Ontario Vacation Destinations is the next 'Wanderer' site, a sister site to Grand Cayman Wanderer. We couldn't call it 'Ontario Wanderer' because there's already a blog called that. Our theme, however, remains the same. Our wandering will, we hope, provide you with some ideas of your own when it comes to choosing your next vacation.
Ontario is a great place to visit in all the seasons. From skiing and snowmobiling in winter, sailing and sunbathing in summer, to hiking and Fall Colors tours in autumn, Ontario has something for everyone.
The largest of the Ontario vacation destinations is Toronto, one of the world’s great cities.
Ontario shares the Capital Region of Canada, Ottawa-Hull, with Quebec. Ottawa on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River and Hull on the Quebec side. Ottawa is a human-sized capital with few of the giant buildings that make other cities so soulless.
Ontario is also home to Canada’s premier wine region in Niagara, which is also world famous for its waterfalls (you might have heard of them:). As well, Niagara hosts an annual George Bernard Shaw theater season that runs from April to November.
Ontario is also about lakes, and not just the Great Lakes of Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Superior. There are thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of smaller lakes, though some of them, like Nipigon, Nipissing, and Simcoe aren’t so small. The lakes are summer home for many Ontarians, a mirror for fall colors in autumn, and natural tracks for snowmobilers and cross-country skiers in winter.
Finally, there are the vacation destination in the other 90% of Ontario – the North. Barely inhabited, with great forests stretching all the way to the end of the tree line and even then stretching out into tundra, Ontario’s northland is a magnet for hunters and anglers who flock there each season to enjoy the wilderness experience. Small communities like Moosonee and Moose Factory welcome a few hundred visitors each year.
If you have any suggestions for Ontario places you'd like to see on our site, or ideas to make the site better, we've added a contact form on our Getting About page. Send us your thoughts...
Ontario Vacation Destinations Blog
All that's happening on the Ontario Vacation Destinations website, updates and more!
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Toronto the Good is Great
Toronto, Ontario’s largest city is home to Canada’s largest financial center, Bay St., and Ontario’s Parliament, Queen’s Park as well as a host of vacation places.
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CN Tower: Toronto Icon
The CN Tower is Toronto's most iconic building, the one people think of when they think Toronto. It dominates the city skyline, towering head and shoulders above every other building.
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Images Toronto: More Cityscapes
Images Toronto provides more Toronto cityscapes, pictures of Toronto old and new, familiar and perhaps unfamiliar.
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Toronto Cityscapes
Toronto Cityscapes is a page of usual and unusual images of the city, from the old to the very new.
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Toronto Jazz: Music for the Ages
The Toronto jazz scene is as active and energetic as jazz itself. From regular year round clubs to an annual Jazz Festival, now in its 22 year, to a Jazz Orchestra, there's always something going on
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Downtown Toronto Restaurants for the Regular Traveler.
Like any big city, Toronto has restaurants for all tastes and pockets. This page is dedicated to downtown toronto restaurants for the regular traveller.
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Caribana Toronto 2009 Photos
Caribana Toronto 2009 photos of the parade as it made its way along Lakeshore Boulevard.
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Toronto Chinatown
Toronto chinatown is a cross-shaped district
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Toronto Yorkville
Toronto Yorkville began as a Sixties place-to-be and has
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Distillery District Toronto
Distillery District Toronto is a modern urban village of restaurants, galleries and gift shops built in the shell of a now closed whisky distillery.
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Ontario Parades: Street Parties and Performances
Ontario parades celebrate the diversity of life in Ontario. The big ones are in Toronto but there are smaller versions, particularly of the Santa Claus parade, in most larger Ontario towns.
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Toronto Airport: Pearson International Airport
Toronto Airport is Ontario's main international airport, providing links with all the world's major destinations and a few that aren't major too.
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Ontario Travel: Getting About -- Planes, Cars, Boats and Trains.
Ontario travel is easy considering how big it is. You just have to be careful to pick the right transport for getting about.
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Niagara Ontario: More than just the Falls.
Niagara Ontario is more than just the Falls. Niagara is beautiful parks, honeymoon suites, theaters, theme parks, vacations, vineyards and wineries with fine dining.
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Niagara Falls: Ontario's Fun Capital
The city of Niagara Falls is Ontario's fun city. It's where you'll find the casinos, theme parks, the 'believe it or not' exibits, Madame Tussauds waxworks, as well as the world famous Falls. And i
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Niagara Falls Festival of Lights
Niagara Falls' Festival of Lights brightens Ontario's winter and softens us up for Christmas.
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Shaw Festival: Niagara on the Lake's Summer Attraction
The Shaw Festival is Niagara on the Lake's biggest summer attraction, drawing players from all over North America and audiences from Ontario and northern New York.
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Stratford Shakespeare Festival: Summer Theater at its Best
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario is probably Canada's premier summer theater spot, although the Shaw Festival at Niagara on the Lake runs it a close second.
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Kingston Ontario, The Limestone City
Kingston Ontario was briefly Ontario and Canada's capital city and has the history to prove it. Today, it's a bustling tourist mecca providing tour boats to the Thousand Islands.
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Wolfe Island: Kingston, Ontario
Wolfe Island, near Kingston, Ontario, is a farming community on it's way to being an energy centre. Wind turbines, 86 of them, now dominate the horizon everywhere around the island.
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Fort Henry: World Heritage Site
Fort Henry is the key part of the Kingston area World Heritage Site and, with its nearby Martello Towers, comprises an intact example of mid-eighteenth century military defences.
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City of Ottawa Ontario: Canada's Capital
The city of Ottawa Ontario is Canada's capital, though the Capital
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Prince Edward County and Ontario's Loyalist Parkway
Prince Edward County includes Ontario's Loyalist Parkway, running westward from Kingston to Trent along the northern shore of Lake Ontario. It includes parts of Prince Edward county, Picton, and ??
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Moose Factory and Moosonee (Moosenee)
Moose Factory and Moosonee (Moosenee) provide visitors with a glimpse of Ontario's north. These small, isolated communities are small worlds apart from our busy lives.
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Moosonee Photos: Moose Factory and Moose River Too!
Moosonee photos, and some of Moose Factory too, showing the awesome wildness of the river and shores.
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Haliburton Highlands: Cottage Country Charm
Haliburton Highlands region is a vacationers dream and one of Ontario’s principal ‘cottage country’ destinations.
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Algonquin Park: Ontario's Wilderness Retreat
Algonquin Park isOntario's Wilderness Retreat. It lies on the edge of the heavily populated south and the sparsely populated north sharing the best of both. Modern campsites with amenities in the so
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Haliburton Wolf Centre; Haliburton Forest, Ontario
Haliburton Wolf Centre is a research centre near Kennisis Lake in Ontario, Canada, where visitors can watch the centre's Gray Wolves through one-way glass.
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Algonquin Moose
Algonquin Moose: Wildlife Spectacle
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Ontario Ski Resorts: Blue Mountain.
Ontario Ski Resorts are centered in the Blue Mountain and Collingwood area but there are plenty more resorts around the province.
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Ontario Ski Resorts: Talisman, Moonstone, Calabogie, and Hidden Valley
Ontario Ski resorts may be centered around Blue Mountain but there are plenty more, like Talisman and Hidden Valley - both not far from Toronto.
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Collingwood Ontario: Skiing and More!
Collingwood Ontario has skiing, golfing, sailing, mountain biking, hiking and many more activities for all-year-round vacations. It’s also a handy base for Wasaga Beach and St. Marie-among-the-Hurons.
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Sainte Marie Among the Hurons: Outpost of New France in Ontario
Sainte Marie Among the Hurons was an outpost of New France in the province now called Ontario from 1639 to 1649.
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Trent-Severn Waterway: Ontario's Holiday Highway
The Trent-Severn Waterway is a series of canals joining up a number of large and small lakes along a line from Trenton, on Lake Ontario to Port Severn on Georgian Bay. It's Ontario's Holiday Hi
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Ontario's Tall Ships: High Seas Adventure (sort of)
Ontario's Tall Ships provide high seas adventure (sort of) for those who are lured by life before the mast.
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Point Pelee Ontario: Canada's most southerly spot.
Point Pelee Ontario is Canada's most southerly spot on the mainland,
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Ontario Beaches: The Best of the Best
Ontario Beaches are among the best of the best, endless stretches of white sands or piled high in snowdrift-like dunes.
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Wasaga Beach: The World's Longest Freshwater Beach.
Wasaga Beach is the world's longest freshwater beach and that's not surprising. The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater lakes so there can't be too many bigger freshwater beaches.
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Port Stanley Ontario: A Best Kept Secret!
Port Stanley Ontario, on Lake Erie, is less than 3 hours hours west of Toronto
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Port Dover: Beach Fun and Friday the 13th
Port Dover, Ontario, is on the north shore of Lake Erie and
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Talbot Trail: Lake Erie's Holiday Route
The Talbot Trail commemmorates some of the earliest
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Royal Botanical Gardens: Hamilton's Horticultural Attraction.
The Royal Botanical Gardens at Hamilton are a series of gardens,
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Royal Botanical Gardens Photos
Royal Botanical Gardens Photos to whet your appetite for a real visit.
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Royal Botanical Gardens Images.
More Royal Botanical Gardens images to help you relax after a long day at work.
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Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum near Hamilton airport is
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Warplane Museum Photos
More warplane museum photos from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum near Hamilton, Ontario.
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More Canadian Warplane Museum Images
More Canadian Warplane Museum images, this time featuring some of the many jet fighters in the collection.
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Waterfront Trail: Ontario's New Hiking and Cycling Route
Ontario's newly completed Waterfront Trail wends its way from Kingston to Niagara , taking in Toronto along the way.
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Pictures of Ontario
Pictures of Ontario in its many moods and all its glory. Car plates used to say 'keep it beautiful'. I hope these pictures show you why.
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Landscape Photos: Ontario's Many Moods
Landscape photos of Ontario showing its many moods.
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Spring in Ontario – Muddy Boots
Spring in Ontario is a short season. You know it’s been and gone when your spring bulbs have wilted in the hot sun – only a day after they appeared from out of a melting snowdrift.
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Summer in Ontario: The Great Outdoors!
Summer in Ontario is outdoors time, ‘patio time’ the beer ads used to say.
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Autumn or Fall, either way it’s Ontario’s best Season
For me, autumn is Ontario’s best season; the heat of summer is replaced by crisp, clear days and cool nights.
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Fall Colors: Ontario's Glory.
Autumn is Ontario's greatest season and fall colors tours are the way
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Winter in Ontario is all about fun!
Winter in Ontario is often hard but people learned to have fun. Like so much of Canada, it’s the winter sports that grab people rather than the summer ones.
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Santa Claus Parade: Ontario's Start to the Season.
The Santa Claus Parade is the traditional start to Ontario's Christmas Holiday season. Here are some views from around the province.
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Ontario Wildlife Photos: Big Animals or Small, I Love Them All
Ontario wildlife photos from our wanderings around the Province.
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Ontario is for the Birds!
Part of your Ontario vacation may be watching birds, even if you're not the sort of person who goes out with binoculars to count the species.
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Ontario Fungus: More Autumn Color
Wild Ontario fungus adds more autumn color, if you know where to look. Fall's melancholy air owes a lot to the sights and scents of fungus growing from fallen trees and branches.
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Ontario Butterflies
Ontario Butterflies come in all colors and sizes, from
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Ontario Wild Flowers: Spring's Promise
Ontario wild flowers add color to the still wintry landscape on an Ontario spring day.
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Ontario Wildflowers: Nature's Perfume
Ontario wildflowers add color and scent to hot summer days and counterpoint red and gold fall trees with a carpet of goldenrod and purple asters. .
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Dragonfly Pictures from Ontario
Dragonfly pictures from Ontario. Not a big part of anyone's
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Durham Ontario: Vacation Region
Durham Ontario is a region of small cities, towns and townships,
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Cannington Dogsled Racing
Cannington dog sled races are an annual event, part of the Ontario dogsled racing circuit.
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Port Hope Ontario: Heritage Destination
Port Hope Ontario is a busy visitor magnet during the summer
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Cobourg Ontario
Cobourg Ontario is about an hour and a half drive east of Toronto along Highway 401. It has a fine old downtown and a fabulous beach.
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Waterfront Festival: An Ontario Summer Event
A Waterfront Festival, the celebration of ports and beaches, is a regular summer event for many Ontario cities on lakes, or even a big river.
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Helpful Links: Websites You Might Want To Visit
Helpful links to other travel sites
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Useful Links
Useful links to other travel pages. A page of partners and other resources for your travel needs.
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