When people think of Rochester, New York, they might not think of the many adventures that come with being the third-largest city in the state. Being smack-dab in the middle of Western New York opens you up to the many cities on the eastern edge of Great Lakes megalopolis.
Just a quick hour and 45 minutes from the University is the quaint Canadian town Niagara-on-the-Lake, situated on the shores of Lake Ontario. The town boasts colonial-style buildings and rich history due to the role it had in the War of 1812.
Getting there, we took the scenic route, which shadows the Lake Ontario shoreline, taking us about 20 minutes longer than had we taken the direct route on I-90.
Before arriving in Canada, I stopped in Lewiston, NY, at “The Griffin,” a bar and restaurant specializing in gourmet American cuisine. The restaurant sits on the Niagara River — less than a few hundred yards from the Canadian border. Its bar offers a small-town atmosphere while at the same time offering a large lunch menu to choose from. The Griffin is less than 10 minutes away from the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, which is one of the three bridge crossings to Canada in the Buffalo-Niagara area.
While a lot of the attention often sits on its southern neighbor Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake definitely has plenty to offer for a quick day trip. In its quintessential downtown, you can spend the day taking a horse and carriage ride around the city, or go shopping and stop by its various clothing stores. Be sure to stop by “Just Christmas,” a holiday-themed local business specializing in personalized trinkets and tchotchkes. Afterwards, spend the next few hours window shopping downtown and trying on bespoke hats or British clothing at “Irish Design.”
The downtown of the city features a large clock tower and a Canadian flag in the middle of the road. The lack of crosswalks downtown make this the perfect pedestrian refuge when trying to play frogger crossing the street.
After wandering around downtown, I concluded my afternoon by watching the sunset on Ball Street Beach, which features stunning views of the Toronto skyline in the distance backdropped with a pink sky.
Even though the sun was setting, I wanted to do one last thing before we left back for home. About 30 minutes west of the town is Short Hills Provincial Park, which, while we couldn’t explore due to it being dark, offered breathtaking views of one of its many lakes during sunset.
As we were trying to leave, however, the GPS told us to go down this one road through the forest for a mile before connecting back up with the highway. Little did we know that this seemingly short stretch of roadway would become 15 minutes of jaw-clenching.
We quickly realized that this was not an ordinary road. Now, in the pitch black, we found ourselves going uphill on a muddy road barely wide enough for my car. We carefully navigated through puddles and deep ruts in the road that would make the car shake from side to side as we rolled over them.
The Toronto skyline as seen from the shore near the city center.
It was when I could hear the dirt beneath scraping the undercarriage of my Honda CR-V that I realized this might not be good for my car.
Nevertheless, after what was about 15 minutes of driving through deep puddles and being terrified my car would get stuck, we emerged from the bush and got on the normal highway. I looked out my rearview mirror and I could see the mud flying off my car as we went down the road.
Before leaving Canada, we decided to grab a quick snack at one of their signature Tim Hortons, then we got back on the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge to head back to New York. The excitement did not stop there: After all of the bumping around in the car, I then got a low-tire-pressure warning, so as soon as we got back to Lewiston, I stopped to fill up the air in my tires (of which all of them were low) and get gas at the highly recommended Smokin’ Joes gas station, located on the Tuscarora Nation territory just outside the city. If you are in the area, I highly recommend you stop there for fuel, as their $2.79 price per gallon is unbeatable. I should, however, warn you to make sure to watch the pump carefully when refilling — when I was filling up, I inadvertently got sprayed with a little gasoline as it overflowed my tank, which made the rest of the hour-and-a-half journey back reeking of fuel less than desirable.
Of the places I have been to so far, I think this is one of my favorite destinations. The highlights being the custom hat shop BeauChapeau and the Toronto skyline backdropped with a stunning sunset on the shore of Lake Ontario.
Being the first edition of Teddy’s Travels, this is my breakdown for how I decide how many “Teddy Stars” to award a destination:
- Price: This trip was relatively inexpensive. The main cost was getting there and paying for gas — a price which drastically goes down if you carpool with others, as I did. The total amount driven during the trip was about 265 miles. If you fill your tank up at Smokin’ Joes for $2.79 a gallon, my fuel price totaled about $28. The toll to get into Canada (which you can use an E-ZPass for) costs $6, and the I-90 toll was also a few dollars. For lunch, I ordered a crispy chicken sandwich for $17, and then my snack at Tim Hortons set me back $5 CAD. I spent $10 CAD for parking while we were there. In total, since the three of us split the gas bill, I paid a total of about $47 for the trip. *Please also keep in mind that these prices do not reflect the conversion from Canadian to USD.
- Food: The chicken sandwich I ordered from The Griffin was amazing, although it was a little pricey. However, the convenience of where it was located, right by the bridge, and the stunning views it offered, were definitely a plus.
- Parking: Parking was not a problem in Niagara-on-the-Lake. We found street parking right downtown, which also was a bit pricey at $5 CAD an hour, but there also seem to be other parking options available near downtown.
- Shops: The shops were a bit marked up, but depending on what you buy, some things were actually quite reasonably priced. While there was a carriage tour of the downtown, we did not take it because it was ridiculously priced at $90 for 15 minutes.
- Adventure/Fun: There was definitely adventure and fun on this trip! The area had plenty of things to do, and the trip could easily be extended by going down to Niagara Falls, going to the nearby amusement park Clifton Hill, or indulging in the many wine-tasting opportunities locally available.
I would rate this journey four out of five Teddy Stars, and would highly recommend this day trip to anyone looking for a quick getaway.
