts and crafts necessary for military life circa 1812.
The Hockey Hall of Fame (Yonge St. at Front St. +1 416 360 7765. Adm. fee) is home of the Stanley Cup and showcases the world’s largest collect ion of hockey artifacts (housed in BCE Place, a smashing work of glass and steel incorporating old structures, worth seeing for itself).
Toronto’s ethnic neighborhoods, full of Old World color, are one of the city’s most appealing aspects: Kensington Market (Kensington St. area, W of Spadina Ave.), the old Jewish area; Chinatown (Dundas St. and Spadina Ave.); The Danforth (Danforth Ave.), the Greek neighborhood; Corso Italia (St. Clair Ave. W. between Lansdowne Rd. and Dufferin St.), and Little Italy (College St. W. at Bathurst St.), the original Italian area. Black Creek Pioneer Village (Jane St. and Steeles Ave. W. +1 416 736 1733. May-Dec.; Adm. fee) is an 1860s pioneer village of over 35 buildings with a costumed staff. More commercial is Paramount Canada’s Wonderland (5 miles [8 kilometers] E of Hwy. 400, Maple. +1 905 832 7000. Daily mid-May–Labor Day, weekends early May and Sept.–mid-Oct.; adm. fee), a 300-acre [121.4-hectare] theme park with over 60 rides and attractions; a sea lion show; and a water park featuring slides, a wave pool, an interactive water jungle gym, and a river.

Kleinburg

Bay Street leading to the Financial District, Toronto

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Kleinburg is a bucolic village northwest of Toronto with an important art gallery, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Islington Ave. +1 905 893 1121. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee). The Group of Seven and their contemporary Tom Thomson, members of Canada’s early modern school of primarily landscape painters, are the stars of the fine collection, which also showcases Inuit and First Nations works.
The Farm Museum in Milton (off Hwy. 401. +1 905 878 8151. Call for hours; Adm. fee) hosts a notable collection of historic farm buildings, with wagon transportation around the big site. Except for this unusual museum, it’s best to drive straight through Toronto’s distended suburbs and satellite towns on Hwy. 401 to the Waterloo region and the busy, sprawling cities of Kitchener–Waterloo (Tourist Center +1 519 745 3536), which have several interesting museums. Among them: Joseph Schneider Haus (466 Queen St. S. +1 519 742 7752. July-Aug., call for off-season hours; Adm. fee), a Mennonite house restored to the 1850s, and Woodside National Historic Site (528 Wellington St. N. +1 519 571 5684. May–early Jan.; Adm. fee), childhood home of Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950), restored to the 1890s.
Two noteworthy specialty museums are the Seagram Museum (57 Erb St. W. +1 519 885 1857. Closed Mon. Jan.-April), devoted to the science and lore of alcoholic beverages and housed in part of the 19th-century Seagram distillery barrel warehouse (the remaining three-fourths of the museum is a modern exhibition building by architect Barton Myers), and the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery (25 Caroline St. N. +1 519 746 1882. Wed.-Sun.; Adm. fee), specializing in contemporary ceramics, glass, and enamel. If you’re interested in Mennonite ways and byways, de tour on Hwy. 86 as far as the villages of Heidelberg and St. Jacobs, as well as Elmira (on Rte. 21), where the gravelled shoulders of the roads are built to accommodate the black buggies. (St. Jacobs is very touristy and shop-ridden, but the country roads are not.)

Stratford

Paddlers on the Avon River, Stratford

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Stratford, located west on Hwy. 7/8, has become the home of a major international theater festival while remaining a down-to-earth market town. Here, the play is the thing. The Stratford Festival (+1 519 273 1600 or 800 567 1600. May-Nov.; Adm. fee), which began in 1953, occupies three theaters; its offerings always include several Shakespeare plays, contemporary drama, and a musical.
Southwest, straddling the Thames River and Trout Creek is the picturesque limestone town of St. Marys (Off Hwy. 7/19, on Rte. 28). Cottages, mansions, and public buildings made of local stone abound in this unspoiled mid-19th-century town. Of the two defunct quarries, one is used for recreational purposes.

Cheese Factory Museum barn, Ingersoll

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One of Canada’s first cheese factories (circa 1840) was built near Ingersoll, and the legendary 7,300-pound [3,311.2-kilogram] Big Cheese, which toured Great Britain in 1866, was a local triumph. Both are commemorated at the Cheese Factory Museum (Centennial Park, N of Hwy. 401. +1 519 485 5510. Daily July-Aug., weekends May-June and Sept., or by appt.; Donation).

Ska-Nah-Doht Iroquoian Village
Hwy. 2 west will take you to London, a pleasant city dating from the 1800s. Eldon House (481 Ridout St. N. +1 519 661 5169. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee) is the city’s oldest residence, and includes a Victorian garden and art gallery. Fanshawe Pioneer Village (Fanshawe Conservation Area, off Fanshawe Park Rd. +1 519 457 1296. May-Oct., call for off-season hours; Adm. fee) has 22 buildings dedicated to Ontario’s rural beginnings, while the Ska-Nah-Doht Iroquoian Village (Longwoods Rd. Conservation Area, County Rd. 2 W of Hwy. 402. +1 519 264 2420. Closed Sat.-Sun ; Adm. fee) re-creates a local Iroquoian village of a thousand years ago.
Entering St. Thomas (Chamber of Commerce, 555 Talbot St. +1 519 631 1981. Walking tour pamphlet available) on Hwy. 3, look to the right for the jovial larger-than-life statue of Jumbo, a Barnum & Bailey celebrity elephant killed here by a Grand Trunk Railway locomotive in 1885. Down the street, period rooms at the Elgin County Pioneer Museum (32 Talbot St. +1 519 631 6537. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee) focus on social and economic history. This area, surrounding the circa 1822 Gothic Revival Old St. Thomas Church (55 Walnut St. Late May—Labor Day), is one of the oldest and most interesting parts of town.
To the east, little Aylmer (Visitor Center +1 519 773 9723) affords extraordinary views of tundra swans migrating by the thousands from the end of February through the start of April. Turn north onto Hwy. 73 (John St.) from Hwy. 3 (Talbot St.), and follow signs for the Ontario Police College, which is next to the Aylmer Wildlife Management Area. An elevated viewing stand looks out over a marshy world of flooded fields and artificial ponds, patronized by ducks and other wildfowl even when the tundra swans are absent.

Long Point Provincial Park
Rejoin Hwy. 3 heading east. At Courtland, take Hwy. 59 south to Backus Heritage Conservation Area (Off Hwy. 59. +1 519 586 2201. May-Oct., by appt. rest of year; Adm. fee) in Port Rowan, an ensemble of some 15 pioneer buildings. Visit the nature center or walk the Carolinian trails in the Backus Woods. Continue south as far as you can go, to Long Point Provincial Park (+1 519 586 2133), the Great Lakes’ wildest and most varied sandspit. A biosphere reserve recognized by UNESCO, Long Point is 20 miles [32.2 kilometers] long and thought to be 4,000 years old. It’s a staging area for migratory songbirds and waterfowl, and populated by birds, turtles, fish, reptiles, and amphibians.
Follow Rte. 42, Hwy. 24, and Hwy. 6 east toward Port Dover. Though Lake Erie is close by, it is frustratingly hidden from view for a considerable stretch by Turkey Point Provincial Park (+1 519 426 3239). It’s clearly visible at Port Dover, the classic lake port, thronged in summer by tourists walking the boardwalk, fishing in what’s called the world’s largest freshwater fishing port, or feasting on Lake Erie perch.
Take Hwy. 6 north and Rte. 3 east, past tobacco farms and rustic villages, to Port Colborne, the southernmost point on the Welland Canal. The Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum (280 King St. +1 905 834 7604. May-Dec.) highlights the town’s connection to the canal.
Among Fort Erie’s numerous attractions are two stellar sites. Historic Fort Erie (Niagara Blvd. and Lakeshore Dr. +1 905 871 0540. Mid-May–Sept.; Adm. fee), a much beleaguered fort, was established in 1764, destroyed by the Americans in 1813, and now restored as a living history site. If your interests tend to the domestic, repair to Bertie Hall, an 1835 building that houses the Mildred M. Mahoney Silver Jubilee Dolls’ House G allery (657 Niagara Blvd. +1 905 871 5833. May-Dec., by appt. rest of year; Adm. fee), a cornucopia of more than 200 dollhouses dating from 1780 to the present.

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls from Maid of the Mist

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There’s one must-do in Niagara Falls (5515 Stanley Ave. Visitor Center +1 905 356 6061 or 800 563 2557), and that’s obvious, free, and equally spectacular in all four seasons: the falls themselves. A trip on a Maid of the Mist (5920 River Rd. +1 905 358 5781. May–late Oct.; Fare), one of four sturdy boats that have been ferrying visitors around the falls for 150 years, is highly recommended. Or try the Niagara Spanish Aero Car (Niagara Pkwy., 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] N of falls. +1 905 356 2241. March-Nov.; Fare); the suspended cable car crosses a giant whirlpool, formed at the end of the rapids downstream from the falls. The town of Niagara Falls itself has been considerably spruced up lately, but still has plenty of souvenir stalls. For fans of Granny’s attic, the Niagara Falls Museum (5651 River Rd. +1 905 356 2151. Adm. fee) is a charmer, with 700,000-plus artifacts.
Niagara-on-the-Lake (Visitor Center +1 905 468 4263), located northeast on Hwy. 55, is Ontario’s other theater town. Unlike Stratford, this historic town has a radiance emanating from its immaculate buildings constructed after the War of 1812. Capital of upper Canada in the 1790s, burned by the Americans in 1813, a summer resort at the turn of the century—Niagara-on-the-Lake has had several incarnations, most recently as home of the Shaw Festival (+1 905 468 2172 or 800 511 7429. April-Oct.), devoted to work written by George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries and home to one of the finest acting ensembles in North America. Fort George National Historic Site (Off Niagara Pkwy. +1 905 468 4257. Daily April-Oct., grounds open Mon.-Fri. and by appt. rest of year; Adm. fee), a restoration of the fort built by the British in 1796 to replace Fort Niagara, is an excellent introduct ion to the region’s military history.

Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton

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Take the Queen Elizabeth Way to Hamilton, a steel-manufacturing city, where the Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King St. W. +1 905 527 6610. Tues.-Sun.; Adm. fee) has one of Canada’s best collections of North American and European art. Dundurn Castle (York Blvd., Dundurn Park. +1 905 546 2872. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee), a 40-plus-room Italianate villa, is restored to its mid-19th-century heyday. Take time to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens (Plains Rd. at Hwys. 403 and 6. +1 905 527 1158. Adm. fee), one of the seven wonders of Ontario—2,700 acres [1,092.7 hectares] that include an acre [0.4 hectare] of irises, two acres [0.8 hectare] of roses, the world’s largest lilac collection, and a wildlife sanctuary.
Off Hwy. 2 in Burlington, the 1800 Joseph Brant Museum (1240 North Shore Blvd. E. +1 905 634 3556. Closed Mon., Sat. by appt.; Adm. fee) commemorates the charismatic Mohawk leader and Loyalist, Joseph Brant (ca 1742-1807) in his last house.
The prosperous Toronto suburb of Oakville offers a look into its past at the Oakville Museum (+1 905 338 4400. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee), which includes the 1856 Customs House; Erchless (8 Navy St.), an estate restored to 1925; and the 1835 Old Post Office (Lakeside Park).