| Page Views: 2,445 Last Visit to Province of Ontario: October, 2007 | Ontario, huge metropolis and unspoiled scenery by vtveen - last update: Nov 20, 2007 |
Ontario – Canada’s second largest province – has it all. On one side it is by far the most populated province and on the other side it offers a lot of great scenery and (almost) remote areas. For us this mixture is the attraction of Ontario: one day we were shopping in a huge shopping mall and the other day just hiking through a breathtaking coloured fall forest. |
|  | Cities, villages and scenery Toronto, Ontario’s capital, is a huge metropolis with millions of inhabitants. Of course it has a vibrant city life, but the traffic jams (at least during rush hours) are really terrible. We do like Ottawa much more with its parks, canals, the Ottawa River and some impressive monuments. Skyscrapers are not that high and people seem more relaxed.
We discovered a lot of unexpected, almost un-Canadian, villages. Some of them - Unionville and Kleinburg – are just a stone’s throw from Toronto. Merrickville calls itself "Canada’s most beautiful village"; don’t know if it is the truth, but it was most charming. And what about Niagara-on-the-Lake, just lovely.
The Niagara Falls are perhaps Canada’s most well known tourist destination. Going north from Toronto we travelled trough Muskoka and Algonquin Park with fantastic scenery. Just outside Ottawa - I know it is in Quebec - is Gatineau Park with the amazing Mackenzie King Estate.
We also made a bike tour at Prince Edward County along the remarkable Sandbanks Provincial Park and saw the stunning scenery of the “1000 Islands”. |
| | Fall foliage We visited Ontario twice. Our first visit was a ‘normal’ summer holiday, but we came back just to discover the magnificent fall colours in Ontario. We made an auto tour from Toronto along Huntsville, Algonquin Park, the Ottawa Valley, Gatineau Park, along Lake Ontario back to Toronto. During this trip we also visited a couple of smaller Provincial Parks (Balsam Lake, Mono Cliffs).
I have to admit: the colours are just stunning and they surpassed my wildest expectations.
The best time of the year for these fall colours in Ontario is the end of September/early October.
Algonquin Park even says: “… catch the maples at their peak in the last week of September or, occasionally, in the first few days of October”. |
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 Comments for vtveen about Province of Ontario | | | | |
gilabrand Sun Sep 7, 2008 13:17 UTC
These sound like great off the beaten track places. I'm always in such a hurry when I visit Toronto. Clearly, I will have to slow down and follow the colors! LOL | July2 Tue Jun 3, 2008 04:11 UTC
Jaap, great info on Ontario-I enjoyed reading it; nice fall photos!. I've visited the Dorset tower twice in the last few years and look forward to climbing it during the fall color time again~~ | LoriPori Thu Jan 10, 2008 22:49 UTC
I must say Jaap, I am very impressed with your Ontario page. Accurate information, excellent B&B tips, personal thoughts about our wonderful province - Muskokas, Niagara-on-the-Lake & Algonquin Park. Good that you could see the autumn changing colours. | Sibbella Wed Jan 9, 2008 00:05 UTC
Great page :) As much as I am looking forward to moving to be with Frank, I'm going to miss my home province. |
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