Heritage Trail

Twelve nights by hire car in a circle from Toronto, taking in two provinces, two languages and the best known waterfall in the world. It is the operator’s most popular eastern itinerary and the route explains why.

Toronto opens it with two nights, then Kingston and Fort Henry, a nineteenth-century fortification built to defend the St Lawrence against the Americans, with an alternative road through the heritage towns of Prince Edward County. The Thousand Islands follow, where the river is scattered with granite islets, some holding a single house and a single tree.

Montreal gets two nights, with Old Montreal, the Notre-Dame Basilica, Mount Royal and the underground city, which is thirty kilometres of tunnels built because the winters demand it. Quebec City follows for two more by way of the basilica at Cap-de-la-Madeleine, and it is the oldest city in Canada, walled, French-speaking and the most European place on the continent, with Montmorency Falls and Ile d’Orleans alongside.

Ottawa then gets two nights and the Rideau Canal, built in the 1820s as a military supply route and now UNESCO listed, which freezes in winter into the longest skating rink in the world. Huntsville follows for two nights near Algonquin with a canoe trip into the back country, then Niagara with an optional cruise or helicopter, and the return to Toronto runs through the fruit belt, Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Welland Canal. Canadian Affair include the flights, the hire car, the hotels and the listed attractions, with fuel, insurance and meals separate. The price is per person.