Canada

[FeltCarrot]

Off to Canada next September for a family event. Where can we easily travel to in 2 weeks? Thinking of flying home from Boston/ Chicago. Anyone have any ideas? TIA!

Canada is huge. Where are you flying into? And where is the event?

Flying in to Toronto where the event is. I’ll have a couple of days before so can do Niagara then we have 2 weeks to travel. Want to stay east though, we realise Canada is huge so might leave Vancouver for another holiday!

@FeltCarrot can I ask what you ended up doing? We've just booked flights to Toronto and are looking for inspiration.

We flew to Toronto a few years ago and drove 3ish hours to the Georgian Bay side of the Bruce Peninsula for 10 day stay in a relatives cabin where we did loads of kayaking, hiking, visiting the marine parks and regional parks. Then stayed on Toronto for a week and did Niagara, the ROM, CN tower, science museum, Botanic Gardens and Canada’s Wonderland. We preferred the Bruce for scenery etc and neighbours have done some of the other parks north of Toronto and loved them too.

Had 5 days in Toronto, one day at Niagara, did the usual tourist things including dinner at the CN tower, booked so we’d be there for sunset. Other family members went to see the Blue Jays baseball.
Took a train to Ottawa and stayed at the Fairmont hotel for 2 nights.
Train to Quebec City for 3 nights then a train back to Montreal for another 3 nights.
Our flight from Montreal to Boston was cancelled due to storms so we ended up car sharing with 2 other stranded passengers.
Flew home from Boston.
We had all our train tickets booked before we went so we knew what time we were travelling etc.
Quebec City was definitely our favourite destination!

We saw Toronto and Niagara over 9 days. One night would have been enough for Niagara and, if you can, get a falls view room and see what nights the fireworks are on and if you can time that. We did two nights but apart from the falls the town is rather tacky.

If you can get to see a Ice Hockey game, do. They are great fun. The Marlies had a family event when we were there and the tickets quite reasonable. The Maple Leaf tickets were far more expensive.

In the summer, baseball is the thing.

There is Montreal and Ottawa a close flight away from Toronto. Ottawa is a very businnessy city. I've never been to Montreal.

My DD has been to Vancouver which is a much longer flight away. I think I'd do that another time, on a different holiday, and build a tour taking in the Rockies.

I’ve just booked 12 days in Canada in July. We’re doing 4 nights in Toronto (would have done less but I really wanted to take the kids to Canada’s Wonderland so added a day), 2 nights at great wolf lodge in niagara, 2 nights near Algonquin park (so we can go to the wolf sanctuary) and four nights in the blue mountain village for beach/high ropes/mountain gondola etc.

I am very excited! I’d have loved to have done three weeks as there is so much to explore but my 11 year old is autistic and was adamant she didn’t want to be away for more than 10 days (I managed to up her to 12 on the basis that two days is travelling time)

Niagara on the Lake is supposed to be much nicer to stay in than Niagara Falls. We went for great wolf lodge as my kids will love the indoor water park. With older kids I’d have stayed in Niagara on the Lake I think.

We felt a few hours was enough at the falls. It’s a strange place, beautiful one way, then turn around and it’s like Blackpool on acid.

@BadgerFace can I ask how it went? We're flying in and out of Toronto in October, looking at what to do in the middle, currently the plan is to drive to
Montreal and stop off somewhere on the way there/back.

We had an AMAZING time!! All of us loved all of it. We felt like we packed in loads. We stayed in four places which was one more than I thought I’d want to do but each place gave such different experiences it was fantastic.

Our stops were all south or northwest of Toronto so probably not on the way to Montreal but happy to send details if helpful. Niagara Falls was incredible although the town itself was as @FeltCarrot says, tacky as hell. Niagara on the Lake is a very pretty town about 30 mins away so worth planning to eat there around a trip to the Falls.

In Toronto Canada’s Wonderland was a great theme park if you like those and we enjoyed the Royal Ontario Museum. We stayed in Vaughn Mills which is a suburb rather than Toronto. They was a massive mall opposite our hotel which was also a big hit as my kids have mainly holidayed in the UK/France.

If your phone company will charge you £8 a day to use data (like Vodafone wanted to do for me!) then look at buying an eSIM from Jetpac. It was v cheap for 5GB and came with free airport lounge access if you were delayed by more than an hour. We were delayed by an hour coming home and it was brilliant to be able to sit somewhere quiet with free food and drink.

V happy to answer any questions, can’t wait to plan another trip over there!

This is so true😂😂….. Niagra on the lake was lovely though …which is what I thought Niagra falls tourist area would be like!

@BadgerFace that's so helpful, I'd appreciate any and all tips, how did you get to Niagara and back? Can I PM you?

We drove to Niagara and then stayed two nights near there as there was a water park before we headed to a lake hotel. V happy for you to PM me.

Just a friendly tip: if planning on going to BC, fall and spring are best. Summer is fire season and this year hit Jasper (major winter resort/ski town)

@BadgerFace I'm so sorry for disappearing! I've just tried to PM you but it's saying your user name is invalid?

@BadgerFace ignore that. I've just messaged you.