Niagara, Toronto and the Great Lakes end of Canada

The Great Lakes are a freshwater sea on the border between Canada and the United States: five huge lakes holding around a fifth of the world's fresh surface water. Lake Ontario, the easternmost, drains into the St Lawrence River, which flows north-east past Kingston, Montreal and Quebec City to the Atlantic. It was along this great waterway that the French and then the British built the colonies that became Canada. Its banks still hold most of the country's people, its largest cities and much of its history.

Niagara

Between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, the Niagara River drops over an escarpment in one of the most famous waterfalls in the world. Niagara is not especially high, about fifty metres, but it is wide and immensely powerful. The great curve of the Horseshoe Falls lies mostly on the Canadian side of the border, with the American Falls beside it. The best views are from the Canadian bank, and the boat trips that nose into the spray at the foot of the Horseshoe Falls are a memorable soaking. The falls have been moving: over the last twelve thousand years or so, erosion has carried them about eleven kilometres upstream. Today, much of the river's water is diverted through tunnels to hydroelectric power stations, especially at night, when the flow over the falls is reduced.

Nearby, Niagara-on-the-Lake is a pretty nineteenth-century town of wooden houses and shops, surrounded by vineyards. The region is known for icewine, made from grapes left on the vine to freeze in winter.

Toronto

Toronto, on the shore of Lake Ontario, is Canada's largest city and its financial centre, and one of the most multicultural cities in the world, where around half the population was born outside Canada. Its skyline is dominated by the CN Tower, built in the 1970s and for decades the tallest free-standing structure in the world, with a glass floor and an observation deck high above the lake. The city is a place of distinct neighbourhoods, with lively markets, restaurants of every cuisine, and ferries to the Toronto Islands, a car-free park in the lake with the best views back to the city skyline.

Lake Ontario's shore is also wine country. The Niagara Peninsula, between the two lakes, has a climate moderated by the water, which makes it one of the best wine regions in Canada. Its wineries, many open for tastings, produce whites, reds and above all icewine, made from grapes left on the vine until they freeze in the winter cold and pressed while still frozen. The result is a sweet, concentrated wine for which the region is famous.

Along the St Lawrence

East of Toronto, Kingston was briefly the first capital of the united Province of Canada in the 1840s, and its limestone buildings and Fort Henry recall its military past. Nearby, the Thousand Islands scatter the St Lawrence where it leaves the lake, with summer houses and castles built by wealthy families on rocky islets. Ottawa, the capital, has its Gothic Revival Parliament buildings on a bluff above the river, and the Rideau Canal, a World Heritage Site, which becomes a skating rink in winter. Montreal is the largest French-speaking city in the Americas, a city of old stone streets and lively food. Quebec City, the only walled city north of Mexico, has a historic quarter dominated by the turreted Château Frontenac hotel.

Just You's Canada's Eastern Splendours, nine nights for solo travellers, includes Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Kingston and Rockport for the Thousand Islands, Toronto and Niagara Falls.

Just You's Canada Coast to Coast, seventeen nights, combines the same eastern cities with Banff, Lake Louise, the Okanagan Valley, Vancouver and Whistler in the west. Travelsphere's Grand Tour of Canada and the Rocky Mountaineer, sixteen nights, covers Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto and Niagara Falls, then Banff, Lake Louise, Kamloops, Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler, including a journey on the Rocky Mountaineer train, as its name says.

Late spring to autumn is the best season, with the autumn colours of late September and October a particular highlight. Winter is long and very cold, though Ottawa's frozen canal and the snow-covered streets of Quebec City have their own appeal.