Ontario Region Guide

Ontario holds Canada’s largest city, its capital, its most famous waterfall and a great deal of empty lake country behind all three.

Toronto is one of the most diverse cities on earth — roughly half its residents were born outside Canada — with the food, neighbourhoods and cultural life that follows from it.

Ottawa has the national museums, a Gothic revival parliament above the river, and a canal that freezes into the world’s largest skating rink.

Niagara is genuinely worth the crowds: the Horseshoe Falls carry more water than any other waterfall in North America, and the wine country behind them is a real one.

And north of the cities, Algonquin, Georgian Bay and the Canadian Shield offer canoe routes, granite shorelines and autumn colour across a quarter of a million lakes.

Toronto

The CN Tower and the islands for the skyline; Kensington Market and the St Lawrence Market for food; the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum; and the neighbourhoods — Little Portugal, Scarborough’s food strips, Gerrard India Bazaar — which are the real reason to spend time here.

Ottawa

Parliament Hill, the National Gallery, the Canadian War Museum and the Museum of History across the river. In winter, skate the Rideau Canal; in May, the tulips.

Niagara

The Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian side, the boat into the spray, and the tunnels behind the sheet of water. Then the wine country at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The near north

Algonquin for canoe routes, moose and autumn colour; Georgian Bay for windswept pines and the 30,000 Islands; and the Bruce Peninsula for turquoise water over limestone.

Further afield

Manitoulin, the largest freshwater island in the world, and Point Pelee for spring bird migration.

Ontario is where most Canadians live, and its character is bound up with immigration and with a certain deliberate understatement.

Diversity

Toronto is among the most multicultural cities anywhere, with over half its population born abroad and more than 160 languages spoken. This is not a slogan: it shapes the food, the music, the politics and the ordinary texture of a walk down a street, and the surrounding suburbs are as diverse as the core.

Indigenous presence

Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Cree nations hold territory across the province, and treaty acknowledgements open public events as a matter of course. The history of residential schools is discussed openly and is part of current politics rather than a closed chapter.

Francophone Ontario

Around half a million francophones live in the province, concentrated in the east and the north, with their own schools, media and institutions.

Cottage country

The summer migration north to a lake is a defining ritual for a large part of the province, and the cottage means something specific here.

Hockey

Taken seriously enough to organise winters around.

This is Indigenous land, covered by treaties that remain live legal instruments. Ontario has First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities with their own cultural centres, guides and businesses — Manitoulin Island and the Six Nations of the Grand River both welcome visitors on their own terms, and that is a better way in than a museum display.

In the backcountry: pack out everything, use established sites, keep food hung or in a canister, and follow fire bans, which are common and enforced.

Invasive species move between lakes on boats and boots. Clean, drain and dry anything that has been in the water before moving it.

The Great Lakes hold a fifth of the world’s surface fresh water and are under pressure from agricultural runoff and plastic.

Autumn colour brings heavy traffic to the same few parks; going midweek, or to a less famous one, spreads the load and is a better experience anyway.

June to September is the main season: warm, long days, lakes warm enough to swim in by July, and everything open.

Late September to mid-October is the best time to be here. The maples turn, the bugs are gone, the air is clear, and the parks are at their most spectacular.

May is green and quiet but brings blackflies to the north; early June is when mosquitoes peak in the bush.

December to February is properly cold, with reliable snow north of the cities, skating on the Rideau Canal when it freezes, and Niagara partly encased in ice.

March and April are the awkward months — thaw, mud and grey — though maple syrup season runs through them.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the region

Ontario is not cheap by North American standards, and cottage country in high summer prices like a resort. Sales tax of 13 per cent is added at the till, and tipping is expected on top.